Good Times, Brought to you by Brand Modi

TY - JOUR

T1 - Good Times, Brought to you by Brand Modi

AU - Kaur, Ravinder

PY - 2015/5/22

Y1 - 2015/5/22

N2 - The impending arrival of the long awaited "good times" emerged as a powerful meme in the 2014 general elections in India. The vague but exhilarating promise of good times was not only translated into catchy campaign slogans but also acquired its own fast-circulating hashtags, domain names, and strong everyday presence on social media. In this article, I open up the notion of good times through an account of #acchedin and locate it within the longer trajectory of neoliberal economic reforms. I ask what good times might even mean in a nation that has transformed itself fully into commodity-form to become an attractive investment destination for global investors. The newly crafted Brand Modi, the natural inheritor and prime agent of 1990s Brand India, now works in tandem in anticipation of the long awaited, and ever elusive, transformative epochal threshold of good times ahead.

AB - The impending arrival of the long awaited "good times" emerged as a powerful meme in the 2014 general elections in India. The vague but exhilarating promise of good times was not only translated into catchy campaign slogans but also acquired its own fast-circulating hashtags, domain names, and strong everyday presence on social media. In this article, I open up the notion of good times through an account of #acchedin and locate it within the longer trajectory of neoliberal economic reforms. I ask what good times might even mean in a nation that has transformed itself fully into commodity-form to become an attractive investment destination for global investors. The newly crafted Brand Modi, the natural inheritor and prime agent of 1990s Brand India, now works in tandem in anticipation of the long awaited, and ever elusive, transformative epochal threshold of good times ahead.

U2 - 10.1177/1527476415575492

DO - 10.1177/1527476415575492

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1527-4764

VL - 16

SP - 323

EP - 330

JO - Television & New Media

JF - Television & New Media

IS - 4

ER -