Narendra Modi 'a Textbook Autocrat with Totalitarian Goals”

Narendra Modi is "a textbook autocrat with totalitarian goals": Author and Academic Radha Kumar to Karan Thapar for The Wire.

Her latest book, The Republic Relearnt: Renewing Indian Democracy (1947-2024) , has just been published by Vintage in India.

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Radha Kumar, author, academoc and Vice-Chairperson of the highly regarded Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi “is a textbook autocrat with totalitarian goals”. “He has been successfully projected by the BJP as a God-like figure who alone represents the nation and commands its homage; his decisions cannot be challenged. That is a textbook autocrat.”

In a 30-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire to mark the launch of her new book ‘The Republic Relearnt: Renewing Indian Democracy 1947-2024’, Radha Kumar explained why Modi could be more dangerous than ordinary authoritarian rulers. She says: “Authoritarians whose dominant interest is personal power are less dangerous to democracy than those with a long-term and far-reaching agenda … their grip on power is more difficult to shake … the Modi administration falls into the latter category.”

However, Radha Kumar makes clear that, as things stand, India has not become a totalitarian state but is well on the way to becoming one. I will leave you to see the interview to understand where she believes the process has reached and why it’s still short of being a full-fledged totalitarian state.

In the interview, Radha Kumar also explicitly says that India is in the process of becoming a second republic. This is a process that is happening quietly and, even, silently without the recognition it should have got. Radha Kumar says: “I am convinced that 2019 marked the emergence of a second republic … India under the Modi administration … could well be categorized as a second republic: its goals and practices are, in most respects, antithetical to those of the founders of the first republic.”



In the interview, Radha Kumar spells out in detail the values and principles of the Indian constitution that have either been jettisoned or, at least, ignored by the Modi government since it first came to power in 2014. Again, I will leave you to see the interview to find out what these are.



In the interview, Radha Kumar spells out the signposts which she believes indicate that India is in the process of becoming a new republic i.e. the second republic. They are five in all. I will leave you to see the interview to find out what they are.



Finally, Radha Kumar is asked what would be the situation if Modi wins a third term and, as some people say, with a bigger majority than he won in 2019. She talks about the sort of ruler he could then become and also about how she would describe India’s polity under a third Modi term. Again, I will leave you to see the interview to find out what she says.


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