Constructing legitimacy in crisis: a critical discourse analysis of Modi’s demonetization speech

This study investigates how political legitimacy is discursively constructed during moments of internal disruption, focusing on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 2016 demonetization speech. Drawing on Van Leeuwen's legitimation framework and sentence-level coding using NVivo, the analysis identifies rationalization (36.79%) and moral evaluation (35.85%) as dominant strategies, frequently co-occurring to frame economic hardship as both necessary and virtuous. Authorization (19.81%) and mythopoesis (7.55%) complement these by reinforcing institutional credibility and cultural symbolism. The study introduces the concept of discursive sovereignty—a rhetorical mode that blends authority, affect, and identity—to explain how populist leaders maintain legitimacy during crises. These findings contribute to the literature on non-Western political communication by illustrating how populist legitimation functions through layered, performative discourse.