Food for thought: India, postage stamps and banal nationalism

ABSTRACT Social Psychologist Michael defines banal nationalism as ordinary iconographies communicating a sense of nation and permeating daily existence (8). Postage stamps are vehicles of banal nationalism, as they are ephemeral and small government-issued items that seem innocuous. However, the images chosen to be on postage stamps are carefully considered and chosen, and commonly reflect the ideologies of the dominant political party at the time of production. Yet many citizens do not take the time to contemplate why a certain image has been produced on this medium of government authority. In my paper I will unpack the Bharatiya Janata Party’s philosophy and rise to power in 2014 and then discuss how postage stamps issued in 2017, specifically the series on Indian food, reflects the party’s implied ideologies. The government chose to depict twenty-four different foods and broke them up into four categories, two of which are tied to religious, predominantly Hindu, occasions. To print these foods on postage stamps allows the subconscious spread of BJP philosophies.