This article presents findings from the first-ever survey of populist attitudes in India. Historically, the Indian usage of the concept of populism was mostly confined to the fiscal handouts of governments for the lower-income groups, something that is viewed as part of left-wing populism elsewhere in the world. The idea of right-wing populism, which equates popular will with the interests of the ethnic/racial/religious majority, is something relatively novel at the highest echelons of the Indian polity. Its emergence coincides with the rise of Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to national power since 2014. However, our survey finds, first, that at the level of mass attitudes, populism and Hindu nationalism are quite distinct phenomena. Those who can be called populists are not Hindu nationalists and vice versa. This finding, second, also leads to our argument that while right-wing populism has emerged in India as a leadership discourse, it is still to take roots at the level of popular attitudes.

本文介绍了首次对印度民粹主义态度进行的调查结果。从历史上看，印度对民粹主义概念的使用主要限于政府对低收入群体的财政援助，这被视为世界其他地方左翼民粹主义的一部分。右翼民粹主义将民众意愿与族裔/种族/宗教多数人的利益等同起来，这在印度政体的最高层是相对新颖的。它的出现恰逢纳伦德拉·莫迪 (Narendra Modi) 和他的印度民族主义者印度人民党 (BJP) 自 2014 年以来崛起为国家权力。 然而，我们的调查发现，首先，在大众态度层面，民粹主义和印度教民族主义是截然不同的现象。那些可以被称为民粹主义者的人不是印度教民族主义者，反之亦然。