Conspiracy theories and India’s transnational authoritarian populism: NGOs, Khalistanis and Soros

Conspiracy theories are increasingly important features of international politics. This article explores the drivers and consequences of states’ use of transnational populist conspiracy theories, focussing on India. Through cases analysing the targeting of foreign-funded NGOs, Sikh activists (deemed Khalistanis), and George Soros and the Open Society Foundation, it is argued that transnational conspiracy theories are key tools through which authoritarian populist regimes rearticulate political cleavages, deepen autocratic state power domestically and extend it transnationally. To explain the timing of states’ resort to conspiracy theories, this article draws attention to the role of conjunctural conditions – namely, transnationalised political-economic challenges, dissent and criticism – in driving and changing populist articulations. To understand the implications of transnational populist conspiracy theories, this article highlights how they facilitate the legal, virtual, physical and symbolic repression of transnational dissidents and critics; the spread of illiberal and autocratic norms; and the growth of global far-right networks.