The Rise of Religious Nationalism in Turkey and India

Abstract

What explains the rise of religious nationalism in established and ostensibly secular democracies? The resurgence of religion in the public sphere has transformed the political landscape of dozens of countries over the last half century, including authoritarian and democratic regimes and developed and developing states. This dissertation seeks to explain how and why religious nationalists came to power in two large democracies in the developing world, Turkey and India, despite the unwavering commitment of those countries’ modern founders to secularism. In both cases, religious nationalists struggled for decades to unseat entrenched political parties and win national elections. They were often persecuted, banned and jailed for their political activism. However, by the 1990s, they began to challenge their secular opponents and win power. Based on in-depth interviews with political elites and activists from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey and the Bharata Janata Party (BJP) in India, I argue that party activists in both countries were able to build tightly controlled, hierarchical political organizations that benefited from the dense networks of religious associations. Crucially, they used these networks to create a robust local presence and active, year-round grassroots organizations and develop what I refer to as “personalistic membership parties.” This new party type, I argue, is different from both elite (cadre) and mass parties, and explains the continuing electoral achievements and political resilience of the BJP and the AKP even in the face of numerous crises. In addition, I explore how secular actors instrumentalized religion for their own electoral purposes and, in doing so, counter-intuitively strengthened the religious movements they sought to oppose. More broadly, the comparison of India and Turkey helps to illuminate the problems and future of the secular state in the non-Western world, as both countries are now governed by right-wing populist, religious majoritarianism that challenges the secular nature of the state and its democratic character.