Once dismissed as a perfunctory relationship, in recent years the discourse on the relational understanding of popular culture and politics is one that has come into scrutiny, especially in the Indian political context. This paper seeks to investigate the deployment of the pervasiveness of consumerist pop-culture as an ideological state apparatus to influence popular perception in a world where the binaries of ?fact and fiction? lose meaning. Using the world politics and popular culture continuum framework to understand its scope and validity in the Indian context, this paper studies the inseparable relationship that politics and popular culture share in not just the physical, social and cultural space but also the digital one, by examining how Indian political parties have used popular culture as a site of propaganda or protest depending on their relationship with the sitting Government through the lens of the two biggest national parties in India, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). With the proliferation of social media and its increased relevance in elections, campaigning and the propagation of popular culture, this paper takes a caustic look at the young Indian voter tries to assess whether this calculated on-going campaign through influence of films, music, comics and art has been effective and contributed to mobilizing the youth voters who now constitute a key voter-base, with their increasing share in the Indian demography.

Politics

Pop Culture

Behavioural Science