South Asia Journal
Hindutva politics is a reactionary political, social, cultural, and economic project of the governing higher castes and classes. It has no principles, but works as a project to uphold crony capitalism in India. The Hindutva government has been successful in consolidating crony capitalism in the country while selling the snake oil of Hindutva ideology. Mr. Narendra Modi, the poster boy of Hindutva and the Prime Minister of India, has achieved the goals of Hindutva crony capitalism in the country at the cost of the majority of Indians. Hindutva lacks missions and visions for the development of the Indian working masses. The Hindutva leadership lacks political commitment to the economic upliftment and political empowerment of the people. Hindutva can never be an alternative for achieving progressive political, economic, social, and cultural transformation in India. Therefore, the Hindutva leadership adopts deceptive methods of political mobilisation based on fraudulent propaganda and economic quackery.
Mr. Narendra Modi and the Hindutva government under his leadership have ruined the Indian economy, and according to the Asian Development Bank’s economic projections, India’s projected economic growth is now equivalent to that of Bhutan. The Indian Economic Survey (2025–26) by the Government of India reveals that different economic indicators of growth show weakening trends. The growth trajectory of the Indian economy is moving on a regressive path. The rise in joblessness and unemployment in the first three months of 2026 is the defining failure of the Modi government, which has failed to give a positive direction to the Indian economy. As a result, the projected growth rate is expected to be 6.6 percent for the financial year 2027. This decline is a direct result of the Modi government’s political and economic decisions, both on the home front and in foreign policy.
Private consumption is central to the current economic growth in India, but Mr. Modi is asking individuals not to travel abroad for holidays, not to commute to offices and instead work from home, and not to buy gold in order to conserve foreign exchange. Such advisories from Prime Minister Mr. Modi indicate that the Hindutva leadership lacks economic vision and is running out of economic policy ideas and alternatives to guide Indian economy in the growth path. These advisories from Mr. Modi are the best examples of economic quackery produced by the Hindutva factory of the RSS.
Hindutva politics sells the snake oil of nationalism to overcome different forms of self-inflicted crises imposed by the Hindutva government on the people, without taking any accountability for its failures. The current economic crisis brewing in India is a direct product of Hindutva foreign policy, which has failed to uphold Indian national interests while pursuing a foreign policy concomitant with the requirements of Yankee imperialism of the US and the Zionist war-mongering politics of the Israeli government. The Indian energy crisis and its negative impacts on the Indian economy are direct results of the American and Israeli war on Iran. The Americans have torpedoed an unarmed submarine that came to India at India’s invitation to participate in a naval exercise. The Americans have also choked the Strait of Hormuz, causing different forms of economic distress in India, while common people are suffering from the rise in prices of essential commodities due to this unnecessary war imposed on West Asia, which is fundamentally against Indian economic and geopolitical interests. Forget about standing with Iran and stand in opposition to war on Iran, the Modi government did not even bother to condemn it.
The Modi government talks about Indian nationalism but surrenders Indian economic sovereignty to Yankee imperialists, European neo-colonisers, and the Zionist regime in Israel. Such a government and its Hindutva ideology are fundamentally against India and Indians. The Hindutva government is selling the snake oil of Hindutva nationalism while surrendering Indian economic and political interests to Yankee imperialists and European colonisers by signing unequal and unfair free trade agreements that drain Indian wealth without providing any direct benefits to the Indian people or the country.
Hindutva nationalism is fundamentally a European capitalist project that works for American capitalism and crony capitalists in India at the cost of Indian national interests and the interests of the Indian people. Hindutva lacks any form of economic and political vision to navigate India out of crisis; therefore, it asks people to sacrifice their small pleasures in life, such as “going out for a holiday” or buying gold jewellery gifts for their loved ones. Corporate tax bonanzas for the capitalist classes, while demanding that the working masses “sacrifice” personal pleasures and tolerate the rising cost of living, define Hindutva crony capitalism at the expense of the people of India.
The Indian economy can revive and face all forms of crisis if the Modi government mobilises internal resources for the people rather than for corporates. Redistributive policy mechanisms can ensure income generation and help expand private consumption, which is central to economic growth in India. The Modi government can invest in large-scale manufacturing of goods and services to generate mass employment that can serve both the people and the country. However, these economic alternatives are anathema to the Hindutva political project, which is designed to uphold the capitalist classes in the name of ethno-nationalist politics of Hindutva that serves corporates at the cost of the people. Hindutva quackery is not an alternative. Snake oil can never cure the political poison and ideological illness being inflicted on the country and its people by a virus called Hindutva.
Hindutva way of concentration of wealth empowers corporates and their owners while marginalising people in their everyday lives. Hindutva does not believe in redistribution of wealth. The political and ideological defeat of Hindutva is central to the revival of the idea of India and its economic growth path, based on the constitutional generation and redistribution of wealth for the empowerment of the people to realise the fruits of egalitarian and secular citizenship, and for the deepening of economic and political democracy in India.
Bhabani Nayak
The author is a Senior Lecturer in Business Strategy at Coventry University, UK.
