Tarushi Aswani on how the Indian government is using the language of decolonization to promote its own form of rightwing nationalism.
As India celebrated 75 years of independence last year, Narendra Modi and his supporters worked to cement a crucial narrative of their project: that their brand of religious nationalism was finally freeing India from its colonial hangover.
In his 15 August independence day speech, Modi celebrated ‘a renaissance of the collective consciousness’ in the country and called on its citizens to ‘liberate ourselves from the slavery mindset’.
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