The Modi Effect: The influence of religion in India’s election

Five years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power on a wave of Hindu nationalist fervor that has rippled throughout the country. Starting this week, the country will decide whether Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party should keep its hold on the country, which critics say is increasingly authoritarian in nature. In the state of Kerala, the most religiously diverse and best educated corner of the country, the BJP has yet to make major gains. But amid controversy over the admission of women to Sabarimala, one of Hinduism’s holiest sites, and the spread of religious and political misinformation online, experts say a shift could be underway.

This series is a collaboration between The GroundTruth Project and the Knight Chair in Media and Religion at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, made possible in part by the Henry Luce Foundation.