Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament and in the various state assemblies.

The Bharatiya Janata Party designates its official ideology and central philosophy to be "integral humanism", based upon a 1965 book by Deendayal Upadhyaya. The party advocates Hindu nationalism[citation needed] and social conservatism, self-reliance as outlined by the Swadeshi movement, and a foreign policy centered around key nationalist principles. The party's platform is generally considered as the right-wing of the Indian political spectrum.