{"id":103299,"date":"2026-01-04T16:17:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T16:17:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/non-fiction-how-modi-modelled-india-on-gujarat\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T16:17:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T16:17:51","slug":"non-fiction-how-modi-modelled-india-on-gujarat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/non-fiction-how-modi-modelled-india-on-gujarat\/","title":{"rendered":"NON-FICTION: HOW MODI MODELLED INDIA ON GUJARAT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gujarat Under Modi: Laboratory of Today\u2019s India
By Christophe Jaffrelot
Liberty Publishing
ISBN: 978-627-7626-50-1
546pp.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

An extensively researched book by Christophe Jaffrelot, a French political scientist specialising in India and Pakistan \u2014 Gujarat Under Modi: Laboratory of Today\u2019s India \u2014 deals with the transformation of Gujarat into \u201ca laboratory of Hindu nationalism.\u201d Narendra Modi served as chief minister of Gujarat for a record 13 years between 2001 and 2014, after which he became the prime minister of India.<\/p>\n

Jaffrelot has written extensively on India and Pakistan and is considered a formidable scholar on the region. Other books by the same author include: India\u2019s First Dictatorship: The Emergency 1975-1977 (2020), Modi\u2019s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy (2021), The Pakistan Paradox: Instability and Resilience (2015), Religion, Caste and Politics in India (2010), A History of Pakistan and its Origins (2002), and his doctoral thesis published as The Hindu Nationalist Movement In India (1996).<\/p>\n

Gujarat is a unique state in many respects, including \u201cits extreme valorisation of an economic ethos, its caste hierarchies and its relationship with Islam\u2026 these characteristics are largely due to geography.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gujarat is the fifth-largest state in India and the ninth most populous, with a population of approximately 60 million. It has the longest coastline of 2,340 kilometres, neighbouring Pakistan. Muslims started arriving there soon after the advent of Islam in the seventh century.<\/p>\n

\n

A well-researched book by a well-known French scholar argues that Indian PM Narendra Modi used his rule in the state of Gujarat to establish the principles for his Hindutva vision of India<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Moreover, referring to Gujaratis, the director of entrepreneurship development of Gujarat declared in 2013, that \u201cEntrepreneurship is in their blood. No doubt in that, as Gujarati children are exposed to money-making businesses early on. Even in social gatherings, people talk about business rather than bureaucracy, politics or literature. By the time a person comes out of college, he would have a role model in one or another successful businessman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaffrelot remarks that: \u201cThe elite of Gujarat are represented by two poles, the martial Rajputs and the mercantile Patels.\u201d Consequently, he highlights five pillars of Modi\u2019s politics, the first of which is communal polarisation. It is not a new approach, though it reached an unprecedented scale under Modi. While this polarisation had traditionally been fostered by Hindu-Muslim violence, in 2002 it resulted from unprecedented atrocities that raged for two months, leading to the second largest number of Muslim deaths since Partition.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/div>
Narendra Modi addressing a political gathering as the chief minister of Gujarat in 2012 | Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThat the BJP could win state elections in this very specific context, whereas it had faced several electoral setbacks since 2000, showed that it \u2018worked\u2019 politically, as BJP leaders in the state had anticipated.\u201d It remained a major factor in the government\u2019s strategy subsequently.<\/p>\n

The de-institutionalisation of the rule of law was the second weapon of Modi\u2019s politics. \u201cPolicemen who took part in anti-Muslim violence [in Gujarat] were rewarded, and the government ensured that a proper judicial investigation would not be pursued\u2026 rule of law was damaged in many other ways and for other reasons under Modi.\u201d<\/p>\n

The third pillar was socio-economic policies. Gujarat is known for its industrial dynamism, and investors were attracted to the state in a big way. \u201cInstead of capitalising on the Gujaratis\u2019 sense of entrepreneurship, which had given birth to a dense network of SMEs [small- and medium-sized enterprises], Modi promoted big projects by wooing large Indian companies. In return, some of these businessmen, including Gautam Adani, supported Modi. The Modi government invested more in infrastructure \u2014 roads, ports and energy \u2014 than in development expenditure, including health and education.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fourth was Modi\u2019s style. He portrayed himself as an embodiment of Gujarat against the Centre and the Nehru-Gandhi family. \u201cThese techniques also allowed him to relate directly to voters in a new form of high-tech populism\u2026 Modi gradually captured all power within the government and his party\u2026 by relying on the bureaucracy [after promoting civil servants who eventually became part of the core group of Gujarat\u2019s administration] and by relating directly to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fifth pillar of Modi\u2019s politics was gaining and exerting domination over supporters, opponents and victims. Part Five of the book focuses on the social and political context that has enabled Modi\u2019s rise and the consequences of his rule for Gujarat society.<\/p>\n

Jaffrelot points out \u201chow the BJP started to grow at the expense of Congress when the party capitalised on new developments, [such as] the saffronisation of the upper castes and Patels, who resented [former Gujarat chief minister] Madhavsinh Solanki\u2019s \u2018reservation policy\u2019 in the 1980s. This core group of supporters \u2014 which partly coincided with Gujarat\u2019s middle class \u2014 remained staunchly behind the BJP in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut during his terms, Modi added the\u2026 \u2018neo-middle class.\u2019 This group of aspiring Gujaratis was mostly made up of people who, like him, came from the lower castes, had migrated to urban centres, and wanted to benefit from the state\u2019s economic growth. Modi\u2019s political strategy relied on social polarisation in the sense that not only the rural part of the state was neglected but, in the urban context, the poor were marginalised, with the result that cities became \u2018bourgeois at last\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The author has documented detailed accounts of extrajudicial killings, confessions of rioters who attacked Muslims and trials after racial violence in Modi\u2019s Gujarat, along with crime statistics based on region, religion and other classifications. There are 25 pages of informative socio-economic statistical charts appended in this book.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the Pew Research Centre conducted a survey in 34 countries to measure \u201cpro-democracy attitudes\u201d as well as \u201copenness to non-democratic forms of governance, including rules by experts, a strong leader or the military.\u201d Commenting on the results, the Pew team pointed out that \u201csupport for autocratic rule is higher in India than in any other nation surveyed\u201d and \u201cIndia is only one of four nations where half or more of the public supports governing by the military.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaffrelot has built a convincing and thorough case for his original premise that Gujarat was indeed Modi\u2019s laboratory for today\u2019s India, as illustrated by his subsequent rule as prime minister of India.<\/p>\n

The reviewer is a freelance writer and translator. He can be reached at mehwer@yahoo.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, January 4th, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gujarat Under Modi: Laboratory of Today\u2019s IndiaBy Christophe JaffrelotLiberty PublishingISBN: 978-627-7626-50-1546pp. An extensively researched book by Christophe Jaffrelot, a French political scientist specialising in India and Pakistan \u2014 Gujarat Under Modi: Laboratory of Today\u2019s India \u2014 deals with the transformation of Gujarat into \u201ca laboratory of Hindu nationalism.\u201d Narendra Modi served as chief minister of 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