Culture | Identity politics

Technology and Hindu nationalism have transformed India

Might the government combine the two in ominous ways?

People protest against the citizenship amendment bill and NRC in Kolkata, West Bengal, India on December 18th 2019
Stand up and refuse to be countedPhotograph: Avik Roy Chowdhury/Zuma Press/Eyevine

A few months after winning a second term in 2019 Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) passed a law called the Citizenship Amendment Act. The law granted fast-track citizenship to refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan—so long as they were not Muslim. At the same time, the government was planning to compile something called the National Register of Citizens, which would require every Indian to prove their nationality.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Identity politics”

From the September 7th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola looks pensive with fans blurred in the background.

Pep Guardiola, football’s greatest coach, is in a bind 

A serial winner is learning how to lose 

Someone reading a book upside down

The Economist’s word of the year for 2024

The Greeks knew how to talk about politics and power


This illustration shows a cracked egg, with its yolk and egg white spilled onto a flat surface. Two halves of the brown eggshell are placed on either side of the spill, and the yolk forms a triangle-like shape.

What do feta, cucumbers and cottage cheese have in common?

Social media and the internet are changing how people cook and relate to food


Germany’s former chancellor sets out to restore her reputation

But her new memoir is unlikely to change her critics’ minds

The best books of 2024, as chosen by The Economist

Readers will never think the same way again about games, horses and spies

What to read to understand Elon Musk

The world’s richest man was shaped by science fiction