Eighteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

Political rhetoric in a modern democracy has several complexities including a huge number of speakers, the quantity of information, diverse viewpoints, number of candidates, and the impact of the digital age. Indian politics has always witnessed claims of identity; first in the formation of Pakistan as a separate nation and then internal linguistic division of states. Politics in India since the seventies have been visibly dominated by uses of rhetorical language and number of slogans. This idea of how language can steer an individual to establish or adopt a certain viewpoint has not been a focus of study in the Indian discourse. There are in-depth studies by western thinkers on European or American political rhetoric unlike their Asian counterparts such as China, India or any of the Pacific nations. Is there something that makes political rhetoric in India unique than the West? How do we see connections between language and emotions in this scenario? While attempting to answer these questions, this project aims to study the growth of a political organisation in Mumbai and its suburbs: Shivsena. One primary intention behind this research is to connect and analyse the vast dispersed literature that is available and contribute to a field that has not been adequately analysed in academic discourse.