The colossal outright victory of Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India's general election – 336 of the 543 seats in the lower house of parliament – marks a major turning point for India's, and the subcontinent's, politics. Not only has Modi thrashed the badly tainted Indian National Congress Party, led by the Gandhi family, which has governed the country for the best part of 60 years, but he has done so while embracing a strong business agenda and explicitly rejecting the statist and redistributionist ideology that Congress has made part of the Indian psyche. The vote is the most decisive mandate for any Indian leader since the 1984 assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi propelled her son Rajiv to office.
Vowing to "try to make India self-reliant and strong" and promising "good times ahead", Modi, a Hindu nationalist and former tea-seller who has been chief minister of the state of Gujarat for 13 years, faces formidable economic challenges. Impressive Indian growth in recent years has left the teeming masses of the rural and urban poor behind, while nearly one million monthly join the ranks of the jobless. Modi's "Development For All" slogan appears to have had a particular appeal to the half of India's population under the age of 25, and stock markets have rallied strongly in response to his victory. Expectations raised will not be easy to meet.
There is also the paradox that the world's largest democracy has voted for a man with autocratic tendencies whose democratic credentials are dubious. Hanging over Modi's reputation are his association with both the 2002 sectarian riots in Gujarat, in which some 1,000 Muslims were killed by Hindu mobs, and with the conservative Hindu revivalist organisation and ideological backbone of the BJP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Yesterday Modi met the RSS leader to discuss the formation of a cabinet – these may be edgy times for India's 150 million Muslims and the country's difficult relationship with Pakistan.