Sacred Nations, Irredeemable Outcasts: Insights from Turkey, India, and Hungary

This paper examines how populist autocrats mobilize citizens around a sacralized notion of the nation and why such projects consistently produce similar internal enemies, despite differences in religious traditions and political contexts. Using a most-different systems design, the study compares Turkey, India, and Hungary—three cases in which different faiths constitute the dominant majority. The paper argues that when the nation is framed as sacred, political belonging becomes moralized, and minorities are recast as irredeemable outcasts who threaten the nation’s purity, continuity, or destiny. Across cases, this logic enables exclusionary governance while maintaining popular legitimacy. Empirically, the analysis draws on legislative actions, executive decisions, and political speech to trace how ruling elites articulate the meaning of the sacred nation, justify exclusionary policies, and normalize unequal citizenship. The paper also examines the discursive and electoral campaigns used to sustain these narratives over time, including appeals to history, morality, and civilizational threat. By comparing cases with distinct religions and historical trajectories yet strikingly similar outcomes, the paper demonstrates how sacralized nationalism functions as a transferable political technology. The findings contribute to debates on populism, authoritarianism, and religion in politics by showing how sacred national narratives systematically reshape democratic institutions, minority rights, and the boundaries of political community.