‘Hindu civilization’ in business: the World Hindu Economic Forum's intellectual project

Abstract

Abstract Scholarly debates on ‘civilization states’ now include India as a potential exemplar, in light of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) insistence on a greater Hindu culture and tradition rooted in ancient India. Most of these debates are located in politico-cultural contexts, whereas this article does something different. It examines an economic organization, the World Hindu Economic Forum (WHEF), which centres its business strategy and identity around the rhetoric of civilization. WHEF is a distinctive and understudied transnational elite platform that has organic connections with the BJP and Hindu nationalist circles around the world. Drawing on WHEF documentation and interviews with WHEF members, and employing a Gramscian approach, this article sheds light on three social aspects of utilizing the civilizational rhetoric in WHEF's business strategy: a justification of development rooted in the past, a claim of superiority over the West, and a promise of development for the future. It argues that all three aspects make up a particular elite conception of the world shaped around the WHEF members' ideological and material interests. Based on this elite agency, this article argues that the rhetoric of civilization is a product of today's existing global political economy and ultimately serves to reinforce Hindu nationalist sentiments along with neo-liberal market-oriented ideas.