Gerontocracy and Populist Politics in India: Familial Tropes, Ageless Symbolism, and Nativist Rhetoric

Indian politics has often faced criticism for being gerontocratic—for being led by mostly older politicians. While academic and media articles over the last decade have cited half of India’s population to be under the age of 25 resulting in a “youth bulge,” popular and populist politicians in India continued to be older adults. This chapter examines how gerontocracy thrives in Indian politics amid the apparent mismatch in leaders’ and voters’ age. We examine how older politicians’ electoral campaigns rely upon several common tropes to resonate with local voters. Our interpretivist analysis of select electoral campaigns of two older leaders, Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee from the states of Gujarat and West Bengal respectively, shows that branding of older politicians through familial imageries and imagined kinship is crucial to situate them both in local and national politics. Along with that, building an individualized and age-ambiguous image of the leader and absence of a visible spousal figure in their lives often help cementing their perceived ascetic image in neoliberal times. In popular political imagination, the older leaders occupy the roles of the lone veterean politicians, a respected older kin, and a confidant who sacrificed their own personal and familial lives for politics.