The official philosophy of the BJP is "Integral humanism," a philosophy first formulated by Deendayal Upadhyaya in 1965, who described it as advocating an "indigenous economic model that puts the human being at center stage." It is committed to Hindutva, an ideology articulated by Indian independence activist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. According to the party, Hindutva is cultural nationalism favouring Indian culture over westernisation, thus it extends to all Indians regardless of religion. However, scholars and political analysts have called their Hindutva ideology an attempt to redefine India and recast it as a Hindu country to the exclusion of other religions, making it a Hindu nationalist party in a general sense.
Social policies and Hindutva
Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party | Social policies and Hindutva
It is committed to Hindutva, an ideology articulated by Indian independence activist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. "Integral humanism",   Hindutva The official philosophy of the BJP is "Integral humanism," a philosophy first formulated by Deendayal Upadhyaya in 1965, who described it as advocating an "indigenous economic model that puts the human being at center stage." It is committed to Hindutva, an ideology articulated by Indian independence activist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar The BJP supports a uniform civil code, which would apply a common set of personal laws to every citizen regardless of their personal religion, replacing the existing laws which vary by religious community.
who is the leader of ruling party in india
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Narendra Modi
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which political party does he currently belong to?
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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
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when was this party established?
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1980
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mention a few of their social policies.
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The BJP has slightly moderated its stance after the NDA was formed in 1998, due to the presence of parties with a broader set of ideologies. The BJP's Hindutva ideology has been reflected in many of its government policies. It supports the construction of the Ram Temple at the disputed site of the Babri Mosque. This issue was its major poll plank in the 1991 general elections. However, the demolition of the mosque during a BJP rally in 1992 resulted in a backlash against it, leading to a decline of the temple's prominence in its agenda. The education policy of the NDA government reorganised the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and tasked it with extensively revising the textbooks used in Indian schools.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Social policies and Hindutva
The BJP supports a uniform civil code, which would apply a common set of personal laws to every citizen regardless of their personal religion, replacing the existing laws which vary by religious community. According to historian Yogendra Malik, this ignores the differential procedures required to protect the cultural identity of the Muslim minority. The BJP favours the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution of India, which grants a greater degree of autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir in recognition of the unusual circumstances surrounding its accession to the Indian Union.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Social policies and Hindutva
The official philosophy of the BJP is "Integral humanism," a philosophy first formulated by Deendayal Upadhyaya in 1965, who described it as advocating an "indigenous economic model that puts the human being at center stage." It is committed to Hindutva, an ideology articulated by Indian independence activist Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. According to the party, Hindutva is cultural nationalism favouring Indian culture over westernisation, thus it extends to all Indians regardless of religion. However, scholars and political analysts have called their Hindutva ideology an attempt to redefine India and recast it as a Hindu country to the exclusion of other religions, making it a Hindu nationalist party in a general sense.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Social policies and Hindutva
Various scholars have stated that this revision, especially in the case of history textbooks, was a covert attempt to "saffronise" Indian history. The NDA government introduced Vedic astrology as a subject in college curricula, despite opposition from several leading scientists. Taking a position against what it calls the "pseudo-secularism" of the Congress party, the BJP instead supports "positive secularism". Vajpayee laid out the BJP's interpretation of Mahatma Gandhi's doctrine of "Sarvadharma Samabhava" and contrasted it with what he called European secularism. He had said that Indian secularism attempted to see all religions with equal respect, while European secularism was independent of religion, thus making the former more "positive".
Bharatiya Janata Party | Social policies and Hindutva
The VHP and the BJP utilised these developments to push forward a militant Hindutva nationalist agenda leading to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The BJP officially adopted Hindutva as its ideology in its 1989 Palampur resolution. The BJP claims that "Hindutva" represents "cultural nationalism" and its conception of "Indian nationhood", but not a religious or theocratic concept. It is "India's identity," according to the RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat.
Hindutva | Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bharatiya Janata Party
The failure of Vajpayee's moderate strategy led to a shift in the ideology of the party toward a policy of more hardline Hindu nationalism. In 1984, Advani was appointed president of the party, and under him it became the political voice of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. In the early 1980s, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) began a campaign for the construction of a temple dedicated to the Hindu deity Rama at the disputed site of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. The mosque had been constructed by the Mughal Emperor Babur in 1527. There is a dispute about whether a temple once stood there.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Ram Janmabhoomi movement and Hindutva
The Hindutva ideology based Jan Sangh members such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Brij Lal Varma and Lal Krishnan Advani gained national prominence, and the Hindutva ideology sympathiser Morarji Desai became the prime minister of a coalition non-Congress government. This coalition did not last past 1980, and from the consequent break-up of coalition parties was founded the Bharatiya Janata Party in April 1980. This new national political party relied on the Hindutva ideology-based rural and urban grassroots organisations that had rapidly grown across India from the mid-1970s.
Hindutva | Growth
The Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), commonly known as the Jana Sangh, was an Indian nationalist political party that existed from 1951 to 1977 and was socially conservative. In 1977, it merged with several other left, centre and right parties opposed to rule of the Indian National Congress and formed the Janata Party. After the Janata Party split in 1980, it was re-formed as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980, which is currently India's largest political party by primary membership and representation in Lok Sabha. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is one of the two major political parties in India, along with the Indian National Congress.
Conservatism in India | Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party
According to the "Encyclopædia Britannica" article on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a major political party in India, Hindutva ('Hindu-ness') is its ideology that advocates "Indian culture in terms of Hindu values". The term Hindutva, according to BJP, refers to "cultural nationalism" and it is "not a religious or theocratic concept".
Hindutva | Hindutva organisations
The BJP's economic policy has changed considerably since its founding. There is a significant range of economic ideologies within the party. In the 1980s, like the Jana Sangh, it reflected the thinking of the RSS and its affiliates. It supported "swadeshi" (the promotion of indigenous industries and products) and a protectionist export policy. However, it supported internal economic liberalisation, and opposed the state-driven industrialisation favoured by the Congress. During the 1996 elections, the BJP shifted its stance away from protectionism and towards globalisation; its election manifesto recommended increasing foreign investment in priority sectors, while restricting it in others. When the party was in power in 1998, it shifted its policy even further in favour of globalisation.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Economic policies
Hindus were urged by VHP to "take revenge" for these deaths, resulting in riots against Muslims across Uttar Pradesh. The BJP withdrew its support from the V.P. Singh government, leading to fresh general elections. It once again increased its tally, to 120 seats, and won a majority in the Uttar Pradesh assembly. On 6 December 1992, the RSS and its affiliates organised a rally involving more than 100,000 VHP and BJP activists at the site of the mosque. Under circumstances that are not entirely clear, the rally developed into a frenzied attack that ended with the demolition of the mosque.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Ram Janmabhoomi movement and Hindutva
Syama Prasad Mukherjee, who served as its president in 1944 and joined the Jawaharlal Nehru Cabinet after independence, was a Hindu traditionalist politician who wanted to uphold Hindu values but not necessarily to the exclusion of other communities. He asked for the membership of Hindu Mahasabha to be thrown open to all communities. When this was not accepted, he resigned from the party and founded a new political party in collaboration with the RSS. He understood Hinduism as a nationality rather than a community but, realising that this is not the common understanding of the term "Hindu", he chose "Bharatiya" instead of "Hindu" to name the new party, which came to be called the Bharatiya Jana Sangh.
Hindutva | Adoption
The historical stance of the BJP towards foreign policy, like the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, was based on an aggressive Hindu nationalism combined with economic protectionism. The Bharatiya Jana Sangh was founded with the explicit aim of reversing the partition of India; as a result, its official position was that the existence of Pakistan was illegitimate. This antagonism toward Pakistan remains a significant influence on the BJP's ideology. During the Cold War, the party and its affiliates strongly opposed India's long standing policy of non-alignment, and instead advocated closeness to the United States. The Vajpayee government's foreign policy in many ways represented a radical shift from BJP orthodoxy, while maintaining some aspects of it.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Foreign policy
Hindu social conservatism in India in the twenty first century has developed into an influential movement. Represented in the political arena by the right-leaning Bharatiya Janata Party. Hindu social conservatism, also known as the Hindutva movement, is spearheaded by the voluntary non-governmental organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The core philosophy of this ideology is nativism and sees Hinduism as a national identity rather than a religious one. Due to an inclination towards nativism, much of its platform is based on the belief that Islamic and Christian denominations in India are the result of occupations, and therefore these groups should not receive concessions from the state.
Social conservatism | Hindu social conservatism
The tenure of the NDA saw an unprecedented influx of foreign companies in India. This was criticised by the left parties and the BJP's affiliates (the RSS and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch). The communist parties said that the BJP was attempting to appease the World Bank and the United States government through its neoliberal policies. Similarly, the RSS stated that the BJP was not being true to its "swadeshi" ideology. The two NDA governments in the period 1998–2004 introduced significant deregulation and privatisation of government owned enterprises. It also introduced tariff-reducing measures. These reforms built off of the initial economic liberalisation introduced by the P.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Economic policies
The Hindutva movement advocating Hindu nationalism originated in the 1920s and has remained a strong political force in India. The major party of the religious right, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), since its foundation in 1980 won elections, and after a defeat in 2004 remained one of the leading forces against the coalition government of the Congress Party. The 16th national general election, held in early 2014, saw a huge victory of the BJP; it gained an absolute majority and formed a government under the premiership of Narendra Modi, a BJP leader and till then the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The Modi government's sweeping mandate and popularity helped the BJP win several State Assembly elections in India.
History of India (1947–present) | 2014 – Return of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government
Upadhyay remained the General Secretary until 1967, and worked to build a committed grassroots organisation in the image of the RSS. The party minimised engagement with the public, focusing instead on building its network of propagandists. Upadhyaya also articulated the philosophy of integral humanism, which formed the official doctrine of the party. Younger leaders, such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani also became involved with the leadership in this period, with Vajpayee succeeding Upadhyaya as president in 1968. The major themes on the party's agenda during this period were legislating a uniform civil code, banning cow slaughter and abolishing the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Bharatiya Jana Sangh (1951–77)
The RSS established a number of affiliate organisations after Indian Independence to carry its ideology to various parts of the society. Prominent among them is the Vishva Hindu Parishad, which was set up in 1964 with the objective of protecting and promoting the Hindu religion. It subscribed to "Hindutva" ideology, which came to mean in its hands political Hinduism and Hindu militancy. A number of political developments in the 1980s caused a sense of vulnerability among the Hindus in India. This was much discussed and leveraged by the Hindutva ideology organisations. These developments include the mass killing of the Hindus by the militant Khalistan movement, the influx of undocumented Bangladeshi immigration into Assam coupled with the expulsion of Hindus from Bangladesh, the Congress-led government's pro-Muslim bias in the Shah Bano case as well as the Rushdie affair.
Hindutva | Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bharatiya Janata Party
The new policy was partially an attempt to trim the electoral support of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The core constituency of the BJP were people from upper castes, who had until then held a monopoly over government jobs. The new policy thus fed resentment among the upper-castes, and raised inter-caste tensions in some parts of the country. Mobilising Hindus around the Ayodhya dispute was seen by the BJP as a way to unite its electorate, by creating an issue around which all Hindus could be united against Muslims. This effort tied in well with the philosophy of the Sangh Parivar, which professed "cultural nationalism", and believed in the unity of the highly fragmented Hindu population.
Ram Rath Yatra | Background and motivation
Even after India attaining Independence from the British Raj in 1947, India is governed till today either by Indian National Congress or Bharatiya Janata Party, dominated by some upper castes (15% of population), or by only one family for a long time. This created a wide disparity in Socio-Economical development between Forward Caste and Backward Classes in India. Backward Classes, comprising 52% of population (consisting of 94 castes), neither came to power by floating a political parties before nor democratically elected member of Backward Classes community was allowed to become the Prime Minister of India through Indian National Congress or Bharatiya Janata Party.
Rajyadhikara Party | Party history
Vajpayee, previously the leader of the Jana Sangh, was appointed the Minister of External Affairs. The national leadership of the former Jana Sangh consciously renounced its identity, and attempted to integrate with the political culture of the Janata Party, based on Gandhian and Hindu traditionalist principles. According to Christophe Jaffrelot, this proved to be an impossible assimilation. The state and local levels of the Jana Sangh remained relatively unchanged, retaining a strong association with the RSS, which did not sit well with the moderate centre-right constituents of the Party. Violence between Hindus and Muslims increased sharply during the years that the Janata Party formed the government, with former Jana Sangha members being implicated in the riots at Aligarh and Jamshedpur in 1978–79.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Janata Party (1977–80)
The other major constituents of the Janata Party demanded that the Jana Sangh should break from the RSS, which the Jana Sangh refused to do. Eventually, a fragment of the Janata Party broke off to form the Janata Party (Secular). The Morarji Desai government was reduced to a minority in the Parliament, forcing its resignation. Following a brief period of coalition rule, general elections were held in 1980, in which the Janata Party fared poorly, winning only 31 seats. In April 1980, shortly after the elections, the National Executive Council of the Janata Party banned its members from being 'dual members' of party and the RSS.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Janata Party (1977–80)
In response, the former Jana Sangh members left to create a new political party, known as the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Janata Party (1977–80)
During the 2014 election campaign, Modi expressed hopes for a tenure without communal violence. The BJP sought to identify itself with political leaders known to have opposed Hindu nationalism, including B. R. Ambedkar, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Ram Manohar Lohia. The campaign also saw the use of rhetoric based on Hindutva, however, by BJP leaders in certain states. Communal tensions were played upon especially in Uttar Pradesh and the states of Northeast India. A proposal for the controversial Uniform Civil Code was a part of the BJP's election manifesto. Several state governments headed by the BJP have enacted policies aligned with Hindutva after the election of Modi as prime minister.
Premiership of Narendra Modi | Hindutva and social policies
In 1986, the district magistrate of Ayodhya ordered that the gates be opened once more, and Hindus be allowed access to the shrine. Following its poor performance in the 1984 parliamentary election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shifted toward a policy of more hardline Hindu nationalism, and lent its support to the demand that a temple be built at Ayodhya. On the strength of this agitation, the BJP won 86 Lok Sabha seats in 1989, a tally which made its support crucial to the National Front government. In August 1990, then-Prime Minister V. P. Singh, acting on the recommendations of the Mandal Commission, decided to introduce a policy of reserving twenty-seven per cent of state level government posts for people from lower castes.
Ram Rath Yatra | Background and motivation
Over the following weeks, waves of violence between Hindus and Muslims erupted all over the country, killing over 2,000 people. The government briefly banned the VHP, and many BJP leaders, including Advani were arrested for making inflammatory speeches provoking the demolition. Several historians have said that the demolition was the product of a conspiracy by the Sangh Parivar, and not a spontaneous act.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Ram Janmabhoomi movement and Hindutva
In 1980, Janata Party disintegrated fully. The old Jan Sangh again reunited as the Bharatiya Janata Party in Mumbai with the lotus as its symbol. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was chosen as the National President and Nanasaheb was chosen as the President of Maharashtra BJP. In the same year, Nanasaheb declared his retirement from active electoral politics and vowed to work for the party only. In 1984, he handed over the presidency to the young Gopinath Munde and declared that in future neither would he contest elections nor would he hold party positions. He will be just 'a party worker' henceforth.
Uttamrao Patil | Retirement from electoral politics (1980-1989)
V. Narasimha Rao-led Congress government in the early 1990s. India's GDP growth increased substantially during the tenure of the NDA. The 2004 campaign slogan India Shining was based on the party's belief that the free market would bring prosperity to all sectors of society. After its unexpected defeat, commentators said that it was punished for neglecting the needs of the poor and focusing too much on its corporate allies.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Economic policies
, it is the country's largest political party in terms of representation in the Sansad and Vidhan Bhavans, and it is the world's largest party in terms of primary membership. The BJP is a right-wing party, with close ideological and organisational links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. After the 1998 general election, the BJP-led coalition known as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) formed a government under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for a year. Following fresh elections, the NDA government, again headed by Vajpayee, lasted for a full term in office; this was the first non-Congress government to do so.
Conservatism in India | Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party
Hindutva was to gain relevance in the run-up to the Indian Independence and form the core ideology of the political party Hindu Mahasabha, of which Savarkar became President in 1937. It also formed the key ideology, under the euphemistic relabelling "Rashtriyatva" (nationalism), for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founded in 1925, and of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (the present-day ruling Bharatiya Janata Party) under another euphemistic relabelling "Bharatiyata" (Indianness).
Hindu nationalism | India House
After the State of Emergency in 1977, the Jana Sangh merged with several other parties to form the Janata Party; it defeated the incumbent Congress party in the 1977 general election. After three years in power, the Janata party dissolved in 1980 with the members of the erstwhile Jana Sangh reconvening to form the BJP. Although initially unsuccessful, winning only two seats in the 1984 general election, it grew in strength on the back of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Following victories in several state elections and better performances in national elections, the BJP became the largest party in the parliament in 1996; however, it lacked a majority in the lower house of Parliament, and its government lasted only 13 days.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Introduction
In the past, BJP has largely been seen as a hard-line Hindu party with close ties with the Hindu organisation the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Over the years, the party has slightly distanced itself from its "Hindutva" policies, a change that is being questioned after the party's poor showing in the elections. These elections were marked by the campaign's emphasis on economic gains. From the last few elections, BJP had realised that its voter base had reached a ceiling and had concentrated on pre-poll rather than post-poll alliances. The foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi also constituted part of the NDA's campaign.
2004 Indian general election | Forecast and campaigns
The agitation was on the basis of the belief that the site is the birthplace of Rama, and that a temple had been demolished to construct the mosque. The BJP threw its support behind this campaign, and made it a part of their election platform. It won 86 Lok Sabha seats in 1989, a tally which made its support crucial to the National Front government of V. P. Singh. In September 1990, Advani began a "rath yatra" (chariot journey) to Ayodhya in support of the Ram temple movement. According to Guha, the imagery employed by the "yatra" was "religious, allusive, militant, masculine, and anti-Muslim", and the speeches delivered by Advani during the "yatra" accused the government of appeasing Muslims and practising "pseudo-secularism" that obstructed the legitimate aspirations of Hindus.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Ram Janmabhoomi movement and Hindutva
The Bharatiya Janata Party (; ; BJP) is one of two major political parties in India, along with Indian National Congress. It has been the ruling political party of the Republic of India since 2014. , it is the country's largest political party in terms of representation in the national parliament and state assemblies and is the world's largest party in terms of primary membership. BJP is a right-wing party, and its policy has historically reflected Hindu nationalist positions. It has close ideological and organisational links to the much older Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The BJP's origin lies in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, formed in 1951 by Syama Prasad Mukherjee.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Introduction
In 1979, Desai and Vajpayee resigned, triggering the collapse of the Janata Party. The erstwhile members of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh came together to form the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980, with Vajpayee as its first President. The 1984 general elections were held in the wake of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination by her Sikh bodyguards. While he had won the 1977 and the 1980 elections from New Delhi, Vajpayee shifted to his home town Gwalior for the election. Vidya Razdan was initially tipped to be the Congress (I) candidate. Instead, Madhavrao Scindia, scion of the Gwalior royal family, was brought in on the last day of filing nominations.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee | Janata and the BJP (1975–1995)
However, the coalition ruptured in May 1999 when the leader of AIADMK, Jayalalitha, withdrew her support, and fresh elections were held again. On 13 October 1999, the NDA, without the AIADMK, won 303 seats in parliament and thus an outright majority. The BJP had its highest ever tally of 183. Vajpayee became Prime Minister for the third time; Advani became Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister. This NDA government lasted its full term of five years. Its policy agenda included a more aggressive stance on defence and terror as well as neo-liberal economic policies. In 2001, Bangaru Laxman, then the BJP president, was filmed accepting a bribe of to recommend the purchase of hand-held thermal imagers for the Indian Army to the Defence Ministry, in a sting operation by "Tehelka" journalists.
Bharatiya Janata Party | NDA government (1998–2004)
The Bharatiya Janshakti Party (Hindi: भारतीय जनशक्ति पार्टी, IAST: "Bhāratiya Janaśakti Pārtī"; "Indian People's Power Party") was founded on 30 April 2006 in Ujjain in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It was founded by Uma Bharti, a former leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), following her expulsion from the BJP for "indiscipline". She stated that the Bharatiya Janshakti Party was subject to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, an institution preeminent in India for being the ideological parent body for a number of powerful Hindu nationalist groups in India, and had secured from that organization its support. With Uma Bharti rejoining the BJP in June 2011, the Bharatiya Janshakti Party would be merged with the BJP.
Bharatiya Janshakti Party | Introduction
The Bharatiya Janata Party, also commonly called the BJP (abbreviation for Bharatiya Janata Party), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Founded by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani in 1980, it dominates politics nationally for most of the period from 2014 onwards. There have been 2 Prime Ministers from the Bharatiya Janata Party, the first being Atal Bihari Vajpayee, serving as Prime Minister for 3 terms, and the second being the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
State units of the Bharatiya Janata Party | Introduction
In 1989, the north of India saw an increase in orchestrated attacks on Muslims, and the BJP had further success in the local and state elections. The social anthropologist Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah concludes that the violence in Bhagalpur in 1989, Hashimpura in 1987 and in Moradabad 1980 were organised killings. According to Ram Puniyani, the Shiv Sena were victorious in the elections due to the violence in the 1990s, and the BJP in Gujarat after the 2002 violence. Gyan Prakash, however, cautions that the BJP's actions in Gujarat do not equate to the entirety of India, and it remains to be seen if the Hindutva movement has been successful in the deployment of this strategy nationwide.
Violence against Muslims in India | Role of political parties
The government of Maharashtra banned the killing of cows in 2014. The government of Haryana made changes to its education policy that introduced Hindu religious elements into the curriculum. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj suggested after the election that the "Bhagvad Gita" be adopted as India's "national book". The Modi administration has generally avoided directly supporting policies related to a Hindutva agenda. There has been an increase in the activities of a number of other Hindu nationalist organisations, sometimes with the support of the government. The incidents included a campaign against "Love Jihad", a religious conversion programme, and attempts to celebrate Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, by members of the right wing Hindu Mahasabha.
Premiership of Narendra Modi | Hindutva and social policies
Although the newly formed BJP was technically distinct from the Jana Sangh, the bulk of its rank and file were identical to its predecessor, with Vajpayee being its first president. Historian Ramachandra Guha writes that the early 1980s were marked by a wave of violence between Hindus and Muslims. The BJP initially moderated the Hindu nationalist stance of its predecessor the Jana Sangh to gain a wider appeal, emphasising its links to the Janata Party and the ideology of Gandhian Socialism. This was unsuccessful, as it won only two Lok Sabha seats in the elections of 1984. The assassination of Indira Gandhi a few months earlier resulted in a wave of support for the Congress which won a record tally of 403 seats, contributing to the low number for the BJP.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Formation and early days
Bharatiya Manavata Vikas Party (Indian Human Development Party), political party in India. The party was formed in 2001 by the founder of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) Malayendra Kisor Chaudhury. The party claims to work for development in poor rural areas, and is a continuation of other organizations (Manav Seva Kendras) that were initiated by Chaudhury. Chaudhury launched his new political party ahead of the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections in Orissa 2004. BMVP were given media coverage for their unorthodox methods for recruiting candidates through open interview sessions. Chaudhury's BMVP didn't reach any major success in the elections.
Bharatiya Manavata Vikas Party | Introduction
The party launched the Vijayi Yuvak Marathi Monthly Magazine in July 2007 in Maharashtra, with a circulation of 5000 magazines per month. An English Newspaper Sambharatam was launched in January 2008. A social wing under the name Sambharatam was launched at a national level to address student-related issues and other social issues.
Bharat Punarnirman Dal | Other party activities
Till the 2000s, the parties had welfare schemes like maternity assistance, subsidized public transport, and educational grants. After the 2000s, the parties started competing at an increasing level for the distribution of consumer goods. The AIADMK government distributed free cycles to class 11 and class 12 students during its tenure of 2001–06. The DMK, in competition, promised free color televisions in its manifesto in 2006 assembly elections. The competition continued during the 2011 assembly elections when both parties announced free laptops for schools students and grinders mixers and fans for public.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | Ideology and policies
Calling elections on 18 January 1977 the government released political prisoners and weakened restrictions and censorship on the press, although the state of emergency was not officially ended. When opposition leaders sought the support of Jayaprakash Narayan for the forthcoming election, Narayan insisted that all opposition parties form a united front. The Janata party was officially launched on 23 January 1977 when the Janata Morcha, Charan Singh's Bharatiya Lok Dal, Swatantra Party, the Socialist Party of India of Raj Narain and George Fernandes, and the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) joined together, dissolving their separate identities (the merger of all party organisations was to be completed after the election).
Janata Party | Creation
Hindutva is the guiding ideology of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliated family of organisations, the Sangh Parivar. In general, "Hindutvavadis" (followers of Hindutva) believe that they represent the well-being of Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Ayyavazhi, Jainism and all other religions prominent in India. Most nationalists are organised into political, cultural and social organisations using the concept of Hindutva as a political tool. The first Hindutva organisation formed was the RSS, founded in 1925. A prominent Indian political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is closely associated with a group of organisations that advocate Hindutva. They collectively refer to themselves as the "Sangh Parivar" or family of associations, and include the RSS, Bajrang Dal and the Vishva Hindu Parishad.
Hindutva | Organisations
This article is about the election performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Electoral history of the Bharatiya Janata Party | Introduction
A coalition of regional parties formed the government in 1996, but this grouping was short lived, and mid-term polls were held in 1998. The BJP contested the elections leading a coalition called the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which contained its existing allies like the Samata Party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, the Shiv Sena in addition to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Biju Janata Dal. Among these regional parties, the Shiv Sena was the only one which had an ideology similar to the BJP; Amartya Sen, for example, called the coalition an "ad hoc" grouping. The NDA had a majority with outside support from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Vajpayee returned as Prime Minister.
Bharatiya Janata Party | NDA government (1998–2004)
Bharatiya Kranti Dal was a political party in India, formed by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Charan Singh. The party was founded at a meeting in Lucknow in October 1967. After the 1977 general election, the party merged into the Janata Party.
Bharatiya Kranti Dal | Introduction
The BJP's origins lie in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, popularly known as the Jana Sangh, founded by Syama Prasad Mukherjee in 1951 in response to the politics of the dominant Congress party. It was founded in collaboration with the Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and was widely regarded as the political arm of the RSS. The Jana Sangh's aims included the protection of India's "Hindu" cultural identity, in addition to countering what it perceived to be the appeasement of Muslim people and the country of Pakistan by the Congress party and then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The RSS loaned several of its leading "pracharaks", or full-time workers, to the Jana Sangh to get the new party off the ground.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Bharatiya Jana Sangh (1951–77)
During the first 18 years after integration with independent India, MGP led the state government. Today, however, the MGP is marginalized when compared to its former status. The Bharatiya Janata Party, particularly during its reign between 1999 and 2005, was showing increasing signs of having taken over most of the Hindu voters, and a large chunk of the party cadre.
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party | Introduction
After assembly elections across the country in 1967, the party entered into a coalition with several other parties, including the Swatantra Party and the socialists. It formed governments in various states across the Hindi heartland, including Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. It was the first time the Jana Sangh held political office, albeit within a coalition; this caused the shelving of the Jana Sangh's more radical agenda.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Bharatiya Jana Sangh (1951–77)
Other organisations include: Political parties that are independent from the Sangh Parivar's influence but that also espouse the Hindutva ideology include the Hindu Mahasabha, Prafull Goradia's Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Subramanian Swamy's Janata Party and the Marathi nationalist Shiv Sena. and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.The Shiromani Akali Dal is a Sikh religious party that maintains ties with Hindutva organisations and political parties, as they also represent Sikhism.
Hindutva | Organisations
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which represents the Sangh Parivar in national politics, has formed three governments in India, most recently being in power from May 2014 under the leadership of Prime minister Narendra Modi, reelected in May 2019. Political opponents of the BJP allege that the party's moderate face merely serves to cover the Sangh Parivar's "hidden agenda" of undiluted "Hindutva", detectable by the BJP's efforts to change the content of history textbooks and syllabi as well as other aspects of the education system. Such criticism of the BJP arises from the fact that BJP had only 2 seats in the parliament in 1984 and after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 the party gained national recognition, and only then it rose to power in 1998.
Sangh Parivar | Politics
Support was concentrated in the Hindi-speaking belt in North-central India. The magnitude of the victory was not predicted by most opinion and exit polls. Political analysts have suggested several reasons for this victory, including the popularity of Modi, and the loss of support for the Congress due to the corruption scandals in its previous term. The BJP was also able to expand its traditionally upper-caste, upper-class support base and received significant support from middle-class and Dalit people, as well as among Other Backward Classes. Its support among Muslims remained low; only 8% of Muslim voters voted for the BJP. The BJP was also very successful at mobilising its supporters, and raising voter turnout among them.
Bharatiya Janata Party | NDA government (2014–present)
This led to the Bharatiya Janata Party's suspension of support to the National Front government. VP Singh faced the vote of no confidence in the Lok Sabha saying that he occupied the high moral ground, as he stood for secularism, had saved the Babri Masjid at the cost of power and had upheld the fundamental principles which were challenged during the crises. "What kind of India do you want?" he asked of his opponents in Parliament, before losing the vote 142–346; only a portion of the National Front remaining loyal to him and the left parties supported him in the vote.
Vishwanath Pratap Singh | Ram temple issue and the fall of the coalition
Jha has repeatedly taken a position against Hindu nationalist ideology, arguing against what he claims is "communalism" and "saffronisation", especially during the 1998 to 2004 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of the Republic of India. He is critical of the view that "tolerance is the very essence of 'Hinduism qua Hinduism', and has claimed presence of what he terms as Brahmanical intolerance since early India, even though he is himself a Maithil Brahmin.
D. N. Jha | Politics
In 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed a state of emergency. The Jana Sangh took part in the widespread protests, with thousands of its members being imprisoned along with other agitators across the country. In 1977, the emergency was withdrawn and general elections were held. The Jana Sangh merged with parties from across the political spectrum, including the Socialist Party, the Congress (O) and the Bharatiya Lok Dal to form the Janata Party, with its main agenda being defeating Indira Gandhi. The Janata Party won a majority in 1977 and formed a government with Morarji Desai as Prime Minister. The former Jana Sangh contributed the largest tally to the Janata Party's parliamentary contingent, with 93 seats or 31% of its strength.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Janata Party (1977–80)
When Bharatiya Jana Sangh was formed at the national level in 1951, the party started planning in Maharashtra also. They wanted their leader to be learned, an orator, an organiser and from a rural background. Uttamrao Patil was the right choice. On pursuation of Dattopant Thengdi, Nana Dhobale and Rambhau Godbole, Mr. Patil joined Bharatiya Jansangh. He, along with colleagues, toured the state and brought many dedicated workers in the party who became founder pillars of the organisation. Some of these included Baburao Vaidya, Zamatmalji, Raghoba and Rajabhau Zarkar, Sadubhau Deshpande, Kshema Thatte, Malati Paranjape, Meera Pavgi, Kisan Gharpure, Gangadharpant, Vasantrao and Bhagwanrao Patwardhan, Bhagwanrao Joshi, Baburao Dev, Pandurang Ghalsasi, Hampi Vakil, Bhausaheb Badhiye, and Bhaskar Ninave.
Uttamrao Patil | Early political days
Despite a strong start, the Janata government began to wither as significant ideological and political divisions emerged. The party consisted of veteran socialists, trade unionists and pro-business leaders, making major economic reforms difficult to achieve without triggering a public divide. Socialists and secular Janata politicians shared an aversion to the Hindu nationalist agenda of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, whose members included Vajpayee, Advani and other leaders from the former Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Violence between Hindus and Muslims led to further confrontations within the Janata party, with most Janata leaders demanding that Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani choose between staying in government and being members of the RSS.
Janata Party | Fall of the government
The BJP's Bengali booklet released in January 2020 claimed that the National Register of Citizens will be implemented to identify the undocumented migrants, but Hindus, Sikhs and other non-Muslims will be "shielded" by the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Bharatiya Janata Party, West Bengal | Post 2020
The party was founded in 1984. The founder was Laheen Madih. During the parliamentary election, held on 7 September 2007, the party did not win any seats.
Social Centre Party | History and profile
After 1949, members of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) began to contemplate the formation of a political party to continue their work, begun in the days of the British Raj, and take their ideology further. Around the same time, Syama Prasad Mookerjee left the Hindu Mahasabha political party that he had once led because of a disagreement with that party over permitting non-Hindu membership. The BJS was subsequently started by Mookerjee on 21 October 1951 in Delhi, with the collaboration of the RSS, as a "nationalistic alternative" to the Congress Party. The symbol of the party in Indian elections was an oil lamp and, like the RSS, its ideology was centred on Hindutva.
Bharatiya Jana Sangh | Origins
Shiv Sena switched from 'Marathi Cause' to larger 'Hindutva Cause' in 1985 and joined hands with Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the same year. The Congress had dominated the politics of Bombay from independence until the early 1980s, when the Shiv Sena won the 1985 Bombay Municipal Corporation elections. In 1989, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a major national political party, forged an electoral alliance with the Shiv Sena to dislodge the Congress in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections. In 1999, several members left the Congress to form the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) but later allied with the Congress as part of an alliance known as the Democratic Front.
Mumbai | Politics
In the 20th century, Hinduism also gained prominence as a political force and a source for national identity in India. With origins traced back to the establishment of the Hindu Mahasabha in the 1910s, the movement grew with the formulation and development of the Hindutva ideology in the following decades; the establishment of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1925; and the entry, and later success, of RSS offshoots Jana Sangha and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in electoral politics in post-independence India. Hindu religiosity plays an important role in the nationalist movement.
Hinduism | Hindutva
The Bharatiya Janata Party was officially founded in 1980, and the first general election it contested was in 1984, in which it won only two Lok Sabha seats. Following the election in 1996, the BJP became the largest party in the Lok Sabha for the first time, but the government it formed was short-lived. In the elections of 1998 and 1999, it remained the largest party, and headed the ruling coalition on both occasions. In the 2014 general election, it won an outright majority in parliament. From 1991 onwards, a BJP member has led the Opposition whenever the party was not in power.
Bharatiya Janata Party | General election results
In its manifesto for the 2014 Indian general election, the BJP promised to provide a "natural home" for persecuted Hindu refugees. The year before the 2016 elections in Assam, the government legalised refugees belonging to religious minorities from Pakistan and Bangladesh, granting them long-term visas. Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals belonging to "minority communities" were exempted from the requirements of the "Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920" and the "Foreigners Act, 1946". Specifically mentioned were "Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Parsis and Buddhists," who had been "compelled to seek shelter in India due to religious persecution or fear of religious persecution". Eligibility for the exemption was made contingent on a migrant having arrived in India by 31 December 2014.
Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 | Bharatiya Janata Party activities
Hindutva was mainstreamed into Indian politics with Narendra Modi's election as Prime Minister in 2014.
Hindutva | Introduction
The Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh, full name: Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh) was an Indian right wing political party that existed from 1951 to 1977 and was the political arm of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation. In 1977, it merged with several other left, centre and right parties opposed to the Indian National Congress and formed the Janata Party. In 1980, Jana Sangh faction broke away from Janata Party over the issue of dual membership (of the political Janata Party and the social organization RSS), and formed Bharatiya Janata Party.
Bharatiya Jana Sangh | Introduction
Jaswant Singh was denied nomination from Barmer constituency so he decided instead to contest the seat as an independent. The BJP released its manifesto on 7 April 2014. The party promised to set up a Price Stabilization Fund and to evolve a single 'National Agriculture Market' to check price rise and go for e-Governance, policy-driven governance and simplification of the tax regime to prevent corruption. It wanted to encourage labour-intensive manufacturing, focus on traditional employment bases of agriculture, the upgrade of infrastructure and housing and self-employment opportunities for job creation. Harnessing satellite technology; setting up National Optical-Fibre Network up to the village level; Diamond Quadrilateral project – of High Speed Train network were among several other things that the party promised.
2014 Indian general election | Bharatiya Janata Party
The Congress accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to increase its vote banks by attacking minorities. Congress politician Sharad Pawar accused the BJP of trying to divide people on the basis of religion. The Inter Press Service reported that the Christians are being used as a political scapegoat for India's national elections. The former President of the AIADMK and Chief minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalaitha called for the dismissal of the Bharatiya Janata Party's rule in Gujarat. She also went on to say that Gujarat attacks have become a black mark to the fair name of the country.
1998 attacks on Christians in southeastern Gujarat | Political response
In India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Narendra Modi, represent conservative politics. The BJP is the largest right-wing conservative party in the world. It promotes cultural nationalism, Hindu Nationalism, an aggressive foreign policy against Pakistan and a conservative social and fiscal policy.
Conservatism | India
The State changes as the political authority shifts from person to person or party to party. But the people in the Nation remain the same. They would maintain that the concept of Hindu Rashtra is in complete agreement with the principles of secularism and democracy. The concept of "'Hindutva" is continued to be espoused by the organisations like the RSS and political parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But the definition does not have the same rigidity with respect to the concept of "holy land" laid down by Savarkar, and stresses on inclusivism and patriotism. BJP leader and the then leader of opposition, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in 1998, articulated the concept of "holy land" in Hindutva as follows: "Mecca can continue to be holy for the Muslims but India should be holier than the holy for them.
Hindu nationalism | Contemporary descriptions
V. P. Singh united the entire disparate spectrum of parties ranging from regional parties such as the Telugu Desam Party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and the Asom Gana Parishad, together and formed the National Front with N. T. Rama Rao as President and V. P. Singh as convenor with outside support from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left front. They defeated Rajiv Gandhi's Congress (I) in the 1989 parliamentary elections. His government fell after Lalu Prasad Yadav, got Advani arrested in Samastipur and stopped his "Ram Rath Yatra" which was going to Ayodhya on the site of the Babri Masjid on October 23, 1990 and the Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew support.
Janata Dal | History
Hindutva () is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India. The principle of Hindutva was founded by Chandranath Basu and later the term was popularised by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923. It is championed by the Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar. The Hindutva movement has been described as a variant of "right-wing extremism" and as "almost fascist in the classical sense", adhering to a disputed concept of homogenised majority and cultural hegemony. Some dispute the fascist label, and suggest Hindutva is an extreme form of "conservatism" or "ethnic absolutism".
Hindutva | Introduction
The book is included in the curriculum of undergraduate students studying South Asian Studies at Islamic University of Indonesia.
Bharatiya Janata Party: Past, Present and Future | Reception
The first conservative party to espouse liberal economic ideals in India since independence was the Swatantra Party. It is a Classical Liberal party as its principles are based on individual freedom, market-based economy and limited government. It existed from 1959 to 1974. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly socialist and statist outlook. Swatantra ("Freedom") stood for a market-based economy with the "Licence Raj" dismantled, although it opposed "laissez faire" policies. The party was thus favored by some traders and industrialists, but at the state-level its leadership was dominated by the traditional privileged classes such as "zamindars" (feudal landlords) and erstwhile princes.
Conservatism in India | Post Independence
An identical structure, with an State Executive Committee led by a State President, exists at the state level.
National Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party | Introduction
In the 2004 general election, the NDA suffered an unexpected defeat, and for the next ten years the BJP was the principal opposition party. Long time Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi led it to a landslide victory in the 2014 general election. Since that election, Modi leads the NDA government as Prime Minister and , the BJP and its alliance governs 16 states.
Conservatism in India | Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party
Snubbed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh on 15 November 2009, Kalyan Singh reaffirmed his allegiance to the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and indicated he was willing to rejoin BJP while his son Rajbir Singh resigned from SP. In January 2010, he announced the formation of a new Hindutva-oriented political party, the Jan Kranti Party, but chose to take the role of patron while his son became the leader. At the time of the founding of the new party, Kalyan Singh declared that the intention of the party is to contest all 403 constituencies in the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election.
Jan Kranti Party | Foundation of Party
The Bharatiya Rashtravadi Paksha ('Indian Nationalist Party') is a political party in Gujarat, India. The party was registered in 2003. It has its headquarters in Mehsana. The party fielded a single candidate in the 2004 Lok Sabha election, who got 11,459 votes. The party fielded a single candidate in the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Dr. P.C. Patel. Dr. Patel carried out the election campaign walking by foot from village to village in the constituency. At the time the party reported having 250 members. Dr. Patel obtained 1,407 votes. The party is opposed to caste-based reservations. Rather it favours economic-based reservations and free education.
Bharatiya Rashtravadi Paksha | Introduction
This rule was interrupted between 1977 and 1980, when the Janata Party coalition won the election owing to public discontent with the controversial state of emergency declared by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The Janata Dal won elections in 1989, but its government managed to hold on to power for only two years.
Politics of India | Role of political parties
Despite the war, Vajpayee continued to display a willingness to engage Pakistan in dialogue. This was not well received among the BJP cadre, who criticised the government for being "weak". This faction of the BJP asserted itself at the post-Kargil Agra summit, preventing any significant deal from being reached.
Bharatiya Janata Party | Foreign policy
In terms of political positions, Hindu social conservatives in India seek to institutionalise a Uniform Civil Code (which is also a directive under Article 44 of the Constitution of India) for members of all religions, over the current scheme of different personal laws for different religions. For instance, polygamy is legal for Muslims in India but not Hindus.
Social conservatism | Hindu social conservatism
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is one of the major political parties in India and is the main opposition party during the 15th Lok Sabha. It contested the 2014 parliamentary election along with their supportive parties, to form National Democratic Alliance with Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate and party president Rajnath Singh as the chief-of-election of campaign. The important issues during the campaign included price hikes, corruption, the economy, national security, basic infrastructure such as roads and railways, and supplying basic needs such as electricity and water. The party promised a vibrant and participatory democracy, inclusive and sustainable development, quality of life, productive youth, a globally competitive economy, open and transparent government, and pro-active and pro-people governance in its manifesto.
Bharatiya Janata Party campaign for the 2014 Indian general election | Introduction
Gujarat Parivartan Party was a political party from Gujarat, India. It was founded by Keshubhai Patel in August 2012. It performed poorly in 2012 assembly elections. It was expanded with the merging of the Mahagujarat Janata Party. Later it was merged back with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in February 2014.
Gujarat Parivartan Party | Introduction
During the 2014 election campaign, the BJP sought to identify itself with political leaders known to have opposed Hindu nationalism, including B. R. Ambedkar, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Ram Manohar Lohia. The campaign also saw the use of rhetoric based on Hindutva by BJP leaders in certain states. Communal tensions were played upon especially in Uttar Pradesh and the states of Northeast India. A proposal for the controversial Uniform Civil Code was a part of the BJP's election manifesto. The activities of a number of Hindu nationalist organisations increased in scope after Modi's election as Prime Minister, sometimes with the support of the government.
Narendra Modi | Hindutva
The Janata Party (Secular) () was an Indian political party founded by Raj Narain in July, 1979. On 16 July 1979, Charan Singh assumed its leadership and became the Prime Minister of India on 28 July 1979 with the support of the Indian National Congress (O) but resigned on 20 August 1979 after their withdrawal of support. The Janata Party led by Charan Singh was later renamed as Lok Dal before the 1980 Indian general election but officially contested in the elections under its previous name. In the elections for the 7th Lok Sabha in 1980, the party won 41 seats and received 9.39% of the total votes polled.
Janata Party (Secular) | Introduction
S. Muniraju's party is the Bharatiya Janata Party.
S. Muniraju | Political Party
Janata Party was a recent amalgam of disparate groups including Indian National Congress (Organisation), Charan Singh's Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD), Socialists and Hindu Nationalists of Jana Sangh. The sole purpose of these groups joining together was to defeat Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had imposed a nationwide emergency and curtailed many freedoms. There were also social cleavages with Socialists and BLD representing backward castes and Congress(O) and Jana Sangh the upper castes. Infighting in the party broke over the question of Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur's decision to implement the Mungeri Lal Commission report, that recommended the institution of reservations for Backward Castes in government jobs.
Ram Sundar Das | Political Career
The leaders of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Jana Sangh rallied India's middle-class merchants, traders and conservative Hindus. The Hindu nationalist RSS and trade unions aligned with Janata helped rally considerable voting blocs. The 1977 election drew a turnout of 60% from an electorate of more than 320 million. On 23 March, it was announced that the Janata party had won a sweeping victory, securing 43.2% of the popular vote and 271 seats. With the support of the Akali Dal and the Congress for Democracy, it had amassed a two-thirds, or absolute majority of 345 seats. Although the Congress for Democracy won 28 seats, Ram's standing as a national Dalit leader and moving a significant share of the Dalit vote to the Janata party and its allies won him considerable influence.
Janata Party | 1977 elections
Raza is of the opinion that the Bharatiya Janata Party is not an anti-Islamic party. According to him, the Indian National Congress party has made the Muslim community feel that the Bharatiya Janata Party is against Muslims. He also said that his party did not indulge in the politics of votebank.
Mohsin Raza | Bharatiya Janata Party
The Janata Party (JNP, translation: "People's Party") was an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 to 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian National Congress. In the 1977 general election, the party defeated the Congress and Janata leader Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress prime minister in independent modern India's history. Raj Narain, a socialist leader, had filed a legal writ alleging electoral malpractice against Indira Gandhi in 1971. On 12 June 1975, Allahabad High Court found her guilty of using corrupt electoral practices in her 1971 election victory over Narain in the Rae Bareli constituency.
Janata Party | Introduction
The party secured eight seats, winning only 3% of the votes. The next year, in 1972, its founder C. Rajagopalachari died, and the party declined rapidly. By 1974, it merged into the Charan Singh-led Bharatiya Kranti Dal, another coalition committed to anti-Congressism.
Conservatism in India | Post Independence
According to the historian Robert Frykenberg specialising in South Asian Studies, the RSS membership enormously expanded in independent India. In this period, while RSS remained "discretely out of politics", Jan Sangh, another Hindutva-ideology-based organisation entered the political arena. The Jan Sangh had limited success in the Indian general elections between 1952 and 1971. This was, in part, because of Jan Sangh's poor organisation and leadership, its focus on the Hindutva sentiment did not appeal to the voters, and its campaign lacked adequate social and economic themes. This was also, in part, because Congress party leaders such Indira Gandhi had co-opted some of the key Hindutva ideology themes and fused it with socialist policies and her father's Jawaharlal Nehru Soviet-style centrally controlled economic model.
Hindutva | Growth
Although the original Janata Party fragmented and dissolved, modern political parties continue to invoke its legacy.
Janata Party | Introduction
Voting was held immediately after the assassination of Indira Gandhi and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in November and most of India supported Congress. The Bharatiya Janata Party won its first two seats, in Hanamkonda and Mahesana.
1984 Indian general election | Introduction
He is from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Sanjay Patil | Political Party
The attempts at religious conversion have been described by the VHP and other organisations involved with them as attempts at "reconversion" from Islam or Christianity. There have been a number of reports of intimidation or coercion of the subjects during these attempts. Officials in the government, including the Home Minister, have defended the attempts. There were additional incidents of violence targeted at religious minorities by Hindu nationalists. Modi refused to remove a government minister from her position after a popular outcry resulted from her referring to religious minorities as "bastards." Commentators have suggested, however, that the violence was perpetrated by radical Hindu nationalists to undercut the authority of Modi.
Premiership of Narendra Modi | Hindutva and social policies
The largest constituent party of the National Democratic Alliance, a right-wing Hindu nationalist coalition, currently having a majority in the Lok Sabha (House of the People), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was one of the few parties which officially stayed silent on the verdict. Several party members did express their personal opinions on the subject, including the BJP spokesperson G. V. L. Narasimha Rao, who said that any decision on the matter "takes in sync with the jurisprudential developments on gay rights the world over would be welcome". Meanwhile, Subramanian Swamy, a Rajya Sabha (Council of the States) member of the BJP, attacked the decision, questioning if the court will legalise sexual intercourse with animals in the name of personal liberty.
Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India | Political parties and organisations