(In)credible India? : a critical analysis of India’s nation branding

We offer a political-economic, postcolonial interrogation of nation branding based on the Incredible India campaign. We show how the violence inherent in nation branding promotes internal hegemonies and external market interests at the expense of ideas of belonging and community. In Incredible India, colonial identities are reinscribed, peripheralising India in line with the demands of global markets and privileging Western desires and imagination. Internal political hegemonies promoting India as a Hindu nation are also reflected in the campaign, marginalising minority groups. However, the attempt to construct a unitary nation simultaneously reveals the presence of the ‘other’, contesting the boundaries of the narrative. The analysis confirms nation branding as a fundamentally political process, implicated in the production and perpetuation of inequalities. Keywords: nation branding; India; postcolonial criticism; Hindutva; neoliberalism; tourism and media. Keywords: nation branding; India; postcolonial criticism; Hindutva; neoliberalism; tourism and media