Bharatiya Janata Party Ki Gauravgatha

On March 29, 2015, a digital counter was moving forward in the old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office at 11 Ashok Road. Party workers, officials, and even staff were glued to the digital screen. The screen displayed the total number of party members being added to the partys new membership drive. The partys national president, Amit Shah, was in the office that day. With childlike curiosity, his eyes were fixed on the digital counter. As the counter reached its target, the entire office erupted in joy. Reaching 88 million members, it had surpassed the Communist Party of China. Amit Shah was the brain behind this ambitious membership drive. How was this possible? Was this merely a data-gathering exercise that further strengthened the BJPs fortunes, or was there a sense behind it whose time had come? Is the transformation of a party with just two Lok Sabha seats in 1984 to such a crushing defeat of the opposition and its rise to such a colossal size simply the result of the Modi-Shah duo, or do its causes lie deeper in the complexities of the Hindutva movement, which are widely misunderstood? To answer these questions, Shantanu Gupta delves into the history of Indias right-wing movements, from their ideological origins to the evolution of nationalist ideas, and presents a comprehensive study of the BJP, not just a political party but an ideological organization that defines the nationalist movement in this country in a way never before.