Dissent of the saffronized subaltern

How do we understand dissent of subordinate groups on the right? This paper explores this question through an analysis of the farmer’s wing of India’s Hindu nationalist movement, the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Building on scholarship that investigates the political economy in the current moment of Hindu nationalist rule, I focus on the tensions that emerge when shared associational linkages within the Hindu nationalist movement collide with gaping material inequalities. Drawing on newspaper reports and secondary sources on the BKS, I show that contrary to prevailing wisdom that right-wing civil society groups enable and even extend the longevity of right-wing power, these groups not only reveal critical fault lines but may also contribute to the destabilization and possible denouement of right-wing hegemonic projects.