Middle Class, Media and Modi: The Making of a New Electoral Politics - Hardcover

Prabhu, Nagesh

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9353882591 ISBN 13: 9789353882594

Publisher: SAGE, 2020

Synopsis

The spectacular victory of Narendra Modi and the BJP in 2014 and again in 2019 demands a nuanced exploration of the factors that led to it. Though the role of the middle class and the media in the making of what is called the ‘Modi Wave’ is often talked about, a clear-eyed and unbiased look at how they transformed the political landscape in post-liberalization India is still wanting.

This book studies how the Indian middle class, once seen as politically indifferent, has gradually become a player of importance. This change, which slowly began in the 1990s, has now reached a crescendo, and Modi has become the icon of the changing economic demands of the middle class and their ideological rightward shift. The new middle class played a decisive role in the electoral outcomes of 2014 and 2019―two elections that have undoubtedly changed the way India imagines itself and how the rest of the world sees India. Modi’s management of mainstream and social media―primary consumers of which is the ever-growing middle class―has played a key role in his emphatic victories. This book will help the reader understand the arsenal that Modi used in these elections and is a must-read for scholars of politics, media studies and sociology.

About this title

About the Author

Nagesh Prabhu is a political analyst and currently Deputy Editor at The Hindu, Bengaluru, India. He is the author of the book Reflective Shadows: Political Economy of World Bank Lending to India (2017). He holds a PhD in Political Science from the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bengaluru. Dr Prabhu did his master’s in political science from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, in 1990 and MPhil from Mangalore University in 1994. He has been an active journalist for 25 years and writes regularly on issues related to political economy. Before taking up journalism, he taught for a brief period in Mangalore University. His articles have been published in academic journals as well.

From the Back Cover

An analytical study of the middle class and new media - pillars that support India's political entities today.

Edition details

• Publisher: SAGE
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9353882591
• ISBN 13: 9789353882594
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 412