Why a generation brought up on pro-Modi propaganda turned against the PM

When Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, Kiran was a Class 4 student.

She grew up in a rural household of Rajasthan’s Bikaner district where child marriages are common. But Kiran was lucky. Her family supported her education.

“I am the only girl in my extended family to have left home for education,” said Kiran, 20, who lives in Delhi.

As a child, Kiran said, she did not have much political awareness. It hardly mattered who ruled the country. “My parents aren’t so privileged and educated to have a political preference,” said Kiran, whose father retired from the Army. “But they did vote for Modi. For a long time, I also felt that everything was fine and the Modi government is good.”

The doubts began when Kiran came to Delhi to study for an undergraduate degree in political science two years ago.

She was not only introduced to a more cosmopolitan world, but also to the experiences of other people. She read about marginalised groups, for whom little has changed in the past decade. She also came to know how the ruling government had villainised the Muslim community in the country.

“In our class of 72 students, only one was Muslim,” Kiran said. “Whenever I spoke to her, she would...

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