Indian Politics & Policy: Vol. 6, No. 1, Spring 2026

In this issue, we bring a spotlight on violence directed at India’s Muslims, the nation’s largest religious minority, in a Hindu nationalist majoritarian polity. This is IP&P’s third special issue, following the one on Indian Parliamentary elections of 2024 (Summer 2025), and another on Indian foreign policy (Winter 2025). This volume also engages with Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian’s blockbuster volume on India’s post-Independence development trajectory—A Sixth of Humanity (2025). We present a review essay dedicated to critically assessing this considerable intellectual feat. The book reviews section features two other significant books: Rohan Mukherjee’s contribution to understanding rising powers, Ascending Order (2022), and Mukul Sharma’s contribution to Indian environmental politics, Green and Saffron (2024).

Mohsin Alam Bhatt, in his introduction, argues that India is experiencing a phenomenon that goes beyond what political scientists typically describe as autocratization and institutional decay spurred by ethnic majoritarianism. Papers included in this issue demonstrate that law is manipulated and administered in ways that make it difficult to conceive of an Indian Weberian state. The state no longer holds the legitimate monopoly over the use of violence. It deploys vigilante groups and other resources outside the state to execute its designs. State-society relations exacerbate and perpetuate the “othering” of Muslims. Articles in the research section highlight this central message.