Poisoned from the Roots: Bottom-Up Autocratization in Contemporary India – A Talk by Pravin Prakash

Recent debates on democratic backsliding recognize that autocratization is not only elite-driven executive aggrandizement but involves broader socio-political changes. However, theories often neglect the role of illiberal social movements in reshaping democratic norms, institutions, and state-society relations from below. This talk fills this gap by proposing a relational, mechanism-based framework for bottom-up autocratization, viewing it as a collective project co-driven by grassroots mobilization, contentious violence, and hate-spin. Using India as a key case, it analyzes the Hindu Nationalist Movement's role in driving iterative interactions among activists, elites, and the public. This state-society perspective highlights how everyday consent, legitimacy, and coercion at the grassroots contribute to democratic erosion, enriching comparative scholarship on autocratization’s societal roots.