A new paper, ‘Saffronizing Diplomacy: The Indian Foreign Service under Hindu nationalist rule’ by Oxford academic Dr Kira Huju has created a lot of debate within Indian diplomatic and government circles.
She is being criticised for her outsider’s view but many diplomats, serving and retired, are in agreement with her findings.
In a podcast interview with Sidharth Bhatia, Huju says she did not set out to look at this topic. “My project was much simpler, but saffronisation kept coming up; Hindutva was a shadow, very much present in my conversations.”
She says there are acts of resistance, but there are also career incentives in aligning with the government’s views. “But there is nothing really surprising that saffronisation is coming in.”