Denouement

Abstract

AbstractTaking women’s political participation as a good, this concluding chapter asks: which women? which politics? and which (forms of) participation? This study has elucidated women’s marginalization, mobilization, and incorporation as forms of women’s political participation in Hindu nationalist political parties, placing them into historical and comparative context from the early 1900s to today. Marginalizing women corresponded with electoral failure, while mobilizing and incorporating women corresponded with electoral success. But mobilizing and incorporating women have not, in turn, substantively advanced women’s issues or women’s rights in India. The corrosive effects of BJP rule on Indian democracy are already apparent. Since 2019, attacks have accelerated on key pillars of Indian secularism, protections of minority rights, and civil rights and freedoms. If the mobilization and incorporation of Hindu nationalist women has been part and parcel of the rise of a movement that is undermining democracy, then more robust feminist voices and activism may be necessary to counter that rise.