Narendra Modi’s illiberalism may imperil India’s economic progress

“Politics and religion cannot be mixed,” ruled India’s Supreme Court in 1994 in what was then considered a decisive elucidation of the country’s secular constitution. Tell that to the millions who on January 22nd will watch Narendra Modi preside over the consecration of a controversial $220m Hindu temple, in a ceremony that marks the informal launch of his campaign for a third term as prime minister in . To the alarm of India’s 200m Muslims, and many secular-minded Indians, it will mark a high point of a to dominate India.Even as Mr Modi appears at the temple in Ayodhya in northern India, the other pillar of his mission continues apace: India’s . The country is the planet’s fastest-growing major economy and now its fifth-biggest. Global investors toast its infrastructure boom and growing technological sophistication. Mr Modi wants to be India’s most consequential leader since Jawaharlal Nehru. His vision of national greatness is about wealth as well as religion. The danger is that a hubristic Hindu chauvinism undermines his economic ambitions.