The New Experts: Populist Elites and Technocratic Promises in Modi's India

If right-populists have had enough of establishment experts, how do they replace them, with whom, and to what effect? Presenting the first in-depth analysis of India's new intellectual elite in the wake of a Hindu supremacist government, The New Experts investigates the power of appointed experts in normalising ideologies of governance, beyond party rhetoric. The New Experts presents an accessible narrative of how and why particular ideas gain prominence in elite policy and political discourse. Drawing on in-depth interviews and ethnographic research with national and international policy makers, politicians, bureaucrats, consultants, and journalists, this book analyses how political leaders in India strategically use modes of populist spectacle and established technocratic institutions to produce shared visions of glorified technological and hyper-nationalist futures.

Dr. Anuradha Sajjanhar - Anuradha Sajjanhar is an Assistant Professor/Lecturer in Politics and Public Policy at the University of East Anglia, UK. She works at the intersection of politics and public policy, asking questions about how we understand expertise and how this affects the production of seemingly legitimate knowledge. In the process, she examines the influence of elites on policy making and democratic accountability in the US, UK and India.. Her book, The New Experts, was been published by Cambridge University Press in 2024. Her work has also been published in Economic and Political Weekly, Journal of Contemporary Asia, and Journal of Political Ideologies, as well as in national and international newspapers, including The Hindu and Business Standard.