New Delhi: In February 2022, during a Rajya Sabha speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the opposition party as “tukde-tukde gang,” alleging that the Congress party was in the “grip of Urban Naxals.” Within hours, the two words were trending on social media. In the past decade, Modi has emerged as a key slogan-giver to an angry and anxious nation. A year before that, he also coined the word Aandolanjeevi — ‘serial protesters’ — as a way to lampoon activists who were protesting with farmers agitating against the farm laws in 2021.
Every new political era comes with its own set of language. At the end of PM Modi’s decade in power, Indian conversations have been enriched with a bevy of phrases that signal the political culture of the day. From Tukde-Tukde Gang, to Anti National, Aandolanjeevi, Sickular, Ghar Wapisi, Toolkit Gang, Khan Market Gang, Go to Pakistan, and Laabarthi, UPSC-jihad, Revdi, Bulldozer,Swacchta, Atmanirbhar, Aapda Mein Avsar, to Vocal-for-Local as well as Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas Sabka Vishwas and Pradhan Sevak. These have become popular catchphrases. These have replaced the language of the UPA-era keywords such as ‘Right to…’, Aam Aadmi, Saffronisation, MNREGA, Inclusive Growth, Maut ka Saudagar, Chaddi, Communalisation that were a part of the popular parlance a decade ago.
Modi’s critics and opposition parties have also given their own comeback catchphrases to public lexicon – from Bhakts to Jumla to Feku to Closet-sanghi to Suit-Boot Ki Sarkar, Democracy-slide, Chowkidar Chor Hai, Nafrat ka Bazar-Mohabbat ki Dukan to the latest and match-fixing.
In the algorithmic politics of trending hashtags, what you say must stick. Modi’s BJP has mastered the game of labelling critics. If it doesn’t get into the meme-verse, impact hasn’t been made.
The politicization of everyday lingo to demonize dissent on the internet not only underlines the shift in socio-political trends but also how language shapes perceptions, ideologies and power dynamics.
In 2022, Lok Sabha secretariat, in a new booklet, listed out words and expressions which were considered “unparliamentary” for usage in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The list of words included “jumlajeevi”, “snoopgate”, “covid spreader”, “anarchist”, “tanashah” among others. The opposition had dubbed it as a “gag order”.
“Words take time to entrench themselves into the language. But the goal here is not to enrich the dictionary of language. These exclusionary words have become a part of public vocabulary and are dangerous,” said Ayesha Kidwai, Indian theoretical Linguist at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Social media has a role to play in popularising these words, turning them into an individual expression in the guise of hashtags. In his first tweet on social media site X in 2014, PM Narendra Modi had said, “I am a firm believer in the power of technology and social media to communicate with people across the world.”
Over the years, the war of words in the form of tweets and hashtags got a new name: “hashtag diplomacy.” This diplomacy was visible when the hashtag “Main Bhi Chowkidar” alone was mentioned 3.2 million times in tweets in March 2019. The same day the opposition had launched another hashtag, “Chowkidar hi Chor hai” that was trounced in this ‘hashtag battle.’
“This is what social media does. It takes the words out of the ambit of political speech to become an individual expression. And the content of the argument is lost, it boils down to a mere hashtag,” Kidwai underlined.
Also read: Indian zoos have a numbers problem. Too many animals, not enough vets, biologists, educators
Vocabulary of hashtags
“During the UPA government, we talked about rights-based laws and legislation, RTI, Food security act. But now, the arguments have been reduced to soundbites,” said Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Sabha MP and General secretary in-charge communication, Congress.
It started with the popular phrase used by the BJP campaign in the run-up to the 2014 election: “ache din”(good days are coming)” by Prime Minister Modi. The phrase quickly transitioned to the social media vocabulary of hashtags, memes and online discourse.
Words such as ‘Pappu’ used to refer to opposition leader Rahul Gandhi, ‘Thook Jihad’ during Covid pandemic and ‘Bulldozer’ when the houses were bulldozed by the Uttar Pradesh government reflect the vocabulary used by the BJP and its followers – each term representing different aspects of its political discourse.
In 2020, Sudarshan TV, run by Suresh Chavhanke sought to expose an alleged conspiracy of Muslims infiltrating into Indian civil services through their show ‘Bindas Bol-UPSC Jihad’. Chavhanke had shared a 48-second trailer of the show on X with a hashtag #UPSCJihad.
Soon after, the hashtag went viral giving the social media vigilantes the tool to target a particular community. The show saw the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting intervene, terming it “offensive, not in good taste and having the likelihood of promoting communal attitudes.”
“Can you imagine that there is a word like UPSC Jihad. So, what are you trying to say that Muslims should not be educated, they should not sit for the exams. The language used now is unprecedented. This did not happen during Vajpayee’s time. This language is no longer a fringe language. It has become normal,” added Jairam Ramesh.
Anything a politician said is immediately popular on social media by the accounts of the political parties. Words turn into hashtags and the way these political hashtags work have also been researched. In 2022, a team comprising Professor Ponnurangam Kumaraguru from International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, Joyojeet Pal from the University of Michigan, researchers Asmit Singh, Jivitesh Jain and Lalitha Kameswar analysed hashtags between September 2021 and January 2022.
The team categorised hashtags into three types: those featuring personal attacks on individual politicians, name-calling or criticizing party ideology and finally attacking actions or lack thereof of political parties.
But this is not happening for the first time, said Hilal Ahmed, Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS). If slurs and slogans are the language of politics, then fight on, Shakespeare would have rephrased his lines today. From Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘sab mile hue hain’ to Akhilesh Yadav’s ‘Rahul acha ladka hai’, Indian political conversations are becoming more buzzy and colloquial.
Ahmed said that the public lexicon has stemmed from the four narratives of Indian politics that have evolved over the years.
“The first narrative was in the 1950s when everybody was talking about socialism. And that was the dominant narrative of politics. So every political party was engaged in making some sort of a comment with regard to socialism. Even the Jana Sangh would say that they are committed to socialism,” said Ahmed.
The word socialism, garibi hatao, were then replaced by the language of communism versus secularism in the 90s. It was the same time when BJP leader L.K. Advani coined the word “pseudo secular” — calling the word secular as the euphemism of vote bank politics and appeasement. The word is still used by the Right side of the ideological spectrum to discard secular politics.
“After the mid-90s and early years of 2000, came the third narrative of politics of inclusion and exclusion, which included the words such as Right to Justice, Aam Aadmi, NREGA. These words stemmed from that narrative.”
Then came the narrative of nationalism and the vocabulary was reduced to Hindutva-driven nationalism, said Ahmed.
“But all these words have come from the political narrative. Public life is always determined by the way politics is played out, said Ahmed.
In Trump’s America, covfefe became a metaphor for everything that his X-happy politics stood for, just as hamberder and bigly, MAGA, alt-right, antifa, lock-her-up and drain-the-swamp did. His era gave a whole new dictionary to Americans.
Also read: Live-in couples in small town India have it rough – Varanasi to Vadodara, Aligarh to Alwar
Opposition catching up
That the BJP is winning this vocab game is not because it is the only party dog whistling.
During West Bengal Assembly elections in 2021, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee used the word “bohiragoto” (outsider) as a jibe against BJP workers who were campaigning in the state. Since then, the word has been echoed by BJP whenever Bannerjee came to UP, widely using on social media and integrated in the lexicon of common people. ‘Khela Hobe’ was another coinage that became the currency of opposition’s chutzpah during the 2021 Bengal polls.
“It is not that BJP has done something special. Anybody who is in power in any part of the country uses words, phrases or slogans that are likely to resonate with the people. Earlier, it was done largely via mediated communication, but now it is increasingly being done directly,” said Dr Alok Thakore, Communications scholar.
Thakore said that Mahatma Gandhi’s use of words – swadeshi or swaraj or satyagraha were not just simple lexical choices but carried a political message for India’s independence and against the British.
“These words carried a conviction of practice. But these words qua slogans still reverberate. Imagine atmanirbhar without the residue of swadeshi as an idea in the Indian mind. It would not be possible,” Thakore added.
In 1965, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri used the phrase “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” to boost the morale of the soldiers and farmers. The phrase became very popular and is still being used in political speeches, public discourse, at protests and by activists. In 1998, after the Pokhran tests, Atal Bihari Vajpayee tweaked the phrase to add, “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan”. The phrase ‘India Shining’ is suggested as one of the many reasons behind NDA governments defeat in 2004 paraliamentary elections. From “Patham Sevak” by Jawaharlal Nehru to “Pradhan Sevak” by PM Modi, the political shift in Indian politics have been captured in the catchphrases.
“Mrs Indira Gandhi used to have “ekta and akhandta” as a constant refrain. And today you have Mr Modi coining slogans,” said Thakore.
With elections round the corner, phrases have started trending again. “Modi hai toh Mumkin hai”, “Modi ki Guarantee”, “Lakhpati Didi” – the phrase has reached the memeverse, WhatsApp groups and public lexicon.
President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and former BJP leader Vinay Saharsrabuddhe attributed changing language to changing times and the advent of social media.
“People are politically more alert, active and opinionated thanks to social media. People have the desire to express and slowly they are acquiring the ability to do that. So the new vocabulary is the reflection of that,” said Saharsrabuddhe.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)