Conspiracy theories and India's transnational authoritarian populism: NGOs, Khalistanis and Soros
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2026
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Chacko, P.
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British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 2026; 28(2):832-862
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Priya Chacko
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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.
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© The Author(s) 2025. Creative Commons License (CC BY 4.0) This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).