| dc.description.abstract | While a dense network of civil society organizations has commonly been regarded to enhance democracy, this thesis seeks to explore how Hindu nationalist civil society organizations influence autocratization in India. Since the BJP and Narendra Modi got to power in a watershed election in 2014 and was re-elected with an even larger mandate in 2019, Indian liberal democracy has seen decline. I contribute to the literatures of democratic backsliding and social capital by developing a framework for seeing parties and civil society organizations as movements that may work together and contribute to democratic backsliding. I argue that Hindu nationalist civil society organizations’ increased service provision directed at disadvantaged segments of society has contributed to democratic backsliding by way of building trust, ideologically convincing and swaying votes in favor of the BJP, leading disadvantaged segments of society to increasingly vote for the BJP. Analyzing this through process tracing, using scholarly literature, news articles and the movement’s own sources, I contend that service provision likely did contribute to democratic backsliding in India through this mechanism. These organizations seem to attempt to build trust through organizing their services to adapt to local needs and appear apolitical. The organizations furthermore appear to use education to disseminate Hindu nationalist values to students and wider communities and conduct “awareness campaigns” to subtly sway votes in favor of the BJP. We then observed how disadvantaged segments of society increasingly voted for the BJP in the 2014 and in the 2019 elections. While there are many reasons for the BJP’s success, particularly the “Modi factor”, disadvantaged segments of society’s support for this elitist party is particularly puzzling, which this thesis contributes to explaining. | eng |