English

Alternative forms

• saffronisation

Noun

saffronization ‎(uncountable)

1. (India, politics, derogatory) The politics of right-wing Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) that seek to make the Indian state adopt social policies that recall and glorify the ancient Hindu cultural history and heritage of India while de-emphasizing the more recent Islamic or Christian heritage.
   • 1993, Harold Alton Gould, India votes: alliance politics and minority governments in the ninth and tenth general elections, page 308:

     Given the 'saffronization' of Congress, the 'ethnoreligious purification' of the BJP, and the parturition of the avowedly secular parties (CPI, SJP and BSP) […]

   • 1999, Rajeev Bhargava, Multiculturalism, Liberalism, and Democracy, page 241:

     The saffronization of the Shiv Sena, and the fusion of its Maratha-kunbi chauvinism and communalism were natrual outcomes.

   • 2015, S. Gupta, Consumable Texts in Contemporary India: Uncultured Books and Bibliographical Sociology:

     The “value education” directives issued in the 81st Report encouraged, in the first instance, the “saffronization” agenda of the BJPled NDA government from 1999.