Bhakt

Not to be confused with Bhakti.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets supporters in Varanasi

Bhakt (भक्त) in the modern Indian political context is a pejorative term often referring to ardent supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the BJP particularly those who resort to deification and therefore sometimes uncritical in their support. While not all Modi supporters are bhakts in this sense, the term has come to describe a specific mindset or behavioral pattern that favours either a theocratic or demagogic form of rule and therefore unwilling or unable to engage in rational discourse. The term is generally used in a derogatory manner when referring to BJP or other Right-wing populist supporters.

Origin

The term bhakt is a non-linear polysemic word which can either mean religious devotee, as someone who practises bhakti or it can also refer to devoted supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the BJP. The primary term although used since the 7th and 8th centuries has undergone a semantic change and as such, it is often considered a political neologism. A fairly recent one as evident in Google Ngram/Trend records that show a sudden upsurge in usage since 2013-2014 when the BJP came to power in India.

It is not certain who first began using the term bhakt to refer to Modi supporters, but it was popularised in 2014 by journalists and critics such as Rajdeep Sardesai on social media with posts like "Super speech by Modi; not so super behaviour by some bhakts. Guess some things won’t change" hours after he was heckled at New York’s Madison Square Gardens by supporters after criticizing Modi. Then later in a 2015 interview, Sardesai comments about the unfortunate labelling that "You cannot be an objective observer any more; either you are a bhakt or you are a permanent critic". The predecessor term "Internet Hindus" was coined by journalist Sagarika Ghose and was in use as early as 2012, the term associated almost entirely with those who aggressively voice their right-wing political views and support for Narendra Modi on social media platforms. A similar phenomenon occured after Donald Trump came to power after 2017 and "social media had fast-tracked some words, beyond a relatively small pool of politically active Twitter users, to the wider population".

The practice of compounding -bhakt to devoted followers is common practice in religious and other contexts across Hindi speaking Indian states, i.e. desh-bhakt (patriotic) or Shiv-bhakt (Shiv worshipper).

The connection between BR Ambedkar's historic use of the word 'bhakti' as a shrill political warning and the contemporary term bhakt referring to followers of a political idealogy has not been established in academic writing, but many journalists have alluded to that connection. Ambedkar had said "For in India, Bhakti or what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in its politics unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country in the world. Bhakti in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship"

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is often criticised for creating a personality cult around him. Many of the leaders and supporters of Modi's political party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) often praised him and contributed to building a god-like persona. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, said in 2022, "He is superhuman and has traces of god in him." A Maharashtra BJP spokesperson described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the "11th incarnation" of Lord Vishnu, prompting ridicule by the opposition. Modi’s guru-like demeanour became apparent very early to a lot of his supporters. "Importantly, the picturesque imagery of Modi visiting a number of Hindu religious sights further bolsters his saintly demeanor besides brandishing his deep-rooted Hindu credentials"

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself often engaged in self-deification and played to the apotheosis narrative in 2024 when he remarked that “Until my mother was alive, I had believed that perhaps my birth was a biological one, But after her death, when I look at my life experiences, I’m convinced that God has sent me here.”

Usage

Supporters often use the term bhakt proudly to show devotion, loyalty and admiration for Modi's leadership, policies, Hindu values and vision for India.

However, the term has been widely applied by writers, critics, journalists and opponents to refer to Modi's devoted supporters, primarily when responding sarcastically or pejoratively to a wide range of Modi's statements and actions.

Nisha Mathew in her article Bhakt nation: The return of the Hindu diaspora in Modi’s India describes this alternate and contradictory usage. "Used by critics, civil society groups, and dissenting popular cultural voices, ‘Modi-bhakt’ has evoked proactive rather than defensive responses from those that see themselves as fitting the description. Identifying as true patriots or ‘desh bhakts’ they have willingly embraced this evocative term coined by those they denounce as anti-national or enemies of the nation and nominated themselves as privileged individuals called to Modi’s divine mission."

The word has become a convenient slur to stereotype Modi supporters who will frequently sidestep factual information and refuse to engage in meaningful debate. Opposition members such as Mahua Moitra frequenty take jibes at the “Bhakt and troll army” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in political discourse

The Bhakt as Sign of Weakening Democracy

Prominent author, activist and journalist Aakar Patel argues that the irrational nature of a bhakt's arguments are detrimental primarily because it is faith based "Devotion is not a product of the intellect but that of passion. It is religious, and like in religion the bhakt here is also not concerned with the material world, and what happens in reality."

Historian Ramachandra Guha has stated that bhakts essentially oppose the very concept of democracy and yet fail to recognise this hypocrisy: "Hero-worship is not uncommon in India. Indeed, we tend to excessively venerate high achievers in many fields. Millions of devotees on social media (as well as quite a few journalists) have succumbed to the most extreme form of hero-worship. More worryingly, one senior cabinet minister has called Narendra Modi a Messiah. A chief minister has insinuated that anyone who criticises the Prime Minister’s policies is anti-national"

Guha agrees that "at a nation-wide level the cult of Narendra Modi has had only one predecessor — that of Indira Gandhi".

To his bhakts, celebrating Modi as divine incarnation also entailed battering the public image of those running against him in elections or questioning his policies

Multiple factors collectively contribute to the mindset observed among bhakts, reflecting a complex interplay of cultural, political, and psychological elements

The Bhakt and their Relationship with Secularism

While religion is now an integral part of Indian politics, India's Constitution has since independence in 1947 remained mostly secular in principle. Referring to Modi or BJP supporters as bhakts projects them as being in direct conflict with India's Constitution.

"There have been mainly two sets of views among the Hindus regarding secularism in India. One view is that secularism in India can only be possible with the adoption of pluralism by every Indian citizen. The other view is that secularism is a Western concept that is unsuitable for the Indian context and must be replaced with cultural nationalism. The former view is represented by Mahatma Gandhi and the latter view is represented by the Sangh Parivar." That is the primary reason for the bhakts universal disdain of Mahatma Gandhi.

Globally, there have been arguments for and against a role for religion in politics. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has argued that "faith and state should be kept separate" as "the most sinister and oppressive states in the world are those that use God to control the minds and actions of their populations", such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Opposition MP Shashi Tharoor has been openly critical. “Hindustan or Bharat is this idea of a united nation with one religion, one language, one leader. It flies in the face of India’s very diverse nature, its pluralist history and the very different attitudes of many parts of the country who feel quite distanced from the vision of India that’s embodied in both the politics and the rhetoric of the BJP”

Tharoor links Ambedkar's second warning to Narendra Modi "Ambedkar warned against “bhakti” or worship in politics, but we have a personality cult around the prime minister, encouraged by the ruling party, which makes him a larger-than-life figure. We admittedly had a similar deification around Indira Gandhi 50 years ago. And this is not what Ambedkar would have wanted"

See also

• Politics of India
• Godi Media
• Anti-national (India)
• Hindu Nationalism
• Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
• Saffronisation
• Hindutva
• Sangh Parivar
• BJP IT Cell
• Amit Malviya
• Public image of Narendra Modi