In the context of a challenged rules-based international order, Western states are embracing heterodox responses to reshore investment and mitigate risk. As one response, social procurement involves instrumentalizing public sector purchasing to simultaneously meet secondary objectives like economic inclusion and development. While not new, some forms of social procurement outwardly frustrate the priorities of market-based public purchasing (such as, buy local). How are middle liberal market economies managing the tensions between competitive and social procurement? This paper examines three such case studies in the national social procurement initiatives of Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Applying a policy paradigm approach with primary document analysis, it observes first- and second-order change to accommodate social procurement. That said, the core ideas of competitive public procurement remain intact: each case favours free market approaches, open participation and downstream social value definition. This remains true despite renewed calls for buying local.
This paper explores how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), since coming to power in 2014 under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has redefined the 'symbolic repertoires' of India's official nationalism using the visual iconography of postage stamps issued by the Department of Posts. Stamps are excellent primary data for analysis since they are the official product of a state and its agencies. The 2014 election marked a paradigm shift in Indian politics, alongside a radical transformation in the sights, sounds, and vocabularies of everyday life, particularly in relation to the discourse on national identity and nation-building. A content analysis of postage stamps issued from 2014 to 2020 reveals a statist push towards consolidating visual iconography centred on India's civilisational past, with recurring themes of Hindu national identity and a neoliberal discourse on development.
Renewed interest in Birsa Munda, an iconic anti-colonial Adivasi leader, has brought into sharp relief intensifying political contestation over Adivasi histories in contemporary India. Since 2014, commemorative initiatives, electoral strategies, and media representations have increasingly mobilised Birsa's legacy, projecting him as a national figure. This article situates this conjuncture within a wider 'memory turn' in Indian politics.The article traces Birsa's transformation from a regional symbol of resistance and Adivasi autonomy to a venerated figure embedded within nationalist cartography. It analyses how memory operates as a site of both incorporation and contestation, particularly through institutional forms such as museums, parliamentary installations, and commemorative days.I argue that memory politics in India functions through selective remembering, strategic forgetting, and the production of political icons, whereby histories of dispossession are reframed within narratives of national unity. Yet such incorporation remains partial. Adivasi articulations of memory, grounded in land, cosmology, and community practice, continue to exceed and contest state-led narratives.
Following success in the 2014 national elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated a novel communication programme called Mann Ki Baat (MKB), which constituted monthly speeches broadcast over the radio. The content of the speeches covered a gamut of cultural, historical, governance and contemporary topics. In the article, we analyse the historical content of the speeches delivered by PM Modi during his first tenure between 2014 and 2019. We used content analysis to evaluate the speeches' salience, valence and ownership of diverse historical personalities. Further, we interpreted the symbolism accompanying the personality mentions. The results suggest that MKB was aligned with the BJP's historical revisionist project. The speeches gave more emphasis to ideological allies than ideological adversaries. The highest salience was given to ideologically ambivalent personalities, whose ownership was projected through symbols sympathetic to the party and government. The findings shed light on the historical revisionist project that underlay the apolitical positioning of MKB. Furthermore, it shows how efforts at historical revisionism go beyond revising textbooks to the practice of everyday politics.
This article explores the diffusion of Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) in Nepal. Various actors have been attempting to 'saffronize' Nepal's polity. However, these attempts face challenges in Nepal's diverse religious and social environment. Some expressions of 'Hindu politics' in Nepal diverge significantly from the movement character of Hindu nationalist politics in India while others stay closer to Indian variants. These factors suggest the diffusion of Hindutva will not be a linear or teleological process. Nepal provides a case study in a growing literature on how Hindutva articulates with social and religious formations outside its early areas of strength in northern India.
