By now, we are all familiar with the catch phrases, colorful billboards, and slick branding: Incredible India. India Shining. Make in India. New India.  

But these are not just the frivolous creations of marketing executives and tourist brochures—they are the stuff of 21st century nation branding. This is the argument of a new book by the scholar Ravinder Kaur, Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First Century India. 

Ravinder, a professor of Modern South Asia Studies at the University of Copenhagen, joins Milan on the show this week to talk about her new book. The two discuss how brand-building is displacing nation-building in the 21st century and who the makers of India’s “new brand” actually are. Plus, Milan and Ravinder discuss the untold backstory of the “India Shining” campaign and why Prime Minister Modi’s notion of a “New India” is not all that new after all.  

Episode notes: 
 

1. Martin Wolf, “Best books of 2020,” Financial Times
2. Ravinder Kaur, “‘I Am India Shining’: The Investor-Citizen and the Indelible Icon of Good Times”
3. Roshan Kishore, “Review: Brand New Nation by Ravinder Kaur”
4. Ravinder Kaur, “Who Owns the Republic?”