'Vajpayee made Hindutva electable, respectable'

Author Abhishek Choudhary speaks about his two-volume study of Vajpayee and why he doesn't like to call it a biography

- Gulam Jeelani Gilkar

The late Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee remains the first authentic “hero” from the Hindu right who was respected across the political spectrum, believes writer Abhishek Choudhary, who recently published the second volume of his biography of the man.

Divided into four parts, Believer's Dilemma: Vajpayee and the Hindu Right’s Path to Power (1977-2018) examines the rise of the Hindu right from the end of the Emergency in 1977 to 2018, when Vajpayee died. Based on years of archival research, the book chronicles how the fall of institutions, mistakes made by the Congress Party, and fears of change were key to the ascent of Hindutva politics in India.

As Choudhary shows, Vajpayee played a key role in this phenomenon. Among his many contributions was helping the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) function as India’s “deep nation,” which Choudhary describes as a parallel moral-political order shaping institutions without holding any formal power.

In an interview with Lounge, Choudhary spoke about his journey as a writer, why he doesn’t like labelling his books as biography, and Vajpayee’s role in bringing the Hindu right into the political mainstream. Edited excerpts:

Can you tell us a bit about the broad scope of this sequel?

Eventhough my new book is a sequel, it can easily be read independently. It picks up the thread from 1977 and charts out how we arrived at our present political moment. It covers the years from the Janata Party’s installation as the first non-Congress government until Vajpayee’s final stroke-crippled vote against the nuclear deal (in 2008). I also write about the years 2009-2025 in the preface.