Modi e il Mahatma: la manipolazione del messaggio e della figura di Gandhi nel discorso politico del primo ministro indiano

Authors

  • Tommaso Bobbio University of Turin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/1825-263X/6249

Abstract

This article analyses the intriguing relationship between Narendra Modi and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Since Modi's beginnings as Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001, Gandhi's image and discourses have been a constant reference in the BJP leader's political rhetoric. Through an analysis of Modi's discursive landmarks and of the recurrent themes in his propaganda, this article explores the way Modi has juxtaposed himself to the figure of the Mahatma. It suggests that Gandhi played a central role in the construction of an imagery of India based on a partial and stereotyped reading of the past, functional to claim for himself and for the country a role of moral leadership in the global world. In this framework, the omnipresent Gandhi in Modi's discursive and visual rhetoric has become a political seal to disguise an exclusivist politics, intolerant of dissent and closed to diversity and dialogue.

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Author Biography

Tommaso Bobbio, University of Turin

Tommaso Bobbio obtained his PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London. His research focuses on dynamics of spatial change and social confrontation in urban spaces in 19th and 20th century India, with a specific interest in to issues of inclusion/exclusion, access to work, mass mobilisation and conflict, rights and practices of citizenship. A further track of research focuses at the juncture between the History of South Asia and Critical Heritage Studies, looking at the intersection of heritage preservation, the industry of tourism, national branding policies and the representation of national history in postcolonial India. Recently he edited a special issue of the journal Quaderni Storici titled The Construction of Heritage (2019) and published Informality, Temporariness, and the Production of Illegitimate Geographies: The rise of a Muslim sub-city in Ahmedabad, India (1970s–2000s) (Modern Asian Studies, 2021).

He can be reached at: tommaso.bobbio@unito.it

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Published

2021-11-20

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2021): Kervan

Section

Articles

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