What is the fate of the rule of law in India that is transitioning to an ethnocracy? Drawing on a ‘thin’ conception of the rule of law, this article argues that the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act responds to the emergence of a political ideal that constructs the Hindu ethnos as central to the Indian nation. Drawing on a variety of sources that include pronouncements by leaders of the RSS, the ideological fount of India's ruling BJP, analysis of right-wing periodicals that function as a conveyor belt of social ideas, and the provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), this article highlights the core themes that motivate the will of the Hindu ethnos in respect of the contentious legislation: (i) the persecution of the Hindu minorities in India's Muslim-majority neighbours; (ii) the discrimination faced by Dalits in particular and (iii) the establishment of India as a Hindu Zion. In the first section, I elaborate the concept of ‘ethnocracy’. The second section reflects on the fate of the rule of law in an ethnocratic India by analysing the social justifications for the introduction of the contentious CAA. In the third section, I situate these dynamics within India's broader transition to an ethnocracy, the political ideals that shape this transition, and the shared social norms that emerge from this transition, which feeds back to the rule of law in an ethnocracy.

中文翻译：

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民族政治中的法治：印度公民身份修正案和印度教民族的意愿

正在向民族政治过渡的印度法治命运如何？本文借鉴法治的“薄弱”概念，认为备受争议的《公民身份修正案》回应了一种将印度教民族构建为印度民族核心的政治理想的出现。借鉴各种来源，包括印度执政党印度人民党的意识形态源泉 RSS 领导人的声明、对充当社会思想传送带功能的右翼期刊的分析以及《公民身份修正案》(CAA) 的规定，本文强调了在有争议的立法方面激发印度教民族意愿的核心主题：（i）印度穆斯林占多数的邻国对印度教少数群体的迫害；(ii) 特别是达利特人所面临的歧视，以及 (iii) 印度成为印度教锡安国。在第一部分中，我阐述了“民族政治”的概念。第二部分通过分析引入有争议的 CAA 的社会理由，反思印度民族统治下法治的命运。在第三部分中，我将这些动态置于印度向民族政治国家更广泛的过渡、塑造这一过渡的政治理想以及从这一过渡中出现的共同社会规范中，这些规范反作用于民族政治国家的法治。