New Experts

When right-wing populists reject the establishment experts, who takes their place, and what difference does it make? This book offers the first in-depth analysis of the new intellectual elite that has emerged in India under a Hindu supremacist government. Anuradha Sajjanhar examines how appointed experts help make particular ideologies of governance seem normal, going beyond what party rhetoric alone achieves.

The book traces how and why certain ideas rise to prominence in elite policy and political discourse. It draws on in-depth interviews and ethnographic research with national and international policy makers, politicians, bureaucrats, consultants and journalists.

It argues that political leaders in India combine populist spectacle with established technocratic institutions to build shared visions of glorified technological and hyper-nationalist futures. The title is part of Cambridge's Flip it Open Programme and may also be available open access.