From April 19 to June 1, 2024, India will conduct the largest election in its history. From the Himalayas in the north to the Andaman Islands in the south, 969 million people will cast their votes for a representative in the lower house of the national parliament, the Lok Sabha. Polling predicts that the current ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and its allies will secure a majority, granting Prime Minister Narendra Modi a third term in office, while the once-dominant Indian National Congress (INC) of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi is struggling for survival.

During Modi’s tenure, the country has experienced strong economic growth, overtaking Britain and becoming the world’s fifth-largest economy, but also widening inequality and high youth unemployment. Yet the most significant legacy of the past decade of BJP governance has been the reshaping of India’s political and cultural landscape, moving away from the country’s secular foundations and towards a more illiberal Hindu nationalist society.

Internationally, India has attempted a careful balancing act, courting favor with Europe and the United States, who see the country as a potential counterweight to China, while maintaining a relatively close relationship with Moscow despite its war of aggression.

To explore the ongoing developments in Indian society and the country’s role on the global stage, The Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, Asia Dynamics and The Danish Foreign Policy Society are honored to host the following panel of experts:

• Professor Ravinder Kaur is a historian of contemporary India. She is Associate Professor of Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Copenhagen and Chairperson at the Asian Dynamics initiative.
• Phd Stine Simonsen Puri – Anthropologist specialized in the culture and economy of modern India
• Phd Maansi Parpiani – Historian/Anthropologist, specialising in labour, migration, industrial and environmental risk in South Asia. 
• Irene Baby – Phd fellow at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen.
  

The Director of The Danish Foreign Policy Society, Charlotte Flindt Pedersen, will serve as moderator.