Ideology, Leadership and Pragmatism (All) Matter: Why People Join the Bharatiya Janata Party

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India under the leadership of Narendra Modi is not only one of the most successful populist radical right (PRR) parties ever, but is also the largest party in the world in terms of grassroots members. However, while scholars have explained why people vote for the BJP, we know very little about the reasons why they become involved in it as party members. Based on the first study of grassroots members of the party, this paper therefore asks: Why do people join the BJP? Drawing upon 26 online and phone interviews with BJP grassroots members in Gujarat and Maharashtra, the paper shows that BJP rank-and-file resemble PRR party members in Europe, in that purposive and identity-based incentives figure prominently in their reasons for joining. However, differently from their European counterparts, they highly value pragmatic incentives, i.e. material incentives which do not benefit themselves personally, but the community at large. Finally, admiration for Narendra Modi features as an important driver for becoming members. These findings reinforce the idea that the populist radical right has become a coherent global phenomenon. Moreover, they add nuance to the prevailing wisdom that political participation in developing countries is mostly non-ideological.