Global Asias Workshop-Seminar (SPRING 2026)
Wed, Feb 25, 9:00 am–10:15 am ET on Zoom
Thinking Like a Hindutva: Youth, Modernity, and the Making of the Hindu Modern
By Anusha Iyer (Childhood Studies-Camden)
Respondent: Cai Barias (American Studies-NB; Eagleton)
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SPRING 2026 Seminar Members:
Cai Barias (American Studies-NB/PSci UMass); Andrew Bellamy (History–NB); Arpita Biswas (WGSS-NB); Rose Cuizon-Villazor (Law-Newark); Anusha Iyer (Childhood Studies-Camden); Mich Ling (WGSS-NB)
Convener: Allan Punzalan Isaac (American Studies; English–NB)
All workshops begin at 9am and end at 10:15am ET
Wed Jan 28: Bellamy
Wed Feb 11: Ling
Wed Feb 25: Iyer
Tue* Mar 10: Biswas
Wed Mar 25: Cuizon
Wed Apr 1: Barias
Thinking Like a Hindutva: Youth, Modernity, and the Making of the Hindu Modern
Abstract: This dissertation examines the different ways by which ‘youth’ emerges as a productive site for the articulation and negotiation of everyday forms of nationalism in contemporary India. I approach youth not only as a specific period in one’s life but also as a sociohistorical and cultural category that produces specific imaginations of young people and youth cultures. Through a multimodal ethnographic approach, this study discusses the various strategies, choices, and trajectories that young people aged 19-32 years adopt and adapt as they respond to the everyday diffusion of the right-wing discourse in the city of Ahmedabad in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The research highlights the centrality of affect, thereby framing right-wing discourse as a sociocultural practice among youth rather than merely a partisan political ideology. The dissertation argues that contemporary right-wing nationalism in India is sustained not through ideological coherence alone but through affective, temporal, and everyday practices that render the ideology flexible, livable, and durable. By centering youth as both subjects and mediators of ideology, and by attending to affect, ambiguity, and stories, the dissertation offers an ethnographically grounded account of how nationalism is reproduced through everyday life, social relations, and cultural practice in contemporary India. The paper shared for GLAS is one of the chapters from the dissertation that marks the turn in the Hindutva discourse. Using conceptual frameworks of strategic ambiguity and Hindu modernity, this chapter argues that youth serve as a key technology in the everyday diffusion of the right-wing nationalist discourse in contemporary India.
Bio: Anusha Iyer is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Childhood Studies at Rutgers University–Camden. Her research examines the cultural politics of youth and contemporary nationalism in India, with particular attention to how youth emerge as key sites for experiencing and mediating everyday forms of nationalist politics. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Gujarat, India, her doctoral dissertation analyzes young people’s memories, stories, and narratives within contemporary populist nationalist movements. Prior to her doctoral training, Anusha worked for five years in India’s development sector as a policy researcher, project manager, and communications officer, focusing on adolescent development, education, early childhood, and gender. Her teaching interests include youth and nationalism, youth cultures and identities, and ethnographic methods.