Duty, Discipline, and Dreams: Childhood and Time in Hindutva Nation

Childhood and time constitute key sites of regulation for nationalist authoritarian regimes. However, the influence on contemporary discourses childhood located in Global South remains an underresearched area. This paper critically analyzes two spectacles involving Hindu Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi secondary school students occasions Teachers Day 2014 2015. Temporal language, markers, symbols rooted colonialism/Orientalism, Brahminical Hinduism, capitalist development are deconstructed to show how constructions can penetrate deep into everyday lives particular children who deemed worthy serve their nation. The concludes by highlighting specific ways which temporality weaponized reproduce legitimize a social hierarchy childhoods that is necessary sustain ethno-religious nationalism.