IS IT
POLITICAL
TO HOPE?
Hope is a simple thing: an emotion, mixed with expectation that something might just be possible. But hope is enmeshed in social, cultural, political and economic contexts. Rather than being seen as a passive, individual attribute, it is a collective and active force.
In a pivotal year of elections, when at least four billion people are casting their vote in some sort of election or other, we explore how the simple act of hoping has become a powerful tool to build a better world.
The politics of hope
Indrajit Roy is a Professor of Global Development Politics in our Department of Politics and International Relations. He explores how people's imaginations shape, and are shaped by, political structures.
"The world is becoming a better place than it was one or two hundred years ago. The old empires that we saw have come crumbling down. People have more opportunities, governments are more accountable to the people than they were, and we're also richer today than ever before.
“But the world is still quite a dangerous and difficult place,” states Roy, referring to persistent inequalities. “We're a very unequal place, and the steps forward that our democracies have made in the last three decades are under threat. There’s a lot of work that still remains to be done.”
HOW HAS THE SIMPLE ACT OF HOPING BECOME A POLITICAL ACT IN ITSELF? AND WHAT ROLE DOES HOPE HAVE IN POLITICS TODAY?
HOW HAS THE SIMPLE ACT OF HOPING BECOME A POLITICAL ACT IN ITSELF? AND WHAT ROLE DOES HOPE HAVE IN POLITICS TODAY?
Hope as action
Hope may seem like an intangible force, but as India’s experience over the past decade demonstrates, it is not passive emotion but about actively thinking about what’s next – a radical act of defiance, shaping the future of democracy itself.
From April to June 2024, the general elections held in India were the largest the world had ever seen. The ruling party – the Bharatiya Janata Party – won only 240 seats, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost the single-party majority he had maintained since his election in 2014.
“Over the past decade, Indians from all walks of life have worked together to defy their government’s overreach and/or inaction,’ says Professor Roy.
“From student protests against growing authoritarianism, to collective action during the devastating pandemic, and entertainers poking fun at the majoritarian obsession with protecting Hindus in a country in which they are an overwhelming majority, ordinary people have stood up against the odds to save their democracy. They have much to show the world about how democracies may yet survive authoritarian onslaughts.”
Researching hope
Professor Roy’s research explores how power imbalances between countries and within countries might be redressed, and how the institutions and practices of democracy can make the world a better place for everyone.
By analysing interviews and identifying patterns, he connects individual hopes to broader political and social contexts. "When we ask people what sort of change they would like to see, we look at the ideas they have for the future. We write those interviews down, look for themes that emerge across interviews, and link them with what local politicians or bureaucrats might have said and patterns of electoral and political mobilisation. This helps us understand how people, their bureaucrats, and elected representatives are reflecting on the world to come."
Collaboration across boundaries
Tackling global development challenges requires interdisciplinary and international collaboration which is something Indrajit relishes. "I love the partnerships that this research helps to forge across disciplines, beyond geographies, within and outside academia," he says.
"I do a lot of collaborative research on how people make their governments accountable, how governments of poorer countries make claims on those of richer countries, and how together these alignments and claims are reshaping the global order and redressing the imbalances of power between and within countries."
Hope as action
Hope may seem like an intangible force, but as India’s experience over the past decade demonstrates, it is not passive emotion but about actively thinking about what’s next – a radical act of defiance, shaping the future of democracy itself.
From April to June 2024, the general elections held in India were the largest the world had ever seen. The ruling party – the Bharatiya Janata Party – won only 240 seats, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost the single-party majority he had maintained since his election in 2014.
“Over the past decade, Indians from all walks of life have worked together to defy their government’s overreach and/or inaction,’ says Professor Roy.
“From student protests against growing authoritarianism, to collective action during the devastating pandemic, and entertainers poking fun at the majoritarian obsession with protecting Hindus in a country in which they are an overwhelming majority, ordinary people have stood up against the odds to save their democracy. They have much to show the world about how democracies may yet survive authoritarian onslaughts.”
Researching hope
Professor Roy’s research explores how power imbalances between countries and within countries might be redressed, and how the institutions and practices of democracy can make the world a better place for everyone.
By analysing interviews and identifying patterns, he connects individual hopes to broader political and social contexts. "When we ask people what sort of change they would like to see, we look at the ideas they have for the future. We write those interviews down, look for themes that emerge across interviews, and link them with what local politicians or bureaucrats might have said and patterns of electoral and political mobilisation. This helps us understand how people, their bureaucrats, and elected representatives are reflecting on the world to come."
Collaboration across boundaries
Tackling global development challenges requires interdisciplinary and international collaboration which is something Indrajit relishes. "I love the partnerships that I'm able to forge across disciplines, beyond geographies, within and outside academia," he says.
"I do a lot of collaborative research on how people make their governments accountable, how governments of poorer countries make claims on those of richer countries, and how together these alignments and claims are reshaping the global order and redressing the imbalances of power between and within countries."
The Endurance of hope
Professor Roy’s work on hope is inspired by ethnographic methods which, like many social scientists, he uses to help unpack complex societal challenges. Funding for his initial work on hope was provided by the Economic and Social Research Council, which helped build partnerships across different geographies and disciplines. Collaborative fieldwork spans London, Paris, Mumbai, and São Paulo, where interviews conducted during the pandemic offered a surprising glimpse into the endurance of hope.
"Even in a seemingly hopeless time, we were quite taken in with the ideas that people had about how they wanted their future to turn out – for themselves, their children, their neighbours, their friends, family and community.”
Subsequent work is now scaling these initial insights up to national and global levels.
A catalyst for change
Because hope is an intangible force, it can sometimes appear delusional, but as Professor Roy’s research demonstrates, it’s a powerful catalyst for change. In today’s political landscape, hope is not a passive emotion. It’s an ethical stance; a radical act of defiance; and a refusal to give up imaging the prospect of a better world.
...hope is no longer a passive emotion – it’s a radical act of defiance, shaping the future of democracy itself.
...hope is no longer a passive emotion – it’s a radical act of defiance, shaping the future of democracy itself.
Photos: (Top right) A person holds their index finger towards the camera to show the viewer a vertical black mark on her finger and nail. This marks shows that they have voted in an election in India; (Bottom right) Lalu's Rally in Mahtawa 2015, by Zaheeb Ajmal. From Precarious Transitions: Mobility, democracy and citizenship in a Rising Power, a photographic series created by Zaheed Ajmal, Atul Anand and Ankur Jayaswal.
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