From Market Reforms to Modi’s Mandir Economy: How India’s Lower Middle Class Was Sold a Nationalist Illusion

Only known as the world’s largest secular democracy, India has fallen deep into the quagmire of Hindutva under PM Narendra Modi. There was nothing accidental about Narendra Modi’s political rise. From the very beginning, Modi and the BJP moved with strategic precision, fusing hyper-nationalism, cultural supremacy, and economic storytelling into a singular project of power. What began as populism evolved into something far more potent: an emotional economy of nationalism, where GDP figures mattered less than temples, and jobless youth were taught to chant slogans, not demand reforms.

To understand how India arrived here, one must look back to 1991.

That year, India cracked open its economy to the world. Faced with a balance of payments crisis, the Congress-led government embraced neoliberalism: privatization, deregulation, and market-led reforms. For a moment, India seemed poised to join the global order, shedding its post-colonial insecurities and planning a future built on trade, investment, and growth.

But over time, that promise was hijacked, twisted and repurposed not for development, but for deception.

Under Modi and the BJP, economic liberalization was not just continued, it was Indianized. It was fused with aggressive Hindu nationalism, RSS ideology, and the politics of exclusion, transforming India’s economic journey into a political script aimed squarely at the lower middle class, a demographic long starved for recognition, and now exploited for votes.

Saffronizing the Neoliberalism

Whereas the original architects of India’s reforms framed them in terms of integration with the global economy, Modi weaponized those same reforms with nationalist packaging. Make in India. Digital India. Startup India. All catchy slogans, each a vehicle not just for economic hope, but for Hindu-nationalist branding.

This wasn’t capitalism. This was capitalism wrapped in the flag.

The BJP didn’t just sell development, it sold “Hindu resurgence through GDP growth.” The result? A mass psychological alignment between economic aspiration and political loyalty, especially among India’s lower middle class, who began to see Modi not as a prime minister, but as a redeemer.

The Manipulated Middle

India’s lower middle class teachers, shopkeepers, junior bureaucrats, low-tier tech workers became the primary targets of this economic-nationalist fusion. They were told they were the new backbone of a rising Bharat, defenders of culture and economy alike. All they had to do was keep chanting “Vande Mataram” while ignoring unemployment, inflation, and falling public services. In reality, Modi’s policies have delivered more symbolism than substance:

Jobless growth became the norm, India added fewer than 1 million formal jobs a year for a workforce that grows by 12 million annually.

Small businesses, the same lower middle class that cheered Modi were devastated by demonetization and the haphazard GST rollout.

Wage stagnation, rising living costs, and a collapse in health and education standards hit this class hardest.

Yet, Modi remained untouchable. Why? Because the BJP offered something far more seductive than rupees: identity.

Economic Struggle Disguised as National Pride

As the economy faltered, Modi shifted goalposts. Growth figures became fuzzy. Global praise was selectively amplified. But more importantly, every failure was cloaked in nationalist rage.

When fuel prices rose, blame Pakistan.

When jobs disappeared, blame Jawaharlal Nehru.

When the economy stalled, stage a Ram Mandir rally.

The BJP created a parallel reality, where the lower middle class was told they weren’t suffering they were sacrificing for the nation. The line between consumer and patriot was blurred. Buying Made-in-India toothpaste became an act of defiance against China.

It was psychological warfare against the very citizens who were paying the price for economic mismanagement.

From Economic Reforms to Ideological Conditioning

Modi’s genius lay in merging economic aspiration with religious and cultural supremacy. The neoliberal dream once about prosperity was transformed into a Hindutva-flavored mythos of national rebirth.

Foreign investment was no longer about trade it was “a global endorsement of Hindu leadership.”

Privatization became “unshackling India from colonial-era socialism.”

Disinvestment was sold as “cleaning up corrupt Nehruvian legacies.”

In this narrative, anyone questioning policy became anti-national. Economists, journalists, civil society, all labeled enemies of growth, enemies of India.

Conclusion: Modi’s Middle-Class Mirage

Today, India’s lower middle class finds itself worse off economically, but more loyal politically. Their savings have shrunk, but their faith in Modi remains intact not because of what he delivers, but because of what he represents.

He has converted economic collapse into cultural conquest, and the BJP has ensured that every rupee lost is replaced with a saffron flag. This is not development, it is delusion.

Pakistan must recognize this transformation for what it is: a warning. When economic dreams are fused with hyper-nationalism, nations don’t rise, they fracture.