When Narendra Modi entered the Indian parliament for the first time on 20 May 2014, he bowed down at the steps leading to what he called the “temple of democracy”. Four days previously, his BJP party and its allies had confirmed a thumping electoral victory. This gesture not only acknowledged the will of the people, but was also a ritualised celebration of India’s established democratic institutions. India as the “mother of democracy” would become a recurrent political motif that made political capital out of India’s democratic credentials even as it bolstered nationalist pride.
The most recent iteration of this theme unfolded at Joe Biden’s flagship Summit for Democracy, to which India was invited as an “indispensable partner”. Prime Minister Modi pitched Indian democracy as more than a mere political practice: it was a “civilisational ethos”, a spirit ingrained in Indians at home and in the diaspora.
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