The Architecture of the Atlas

The Atlas divides the contest into eight domains and 40 arenas. The domains are ordered from the foundation upward: from who the people are, through organised society, money, knowledge and media, to elections, the State and, finally, external actors. The ordering reflects a working hypothesis about how power is converted: population into organisation, organisation and money into narrative, narrative into votes, votes into office. The hypothesis organises the presentation; it is not imposed on the measurement.

Each arena has a weight from 1 to 5, reflecting its judged importance to control over national outcomes. Domestic weights sum to 88. Each external actor is weighted by its reach into India multiplied by the divergence of its positions from those of Hindutva-aligned actors, divided by 20, which places it on the same 0–5 scale; external weights sum to 19.7. Table 2.1 lists every domain, its arenas and their weights.

Table 2.1. Domains, arenas, number of indicators and weights

Arena	Title	Indicators	Weight
II. Demography and Identity			12.0
1.1	Religious Demography and Electoral Geography	2	3
1.2	Cross-Caste Voting Cohesion among Hindus	3	4
1.3	The Committed Core Electorate	4	5
III. Society and Organisation			15.0
2.1	Party and Movement Cadres	3	3
2.2	Public Opinion on Contested Questions	3	3
2.3	Religious Leadership and Institutions	4	3
2.4	The NGO and Advocacy Sector	5	3
2.5	Street Mobilisation and Veto Power	3	3
IV. Economy and Money			6.0
3.1	Large Business Owners	4	2
3.2	Private Funding for Ideological Causes	2	3
3.3	Trade Unions, Co-operatives and Farmer Organisations	4	1
V. Knowledge and Expertise			7.0
4.1	Universities and Think Tanks	7	3
4.2	Expert Authority within the State	3	3
4.3	Schools, Textbooks and Civil-Service Preparation	5	1
VI. Media and Narrative			15.0
5.1	Television News	2	3
5.2	Interpersonal Political Communication	4	3
5.3	Digital Platforms	7	3
5.4	Newspapers and the Elite Press	3	3
5.5	Celebrities and Influencers	4	1
5.6	Cinema and Streaming	3	2
VII. Elections			14.0
6.1	Vote Share	3	4
6.2	The Conversion of Votes into Seats	5	4
6.3	Leadership Popularity	4	3
6.4	Party Finance	3	3
VIII. The State			19.0
7.1	Executive Office	3	5
7.2	Public Expenditure	3	3
7.3	Police and Central Agencies	2	1
7.4	The Civil Services	1	1
7.5	Regulators, Commissions and Appointed Bodies	2	1
7.6	Parliament	3	4
7.7	The Judiciary	3	3
7.8	Internal Security	4	1
IX. External Actors			19.7
8.1	Western Media, Academia, Philanthropy and Rights Bodies	4	4.23
8.2	Global Technology Platforms	6	2.65
8.3	The United States	4	3.60
8.4	China	3	3.60
8.5	Pakistan, Bangladesh and Transnational Islamist Networks	10	2.35
8.6	Europe, Russia, the Gulf and Other States	5	0.82
8.7	Transnational Christian Organisations	4	0.45
8.8	The Diaspora and India’s Image Abroad	5	2
Total			107.7

Weights are the most consequential judgements in the Atlas, and the least verifiable. They were set before the readings were computed and are reported in full so that readers may substitute their own. The interactive edition allows any weight to be changed.