Abstract: How do emotions mobilise in politics? How do they frame ideologies? Broadly focusing on these questions, Dr Gudavarthy’s latest book Politics, Ethics and Emotions in ‘New India’ (Routledge, 2023), explains the role emotions play in Indian politics and the part they played in the aftermath of the 2019 general elections. It traces the consolidation of the Right in India and highlights the reasons for its electoral successes with a focus on the interplay between ethics and emotions such as fear, anxiety, guilt, shame, anger, hatred, betrayal, and violence. At the same time, it traces the changing dynamic of how we think about politics and analyses the failure of liberal democratic institutions to make space for emotions in politics and political motivations.
Speaker: Ajay Gudavarthy is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has published extensively and some of his publications include Politics of Post-Civil Society: Contemporary History of Political Movements in India (2013); Maoism, Democracy and Globalisation: Cross-Currents in Indian Politics (2014), and India After Modi: Populism and the Right (2018). He is also an Associate Member at the Institute for Humanities, Simon Fraser University, Canada.
He regularly contributes to leading news dailies in India, including The Hindu, The Indian express, The Telegraph, The Wire, The Outlook and Newsclick. He has appeared on and shared his views with various international print media and news channels, including Channel News Asia (Singapore), Al Jajeera, The Conversation, South China Morning Post, BBC, The Independent and The Time Magazine, Friday Times, Khaleej times, The Dawn, Arab News, The Diplomat, among others.