Description
The article seeks to contribute to the burgeoning literature on the intersectionality between visuality and violence within the discipline of International Relations by highlighting the politics of bulldozer demolitions concomitant with the rise of authoritarianism in India. The bulldozer, which has traditionally been conceived as a harbinger of development and urban planning, feeds into the vocabulary of fear, crisis and danger as it insidiously represents unchecked sovereign power carrying out the spectacle of destruction targeting minority groups and subverting principles of justice in the contemporary Indian context. The article traces the aestheticization of violence carried out by the state through the inanimate machine and its ramifications with participatory crowds hysterically cheering at the demolitions. The spectacle of violence is crafted for visibility- to see the strong state in action against the purported enemies for its spectator-citizens which serves to legitimize state action. This performance emboldens the muscular masculinity of the state embodied in the leader that takes prompt action with complete disregard for due process and dialogue. The bulldozer simultaneously symbolizes revenge fantasy of the perceived injustices to assuage the majority anxieties by being an enforcer of law and order and operates as a source of entertainment for hysterically cheering crowds shaping affective responses to this novel form of punitive populism. The article establishes the bulldozer becoming synonymous with the iconography of right wing Hindu nationalism with a rise in demand for bulldozer tattoos and mentions in trending nationalist pop songs.
