Religious nationalism in power as a rival nation-building project: evidence from India and Türkiye

This article examines religious nationalism as a rival nation-building project in two contemporary contexts, Türkiye and India. Focusing on the period in which the AK Party and the BJP have exercised governing authority, it analyses how religious nationalism, once embedded in state power, reconfigures political legitimacy, national identity and institutional arrangements. Rather than treating religion as a cultural sup­plement to secular nationalism or interpreting these cases through regime-based frameworks, the study conceptualises religious nationalism as a structured ideological project that reorganises nationhood from within governing institutions. Drawing on a comparative case study design, it develops a five-dimensional analytical framework to identify recurring patterns in how religious nationalism operates in power: delegitimisation of secular nationalism, sacralisation of national identity, institutionalisation of religious values, demarcation of belonging through religion, and projection of civilisational missions. These dimensions serve as comparative analytical categories for tracing the ideological architecture of religious nationalist projects across political settings. The article foregrounds religious nationalism as a governing logic of nation-building and offers a comparative lens for analysing religious nationalist projects in power. Applying this framework, the study demonstrates how religious nationalist actors adapt similar ideological logics to distinct secular traditions and institutional contexts.