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This first article in the 2024 World Affairs special issue examines the Narendra Modi regime in India. Often acerbic political rhetoric is attached to official policies of the regime, creating fear and hopelessness within sections of the population. In this study, five sets of political activities of the government are evaluated. First, cultural authoritarianism became apparent with complicity toward "cow vigilantism," slapping sedition charges against those showing political dissent, banning the history books of selected progressives, and stereotyping sections of the left and liberals as antinationals. Second, the demonetization policy was implemented without adequately following the economic protocols of the state. Third, the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill indicates the thwarting of democratic and federalist ideas. Fourth, the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens exercise in Assam demonstrate the communal‐fascist worldview of the regime in profiling population groups. Finally, the sloppy handling of the COVID‐19 pandemic and the new Information Technology rules show the government's callous approach toward science and privacy. By analyzing such political activities, the article points out that majoritarian religious nationalism, coupled with authoritarianism, has been the ideological expression of the Modi regime, coexisting with both state surveillance and electoral democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious sentiments have become a potent tool for political elites, altering national identities and citizenship criteria. This manipulation, driven by majoritarian ideologies, has marginalized religious minorities, leading to discrimination, violence, and legal persecution against them. Hindu, Islamic, and Buddhist nationalisms seem to collectively erode secular democracy in South Asia. Moreover, right‐wing populist leaders, notably Modi in India and the Rajapaksas in Sri Lanka, have merged religious nationalism with authoritarian political orientations posing a challenge to democratic foundations and impacting significantly on the dynamics of state and societal relations. This is the context in which this World Affairs 2024 special issue delves into the relationship(s) between religion, politics, and authoritarianism in the South Asian region. It examines the evolving "religion‐politics" nexus or "complex" to explicate the relationship between religion and authoritarianism, particularly with respect to authoritarian governments mobilizing religion as a readily available resource for popular political mobilization, legitimization, and power consolidation. India's BJP employs Hindutva ideology to marginalize minorities, Bangladesh's regime uses Islam for political legitimacy, and Sri Lanka's Sinhala‐Buddhist nationalism fosters exclusionary policies. By fostering social and cultural polarization, this fusion of authoritarianism with religious nationalism poses a serious challenge to the secular state. The articles in this special issue explore these themes comprehensively, delving into the ideological foundations of political decisions and their consequences for marginalized communities. By shedding light on this multifaceted interplay, the collection offers valuable insights into South Asia's sociopolitical landscape, serving as a vital resource for scholars, policy makers, and global observers seeking to understand the region's complex dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of India's 2019 Islamophobic Citizenship Amendment Act, this article is based on ethnographic research with young Muslim women from Aligarh which aimed to show that their narratives of displacement and exclusion from citizenship inspired their search for belonging and enabled them to reinscribe spaces with their own, marginalised, but nonetheless real, projects of belonging. From exclusion and debasement springs new imagination of belonging: this is my finding. Drawing on intersectional feminist writings, postcolonial and critical Muslim studies, I propose that Muslim women's geographies become forms of contestation of the national project producing non-citizens. In this context, I trace the interconnections between physical and spiritual geographies to show us how Muslim women continue to carve space for themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the growing scholarship on minority politics in the Middle East by arguing that if minorities are socially or politically constructed then the meaning and implications of minority terminology requires greater historical contextualisation. Focusing on the experience of minority‐ness rather than the deployment of the terminology, which only became prevalent after World War I, this article offers additional insights into the historical roots of contemporary minority politics, as well as the (un)making of national minorities. It explores how debates and reforms pertaining to inclusion/exclusion in the period preceding and during the shift from empire to nation‐state directly contributed to the reception and understanding of who is a minority in the modern Middle East. This is particularly examined through the cases of Chaldean Christians in Iraq and Coptic Christians in Egypt. Many of the leaders of these communities publicly reject minority identification and instead favour locating their communities in the nation‐state through the notion of inclusive citizenship (al‐Mowāṭana). According to this narrative, belonging as citizens erases the meaning of minority. The article suggests that the framing of citizen and minority as mutually exclusive notions is one contemporary expression of an enduring tension around constructing belonging in political communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional historiographical paradigm depicts the consolidation of nation‐state and nationalism in Turkey as a top‐down political project characterised by the domination of the 'center' over the 'periphery'. In this narrative, the masses are portrayed as either passive recipients or silenced opponents of the nation‐state project. Based on a historical and contemporary analysis of the state‐sponsored tea production in Rize, this article contends that this perspective neglects the agency of the provincial population in the reproduction of the nation‐state and nationalism in Turkey and in influencing the decisions made by the state elite. The economic interventionist measures of the ruling authority to extend its nationalist hegemony across Anatolia also opened a field of action for rural/provincial populations to negotiate their interests with the state and thereby influence its policies. The main contours of this relationship have remained salient during the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) period, and it needs to be taken into account to explain this party's large ideological appeal in the Black Sea region. This argument builds on a fieldwork conducted in Rize that included in‐depth interviews with local tea workers and farmers as well as extensive archival research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent historical studies tend to confirm the antimodernist interpretation, emphasizing the strong premodern roots of nations and nationalism. However, a broad comparative analysis of the rise of the nation‐state during the Age of Revolution shows that earlier notions of nationhood did not have a significant role in the creation of nation‐states in Europe and the Americas. They were not the consequence of a glorious national revolt, but of a clash between the Old Regime and new ideals of political legitimacy. Many of these conflicts led to civil wars and the survival of the nation‐state was mostly determined by the geopolitical constellation. The boundaries of the nation were defined in terms of civilization, whereas language and culture were largely irrelevant. Within these new nation‐states, a universalist nationalization process began. In many instances, citizenship was awarded easier to foreigners than to "uncivilized" inhabitants, while Classical Antiquity was preferred over the national past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the EU's ability to mobilize European citizens in its favor and counteract such phenomena as nationalism, populism, and "sovereignism" has significantly decreased. Consequently, the suggestion has been made that the EU's social dimension should be enhanced and its citizenship be made more salient in that regard. Such a suggestion has become even more topical after the COVID‐19 outbreak and the strain it has placed on the health‐care systems and economies of EU member states. Starting from a debate which addresses that suggestion, in this article I argue that, before attempting to enhance its social dimension, the EU should first try to strengthen its still weak political foundations in order to cope with its predicament. The article also shows that this move would be consistent with the rationale behind the European integration process, where economic issues were originally regarded as only means to achieve an ever‐closer political union. Related Articles: Barrault‐Stella, Lorenzo, and Thomas Douniès. 2021. "Introduction to the Special Issue: Citizenship as a Tool of Government in Europe." Politics & Policy 49(4): 824–41. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12423. Ewert, Benjamin. 2021. "Citizenship as a Form of Anticipatory Obedience? Implications of Preventive Health Policy in Germany." Politics & Policy 49(4): 891–912. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12421. McBeth, Mark K., Donna L. Lybecker, and Kacee A. Garner. 2010. "The Story of Good Citizenship: Framing Public Policy in the Context of Duty‐Based versus Engaged Citizenship." Politics & Policy 38(1): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2009.00226.x. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiculturalism has been a relatively recent trend in Korea and Japan. Since the 1990s, both countries have been witnessing a rising influx of immigrants, the majority of whom were labor migrants and marriage migrants. Labor migrants have been accepted only as temporary residents. Contrary to this, marriage migrants have been seen as permanent residents, who need to integrate into the family and society. Both the Korean and Japanese governments have been providing them with relatively easy access to permanent residency and naturalization. Despite this effort, marriage migrants experience legal vulnerability, and they experience prejudice and discrimination with their families and society. This problem, even though highlighted by politicians and academics, has been persisting in society, and it has usually been researched as a policy problem or phenomenon that happens independently of its societal surroundings. However, because unequal treatment of migrants is related to social conditions as well as legal and policy issues, this study approaches the problem by examining marriage migrants' citizenship on three levels: legal, social, and identity. The study elaborates the causes behind their mistreatment through national identity and related nationalism. Both Korea and Japan possess an ethnic sense of belonging; they are perceived as ethnically homogeneous, monocultural nations. Therefore, the integration of ethnically different migrants presents a significant challenge. Ethnic nationalism in both countries manifests also in its subform, nouveau‐riche nationalism. It is responsible for deep‐seated beliefs in cultural superiority and evaluating people based on their country of origin and skin color. The study demonstrates the impact of ethnic nationalism on the legal level of citizenship in both countries and elaborates that this impact has been more restrictive in Japan than in Korea. Furthermore, nouveau‐riche nationalism is shown to have a negative impact on the social and identity levels of citizenship in both counties, whereas in Japan social stigma and prejudices are shown to be more serious than in Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the perception of the symbols of the European Union (EU) by citizens. Relying on a survey of a representative sample of the population in eight countries (France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom) carried out in December 2020, it investigates to which extent these symbols are considered as good representations of the EU and differences related to political, cultural, social and economic belongings. Empirically, our findings show a large acknowledgement of these symbols in congruence with general attitudes towards the EU. Theoretically, it offers some evidence of the existence of a "banal Europeanism" taking ‐ to a certain extent ‐ European symbolism as granted in contrast with its politicisation in elite discursive struggles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do sexual minorities navigate and negotiate with nationalism? While some scholars consider nationalism as a primarily exclusionary force against sexual minorities, how might we understand sexual minorities' engagement with nationalism? I address these questions by exploring the strategic deployment of sexual and national identities of LGBT movements through the case study of Singapore's annual LGBT‐inclusive event, Pink Dot. In response to the authoritarian and heteronormative state's construction of sexual minorities as non‐national Others, Pink Dot mobilizes both sexual and national identities in an effort to forge a space of inclusion while ensuring its survival. By portraying itself as a uniquely Singaporean event and espousing national identity and belonging through symbolic and performative practices, Pink Dot leverages national identity to minimize differences from and foreground similarities to the majority. In this way, sexual minorities in Singapore endeavor to embed themselves within the narratives of the nation and claim their legitimate belonging while simultaneously projecting a nation more inclusive of sexual difference. The aspirational inclusion of sexual minorities in the national imagery, however, inevitably elicits the state's backlash that narrowly defines the physical and symbolic boundaries of the political project. This analysis advances our understanding of the interactions between the state and social movements in shaping the relationship among the nation, sexuality, and citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]