{{Short description|Indian Hindu nationalist political ideology}} {{pp-extended|small=yes}} {{Pp|small=yes}} {{EngvarB|date=June 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}} [[File:Swatyantra Vir Savarkar.jpg|thumb|Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the founder of Hindutva.]] {{Conservatism in India|Ideologies}} '''Hindutva'''{{Efn|{{IPAc-en||h|ɪ|n|ˈ|d|ʊ|t|v|ə|audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sumxr-Hindutva.wav}}; {{Translation|Hindu-ness}}}} is a Hindu nationalist political ideology encompassing the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India.<ref name="BrownMcLean2018"/><ref name="Haokip">{{cite book | last=Haokip | first=Jangkholam | title=Can God Save My Village?: A Theological Study of Identity among the Tribal People of North-East India with a Special Reference to the Kukis of Manipur | publisher=Langham Monographs | year=2014 | isbn=978-1-78368-981-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y4MuDgAAQBAJ | access-date=2023-05-03 | page=35|quote=Hindutva is a political ideology that does not necessarily represent the view of the majority of Hindus in India.}}</ref><ref name="GregoryJohnston2011">{{cite book |last1=Gregory |first1=Derek |last2=Johnston |first2=Ron |last3=Pratt |first3=Geraldine |last4=Watts |first4=Michael |last5=Whatmore |first5=Sarah |title=The Dictionary of Human Geography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5gCHckKszz0C&pg=RA1-PT467 |year=2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-4443-5995-4 |pages=1– |access-date=9 May 2019 |archive-date=7 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221356/https://books.google.com/books?id=5gCHckKszz0C&pg=RA1-PT467#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="OED-online-hindutva">{{citation|chapter=Hindutva, n.|title=Oxford English Dictionary Online|publisher=Oxford University Press|chapter-url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/291968?redirectedFrom=Hindutva#eid|year=2011|chapter-url-access=subscription|access-date=17 November 2021|archive-date=16 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016151555/http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/291968?redirectedFrom=Hindutva#eid|url-status=live}}</ref> The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1922.<ref name="Ross 2012">{{cite book |last=Ross |first=M.H. |title=Culture and Belonging in Divided Societies: Contestation and Symbolic Landscapes |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |series=Book collections on Project MUSE |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-8122-0350-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=osHNwPkLh30C&pg=PA34 |page=34}}</ref><ref name="Sweetman Malik">{{cite book |last1=Sweetman |first1=W. |last2=Malik |first2=A. |title=Hinduism in India: Modern and Contemporary Movements |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2016 |isbn=978-93-5150-231-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XW02DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |page=109}}</ref> It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the current ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),<ref name="The Hindutva Road">{{Cite web |date=4 December 2004 |title=The Hindutva road |url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/politics/article30225920.ece |website=Frontline |language=en |archive-date=4 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604095642/https://frontline.thehindu.com/politics/article30225920.ece |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Krishna|2011|p=324}} and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar.
Borrowing ideas and concepts from European fascism,{{Sfn|Sant|1999|p=85}}{{Sfn|Krishna|Noorani|2003|p=4}} the Hindutva movement was affiliated with Italian fascism and Nazism during the interwar period and the Second World War.<ref name="Leidig" /><ref name=":6" /> Hindutva has been described as a variant of right-wing extremism<ref name="Leidig">{{Cite journal|last=Leidig|first=Eviane|date=17 July 2020|title=Hindutva as a variant of right-wing extremism|journal=Patterns of Prejudice|volume=54|issue=3|pages=215–237|doi=10.1080/0031322X.2020.1759861|issn=0031-322X|doi-access=free|hdl=10852/84144|hdl-access=free}}</ref> and as "almost fascist in the classical sense", adhering to a concept of homogenised majority and cultural hegemony.<ref name="j3517631" /><ref>{{harvnb|Frykenberg|2008|pages=178–220}}: "This essay attempts to show how — from an analytical or from an historical perspective — Hindutva is a melding of Hindu fascism and Hindu fundamentalism."</ref> Some scholars have described it as a separatist ideology.<ref name="Parel">{{cite book |last=Parel |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Parel |title=Gandhi, Freedom, and Self-rule |publisher=Lexington Books |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7391-0137-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sErf-DzVI9EC |quote=The agendas of Hindutva though strong on the issues of self - identity and self - definition, have tended to be separatist. |page=133 |access-date=30 March 2023 |archive-date=7 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221355/https://books.google.com/books?id=sErf-DzVI9EC |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Varadarajan">{{cite book |last=Varadarajan |first=Siddharth |author-link=Siddharth Varadarajan |title=Gujarat, the Making of a Tragedy |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-14-302901-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1kc9GmFWePUC |page=20}}</ref> Some analysts dispute the identification of Hindutva with fascism and suggest that Hindutva is an extreme form of conservatism or ethnic nationalism.<ref name="Bhatt & Mukta" />
Proponents of Hindutva, particularly its early ideologues, have used political rhetoric and sometimes misinformation to justify the idea of a Hindu state. This movement has often been criticised for misusing Hindu religious sentiments to divide people along communal lines and for distorting the inclusive and pluralistic nature of Hinduism for political gains.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hindutuva vs Hinduism |date=8 April 2017 |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/hinduism-versus-hindutva/story-SYB9a5bwKPqBJxbM4fPg2O.html}}</ref>
==Etymology== According to Julius J. Lipner, a scholar of Hinduism, ''Hindutva'' is a Sanskrit word, which connotes "Hinduness", and the term first gained usage among Bengali Indian intellectuals during the British colonial era. The term took roots in light of the description of Indic religions and the "western preconceptions about the nature of religion", which the Indian intellectuals disagreed with. This attempt to articulate what Hinduism is, coupled with emerging political and cultural beliefs, has evolved and contributed to the various meanings of the term.<ref name="Lipner2012p12">{{cite book |author=Julius Lipner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oH1FIareczEC |title=Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices |publisher=Routledge |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-135-24060-8 |pages=11–12 }}</ref>
The word Hindutva was used in the late 1890s by Chandranath Basu,<ref name="ThePrint20202">{{Cite web |last=Bhattacharya |first=Snigdhendu |date=30 September 2020 |title=Hindutva and idea that 'Hindus are in danger' were born in Bengal |url=https://theprint.in/pageturner/excerpt/hindutva-and-idea-that-hindus-in-danger-born-in-bengal/513174/ |access-date=23 December 2020 |website=ThePrint |language=en-US |quote=Chadra Nath Basu's book Hindutva was published in 1892 by Gurudas Chatterjee. The first recorded use of the word Hindutva, at least in print, is believed to have been made in this book. |archive-date=17 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210217061214/https://theprint.in/pageturner/excerpt/hindutva-and-idea-that-hindus-in-danger-born-in-bengal/513174/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=NP|first=Ullekh|date=28 March 2019|title=Will its Hindu revivalist past haunt West Bengal's future?|url=https://openthemagazine.com/features/politics-features/general-election-2019/will-its-hindu-revivalist-past-haunt-west-bengals-future/|access-date=29 October 2019|website=Open The Magazine|archive-date=5 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201105014340/https://openthemagazine.com/features/politics-features/general-election-2019/will-its-hindu-revivalist-past-haunt-west-bengals-future/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gopal|first=Sangita|date=1 July 2003|title=Hindu Buying/Hindu Being: Hindutva Online and the Commodity Logic of Cultural Nationalism|journal=South Asian Review|volume=24|issue=1|pages=161–179|doi=10.1080/02759527.2003.11978304|s2cid=158146106|issn=0275-9527}}</ref><ref name="Bhatt2001p77">{{cite book|author=Chetan Bhatt|title=Hindu nationalism: origins, ideologies and modern myths|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W2PXAAAAMAAJ|year=2001|publisher=Berg|isbn=978-1-85973-343-1|pages=77 (context: Chapter 4)|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221901/https://books.google.com/books?id=W2PXAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> to merely portray a traditional Hindu cultural view. The term was given a wider meaning in the later political ideology of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Amiya P. |url=https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198098966.001.0001/acprof-9780198098966-chapter-2 |title=Discourses, Public Addresses, and Informal Talks |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-908301-5 |language=en-US |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198098966.001.0001 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bhatt |first=Chetan |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203563397 |title=Rethinking Ethnicity: Majority Groups and Dominant Minorities |publisher=Routledge |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-203-56339-7 |editor-last=Kaufmann |editor-first=Eric P. |location=London |chapter='Majority ethnic' claims and authoritarian nationalism: the case of Hindutva |doi=10.4324/9780203563397 |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203563397-15/majority-ethnic-claims-authoritarian-nationalism-chetan-bhatt }}</ref>
===Definitions of the term=== ====Savarkar==== For Savarkar, in ''Essentials of Hindutva'', Hindutva is an inclusive term of everything Indic. The three essentials of ''Hindutva'' in Savarkar's definition were the common nation (''rashtra''), common race (''jati''), and common culture or civilisation (''sanskriti'').<ref name="Sharma">{{cite journal |last=Sharma |first=Arvind |title=On Hindu, Hindustan, Hinduism and Hindutva |journal=Numen |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=22–23, 1–36 |year=2002 |jstor=3270470 |doi=10.1163/15685270252772759}}</ref> Savarkar used the words "Hindu" and "Sindhu" interchangeably.<ref name="Sharma"/><ref name="Jaffrelot2009p86">{{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=Hindu Nationalism: A Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOXWgr53A5kC|year=2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2803-6|pages=14–15, 86–93|access-date=2 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221357/https://books.google.com/books?id=mOXWgr53A5kC|url-status=live}}</ref> Those terms were at the foundation of his Hindutva, as geographic, cultural and ethnic concepts, and "religion did not figure in his ensemble", states Sharma.<ref name="Sharma"/><ref name="NUSSBAUM2009p58"/> His elaboration of Hindutva included all Indic religions, i.e. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. Savarkar restricted "Hindu nationality" to "Indian religions" in the sense that they shared a common culture and fondness for the land of their origin.<ref name="Sharma"/><ref name="Jaffrelot2009p86"/> Savarkar had made clear distinction between Hinduism and Hindutva, that they are not same things as Hindutva does not concern religion or rituals but the basis of India's national character.<ref>{{cite web | last=Purandare | first=Vaibhav | title=Hindutva is not the same as Hinduism said Savarkar | website=Telegraph India | date=2019-08-22 | url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/hindutva-is-not-the-same-as-hinduism-said-savarkar/cid/1699550 | access-date=2023-03-30 | archive-date=20 April 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200420011457/https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/hindutva-is-not-the-same-as-hinduism-said-savarkar/cid/1699550 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Noorani2000">{{cite book | author=A G Noorani | title=The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour | publisher=LeftWord Books | series=Green School Series | year=2000 | isbn=978-81-87496-13-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6PnBFW7cdtsC&pg=PT106 | page=106 | access-date=30 March 2023 | archive-date=7 October 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221357/https://books.google.com/books?id=6PnBFW7cdtsC&pg=PT106#v=onepage&q&f=false | url-status=live }}</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=A Hindu means a person who regards this land of ''Bharatvarsha'', from the Indus to the seas as his Father-Land as well as his Holy-Land that is the cradle land of his religion|author=Vinayak Damodar Savarkar|title=''Essentials of Hindutva''<ref>[https://archive.org/details/hindutva-vinayak-damodar-savarkar-pdf "Hinditva - Who Is a Hindu"]</ref>}}
In summary, Savarkar's Hinduism is a concept beyond the practice of religion. It encompasses India's cultural, historical, and national identity rooted in Hindu traditions and values. Hindutva is to build a strong Hindu nation, and this is the principle that holds together the customs and culture of this land.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. |url=http://archive.org/details/hindutva-vinayak-damodar-savarkar-pdf |title=hindutva-vinayak-damodar-savarkar-pdf}}</ref>
According to Christophe Jaffrelot, a political scientist specialising in South Asia, Savarkar – declaring himself as an atheist – "minimises the importance of religion in his definition of Hindu", and instead emphasises an ethnic group with a shared culture and cherished geography.<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p86" /><ref name="NUSSBAUM2009p58">{{cite book|author=Martha Nussbaum|title=The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JLMQh4oc38gC|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-04156-1|pages=58–59}}, Quote: "Savarkar had long lived abroad, and his Hindutva is a European product from its opening words on. [...] Savarkar was not a religious man; for him, traditional religious belief and practice did not lie at the heart of Hindutva. He did, however, consider the religion's cultural traditions to be key markers of Hindutva, along with geographical attachment to the motherland and a sense of oneself as a part of a "race determined by a common origin, possessing a common blood."</ref> To Savarkar, states Jaffrelot, a Hindu is "first and foremost someone who lives in the area beyond the Indus river, between the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean."<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p86" /> Savarkar composed his ideology in reaction to the "pan-Islamic mobilisation of the Khilafat movement", where Indian Muslims were pledging support to the Istanbul-based Caliph of the Ottoman Empire and to Islamic symbols, his thoughts predominantly reflect deep hostility to Islam and its followers. To Savarkar, states Jaffrelot, "Muslims were the real enemies, not the British", because their Islamic ideology posed "a threat to the real nation, namely Hindu Rashtra" in his vision.<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p86" /> All those who reject this historic "common culture" were excluded by Savarkar. He included those who had converted to Christianity or Islam but accepted and cherished the shared Indic culture, considering them as those who can be re-integrated.<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p86" />
According to Chetan Bhatt, a sociologist specialising in Human Rights and Indian nationalism, Savarkar "distances the idea of Hindu and of Hindutva from Hinduism."<ref name="Bhatt1997p186"/>{{efn|According to sociologist Aparna Devare, Savarkar distinguishes between Hindutva and Hinduism, but includes it in his definition. Savarkar wrote, "Hinduism is only a derivative, a fraction, a part of Hindutva."<ref>{{cite book|author=Aparna Devare|title=History and the Making of a Modern Hindu Self|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1drfCgAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-19708-6|pages=195–196|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221940/https://books.google.com/books?id=1drfCgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>}} He describes Hindutva, states Bhatt, as "one of the most comprehensive and bewildering synthetic concepts known to the human tongue" and "Hindutva is not a word but a history; not only the spiritual or religious history of our people as at times it is mistaken to be by being confounded with the other cognate term Hinduism, but a history in full."<ref name="Bhatt1997p186">{{cite book|author=Chetan Bhatt|title=Liberation and Purity: Race, New Religious Movements and the Ethics of Postmodernity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aap0HaCzrFwC|year=1997|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-85728-423-2|page=186|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221859/https://books.google.com/books?id=aap0HaCzrFwC|url-status=live}}</ref>
Savarkar's notion of ''Hindutva'' formed the foundation for his Hindu nationalism.<ref name="Sharma"/> It was a form of ethnic nationalism per the criteria set by Clifford Geertz, Lloyd Fallers, and Anthony D. Smith.{{sfn|Jaffrelot|1996|pp=12-13}}<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p86"/>
====Supreme Court of India==== The definition and the use of ''Hindutva'' and its relationship with Hinduism has been a part of several court cases in India. In 1966, chief justice P. B. Gajendragadkar wrote for the Supreme Court of India in ''Yagnapurushdasji (AIR 1966 SC 1127)'', that "Hinduism is impossible to define."<ref name=senewc/>{{efn|Sen writes, "Drawing primarily from English language sources, the Court put forward the view that Hinduism was "impossible" to define [quoting from the case file Yagnapurushdasji at 1121–1128]: "When we think of the Hindu religion, we find it difficult, if not impossible, to define Hindu religion or even adequately describe it. Unlike other religions in the world, the Hindu religion does not claim any one God; it does not subscribe to any one dogma; it does not believe in one philosophic concept; it does not follow any one set of religious rites." Confronted with this amorphous entity, the Court concluded, "[I]t [Hinduism] does not appear to satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion or creed. It may broadly be described as a way of life and nothing more.<ref>{{cite book|title= Defining Religion: The Indian Supreme Court and Hinduism | author= Ronojoy Sen| year=2006| publisher= South Asia Institute, Department of Political Science, University of Heidelberg| url= https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/6936/1/Ronojoy_Sen_Defining_Religion_final_version.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151224035515/http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/6936/1/Ronojoy_Sen_Defining_Religion_final_version.pdf |archive-date=2015-12-24 |url-status=live |pages=15–16}}</ref>}} The court adopted Radhakrishnan's submission that Hinduism is complex and "the theist and atheist, the sceptic and agnostic, may all be Hindus if they accept the Hindu system of culture and life."<ref name=senewc/> The Court judged that Hinduism historically has had an "inclusive nature" and it may "broadly be described as a way of life and nothing more."<ref name=senewc>{{cite book|title= Legalizing Religion: The Indian Supreme Court and Secularism| author= Ronojoy Sen| year=2007| publisher= East-West Center, Washington| isbn = 978-1-932728-57-6|pages=29–31}}</ref>
The 1966 decision has significantly influenced the judicial interpretation of the term Hindutva in subsequent cases, particularly in the seven rulings delivered by the Supreme Court during the 1990s, collectively referred to as the "Hindutva judgments." These judgments broadly characterised Hindutva as a "way of life" or a "state of mind," rather than as a political ideology or a religious doctrine.<ref name=senewc/><ref name="Chakrabarty2018">{{cite book|author=Bidyut Chakrabarty|title=Constitutional Democracy in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p-1GDwAAQBAJ|year=2018|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-351-37530-6|pages=178–180|access-date=10 June 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221932/https://books.google.com/books?id=p-1GDwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> These judgements have faced widespread criticism. The Indian lawyer A. G. Noorani states that the Supreme Court in its 1995 ruling gave "Hindutva a benign meaning, calling Hindutva the same as Indianisation, etc." and these were unnecessary digressions from the facts of the case, and in doing so, "the court may have brought down the wall separating religion and politics."<ref>{{cite book | last=Noorani | first=A.G. | title=The Supreme Court on Hindutva | chapter=The Supreme Court on Hindutva1 | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2006 | doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195678291.003.0076 | isbn=978-0-19-567829-1 | pages=76–83}}</ref> Mukul Kesavan, a historian and writer, argues that the judgments lend legitimacy to a sectarian vision of India and undermine the secular pluralism enshrined in the constitution. According to Kesavan, the judgements effectively sanitised the ideological project of the Sangh Parivar and enabled political actors to invoke majoritarian themes without transgressing the legal boundaries of religious appeals under electoral law.<ref name="KesavanTG">{{Cite web |last=Kesavan |first=Mukul |date=6 May 2001 |title=Hindutva come to court |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/hindutva-comes-to-court/cid/931575 |website=The Telegraph}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=If Hindutva is at all understood as a way of life it is understood as a Hindu way of life. The proposed obliteration of difference and the development of a uniform culture is to be effected by making minorities sacrifice their own identities at the altar of Hindutva, that is, the religious and cultural practice of the majority community, the Hindus.|author=Mukul Kesavan<ref name="KesavanTG"/>}}
Following the 2002 Gujarat riots, Shubhra Verma, the daughter of Justice J.S. Verma, who had authored the 1995 judgement, said, "He always had a regret about being misunderstood after 1995 and how for their own purposes, a group of politicians had twisted the spirit of his judgment."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chishti |first=Seema |date=3 January 2017 |title=Why, 22 years on, the SC's 'Hindutva judgment' remains elephant in room |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/gujarat-riot-nhrc-religion-elections-vote-bank-supreme-court-why-22-years-on-the-scs-hindutva-judgment-remains-elephant-in-room-4456258/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103130932/https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/gujarat-riot-nhrc-religion-elections-vote-bank-supreme-court-why-22-years-on-the-scs-hindutva-judgment-remains-elephant-in-room-4456258/ |archive-date=3 January 2017 |website=The Indian Express}}</ref> In 2016, the Supreme Court declined a plea seeking a review of the "devastating consequences" arising from its 1995 judgment.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anand |first=Utkarsh |date=26 October 2016 |title=SC declines to reconsider 1995 order on meaning of Hindutva |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/sc-declines-to-reconsider-1995-order-on-meaning-of-hindutva/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161027035817/https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/sc-declines-to-reconsider-1995-order-on-meaning-of-hindutva/ |archive-date=27 October 2016 |website=The Indian Express}}</ref>
== Ideology and themes == In 1923, Savarkar, a radical nationalist and ideologue, wrote ''Essentials of Hindutva'' (later retitled ''Hindutva: Who Is a Hindu?'').<ref name="Sweetman Malik"/><ref name="Johnson2010p142"/> In the book, he outlined his ideology and "the idea of a universal and essential Hindu identity." The term "Hindu identity" is broadly interpreted and distinguished from "ways of life and values of others."<ref name="Johnson2010p142">{{cite book|author=W. J. Johnson|title=A Dictionary of Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MztqQgAACAAJ|year=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-861026-7|page=142|access-date=1 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221901/https://books.google.com/books?id=MztqQgAACAAJ|url-status=live}}, [http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095937609 Quote] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509052426/http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095937609 |date=9 May 2019 }}: "A term that first surfaces in literary form in the mid 1870s in Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's serialization of his novel Ānandamaṭh in the journal, Bangadarshan. It was subsequently employed by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in his book Hindutva: Who Is a Hindu? (1923) to convey the idea of a universal and essential Hindu identity. As used by its author, and other right-wing nationalist ideologues, it is predicated on an assumed consensus about what constitutes Hindu identity and distinguishes it from the ways of life and values of other (implicitly 'foreign') people and traditions, especially Indian Muslims."</ref> The contemporary meaning and usage of Hindutva largely derives from Savarkar's ideas, as does the post-1980s nationalism and mass political activity in India.<ref name="Bhatt2001p77"/>
=== Unified Hindu identity and religious nationalism === {{See also|Hindu nationalism}} [[File:M S Golwalkar.jpg|thumb|M. S. Golwalkar was the second ''Sarsanghchalak'' (Chief) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. One of the most influential Hindutva thinkers, Golwalkar was among the first to put forward the concept of "''Hindu Rashtra''" (Hindu Nation).]] According to Christophe Jaffrelot, a political scientist and Indologist, Hindutva as outlined in Savarkar's writings "perfectly illustrates" an effort at identity-building through the "stigmatisation and emulation of threatening others." In particular, it was pan-Islamism and similar "Pan-isms" that he assumed made the Hindus vulnerable, as he wrote:
{{blockquote|O Hindus, consolidate and strengthen Hindu nationality; not to give wanton offence to any of our non-Hindu compatriots, in fact to any one in the world but in just and urgent defence of our race and land; to render it impossible for others to betray her or to subject her to unprovoked attack by any of those "Pan-isms" that are struggling forth from continent to continent.|Vinayak Damodar Savarkar<ref name="Jaffrelot1999p25">{{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s: Strategies of Identity-building, Implantation and Mobilisation (with Special Reference to Central India)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iVsfVOTUnYEC|year=1999|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-14-024602-5|pages=25–26|access-date=5 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221902/https://books.google.com/books?id=iVsfVOTUnYEC|url-status=live}}</ref>|title=|source=}}
Since Savarkar's time, the "Hindu identity" and the associated Hindutva ideology has been built upon the perceived vulnerability of Indian religions, culture, and heritage from those who, through "orientalist construction," have vilified them as inferior to a non-Indian religion, culture, and heritage.<ref name="Hansen1999p60">{{cite book|author=Thomas Blom Hansen|title=The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|year=1999|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=1-4008-2305-6|pages=60–65, 69–70, 77–79|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221903/https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|url-status=live}}</ref> In its nationalistic response, Hindutva has been conceived "primarily as an ethnic community" concept, states Jaffrelot, then presented as cultural nationalism, where Hinduism along with other Indian religions are but a part.<ref name="Sharma"/><ref name="Jaffrelot1999p30">{{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s: Strategies of Identity-building, Implantation and Mobilisation (with Special Reference to Central India)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iVsfVOTUnYEC|year=1999|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-14-024602-5|pages=25–30|access-date=5 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221902/https://books.google.com/books?id=iVsfVOTUnYEC|url-status=live}}</ref>{{efn|According to Gavin Flood, a scholar of Hinduism, the term "Hindutva" differs from "Hindu dharma." The latter term means Hinduism and its various sub-traditions, while the term Hindutva in Savarkar's ideology meant the "socio-political force to unite all Hindus against foreign influences," states Flood.<ref name="Flood1996p262">{{cite book|author=Gavin D. Flood|title=An Introduction to Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpIWhKnYmF0C&pg=PA262|year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-43878-0|page=262|quote=The party's most vociferous leader was Vinayak Damodar Savarkar who made a distinction between 'Hindu Dharma', the religion of the various traditions, and 'Hindutva', the socio-political force to unite all Hindus against foreign influences|access-date=29 January 2020|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221949/https://books.google.com/books?id=KpIWhKnYmF0C&pg=PA262#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Klaus Klostermaier, a scholar of Hinduism, Hindutva has become more than the original search for Hinduness during the Indian freedom movement, and has morphed into "Hindutva movement" in the post-Independent India.<ref name=klostermaierp16/> This movement—though reviled by Western and West-oriented Indian scholars—has been ongoing, according to Klostermaier, as a political ideology which "takes elements of Hindu tradition and reshapes them in the light of their own time so as to provide answers to the needs of their contemporaries."<ref name=klostermaierp16/><ref>{{cite journal | last=Bauman | first=Chad | title=Indian Religions: Renaissance and Renewal | journal=Numen | publisher=Brill | volume=55 | issue=2 | year=2008 | pages=343–347| doi=10.1163/156852708X284022 | s2cid=142656106 }}</ref> In this historical and sociological context, Hindutva is an assertion of values and a non-aberrant response to the Indic experiences and memories of Islamic conquests, Christian imperialism, and the abuses of colonialism, according to Klostermaier.<ref name=klostermaierp16>{{cite book|title=Indian Religions: Renaissance and Renewal - The Spalding Papers on Indic Studies|author=Klaus Klostermaier|editor=Anna King|year=2006 |publisher=Equinox| isbn=978-1-845-53169-0|pages=16–18, 3–27, also see comments of Anna King at p. xii}}</ref>}}
According to Arvind Sharma, a scholar of Hinduism, Hindutva has not been a "static and monolithic concept", rather its meaning and "context, text and subtext has changed over time." The struggles of the colonial era and the formulation of neo-Hinduism by the early 20th century added a sense of "ethnicity" to the original "Hinduness" meaning of Hindutva.<ref name=sharma20>{{cite journal |last=Sharma |first=Arvind |title=On Hindu, Hindustan, Hinduism and Hindutva |journal=Numen |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=20–24, 26–29 |year=2002 |jstor=3270470 |doi=10.1163/15685270252772759}}</ref> Its early formulation incorporated the racism and nationalism concepts prevalent in Europe during the first half of the 20th century, and culture was in part rationalised as a result of "shared blood and race." Savarkar and his Hindutva colleagues adopted the social Darwinism theories prevalent by the 1930s.<ref name="Hansen1999p77">{{cite book|author=Thomas Blom Hansen|title=The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|year=1999|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=1-4008-2305-6|pages=77–79|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221903/https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|url-status=live}}</ref> In the post-independence period, states Sharma, the concept has suffered from ambiguity and its understanding aligned on "two different axes," one of religion versus culture, another of nation versus state. In general, the Hindutva thought among many Indians has "tried to align itself with the culture and nation" axes.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sharma |first=Arvind |title=On Hindu, Hindustan, Hinduism and Hindutva |journal=Numen |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=26–27 |year=2002 |jstor=3270470 |doi=10.1163/15685270252772759}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|From this standpoint, sanctioned by the experience of shrewd old nations, the foreign races in Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment—not even citizen's rights. There is, at least should be, no other course for them to adopt. We are an old nation; let us deal as old nations ought to and do deal, with the foreign races, who have chosen to live in our country. |author=M. S. Golwalkar<ref>{{Cite book |first=Dhirendra K. |last=Jha |year=2024 |title=Golwalkar: The Myth Behind the Man, The Man Behind the Machine |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-81-979492-4-1 |pages=78–79}}</ref>}}
=== Upper casteism === When Prime Minister V. P. Singh launched the Mandal Commission to broaden reservations in government and public university jobs to a significant portion of the Shudras who were officially branded the Other Backward Classes (OBC), the mouthpiece of the Hindutva organisation RSS, ''Organiser'' magazine, wrote of "an urgent need to build up moral and spiritual forces to counter any fallout from an expected Shudra revolution."<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|title=The farm laws are an assault on Shudra power|url=https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/farmer-protests-caste-modi-shudra-obc|website=The Caravan|language=en|access-date=15 March 2021|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007223651/https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/farmer-protests-caste-modi-shudra-obc|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="IndianExpress7181746">{{Cite web|date=10 February 2021|title=Rise of Hindutva has enabled a counter-revolution against Mandal's gains|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/hindu-nationalism-mandal-commission-upper-caste-politics-modi-govt-7181746/|website=The Indian Express|language=en|access-date=2 November 2021|archive-date=10 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210050201/https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/hindu-nationalism-mandal-commission-upper-caste-politics-modi-govt-7181746/|url-status=live}}</ref>
According to social scientist and economist Jean Drèze, the Mandal Commission angered the upper castes and threatened to distance the OBCs, but the Babri Masjid's destruction and ensuing events helped to reduce this challenge and reunified Hindus on an anti-Muslim stance. He further claims "The Hindutva project is a lifeboat for the upper castes in so far as it promises to restore the Brahminical social order" and the potential enemies of this ideology is anybody whose acts might hinder the process of restoring the Brahminic social order. Drèze further claims that although Hindutva is known as a majoritarian movement, it can be best expressed as an oppressive minority movement.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Drèze|first=Jean|date=14 February 2020|title=The Revolt of the Upper Castes|url=https://journals.library.brandeis.edu/index.php/caste/article/view/44|journal=Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion|language=en|publisher=Brandeis University|volume=1|issue=1|pages=229–236|doi=10.26812/caste.v1i1.44|issn=2639-4928|doi-access=free|access-date=2 November 2021|archive-date=26 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211026075456/https://journals.library.brandeis.edu/index.php/caste/article/view/44|url-status=live}}</ref>
According to Jaffrelot, the Sangh Parivar organisations with their Hindutva ideology have strived to impose the belief structure of the upper caste Hindus.<ref name="IndianExpress7181746" /> According to Dalit rights activist and political theorist Kancha Ilaiah, "Hindutva Is Nothing But Brahminism" and that only "Dalitisation can effectively counter the danger of Brahminical fascism disguised as Hindutva."<ref>{{Cite web|title='Hindutva Is Nothing But Brahminism'|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/hindutva-is-nothing-but-brahminism/215089|website=Outlookindia|date=3 February 2022|access-date=2 November 2021|archive-date=2 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102084628/https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/hindutva-is-nothing-but-brahminism/215089|url-status=live}}</ref>
According to sociologist Amritorupa Sen, the privileges of the upper caste and especially Brahmins have become invisible. There has been a cultural norm that Brahmins take care of the lower castes out of a moral responsibility but also out of human kindness.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sen |first=Amritorupa |date=2022-06-29 |title=The surviving power of Brahmin privilege |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00113921221105915 |journal=Current Sociology |volume=72 |issue=5 |language=en |pages=834–852 |doi=10.1177/00113921221105915 |s2cid=250151238 |issn=0011-3921 |access-date=8 May 2023 |archive-date=9 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509191903/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00113921221105915 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
=== Separatism === The Hindutva ideology has also been described as a separatist ideology. Siddharth Varadarajan writes that Hindutva separatism seeks to depart from the "philosophical, cultural and civilisation mores of the country, including Hinduism itself".<ref name="Parel"/><ref name="Varadarajan"/>
The Hindu Mahasabha received funding from various princely states and advocated for their continued independence following India's liberation from British rule. Savarkar, in particular, praised Hindu-majority princely states such as Mysore, Agra and Oudh, and Travancore, describing them as "progressive." He defended their autocratic authority, referring to these states as "citadels of organised Hindu power."<ref>{{cite book |last=Bapu |first=Prabhu |year=2013 |title=Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930: Constructing Nation and History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iUFalxUFFWkC |location=London and New York |publisher=Routledge |edition=1st |isbn=978-0-415-67165-1 |pages=32–33}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Chhibber |first1=P.K. |last2=Verma |first2=R. |title=Ideology and Identity: The Changing Party Systems of India |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-0-19-062390-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nJRqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT248 |page=248}}</ref>
=== Pseudohistory === {{Main|Hindutva pseudohistory}} According to Jaffrelot, the Hindutva ideology has roots in an era where the fiction in ancient Indian mythology and Vedic antiquity was presumed to be valid. This fiction was used to "give sustenance to Hindu ethnic consciousness."<ref name="Jaffrelot1996p77"/> Its strategy emulated the Muslim identity politics of the Khilafat movement after World War I, and borrowed political concepts from the West—mainly German.<ref name="Jaffrelot1996p77"/> Hindutva organisations treat events in Hindu mythology as history.<ref>{{cite web|author=R. Ramachandran|date=1 February 2019|title=Science circus|website=Frontline|url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/science-and-technology/article26004777.ece|access-date=2 November 2021|archive-date=17 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210217061205/https://frontline.thehindu.com/science-and-technology/article26004777.ece|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Ziya Us Salam|title=Age of unreason|website=Frontline|date=20 June 2018|url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article24200525.ece|access-date=2 November 2021|archive-date=2 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210202211212/https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/article24200525.ece|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Meera Nanda|date=2 January 2004|website=Frontline|url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/article30220434.ece|title=Postmodernism, Hindu nationalism and 'Vedic science'|access-date=29 December 2020|archive-date=12 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812120255/https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/article30220434.ece}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Truschke|first=Audrey|date=15 December 2020|title=Hindutva's Dangerous Rewriting of History|url=http://journals.openedition.org/samaj/6636|journal=South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal|language=fr|issue=24/25|doi=10.4000/samaj.6636|issn=1960-6060|doi-access=free|access-date=2 November 2021|archive-date=19 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019050347/https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/6636|url-status=live}}</ref> Hindutva organisations have been criticised for their belief in statements or practices that they claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method.<ref>{{citation |first=Meera |last=Nanda |title=Hindutva's science envy |url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/science-and-technology/hindutvas-science-envy/article9049883.ece |newspaper=Frontline |date=16 September 2016 |access-date=14 October 2016 |archive-date=28 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191228160257/https://frontline.thehindu.com/science-and-technology/hindutvas-science-envy/article9049883.ece |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://scroll.in/article/865872/from-dissing-darwin-to-yogic-farming-a-short-history-of-the-bjps-brush-with-pseudoscience|title=From dissing Darwin to yogic farming: A short history of the BJP's brush with pseudoscience|first=Shoaib|last=Daniyal|website=Scroll.in|date=21 January 2018|access-date=2 November 2021|archive-date=2 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102071616/https://scroll.in/article/865872/from-dissing-darwin-to-yogic-farming-a-short-history-of-the-bjps-brush-with-pseudoscience|url-status=live}}</ref>
According to Anthony Parel, a historian and political scientist, Savarkar's ''Hindutva, Who is a Hindu?'' published in 1923 is a fundamental text of Hindutva ideology. It asserts, states Parel, India of the past to be "the creation of a racially superior people, the Aryans. They came to be known to the outside world as Hindus, the people beyond the Indus River. Their identity was created by their race (Jati) and their culture (Sanskriti). All Hindus claim to have in their veins the blood of the mighty race incorporated with and descended from the Vedic fathers. They created a culture—an ensemble of mythologies, legends, epic stories, philosophy, art and architecture, laws and rites, feasts and festivals. They have a special relationship to India: India is to them both a fatherland and a holy land." Savarkar's text presents the "Hindu culture as a self-sufficient culture, not needing any input from other cultures," which is "an unhistorical, narcissistic and false account of India's past," states Parel.<ref name="Parel2006p42">{{cite book|author=Anthony J. Parel|title=Gandhi's Philosophy and the Quest for Harmony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQhz0fW0HZUC|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-86715-3|pages=42–43|access-date=13 June 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007224120/https://books.google.com/books?id=MQhz0fW0HZUC|url-status=live}}</ref>
The premises of early Hindu nationalist thought, states Chetan Bhatt, reflected the colonial era European scholarship and Orientalism of its times.<ref name="Bhatt2001p11"/> The ideas of "India as the cradle of civilisation," or "humanity's homeland and primal philosophy," or "humanism in Hindu values," or of Hinduism offering redemption for contemporary humanity, along with the colonial era scholarship of Frederich Muller, Charles Wilkins, William Jones, Alexander Hamilton, and others were a natural intellectual matrix for Savarkar and others to borrow and germinate their Hindu nationalist ideas.<ref name="Bhatt2001p11">{{cite book|author=Chetan Bhatt|title=Hindu nationalism: origins, ideologies and modern myths|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W2PXAAAAMAAJ|year=2001|publisher=Berg|isbn=978-1-85973-343-1|pages=11–12|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221901/https://books.google.com/books?id=W2PXAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>
Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, a Fellow of the British Academy and a scholar of Politics and Philosophy of Religion, states that Hindutva is a form of nationalism that is expounded differently by its opponents and its proponents.<ref name="Ram‐Prasad1993p285"/> The opponents of Hindutva either consider it as a fundamentalist ideology that "aims to regulate the working of civil society with the imperatives of Hindu religious doctrine", or alternatively, as another form of fundamentalism while accepting that Hinduism is a diverse collection of doctrines, is complex and is different from other religions. According to Ram-Prasad, the proponents reject these tags, viewing it to be their right and a desirable value to cherish their religious and cultural traditions.<ref name="Ram‐Prasad1993p285">{{cite journal | last=Ram-Prasad | first=C. | title=Hindutva ideology: Extracting the fundamentals | journal=Contemporary South Asia | volume=2 | issue=3 | year=1993 | doi=10.1080/09584939308719718 | pages=285–309}}</ref> Hindutva, according to Savarkar, is a "geography, race, and culture" based concept. However, the "geography" is not strictly territorial but is an "ancestral homeland of a people", and the "race" is not biogenetic but described as the historic descendants of the intermarriage of Aryans, native Dravidian peoples, and "different peoples" who arrived over time.<ref name="Flood2008p527"/> So, "the ultimate category for Hindutva is culture," and this culture is "not strictly speaking religious, if religion is meant a commitment to certain doctrines of transcendence."<ref name="Flood2008p527">{{cite book|author=C. Ram-Prasad|editor=Gavin Flood|title=The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKBxa-MNqA8C|year=2008|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-470-99868-7|pages=527–528|access-date=13 June 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007224121/https://books.google.com/books?id=SKBxa-MNqA8C|url-status=live}}</ref>
==== Hostility towards academic freedom ==== Hindutva has been associated with threats and intimidation directed at academics and students, both within India and in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Venugopal, Arun|date=21 July 2021|title=At Rutgers, and Beyond, Scholars Are Under Attack For Their Critique of India's Far-Right Government|url=http://gothamist.com/news/at-rutgers-and-beyond-scholars-are-under-attack-for-their-critique-of-indias-far-right-government|access-date=21 July 2021|website=Gothamist|language=en|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007224153/https://gothamist.com/news/at-rutgers-and-beyond-scholars-are-under-attack-for-their-critique-of-indias-far-right-government|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Venugopal |first=Arun |date=19 July 2021 |title=American Scholars of India Confront a Rise in Threats |url=https://www.wnyc.org/story/american-scholars-india-confront-rise-threats/ |access-date=6 September 2021 |website=WNYC |language=en |archive-date=18 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918025437/https://www.wnyc.org/story/american-scholars-india-confront-rise-threats/ |url-status=live }}</ref> A notable instance occurred in 2011, when Hindutva activists successfully campaigned for the removal of an essay discussing the multiple narrative traditions of the ''Ramayana'', an ancient Sanskrit epic, from the history syllabus at the Delhi University, one of India's most prestigious institutions of higher education.<ref>{{Cite news|last=N|first=Vijetha S.|date=15 October 2011|title=Historians protest as Delhi University purges Ramayana essay from syllabus|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Historians-protest-as-Delhi-University-purges-Ramayana-essay-from-syllabus/article13372074.ece|access-date=11 July 2021|issn=0971-751X|archive-date=11 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711004312/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Historians-protest-as-Delhi-University-purges-Ramayana-essay-from-syllabus/article13372074.ece|url-status=live}}</ref> Romila Thapar, one of India's most eminent historians, has faced sustained criticism and attacks from Hindutva-affiliated groups.<ref>{{Cite news|title=In the battle over India's history, Hindu nationalists square off against a respected historian|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-romila-thapar-dissent/2021/01/02/1a79ca54-4070-11eb-b58b-1623f6267960_story.html|access-date=11 July 2021|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=9 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209021704/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-romila-thapar-dissent/2021/01/02/1a79ca54-4070-11eb-b58b-1623f6267960_story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The Hindu right has also been implicated in efforts to discredit and obstruct scholars of South Asian studies and Hinduism based in North America. Notable figures such as Wendy Doniger and Sheldon Pollock have been targets of such campaigns. Doniger's book ceased publication in India following a legal settlement in which the publisher agreed to withdraw the title over claims that it defamed Hinduism. Pollock, similarly, was accused of misrepresenting the country's cultural heritage and of allegedly showing "disrespect for the unity and integrity of India."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Scholars who study Hinduism and India face hostile climate|url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/04/12/scholars-who-study-hinduism-and-india-face-hostile-climate|access-date=11 July 2021|website=www.insidehighered.com|language=en|archive-date=10 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710045115/https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/04/12/scholars-who-study-hinduism-and-india-face-hostile-climate|url-status=live}}</ref> Under the leadership of the BJP, the Indian state has faced allegations of monitoring academics and restricting access to research resources for scholars.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Chaturvedi |first1=Vinayak |title=The Hindu Right and Attacks on Academic Freedom in the US |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/hindu-right-academic-freedom/ |publisher=The Nation |date=December 2021 |access-date=5 December 2021 |archive-date=7 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007224220/https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/hindu-right-academic-freedom/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Audrey Truschke, an American historian of South Asia, remains a frequent target of threats and harassment by those aligned with Hindutva.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://thehindustangazette.com/crime/for-more-than-five-years-i-have-received-hate-mail-from-hindu-nationalists-almost-every-single-day-dr-audrey-truschke-5373|title=For more than five years, I have received hate mail from Hindu nationalists almost every single day - Dr. Audrey Truschke|date=15 September 2021|access-date=1 August 2022|archive-date=18 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221118202434/https://thehindustangazette.com/crime/for-more-than-five-years-i-have-received-hate-mail-from-hindu-nationalists-almost-every-single-day-dr-audrey-truschke-5373|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Historian Audrey Truschke faces threats, Rutgers University extends support to her|newspaper=Scroll|url=https://scroll.in/latest/988994/abhor-vile-messages-and-threats-directed-at-audrey-truschke-says-rutgers-university|access-date=5 August 2022|archive-date=24 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924230525/https://scroll.in/latest/988994/abhor-vile-messages-and-threats-directed-at-audrey-truschke-says-rutgers-university|url-status=live}}</ref>
In 2021, a collective of scholars of South Asia based in North America published the ''Hindutva Harassment Field Manual'' in response to what they characterised as threats to their academic freedom emanating from Hindutva adherents.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Prakash|first=Priyali|title='Targeted by hate': Audrey Truschke on why she helped write a 'Hindutva Harassment Field Manual'|url=https://scroll.in/article/999710/targeted-by-hate-audrey-truschke-on-why-she-helped-write-a-hindutva-harassment-field-manual|access-date=28 August 2021|website=Scroll.in|date=10 July 2021|language=en-US|archive-date=2 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902044316/https://scroll.in/article/999710/targeted-by-hate-audrey-truschke-on-why-she-helped-write-a-hindutva-harassment-field-manual|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> The manual documented numerous incidents of harassment, dating back to the 1990s, aimed at academics engaged in critical scholarship on South Asia and Hinduism.<ref>{{cite web |last1=SASAC |title=Timeline |url=https://www.hindutvaharassmentfieldmanual.org/timeline |website=Hindutva Harassment Field Manual |access-date=5 December 2021 |archive-date=5 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205225145/https://www.hindutvaharassmentfieldmanual.org/timeline |url-status=live }}</ref> The Association for Asian Studies described Hindutva as a "majoritarian ideological doctrine" distinct from Hinduism and condemned the increasing attacks on scholars, artists, and journalists who engage critically with its political tenets.<ref>{{Cite web|date=10 September 2021|title=AAS Statement on the Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference|url=https://www.asianstudies.org/aas-statement-on-the-dismantling-global-hindutva-conference/|access-date=11 September 2021|website=Association for Asian Studies|language=en-US|archive-date=10 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210910221626/https://www.asianstudies.org/aas-statement-on-the-dismantling-global-hindutva-conference/|url-status=live}}</ref> Several academics and conference participants withdrew from scholarly events due to threats received from ultranationalists and Hindutva-affiliated actors.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Death threats sent to participants of US conference on Hindu nationalism|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/09/death-threats-sent-to-participants-of-us-conference-on-hindu-nationalism|access-date=5 August 2022|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007224634/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/09/death-threats-sent-to-participants-of-us-conference-on-hindu-nationalism|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Under fire from Hindu nationalist groups, U.S.-based scholars of South Asia worry about academic freedom|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/03/india-us-universities-hindutva/|access-date=1 August 2022|archive-date=10 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220810060010/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/10/03/india-us-universities-hindutva/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=US Conference on Hindu Nationalism marred by death threats to participants|newspaper=The Siasat Daily|url=https://www.siasat.com/us-conference-on-hindu-nationalism-marred-by-death-threats-to-participants-2190297/|access-date=5 August 2022|archive-date=5 August 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220805084841/https://www.siasat.com/us-conference-on-hindu-nationalism-marred-by-death-threats-to-participants-2190297/|url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Fascism === {{Fascism sidebar|variants}} The Hindutva ideology has significantly borrowed ideas and concepts from European fascism.{{Sfn|Sant|1999|p=85}}{{Sfn|Krishna|Noorani|2003|p=4}} Parallels between Hindutva and European fascism are observed in concepts such as repeated mobilisations, appeals to a mythic past, anti-communism, its purist racial elements, among others.<ref>{{cite book|title=Economic and Political Weekly, Volume 34|year=1999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o_ywAAAAIAAJ|page=712|access-date=23 July 2023|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221935/https://books.google.com/books?id=o_ywAAAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/20/what-is-hindu-nationalism-and-who-are-the-rss |title=What is Hindu nationalism and how does it relate to trouble in Leicester? |first=Hannah |last=Ellis-Petersen |date=20 September 2022 |website=The Guardian}}</ref>
After the 1940s and 1950s, a number of scholars have labelled or compared Hindutva to fascism.<ref name=":3">[a] {{Cite journal|last=Sarkar|first=Sumit|date=1 January 1993|title=The Fascism of the Sangh Parivar|jstor=4399339|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=28|issue=5|pages=163–167}}<br />[b] {{cite journal | last=Ahmad | first=Aijaz | title=Fascism and National Culture: Reading Gramsci in the Days of Hindutva | journal=Social Scientist | volume=21 | issue=3/4 | year=1993 | pages=32–68 | doi=10.2307/3517630 | jstor=3517630 }}</ref><ref name=":4">[a] {{Cite book|last=Desai|first=Radhika|title=Theoretical Engagements in Geopolitical Economy |date=5 June 2015|chapter= |url=http://www.epw.in/journal/2016/53/review-article/hindutva-and-fascism.html |volume=51|doi=10.1108/S0161-7230201530A|isbn=978-1-78560-295-5|access-date=8 May 2017|archive-date=18 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170718164125/http://www.epw.in/journal/2016/53/review-article/hindutva-and-fascism.html|url-status=live}}<br />[b] {{cite journal | last=Reddy | first=Deepa S. | title=Hindutva: Formative Assertions | journal=Religion Compass | publisher=Wiley | volume=5 | issue=8 | year=2011 | doi=10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00290.x | pages=439–451}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Sen | first=Satadru | title=Fascism Without Fascists? A Comparative Look at Hindutva and Zionism | journal=South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies | volume=38 | issue=4 | date=2 October 2015 | doi=10.1080/00856401.2015.1077924 | pages=690–711| s2cid=147386523 }}</ref> Many scholars have pointed out that early Hindutva ideologues were inspired by fascist movements in early 20th-century Italy and Germany.<ref>{{Cite web|last=South Asia Scholar Activist Collective|title=What is Hindutva?|url=https://www.hindutvaharassmentfieldmanual.org/defininghindutva|access-date=11 July 2021|website=Hindutva Harassment Field Manual|language=en-US|archive-date=10 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710045110/https://www.hindutvaharassmentfieldmanual.org/defininghindutva|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Leidig|first=Eviane|date=26 May 2020|title=Hindutva as a variant of right-wing extremism|journal=Patterns of Prejudice|volume=54|issue=3|pages=215–237|doi=10.1080/0031322X.2020.1759861|issn=0031-322X|hdl=10852/77740|s2cid=221839031|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Reddy|first=Deepa|date=2011|title=Capturing Hindutva: Rhetorics and Strategies|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00289.x|journal=Religion Compass|language=en|volume=5|issue=8|pages=427–438|doi=10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00289.x|issn=1749-8171|access-date=11 July 2021|archive-date=11 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711003616/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00289.x|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Jaffrelot|first=Christophe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOXWgr53A5kC|title=Hindu Nationalism: A Reader|date=10 January 2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2803-6|language=en|access-date=2 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221357/https://books.google.com/books?id=mOXWgr53A5kC|url-status=live}}</ref> Marzia Casolari is one such scholar who has linked the association and the borrowing of pre-World War II European fascist ideas by early leaders of Hindutva ideology.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last= Casolari|first= Marzia|year= 2000|title= Hindutva's Foreign Tie-Up in the 1930s: Archival Evidence|jstor=4408848 |journal= Economic and Political Weekly|volume=35|issue=4|pages=218–228}}</ref> According to the ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics and International Relations'', the term Hindutva has "fascist undertones."<ref name="BrownMcLean2018">{{citation|last1=Brown|first1=Garrett W|last2=McLean|first2=Iain|last3=McMillan|first3=Alistair|title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics and International Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3FGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT381|date=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-254584-8|pages=381–|access-date=9 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007223648/https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3FGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT381#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>
The Indian Marxist economist and political commentator Prabhat Patnaik calls Hindutva "almost fascist in the classical sense." He states that the Hindutva movement is based on "class support, methods and programme."<ref name="j3517631">{{cite journal |title=Fascism of our times |jstor=3517631 |author=Prabhat Patnaik |journal=Social Scientist |volume=21 |issue=3/4|pages=69–77 |year=1993 |doi=10.2307/3517631}}</ref> According to Patnaik, Hindutva has the following fascist ingredients: "an attempt to create a unified homogeneous majority under the concept of "the Hindus"; a sense of grievance against past injustice; a sense of cultural superiority; an interpretation of history according to this grievance and superiority; a rejection of rational arguments against this interpretation; and an appeal to the majority based on race and masculinity."<ref name="j3517631"/>
According to Jaffrelot, the early Hindutva proponents such as Golwalkar envisioned it as an extreme form of "ethnic nationalism", but the ideology differed from fascism and Nazism in three respects.<ref name="Jaffrelot1996p77"/> First, unlike fascism and Nazism, it did not closely associate Hindutva with its leader. Second, while fascism emphasised the primacy of the state, Hindutva considered the state to be a secondary. Third, while Nazism emphasised primacy of the race, the Hindutva ideology emphasised primacy of the society over race.<ref name="Jaffrelot1996p77">{{cite book|author= Christophe Jaffrelot|title= The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2buDDwdgIsC|year= 1996|publisher= Columbia University Press|isbn= 978-0-231-10335-0|page= 77|access-date= 12 June 2019|archive-date= 7 October 2024|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20241007223700/https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2buDDwdgIsC|url-status= live}}</ref> According to Achin Vanaik, several authors have labelled Hindutva as fascist, but such a label requires "establishing a fascist minimum." Hindu nationalism, states Vanaik, is "a specific Indian manifestation of a generic phenomenon [of nationalism] but not one that belongs to the genus of fascism."<ref>{{cite journal|title = Situating Threat of Hindu Nationalism: Problems with Fascist Paradigm| author= Achin Vanaik| journal = Economic and Political Weekly| volume = 29| number= 28| year= 1994| pages= 1729–1748|jstor=4401457}}</ref>
Sociologists Chetan Bhatt and Parita Mukta have described difficulties in identifying Hindutva with fascism or Nazism, because of Hindutva's embrace of cultural rather than racial nationalism, its "distinctively Indian" character, and "the RSS's disavowal of the seizure of state power in preference for long-term cultural labour in civil society." They describe Hindutva as a form of "revolutionary conservatism" or "ethnic absolutism."<ref name="Bhatt & Mukta">{{cite journal |journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies |volume=23 |issue=3|pages=407–441 |date=May 2000 |author1=Chetan Bhatt |author2=Parita Mukta |title=Hindutva in the West: Mapping the Antinomies of Diaspora Nationalism |doi= 10.1080/014198700328935|s2cid=143287533}} Quote: "It is also argued that the distinctively Indian aspects of Hindu nationalism, and the RSS's disavowal of the seizure of state power in preference for long-term cultural labour in civil society, suggests a strong distance from both German Nazism and Italian Fascism. Part of the problem in attempting to classify Golwalkar's or Savarkar's Hindu nationalism within the typology of 'generic fascism', Nazism, racism and ethnic or cultural nationalism is the unavailability of an appropriate theoretical orientation and vocabulary for varieties of revolutionary conservatism and far-right-wing ethnic and religious absolutist movements in 'Third World' countries."</ref> According to Thomas Hansen, Hindutva represents a "conservative revolution" in postcolonial India, and its proponents have been combining "paternalistic and xenophobic discourses" with "democratic and universalist discourses on rights and entitlements" based on "desires, anxieties and fractured subjectivities" in India.<ref name="Hansen1999p4">{{cite book|author=Thomas Blom Hansen|title=The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|year=1999|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=1-4008-2305-6|pages=4–5|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221903/https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|url-status=live}}</ref>
==== Hindutva and Nazism ==== An editorial published on 4 February 1948 in the ''National Herald'', the mouthpiece of the Indian National Congress party, stated that "it [RSS] seems to embody Hinduism in a Nazi form" with the recommendation that it must be ended.<ref name="Graham2007">{{cite book|author=Bruce Desmond Graham|title=Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics: The Origins and Development of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KxMgPAAACAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-05374-7|pages=11–12|access-date=10 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007222440/https://books.google.com/books?id=KxMgPAAACAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> Similarly, in 1956, another Congress party leader compared the Bharatiya Jana Sangh to the Nazis in Germany.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bruce Desmond Graham|title=Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics: The Origins and Development of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KxMgPAAACAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-05374-7|page=66 with footnotes|access-date=10 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007222440/https://books.google.com/books?id=KxMgPAAACAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>{{efn|Hindutva organisations were not exclusively criticised in the 1940s by Indian political leaders. The Muslim League was criticised as well for "its creed of Islamic exclusiveness, its cult of communal hatred and its practice of terrorism and treachery" and called a replica of the German Nazis.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bruce Desmond Graham|title=Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics: The Origins and Development of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KxMgPAAACAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-05374-7|pages=1–2|access-date=10 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007222440/https://books.google.com/books?id=KxMgPAAACAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>}}
Savarkar criticised Jawaharlal Nehru for condemning Germany and Italy, asserting that "crores of Hindu Sanghatanists in India [...] cherish no ill-will towards Germany or Italy or Japan." In 1938, Savarkar publicly expressed support for the German occupation of Czechoslovakia.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Casolari |first=Marzia |title=Hindutva's Foreign Tie-up in the 1930s: Archival Evidence |publisher=Economic and Political Weekly |year=2000 |page=223}}</ref> Although, at the outbreak of the Second World War, Savarkar and the Hindu Mahasabha initially advocated a stance of neutrality, his rhetoric became increasingly strident over time. He characterised German Jews as a communal force and endorsed the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Moreover, he drew a parallel between German Jews and Indian Muslims, stating, "The Indian Muslims are on the whole more inclined to identify themselves and their interests with Muslims outside India than Hindus who live next door, like Jews in Germany."<ref name=":7" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Ravishankar |first=Ra. |date=20 July 2002 |title=The real Sarvarkar |url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/other/article30245603.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231120203021/https://frontline.thehindu.com/other/article30245603.ece |archive-date=20 November 2023 |website=Frontline}}</ref> As late as 1961, he spoke favourably of Nazi Germany and contrasted it with Nehru's "cowardly democracy."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bhatt|first=Chetan|title=Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths|publisher=Routledge|year=2001|isbn=978-1-85973-348-6|pages=107–108}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|German race pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the semitic Races—the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how wellnigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by.|author=M. S. Golwalkar<ref>{{cite book |title=Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics: The Origins and Development of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh |first=Bruce |last=Desmond Graham |year=2007 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=46 |isbn=978-0-521-05374-7}}</ref>}}
==History== ===Origins=== According to Prabhu Bapu, a historian and scholar of Oriental Studies, the term and the contextual meaning of Hindutva emerged from the Indian experience in the colonial era, memories of its religious wars as the Mughal Empire decayed, an era of Muslim and Christian proselytisation, a feeling that their traditions and cultures were being insulted, whereby the Hindu intellectuals formulated Hindutva as a "Hindu identity" as a prelude to a national resurgence and a unified Indian nation against the "foreign invaders."<ref name="Bapu2012p62">{{cite book|author= Prabhu Bapu|title= Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930: Constructing Nation and History|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=bNzfCgAAQBAJ|year= 2012|publisher= Routledge|isbn= 978-1-136-25500-7|pages= 62–67, 70–71|access-date= 1 May 2019|archive-date= 7 October 2024|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221906/https://books.google.com/books?id=bNzfCgAAQBAJ|url-status= live}}</ref> The development of "religious nationalism" and the demand by the Muslim leaders on the Indian subcontinent for the partition of British India into Muslim and non-Muslim nations (Pakistan and Bangladesh being Muslim-majority, and India being Hindu-majority) during the middle of the 20th century, confirmed its narrative of geographical and cultural nationalism based on Indian culture and religions.<ref name=sharma20/>{{efn|Savarkar's early writings and speeches on cultural nationalism contained an embryonic form of a two-nation theory. This embryo took a more detailed form with the Lahore Resolution of 1940 of the Muslim League, which declared, "India's Muslims were a 'separate nation'."<ref name="Bapup77"/> Mohammed Ali Jinnah explained the Indian Muslims demand by asserting a cultural distinctiveness of Islam and this "constituted the rationale for a separate nation-state of 'Pakistan'." Jinnah's speech and rationale confirmed Savarkar's beliefs and his early Hindutva's narrative.<ref name="Bapup77"/> The historian Prabhu Bapu quotes and summarises the ideas of the Muslim leaders in British India around 1940: "there were two nations in India, Hindu and Muslim", said Jinnah, British India should be partitioned into "Pakistan and Hindustan." According to Jinnah, "the differences between Hindus and Muslims in India were not merely religious, but entirely different ways of life and thought. [...] The two communities were distinct peoples, with different religious philosophies, social customs, literatures, and histories. [...] For more than a thousand years, the bulk of Muslims in India had lived in a different world, in a different society, in a different philosophy and a different faith. [...] Muslims must have a state of their own in which they would establish their own constitution and make their own laws."<ref name="Bapup77">{{cite book|author=Prabhu Bapu|title=Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930: Constructing Nation and History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iUFalxUFFWkC|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-67165-1|page=77|access-date=4 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221952/https://books.google.com/books?id=iUFalxUFFWkC|url-status=live}}; For additional context on the two-nation theory history based on Hindu-Muslim cultural conflicts and the partition: {{cite book|author=Venkat Dhulipala|title=Creating a New Medina: State Power, Islam, and the Quest for Pakistan in Late Colonial North India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PrqLBgAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-25838-5|pages=1–24, 25–28, 360–367|chapter=Ch. Introduction; Nationalists, Communalists and the 1937 Provincial Elections|access-date=4 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221937/https://books.google.com/books?id=PrqLBgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Prabhu, such ideas and rationale fuelled the Hindutva narrative for a radical exclusivist Hindu nation, and became "the apologia for the two-nation theory of the 1940s."<ref>{{cite book|author=Prabhu Bapu|title=Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915-1930: Constructing Nation and History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iUFalxUFFWkC|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-67165-1|pages=77–78|access-date=4 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221952/https://books.google.com/books?id=iUFalxUFFWkC|url-status=live}}</ref>}}{{efn|According to the Political Scientist Christophe Jaffrelot, in the pre-1947 period, the two nationalism and separatist movements in South Asia influenced each other. This history is an example of the Ernest Gellner theory of nationalism, states Jaffrelot.<ref name="Jaffrelot2002p10"/> The Gellner theory states that nationalistic movements arise when there exist two groups, one privileged and other under-privileged. When the privilege-power equation is threatened by the social forces of history, "culture, skin pigmentation" and such ethnic markers become a basis to presume inferiority of the other and a pretext to manipulate the situation. Using a language of nationalism, one group tries to maintain the status quo, while the other seeks to overthrow it. In British India, states Jaffrelot, Muslim nationalism and separatism "certainly did not develop" from feelings of having been discriminated against, but their mobilisation came from "the fear of decline and marginalization" of their historic privilege among the Muslim elites in British India.<ref name="Jaffrelot2002p10"/> They deployed Islamic cultural symbols and pressed for Perso-Arabic script-based Urdu language for their separatist and nationalist rationale, while Hindu nationalists deployed Hindu cultural symbols and pressed for the use of Indic script-based (Hindi) language – both languages nearly similar when spoken. The mutual use of identity symbols helped crystallise the other's convictions and fuel each other's fears.<ref name="Jaffrelot2002p10">{{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=Pakistan: Nationalism Without A Nation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I2avL3aZzSEC|year=2002|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=978-1-84277-117-4|pages=10–11, context: 10–16|access-date=5 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007225522/https://books.google.com/books?id=I2avL3aZzSEC|url-status=live}}</ref> These identity symbols and the continued mutual use of such ideological statements fuel the nationalistic discourse in contemporary India and Pakistan. They have been and remain central to organisations such as the BJP and the ''Sangh Parivar'' associated with the Hindutva ideology, according to Jean-Luc Racine, a scholar of nationalisms and separatisms with a focus on South Asia.<ref>{{cite book|author= Jean-Luc Racine|editor= Christophe Jaffrelot|title= Pakistan: Nationalism Without A Nation|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=I2avL3aZzSEC|year= 2002|publisher= Zed Books|isbn= 978-1-84277-117-4|pages= 205–211|access-date= 5 May 2019|archive-date= 7 October 2024|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20241007225522/https://books.google.com/books?id=I2avL3aZzSEC|url-status= live}}</ref>}} Professor Muqtedar Khan has argued that Hindu nationalism further grew because of the religious divisions between Hindus and Muslims that were fomented by post-1947 Pakistani terrorist attacks in and military conflicts with India.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Muqtedar Khan on Why Religious Nationalism Is Poisoning South Asia |url=https://thediplomat.com/2023/08/muqtedar-khan-on-why-religious-nationalism-is-poisoning-south-asia/ |access-date=2023-08-27 |website=thediplomat.com |language=en-US |archive-date=27 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230827200555/https://thediplomat.com/2023/08/muqtedar-khan-on-why-religious-nationalism-is-poisoning-south-asia/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
According to Chetan Bhatt, the various forms of Hindu nationalism including the recent "cultural nationalist" form of Hindutva, have roots in the second half of the 19th century.<ref name="Bhatt2001p3">{{cite book|author=Chetan Bhatt|title=Hindu nationalism: origins, ideologies and modern myths|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W2PXAAAAMAAJ|year=2001|publisher=Berg|isbn=978-1-85973-343-1|pages=3–5, 8–14, 77–86|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221901/https://books.google.com/books?id=W2PXAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> These are a "dense cluster of ideologies" of primordialism,{{efn|Primordialism is the belief that the deep historical and cultural roots of nations is a quasi‐objective phenomenon, by which outsiders identify individuals of an ethnic group and what contributes to how an individual forms a self-identity.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Coakley | first=John | title='Primordialism' in nationalism studies: theory or ideology? | journal=Nations and Nationalism | publisher=Wiley | volume=24 | issue=2 | year=2017 | doi=10.1111/nana.12349 | pages=327, context: 328–347 | s2cid=149288553 | url=https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/primordialism-in-nationalism-studies-theory-or-ideology(28e99592-2d86-421f-9fd3-2c4517aa7278).html | access-date=9 May 2020 | archive-date=17 February 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210217061210/https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/publications/primordialism-in-nationalism-studies-theory-or-ideology | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Ethnic Conflict|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethnic-conflict|year=2012|author=Tina Reuter|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=3 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503165521/https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethnic-conflict|url-status=live}}</ref>}} and they emerged from the colonial experiences of the Indian people in conjunction with ideas borrowed from European thinkers but thereafter debated, adapted and negotiated. These ideas included those of a nation, nationalism, race, Aryanism, Orientalism, Romanticism and others.<ref name="Bhatt2001p3"/><ref>{{cite journal|author=Deepa Reddy|title=Review: Hindu Nationalism by Chetan Bhatt|journal = American Ethnologist|volume=30|number=1| year=2003|page=170}}</ref>{{efn|For example, the "writings of Giuseppe Mazzini made a profound impression on Savarkar", states Thomas Hansen.<ref name="Hansen1999p77"/>}} Decades before he wrote his treatise on Hindutva, Savarkar was already famous in colonial India for his version of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. He studied in London between 1906 and 1910. There he discussed and evolved his ideas of "what constituted a Hindu identity", made friends with Indian student groups as well as non-Indian groups such as the Sinn Féin.<ref name="Bhatt2001p3"/><ref name=bhattp185/> He was a part of the underground home rule and liberation movement of Indians, before getting arrested for anti-British activities. While in prison, Savarkar submitted multiple mercy petitions to the British, seeking clemency and promising loyalty to the crown.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Noorani |first=A. G. |date=8 April 2005 |title=Savarkar's mercy petition |url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/savarkars-mercy-petition/article64919933.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220817232410/https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/savarkars-mercy-petition/article64919933.ece |archive-date=17 August 2022 |website=Frontline}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Chaudhuri |first=Pooja |title=Did Savarkar write mercy petitions on Gandhi's advice as claimed by Rajnath Singh? |url=https://www.altnews.in/did-savarkar-write-mercy-petitions-on-gandhis-advice-as-claimed-by-rajnath-singh |website=Alt News |date=13 October 2021 }}</ref> After his release, he moved away from anti-colonial politics and worked to develop Hindutva. His political activities and intellectual journey through European publications, according to Bhatt, influenced him, his future writings, and the 20th-century Hindutva ideology that emerged from his writings.<ref name="Bhatt2001p3"/><ref name=bhattp185>{{cite book|author=Chetan Bhatt|title=Liberation and Purity: Race, New Religious Movements and the Ethics of Postmodernity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aap0HaCzrFwC|year=1997|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-85728-423-2|pages=185–186|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221859/https://books.google.com/books?id=aap0HaCzrFwC|url-status=live}}</ref>
===Adoption=== Savarkar's Hindutva ideology reached K. B. Hedgewar in Nagpur (Maharashtra) in 1925, and he found Savarkar's ''Hindutva'' inspirational.{{sfn|Andersen|Damle|1987|p=34}}<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p96">{{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=Hindu Nationalism: A Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOXWgr53A5kC|year=2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2803-6|pages=15–17, 96–97, 179–183|access-date=2 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221357/https://books.google.com/books?id=mOXWgr53A5kC|url-status=live}}</ref> He visited Savarkar in Ratnagiri shortly after and discussed with him methods for organising the 'Hindu nation'.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kelkar |first=D. V. |title=The R.S.S. |journal=Economic Weekly |date=4 February 1950 |url=http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/1950_2/4/the_rss.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108154837/http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/1950_2/4/the_rss.pdf |archive-date=2014-11-08 |url-status=live |access-date=26 October 2014 }}</ref> Discussions between the two led to Hedgewar founding the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, lit. "National Volunteer Society"), a far-right Hindutva paramilitary organisation with this mission, in September of that year.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1-iXGKN1AK4C&pg=PA123 |page=123 |year=2005 |first1=Peter |last1=Davies |first2=Derek |last2=Lynch | publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-60952-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pal |first1=Felix |last2=Chaudhary |first2=Neha |title=Leaving the Hindu Far Right |journal=South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies |date=4 March 2023 |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=425–444 |doi=10.1080/00856401.2023.2179817|s2cid=257565310 |doi-access=free | issn = 0085-6401}}</ref> This organisation swiftly expanded to become the foremost Hindu nationalist organisation.<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p96"/> However, the term ''Hindutva'' was not used to describe the ideology of the new organisation; it was ''Hindu Rashtra'' (Hindu nation), with one RSS publication stating, "it became evident that Hindus were the nation in Bharat and that ''Hindutva'' was ''Rashtriyatva'' [nationalism]."<ref>{{harvnb|Prakashan|1955|pp=24–25}} quoted in {{harvnb|Goyal|1979|p=58}}</ref>
Hedgewar's RSS not only propagated Hindutva ideology, it developed a grassroots organisational structure (''shakhas'') to reform the Hindu society. Village level groups met for morning and evening physical training sessions, martial training and Hindutva ideology lessons.<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p96"/> Hedgewar kept RSS an ideologically active but an "apolitical" organisation. This practice of keeping out of national and international politics was retained by his successor M. S. Golwalkar through the 1940s.<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p96"/> Philosopher Jason Stanley states "the RSS was explicitly influenced by European fascist movements, its leading politicians regularly praised Hitler and Mussolini in the late 1930s and 1940s."<ref>Stanley, Jason (2018). ''How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them''. New York: Random House. pp. 14–15. {{Isbn|978-0-52551183-0}}</ref> In 1931, B. S. Moonje met with Mussolini and expressed a desire to replicate the fascist youth movement in India.<ref>{{cite book|title=Hindutva and Dalits |first=Anand |last=Teltumbde |year=2019 |page=38 |publisher=SAGE}}</ref> According to Sali Augustine, the core institution of Hindutva has been the RSS. While the RSS states that Hindutva is different from Hinduism, it has been linked to religion. Therefore "cultural nationalism" is a euphemism, states Augustine, and it is meant to mask the creation of a state with a "Hindu religious identity."{{sfn|Augustine|2009|pp=69-70}} According to Jaffrelot, the regional heads of the RSS have included Indians who are Hindus as well as those who belong to other Indian religions such as Jainism.<ref name="Jaffrelot1999p140">{{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s: Strategies of Identity-building, Implantation and Mobilisation (with Special Reference to Central India)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iVsfVOTUnYEC|year=1999|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-14-024602-5|pages=140–145|access-date=5 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221902/https://books.google.com/books?id=iVsfVOTUnYEC|url-status=live}}</ref>
In parallel to the RSS, Savarkar, after his release from the colonial prison, joined and became the president of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha in 1937. There, he used the terms ''Hindutva'' and ''Hindu Rashtra'' liberally, according to Graham.{{sfn|Graham|1968|pp=350-352}} Syama Prasad Mukherjee, who served as its president in 1944 and joined the Jawaharlal Nehru Cabinet after independence, was a Hindu traditionalist politician who wanted to uphold Hindu values but not necessarily to the exclusion of other communities. He asked for the membership of Hindu Mahasabha to be thrown open to all communities. When this was not accepted, he resigned from the party and founded a new political party in collaboration with the RSS. He understood Hinduism as a nationality rather than a community but, realising that this is not the common understanding of the term ''Hindu'', he chose "Bharatiya" instead of "Hindu" to name the new party, which came to be called the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS or JS; often known as the Jan Sangh), a far-right Hindutva-based political party, which served as the political arm of the RSS.{{sfn|Graham|1968|pp=350-352}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Rural Patterns of Upward Mobility in Eastern Uttar Pradesh (India). |first=Bradley |last=R. Hertel |publisher=University of Wisconsin–Madison |year=1971 |page=31}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=11 March 2024|title=Israeli Diplomats Forged Deep Ties With Hindu Right Wing From Early '60s, Documents Reveal|url=https://m.thewire.in/article/communalism/israeli-diplomats-forged-deep-ties-with-hindu-right-wing-from-early-60s-documents-reveal#google_vignette|access-date=13 June 2024|website=The Wire}}</ref>
===Growth=== The cabinet of the first prime minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru banned the RSS and arrested more than 200,000 RSS volunteers, after Nathuram Godse, a former volunteer of RSS, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi.{{sfn|Frykenberg|2008|pp=193–196}} Nehru also appointed government commissions to investigate the assassination and related circumstances. The series of investigations by these commissions, states the political science scholar Nandini Deo, later found the RSS leadership and "the RSS innocent of a role in the assassination."<ref name="Deo2015p55">{{cite book|author=Nandini Deo|title=Mobilizing Religion and Gender in India: The Role of Activism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GjzgCgAAQBAJ|year=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-53067-1|pages=54–55|access-date=6 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007222542/https://books.google.com/books?id=GjzgCgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> The mass arrested RSS volunteers were released by the Indian courts, and the RSS has ever since used this as evidence of "being falsely accused and condemned."<ref name="Deo2015p55"/>
According to the historian Robert Frykenberg specialising in South Asian Studies, the RSS membership enormously expanded in independent India. In this period, while the RSS remained "discretely out of politics", the Jan Sangh entered the Indian political landscape. The Jan Sangh had limited success in the Indian general elections between 1952 and 1971.<ref>{{harvnb|Frykenberg|2008|pp=193–196}}: "After Independence in 1947, the RSS saw an enormous expansion in numbers of new swayamsevaks and a proliferation of disciplined and drilled shakhas. This occurred despite Gandhi's assassination (January 30, 1948) by Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a former sevak and despite being outlawed. (p. 193) [...] Thus, even as the RSS discretely stayed out of open politics, and continued its campaign to convert more and more people to the cause of Hindutva, its new party [Jan Sangh] engaged in political combat. (p. 194) [...] For the next two decades, the Jan Sangh followed a narrowly focused agenda. [...] In 1971, despite softening its Hindutva voice and joining a grand alliance, it was not successful. (p. 195)"</ref><ref name="Graham2007p196">{{cite book|author=Bruce Desmond Graham|title=Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics: The Origins and Development of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KxMgPAAACAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-05374-7|pages=196–198, context: Chapter 7|chapter=The Jana Sangh in electoral politics, 1951 to 1967|access-date=10 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007222440/https://books.google.com/books?id=KxMgPAAACAAJ|url-status=live}}; Quote: "We have now considered the main factors which worked against the Jana Sangh's attempt to become a major party in Indian politics [between 1951 and 1967]. It was seriously handicapped in electoral competition by the limitations of its organization and leadership, by its inability to gather support through appeals to Hindu nationalist sentiment, and by its failure to establish a broad base of social and economic interests."</ref> This was, in part, because of its poor organisation and leadership; its focus on the Hindutva sentiment did not appeal to the voters, and its campaign lacked adequate social and economic themes.<ref name="Graham2007p196"/> This was also, in part, because Congress party leaders such Indira Gandhi had co-opted some of the key Hindutva ideological themes and fused it with socialist policies and her father's Soviet-style centrally controlled economic model.{{sfn|Frykenberg|2008|pp=193–196}}<ref name="Hewitt2007">{{cite book|author=Vernon Hewitt|title=Political Mobilisation and Democracy in India: States of Emergency|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sh6yVyWM4pwC|year=2007|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-09762-3|pages=2–4|access-date=6 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007222442/https://books.google.com/books?id=sh6yVyWM4pwC|url-status=live}}, Quote: "The use of socialism, of ''garibi hatao'' (Indira Gandhi's populist slogan translated as 'out with poverty') and of Hindutva are in the first instance conceptualized as differing state strategies of co-optation, deployed by elites ..."; From Taylor & Francis [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203944967 summary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506154127/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780203944967 |date=6 May 2019 }}: "[Vernon Hewitt's book] demonstrates how the Internal Emergency of 1975 led to increased support of groups such as the BJS and the RSS, accounting for the rise of political movements advocating Hindu nationalism – ''Hindutva'' – as a response to rapid political mobilization triggered by the Emergency, and an attempt by political elites to control this to their advantage."</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Sumit Sarkar|editor=Radhika Desai|title=Developmental and Cultural Nationalisms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fTSPAQAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-96821-4|pages=41–45|access-date=6 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007222547/https://books.google.com/books?id=fTSPAQAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref> The RSS continued its grassroots operations between 1947 and early 1970s, and its volunteers provided humanitarian assistance to Hindu and Sikh refugees from the partition of British India, victims of war and violence, and helped disaster victims to resettle economically.{{sfn|Frykenberg|2008|pp=193–196}}<ref>{{cite book|author1=Subrata Kumar Mitra|author2=Mike Enskat|author3=Clemens Spiess|title=Political Parties in South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dObxI9xahSYC|year=2004|publisher=Greenwood|isbn=978-0-275-96832-8|pages=57–58|access-date=6 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007222444/https://books.google.com/books?id=dObxI9xahSYC|url-status=live}}</ref>
From 1975 to 1977, Indira Gandhi declared and enforced a national emergency, which saw widespread censorship, mass arrests of dissenters and political opponents, the suspension of the constitution, and the nullification of fundamental rights, alongside a rule by decree and an unprecedented centralisation of power. The abuses of Emergency triggered a mass resistance and the rapid growth of volunteers and political support to the Hindutva ideology.{{sfn|Frykenberg|2008|pp=193–196}}<ref name="Hewitt2007"/><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jaffrelot |first1=Christophe |title=India's First Dictatorship: The Emergency, 1975 -1977 |last2=Anil |first2=Pratinav |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-19-757782-0}}</ref><ref>[a] {{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=Hindu Nationalism: A Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOXWgr53A5kC|year=2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2803-6|pages=329–330|access-date=2 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221357/https://books.google.com/books?id=mOXWgr53A5kC|url-status=live}};<br />[b] For various sides in the Judiciary versus the Executive authority on Indira Gandhi's government and Hindutva politicians during this period, see {{cite book|author=Gary J. Jacobsohn|title=The Wheel of Law: India's Secularism in Comparative Constitutional Context|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Ceoc1i1KF8C|year=2003|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0-691-09245-1|pages=189–197 with footnotes; context: Chapter 7|access-date=6 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007222550/https://books.google.com/books?id=6Ceoc1i1KF8C|url-status=live}}</ref> Indira Gandhi and her party were voted out of power in 1977. The Hindutva ideology-based Jan Sangh members such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Brij Lal Varma, and L. K. Advani gained national prominence, and the Hindutva ideology sympathiser Morarji Desai became the prime minister of a coalition non-Congress government.{{sfn|Frykenberg|2008|pp=193–196}} This coalition did not last past 1980, and from the consequent break-up of coalition parties was the founding of the Bharatiya Janata Party in April 1980. This new national political party relied on the Hindutva ideology-based rural and urban grassroots organisations that had rapidly grown across India from the mid-1970s.{{sfn|Frykenberg|2008|pp=193–196}}
===Hindutva under Modi (2014–present)=== {{Further|Narendra Modi#Hindutva}} Since the 2014 Indian general election with the BJP winning, the premiership of Narendra Modi and state based BJP governments have pushed parts of the Hindutva agenda.
====Abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir==== {{Main article|Revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir|Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019|2019–2021 Jammu and Kashmir lockdown}} On 5 August 2019, the Modi administration revoked the special status, or limited autonomy, granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of India's Constitution.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pib.gov.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=192505,|title=Parliament approves Resolution to repeal Article 370; paves way to truly integrate J&K with Indian Union|website=pib.gov.in|access-date=14 March 2022|archive-date=10 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310075212/https://pib.gov.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=192505,|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/article-370-rendered-toothless-article-35a-ceases-to-exist/articleshow/70535292.cms Article 370 rendered toothless, Article 35A ceases to exist] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130063447/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/article-370-rendered-toothless-article-35a-ceases-to-exist/articleshow/70535292.cms |date=30 November 2021 }}, The Economic Times, 5 August 2019.</ref> The decision was upheld by the Supreme Court.<ref name="z120">{{cite web |last=Rajagopal |first=Krishnadas |date=11 December 2023 |title=SC upholds abrogation of Article 370, says move was part of 70-year-old exercise to integrate J&K to the Union |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/sc-upholds-abrogation-of-article-370-says-move-was-part-of-70-year-old-exercise-to-integrate-jk-to-the-union/article67626914.ece |access-date=23 November 2024 |website=The Hindu}}</ref><ref name="d928">{{cite web |last1=Sebastian |first1=Meryl |last2=Hrishikesh |first2=Sharanya |date=11 December 2023 |title=Article 370: India Supreme Court upholds repeal of Kashmir's special status |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-67634689 |access-date=23 November 2024 |website=BBC Home}}</ref><ref name="x698">{{cite web |last=Vardhan |first=Anand |date=13 December 2023 |title=Article 370 verdict firms up judicial ground for J&K integration, prioritises national sovereignty |url=https://www.newslaundry.com/2023/12/13/article-370-verdict-firms-up-judicial-ground-for-jk-integration-prioritises-national-sovereignty |access-date=23 November 2024 |website=Newslaundry}}</ref> The revocation was accompanied by the deployment of thousands of security forces, the detention and arrest of several Kashmiri politicians including a former chief minister, as well as the imposition of a years-long lockdown and communications blackout which saw intense government crackdown and the detention of thousands of Kashmiri civilians.{{efn|Sources:<br />{{bulleted list |{{Cite web |date=6 August 2019 |title=Article 370: What happened with Kashmir and why it matters |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49234708 |website=BBC}} |{{Cite web |last=Yasir |first=Sameer |date=5 August 2019 |title=India Moves to Revoke Kashmir's Special Status Amid Crackdown |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/world/asia/india-pakistan-kashmir-jammu.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805112500/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/world/asia/india-pakistan-kashmir-jammu.html |archive-date=5 August 2019 |website=The New York Times}} |{{Cite web |last1=Farooq |first1=Azhar |last2=Ratcliffe |first2=Rebecca |date=23 August 2019 |title=Kashmir city on lockdown after calls for protest march |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/23/kashmir-city-srinagar-india-lockdown-calls-protest-march |website=The Guardian}} |{{Cite magazine |title=At Least 2,300 People Have Been Detained During the Lockdown in Kashmir |url=https://time.com/5657293/india-kashmir-detention-security-lockdown/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821182839/https://time.com/5657293/india-kashmir-detention-security-lockdown/ |archive-date=21 August 2019 |magazine=Time}}}}}} The government's move was criticised and opposed,<ref>{{Cite web |date=10 August 2019 |title=Inside Kashmir's lockdown: 'Even I will pick up a gun' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49294301 |website=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=5 August 2019 |title='Darkest day': Uproar as India strips Kashmir of special status |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/8/5/darkest-day-uproar-as-india-strips-kashmir-of-special-status |website=Al Jazeera}}</ref> though it was heavily celebrated in nationalist and Hindutva circles across the country.<ref>{{Cite web |date=9 August 2019 |title=Article 370: The Indians celebrating Kashmir's new status |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49250594 |website=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Filkins |first=Dexter |date=2 December 2019 |title=Blood and Soil in Narendra Modi's India |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/09/blood-and-soil-in-narendra-modis-india |magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref>
====Ayodhya dispute==== {{Main|Ayodhya dispute}} {{See also|Ram Rath Yatra|Demolition of the Babri Masjid}} The Supreme Court of India delivered a verdict on the construction of Ram Mandir, a Hindu temple on the disputed land of Ayodhya.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/09/ayodhya-verdict-hindus-win-possession-of-site-disputed-by-muslims|title=Ayodhya: India's top court gives Hindus site claimed by Muslims|website=TheGuardian.com|date=9 November 2019|access-date=14 March 2022|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007222547/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/09/ayodhya-verdict-hindus-win-possession-of-site-disputed-by-muslims|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dw.com/en/india-court-rules-in-favor-of-hindus-over-ayodhya-temple-mosque-dispute/a-51177838|title=India: Court rules in favor of Hindus over Ayodhya temple-mosque dispute | DW | 09.11.2019|website=Deutsche Welle|access-date=14 March 2022|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007222454/https://www.dw.com/en/india-court-rules-in-favor-of-hindus-over-ayodhya-temple-mosque-dispute/a-51177838|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="BBC Ayodhya">{{Cite news|url = https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50355775|title = Ayodhya verdict: Indian top court gives holy site to Hindus|work = BBC News|date = 9 November 2019|access-date = 14 March 2022|archive-date = 9 November 2019|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20191109142205/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50355775|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Supreme Court hearing ends in Ayodhya dispute; orders reserved|url=https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/supreme-court-hearing-ends-in-ayodhya-dispute-orders-reserved/article29710840.ece|date=2019-10-16|access-date=2021-04-23|work=The Hindu Business Line|agency=Press Trust of India|language=en|archive-date=23 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191023101322/https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/supreme-court-hearing-ends-in-ayodhya-dispute-orders-reserved/article29710840.ece|url-status=live}}</ref> The ruling included a stipulation that a {{Convert|5|acre|m2}} of land at an alternative site be provided to the Sunni Waqf Board for the construction of a new mosque.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ram Mandir verdict: Supreme Court verdict on Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case: Highlights|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ayodhya-babri-masjid-ram-mandir-case-verdict-highlights-supreme-court-declared-verdict-on-ram-janmabhoomi-case/articleshow/71978918.cms|date=2019-11-09|access-date=2021-04-23|website=The Times of India|language=en|archive-date=9 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109143026/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ayodhya-babri-masjid-ram-mandir-case-verdict-highlights-supreme-court-declared-verdict-on-ram-janmabhoomi-case/articleshow/71978918.cms|url-status=live}}</ref> A report made by the Archaeological Survey of India stating that the remains of a "Hindu structure" were found at the disputed Babri Masjid/Ram Janmabhoomi site was considered by the court.<ref name="o629">{{cite web | last=Sharma | first=Kritika | title=SC verdict refers to ASI report on 'Hindu structure' at Ayodhya site | website=ThePrint | date=9 November 2019 | url=https://theprint.in/india/sc-verdict-refers-to-asi-report-on-hindu-structure-at-ayodhya-site-this-is-what-it-says/318486/ | access-date=23 November 2024}}</ref><ref name="BBC Ayodhya" /> On 5 August 2020, Narendra Modi performed a ground-breaking ceremony (Bhumi-pujan) to open the construction of Ram Mandir at the Ayodhya;<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-08-05|title=Modi becomes first PM to visit Ram Janmabhoomi, Hanumangarhi temple in Ayodhya|url=https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/travel-tourism/modi-becomes-first-pm-to-visit-ram-janmabhoomi-hanumangarhi-temple-in-ayodhya/2046074/|access-date=2021-04-23|website=The Financial Express|language=en-US|archive-date=29 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129155011/https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/travel-tourism/modi-becomes-first-pm-to-visit-ram-janmabhoomi-hanumangarhi-temple-in-ayodhya/2046074/|url-status=live}}</ref> construction was completed in January 2024.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Babri mosque to Ram temple: A timeline from 1528 to 2024 |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/22/babri-mosque-to-ram-temple-a-timeline-from-1528-to-2024 |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en |archive-date=22 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240122093200/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/22/babri-mosque-to-ram-temple-a-timeline-from-1528-to-2024 |url-status=live }}</ref> Modi gave a speech, declaring, "Ram is the faith of India... Ram is the leader and Ram is the policy."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-22 |title=Ram Temple inauguration: Advent of a new era, says PM Modi |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/others/advent-of-a-new-era-says-pm-101705947809336.html |access-date=2024-01-24 |website=Hindustan Times |language=en |archive-date=24 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240124171840/https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/others/advent-of-a-new-era-says-pm-101705947809336.html |url-status=live }}</ref>
====Forced conversion bans==== alt=|thumb|Indian states that prohibit forced conversions (2022) Many BJP-ruled states, such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Karnataka, have considered laws designed to prevent forced conversions from Hinduism to Islam through marriage. Hindutva advocates call this "love jihad", and it is widely considered to be an Islamophobic conspiracy theory.<ref>Gupta, Charu, "Hindu Women, Muslim Men: Love Jihad and Conversions." ''Economic and Political Weekly'', vol. 44, no. 51, 2009, pp. 13–15. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25663907 JSTOR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122000118/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25663907 |date=22 January 2021 }}</ref><ref name=":10" /><ref name=":11" /> In September 2020, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath asked his government to come up with a strategy to prevent "religious conversions in the name of love."<ref>{{Cite news|date=18 September 2020|title=Adityanath govt mulls ordinance against 'love jihad'|work=The Economic Times|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/adityanath-govt-mulls-ordinance-against-love-jihad/articleshow/78186587.cms|access-date=19 September 2020|archive-date=27 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027135411/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/adityanath-govt-mulls-ordinance-against-love-jihad/articleshow/78186587.cms|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|agency=PTI|date=18 September 2020|title=Adityanath govt. mulls ordinance against 'love jihad'|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/adityanath-govt-mulls-ordinance-against-love-jihad/article32643089.ece|access-date=19 September 2020|issn=0971-751X|archive-date=20 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920022252/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/adityanath-govt-mulls-ordinance-against-love-jihad/article32643089.ece|url-status=live}}</ref> On 31 October, he announced that a law to curb "love jihad"{{Efn|As of November 2020, "love jihad" is a term not recognized by the Indian legal system.<ref>{{cite news |title=Adityanath Cabinet Approves Ordinance Against 'Love Jihad' |url=https://thewire.in/communalism/adityanath-cabinet-approves-ordinance-against-love-jihad-law |access-date=25 November 2020 |work=The Wire (India) |date=24 November 2020 |archive-date=24 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124140103/https://thewire.in/communalism/adityanath-cabinet-approves-ordinance-against-love-jihad-law |url-status=live }}</ref>|name=|group=}} would be passed by his government. The law, which also includes provisions against "unlawful religious conversion", declares a marriage null and void if the sole intention was to "change a girl's religion" and both it and the one in Madhya Pradesh imposed sentences of up to 10 years in prison for those who broke the law.<ref>{{Cite news|date=26 November 2020|title='Love jihad': Madhya Pradesh proposes 10-year jail term in draft bill|work=Scroll.in|url=https://scroll.in/latest/979497/love-jihad-madhya-pradesh-proposes-10-year-jail-term-in-draft-bill|access-date=27 November 2020|archive-date=26 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126043801/https://scroll.in/latest/979497/love-jihad-madhya-pradesh-proposes-10-year-jail-term-in-draft-bill|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last1=Seth|first1=Maulshree|date=26 November 2020|title=UP clears 'love jihad' law: 10-year jail, cancelling marriage if for conversion|work=The Indian Express|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/up-clears-love-jihad-law-10-year-jail-cancelling-marriage-if-for-conversion-7064474/|access-date=27 November 2020|archive-date=26 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126095622/https://indianexpress.com/article/india/up-clears-love-jihad-law-10-year-jail-cancelling-marriage-if-for-conversion-7064474/|url-status=live}}</ref> The ordinance came into effect on 28 November 2020<ref>{{Cite news|date=24 November 2020|title=Jail term, fine for 'illegal' conversions in Uttar Pradesh|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/uttar-pradesh-cabinet-clears-ordinance-against-love-jihad/article33170627.ece|access-date=25 November 2020|issn=0971-751X|archive-date=24 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124211523/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/uttar-pradesh-cabinet-clears-ordinance-against-love-jihad/article33170627.ece|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=28 November 2020|title=UP Governor Anandiben Patel gives assent to ordinance on 'unlawful conversion'|url=https://www.livemint.com/news/india/up-governor-anandiben-patel-gives-assent-to-ordinance-on-unlawful-conversion-11606545320071.html|access-date=1 December 2020|website=mint|archive-date=28 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201128065626/https://www.livemint.com/news/india/up-governor-anandiben-patel-gives-assent-to-ordinance-on-unlawful-conversion-11606545320071.html|url-status=live}}</ref> as the Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance. In December 2020, Madhya Pradesh approved an anti-conversion law similar to the Uttar Pradesh one.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Siddique|first1=Iram|date=27 December 2020|title=MP 'love jihad' Bill tougher, but limits who can file FIR|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/mp-love-jihad-bill-tougher-but-limits-who-can-file-fir-7121497/|access-date=13 February 2021|website=The Indian Express|archive-date=27 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127024435/https://indianexpress.com/article/india/mp-love-jihad-bill-tougher-but-limits-who-can-file-fir-7121497/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=27 December 2020|title=MP approves 'love Jihad' law; up to 10 years of jail, Rs 1 lakh fine for forced conversion|url=https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/mp-approves-love-jihad-law-up-to-10-years-of-jail-rs-1-lakh-fine-for-forced-conversion/story/426144.html|access-date=13 February 2021|via=Business Today|agency=Press Trust of India|archive-date=29 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201229205609/https://www.businesstoday.in/current/economy-politics/mp-approves-love-jihad-law-up-to-10-years-of-jail-rs-1-lakh-fine-for-forced-conversion/story/426144.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/26/another-bjp-governed-indian-state-plans-anti-conversion-law|title=India's Madhya Pradesh state now plans 'love jihad' law|publisher=Al Jazeera|access-date=29 December 2020|archive-date=28 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201228134710/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/26/another-bjp-governed-indian-state-plans-anti-conversion-law|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/madhya-pradesh-to-take-ordinance-route-to-enforce-anti-conversion-law-932653.html|title=Madhya Pradesh to take ordinance route to enforce anti-conversion law|date=28 December 2020|website=Deccan Herald|access-date=29 December 2020|archive-date=24 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624145022/https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/madhya-pradesh-to-take-ordinance-route-to-enforce-anti-conversion-law-932653.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://scroll.in/latest/982365/love-jihad-madhya-pradesh-cabinet-approves-anti-conversion-bill|title='Love jihad': Madhya Pradesh Cabinet approves anti-conversion bill|website=Scroll.in|date=26 December 2020 |access-date=29 December 2020|archive-date=30 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201230015640/https://scroll.in/latest/982365/love-jihad-madhya-pradesh-cabinet-approves-anti-conversion-bill|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/mp-to-enforce-love-jihad-ordinance/story-5kgxJqx27sK39zmwoNSB5O.html|title=Madhya Pradesh to enforce 'love jihad' ordinance|website=Hindustan Times|date=27 December 2020|access-date=29 December 2020|archive-date=28 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201228224526/https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/mp-to-enforce-love-jihad-ordinance/story-5kgxJqx27sK39zmwoNSB5O.html|url-status=live}}</ref> {{As of|2020|11|25}}, Haryana and Karnataka were still in discussion over similar ordinances.<ref name=":10">{{Cite news |date=25 November 2020 |title=India's Most Populous State Brings Law to Fight 'Love Jihad' |work=Bloomberg News |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-25/india-s-most-populous-state-brings-law-to-fight-love-jihad |access-date=25 November 2020 |first1=Upmanyu |last1=Trivedi |archive-date=25 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125065307/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-25/india-s-most-populous-state-brings-law-to-fight-love-jihad |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":11">{{Cite news |title=After MP, Haryana Says a Committee Will Draft Anti-'Love Jihad' Law |url=https://thewire.in/communalism/haryana-draft-anti-love-jihad-law |date=18 November 2020 |access-date=25 November 2020 |work=The Wire (India) |archive-date=26 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126121032/https://thewire.in/communalism/haryana-draft-anti-love-jihad-law |url-status=live }}</ref> In April 2021, the Gujarat Assembly amended the Freedom of Religion Act, 2003, bringing in stringent provisions against forcible conversion through marriage or allurement, with the intention of targeting "love jihad."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Langa|first=Mahesh|date=2021-04-01|title=Gujarat Assembly passes 'love jihad' law|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/gujarat-assembly-passes-love-jihad-law/article34217780.ece|access-date=2021-06-06|issn=0971-751X|archive-date=6 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606060929/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/gujarat-assembly-passes-love-jihad-law/article34217780.ece|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-04-02|title=Gujarat passes Bill to stop 'love jihad'|url=https://indianexpress.com/article/india/gujarat-passes-bill-to-stop-love-jihad-7255067/|access-date=2021-06-06|website=The Indian Express|archive-date=6 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606060929/https://indianexpress.com/article/india/gujarat-passes-bill-to-stop-love-jihad-7255067/|url-status=live}}</ref> The Karnataka state cabinet also approved an anti-conversion bill, making it a law in December 2021.<ref>{{cite web |title=Karnataka state cabinet approves anti-conversion 'love jihad' bill |url=https://www.siasat.com/karnataka-state-cabinet-approves-anti-conversion-love-jihad-bill-2244826/ |work=The Siasat Daily |location=Hyderabad |date=20 December 2021 |access-date=22 January 2022 |archive-date=24 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220124172815/https://www.siasat.com/karnataka-state-cabinet-approves-anti-conversion-love-jihad-bill-2244826/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Like UP law, Karnataka anti-conversion Bill addresses right wing demands on 'love jihad' |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/bangalore/karnataka-anti-coversion-bill-right-wing-love-jihad-7684737/ |work=The Indian Express |location=Bangalore |date=22 December 2021 |access-date=22 January 2022 |archive-date=23 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123022114/https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/bangalore/karnataka-anti-coversion-bill-right-wing-love-jihad-7684737/ |url-status=live }}</ref> This law was revoked by the new Government of Karnataka.<ref name="s676">{{cite web | title=Karnataka scraps anti-conversion law; BJP says it is in line with PFI agenda, Archbishop hails decision | website=The Economic Times | date=15 June 2023 | url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/anti-conversion-law-karnataka-govt-repeals/articleshow/101018084.cms?from=mdr | access-date=23 November 2024}}</ref>
== Organisations == === Sangh Parivar === {{Main|Sangh Parivar}}{{See also|List of Hindu nationalist political parties}} Hindutva is the guiding ideology of the RSS and its affiliated family of organisations, the Sangh Parivar.<ref name="Jaffrelot2009">{{cite book|first=Christophe|last=Jaffrelot|title=Hindu Nationalism: A Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOXWgr53A5kC&pg=PA23|date=10 January 2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2803-6|pages=2–24|access-date=13 July 2020|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007223038/https://books.google.com/books?id=mOXWgr53A5kC&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> In general, ''Hindutvavadis'' (followers of Hindutva) believe that they represent the well-being of Dharmic religions: Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}
Most nationalists are organised into political, cultural and social organisations using the concept of Hindutva as a political tool. The first Hindutva organisation formed was the RSS, founded in 1925. A prominent Indian political party, the BJP, is closely associated with a group of organisations that advocate Hindutva. They collectively refer to themselves as the "Sangh Parivar" or family of associations, and include the RSS, Bajrang Dal and the VHP.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}} Other organisations include: * Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, the overseas branch of the RSS * Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, a workers' union * Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, a students' union * Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, a farmers' organisation
Political parties that are independent from the Sangh Parivar's influence but that also espouse the Hindutva ideology include the Hindu Mahasabha, Prafull Goradia's Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://in.news.yahoo.com/041021/43/2hfvw.html |title=Jana Sangh promises to make India Hindu nation |date=21 October 2004 |work=Yahoo News India |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041105060336/http://in.news.yahoo.com/041021/43/2hfvw.html |archive-date=5 November 2004}}</ref> and the Marathi nationalist Shiv Sena,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/Shiv-Sena-for-PM-with-Hindutva-view/Article1-1051070.aspx|title=Shiv Sena for PM with Hindutva view|newspaper=Hindustan Times|date=27 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130428045316/http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/Shiv-Sena-for-PM-with-Hindutva-view/Article1-1051070.aspx|archive-date=28 April 2013}}</ref> Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is a Sikh religious party that maintained ties with Hindutva organisations and political parties, as they also represent Sikhism.<ref>[http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19990119/01951725.html SAD-BJP Alliance helped bridge Hindu Sikh gap] ''Indian Express'', 19 January 1999 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929121142/http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19990119/01951725.html |date=29 September 2007 }}</ref> By September 2020, SAD left the NDA over the farms bill.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Punjab's Akali Dal Quits BJP-Led Alliance Over Controversial Farm Bills|url=https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/akali-dal-quits-bjp-led-national-democratic-alliance-over-controversial-farm-bills-2301550|access-date=26 September 2020|website=NDTV.com|archive-date=27 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927063417/https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/akali-dal-quits-bjp-led-national-democratic-alliance-over-controversial-farm-bills-2301550|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{Anchor|Criticism and support}}<!-- This Anchor tag serves to provide a permanent target for incoming section links. Please do not remove it, nor modify it, except to add another appropriate anchor. If you modify the section title, please anchor the old title. It is always best to anchor an old section header that has been changed so that links to it will not be broken. See Template:Anchor for details. This template is {{subst:Anchor comment}} --> === Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party === {{Main|Vishva Hindu Parishad|Bharatiya Janata Party}} The RSS established a number of affiliate organisations after Indian Independence to carry its ideology to various parts of society. Prominent among them is the Vishva Hindu Parishad, which was set up in 1964 with the objective of protecting and promoting the Hindu religion. It subscribed to ''Hindutva'' ideology, which came to mean in its hands political Hinduism and Hindu militancy.{{sfn|Katju|2013|pp=3-4}}
A number of political developments in the 1980s caused a sense of vulnerability among the Hindus in India. This was much discussed and leveraged by the Hindutva ideology organisations. These developments include the mass killing of the Hindus by the militant Khalistan movement, the influx of undocumented Bangladeshi immigration into Assam coupled with the expulsion of Hindus from Bangladesh, the Congress-led government's pro-Muslim bias in the Shah Bano case as well as the Rushdie affair.{{sfn|Jaffrelot|1996|pp=343–345 with footnotes}} The VHP and the BJP utilised these developments to push forward a militant Hindutva nationalist agenda leading to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. The BJP officially adopted Hindutva as its ideology in its 1989 Palampur resolution.<ref name="The Hindutva Road"/>{{sfn|Krishna|2011|p=324}}
The BJP claims that ''Hindutva'' represents "cultural nationalism" and its conception of "Indian nationhood", but not a religious or theocratic concept.<ref>{{citation |title=BJP PHILOSOPHY: HINDUTVA (CULTURAL NATIONALISM) |publisher=Bharatiya Janata Party |url=http://www.bjp.org/about-the-party/philosophy/?u=hindutva |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140831081149/http://www.bjp.org/about-the-party/philosophy/?u=hindutva |archive-date=31 August 2014}}</ref> It is "India's identity", according to the RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2013-07-21 |title=Hindutva is India's identity: RSS chief |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/hindutva-is-indias-identity-rss-chief/article4937750.ece |issn=0971-751X |archive-date=4 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604095642/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/hindutva-is-indias-identity-rss-chief/article4937750.ece |url-status=live }}</ref>
According to the anthropologist and South Asia Politics scholar Thomas Hansen, Hindutva in the post-Independence era has emerged as a political ideology and a populist form of Hindu nationalism.<ref name="Hansen1999p166"/> For Indian nationalists, it has subsumed "religious sentiments and public rituals into a larger discourse of national culture (Bharatiya culture) and the Hindu nation, Hindu rashtra", states Hansen.<ref name="Hansen1999p166"/> This notion has appealed to the masses in part because it "connects meaningfully with everyday anxieties of security, a sense of disorder" in modern Indian life.<ref name="Hansen1999p166"/> The BJP has deployed the Hindutva theme in its election campaign since early 1991, as well as nominated candidates who are affiliated with organisations that support the Hindutva ideology.<ref name="Hansen1999p166">{{cite book|author=Thomas Blom Hansen|title=The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|year=1999|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=1-4008-2305-6|pages=10–11, 18–20, 165–166|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221903/https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|url-status=live}}</ref> The campaign language of the Congress Party leader Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s mirrored those of Hindutva proponents. The political speeches and publications by Indian Muslim leaders have declared their "Islamic religious identity" being greater than any "political ideology or national identity." These developments, states Hansen, have helped Hindu nationalists spread essentialist constructions per contemporary Hindutva ideology.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Blom Hansen|title=The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|year=1999|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=1-4008-2305-6|pages=148–152|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221903/https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Concepts and issues== ===Uniform Civil Code=== {{Main|Uniform Civil Code}}
The Hindutva leaders have sought a Uniform Civil Code for all the citizens of India, where the same law applies to all its citizens irrespective of the individual's religion.<ref name="HutchinsonSmith2000p888"/><ref name="Ghosh2012p103">{{cite book|author=Partha S. Ghosh|title=The Politics of Personal Law in South Asia: Identity, Nationalism and the Uniform Civil Code|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YwvaaHI8sjEC|year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-70511-3|pages=103–111}}</ref> They state that differential laws based on religion violate the Indian Constitution and have sowed the seeds of divisiveness between different religious communities.<ref name="HutchinsonSmith2000p888"/><ref name="Ghosh2012p103"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=66122|title=BJP calls for Uniform Civil Code|publisher=expressindia.com|agency=Press Trust of India|date=15 April 2006|access-date=25 February 2009|archive-date=13 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113064037/http://www.expressindia.com/news/fullstory.php?newsid=66122}}</ref> Under the current laws that were enacted in 1955–56, state John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith, the constitutionally directive principle of a Uniform Civil Code covers only non-Muslims. The Uniform Civil Code is opposed by the Muslim leaders.<ref name="HutchinsonSmith2000p888">{{cite book|author1=John Hutchinson|author2=Anthony D. Smith|title=Nationalism: Critical Concepts in Political Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NN0m_c8p6fgC |year=2000|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-20112-4|pages=888–890}}</ref> A Uniform Civil Code that applies equally to the Muslims in India is also opposed by political parties such as the Indian National Congress and the Communist Party.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rediff.com/news/may/03code.htm|title=Uniform civil code will divide the country on communal lines: Congress|publisher=Rediff on the Net|access-date=26 February 2009|archive-date=23 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100523194453/http://www.rediff.com/news/may/03code.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>
===Protection of Hindu interests=== {{See also|Muscular Hinduism}} The followers of Hindutva are known for their criticism of the Indian government as too passive with regard to the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus by Kashmiri Muslim separatists and the 1998 Wandhama massacre, and advocates of Hindutva wish a harder stance in Jammu and Kashmir.<ref>{{cite news|title=Shiv Sena attacks Narendra Modi government on Kashmir, Hindutva issues|url=http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-shiv-sena-attacks-narendra-modi-government-on-kashmir-hindutva-issues-2069428|access-date=18 February 2017|work=DNA India|agency=Press Trust of India|date=16 March 2015|archive-date=18 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218233210/http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-shiv-sena-attacks-narendra-modi-government-on-kashmir-hindutva-issues-2069428|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Government should deport Kashmiri separatists to Pakistan: RSS|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/india/government-should-deport-kashmiri-separatists-to-pakistan-rss/|access-date=18 February 2017|work=The Indian Express|agency=Press Trust of India|date=24 April 2015|archive-date=18 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218144940/http://indianexpress.com/article/india/government-should-deport-kashmiri-separatists-to-pakistan-rss/|url-status=live}}</ref> The supporters of Hindutva sought to protect the native Hindu culture and traditions especially those that symbolised the Hindu culture. They believe that Indian culture is identical with the Hindu culture.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith Eugene|first=Donald|title=India as a secular state |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=1963}}</ref> These include animals, language, holy structures, rivers and medicine.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jaffrelot|first=Christopher|title=Religion, Caste & Politics in India |publisher=Primus Boks |isbn= 978-93-80607-04-7 |date=2010 |page=5}}</ref>
They opposed the continuation of Urdu being used as a vernacular language as they associated it with Muslims. They felt that Urdu symbolised a foreign culture. For them, Hindi alone was the unifying factor for all the diverse forces in the country. They even wanted to make Hindi as the official language of India and felt that it should be promoted at the expense of English and the other regional languages, with some Hindutva followers describing this with the slogan "Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan."<ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-02-03 |title=A new kind of discordance |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/A-new-kind-of-discordance/article16812293.ece |access-date=2023-10-29 |issn=0971-751X |archive-date=29 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231029230133/https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/A-new-kind-of-discordance/article16812293.ece |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite news |date=2015-02-12 |title=A yen for Sanskritised Hindi |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/A-yen-for-Sanskritised-Hindi/article60435857.ece |access-date=2023-10-29 |issn=0971-751X |archive-date=29 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231029230134/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/A-yen-for-Sanskritised-Hindi/article60435857.ece |url-status=live }}</ref> However, this caused a state of tension and alarm in the non-Hindi regions. The non-Hindi regions saw it as an attempt by the north to dominate the rest of the country. Eventually, this demand was put down in order to protect the cultural diversity of the country.<ref>{{cite book |last= Graham |first=Bruce |title= Hindu Nationalism and Indian Politics |publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=1990|isbn=978-0-521-05952-7}}{{Full citation needed|date=March 2021}}</ref>
Hindutva activists have boycotted several Bollywood movies in recent years, claiming that they use too much Urdu and are anti-Hindu;<ref name=":03">{{Cite web |title=Is the Hindu Nationalist 'Boycott Bollywood' Campaign Impacting the Box Office? |url=https://thediplomat.com/2022/09/is-hindu-nationalists-boycott-bollywood-campaign-impacting-the-box-office/ |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=thediplomat.com |language=en-US |archive-date=30 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930204312/https://thediplomat.com/2022/09/is-hindu-nationalists-boycott-bollywood-campaign-impacting-the-box-office/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=The siege of Bollywood |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2021/02/25/the-siege-of-bollywood |access-date=2023-10-27 |issn=0013-0613 |archive-date=27 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231027212316/https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2021/02/25/the-siege-of-bollywood |url-status=live }}</ref> some activists have called for South Indian cinema to be patronised instead, claiming that it is more culturally rooted.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last1=Raj |first1=Kaushik |last2=Gurmat |first2=Sabah |date=2022-09-30 |title=Bollywood under siege as rightwing social media boycotts start to bite |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/sep/30/bollywood-under-siege-as-rightwing-social-media-boycotts-start-to-bite |access-date=2023-10-27 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=27 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231027210254/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/sep/30/bollywood-under-siege-as-rightwing-social-media-boycotts-start-to-bite |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-27 |title=Explained: The #BoycottBollywood trend, and its impact on the industry |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-culture/boycott-bollywood-trend-impact-on-industry-explained-8115054/ |access-date=2023-10-27 |website=The Indian Express |language=en |archive-date=28 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828083414/https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-culture/boycott-bollywood-trend-impact-on-industry-explained-8115054/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Hindutva opposition to Urdu coincides with a desire to spread a Sanskritised Hindi across India.<ref>McCartney, Patrick. [https://www.academia.edu/6274287/The_Sanitising_Power_of_Spoken_Sanskrit "The Sanitising Power of Spoken Sanskrit"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007223033/https://www.academia.edu/6274287/The_Sanitising_Power_of_Spoken_Sanskrit |date=7 October 2024 }}. ''Himāl South Asian'' (2014).</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-10-26 |title=Why does India's Hindu right-wing hate the Urdu language so much? |url=https://qz.com/india/2079526/explaining-indian-hindu-right-wings-hate-for-the-urdu-language |access-date=2023-10-29 |website=Quartz |language=en |archive-date=29 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231029230133/https://qz.com/india/2079526/explaining-indian-hindu-right-wings-hate-for-the-urdu-language |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2" />
==Hindutva violence== {{Further information|Hindu terrorism}} Since the mid-2010s, there has been a notable increase in violence motivated by Hindutva ideology, particularly towards Muslims,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ramachandran |first=S. |date=2020 |title=Hindutva Violence in India: Trends and Implications |journal=Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=15–20 |jstor=26918077}}</ref> and includes acts of extremist terroristic violence.<ref name="Gatade pawns">{{cite journal |last=Gatade |first=S. |date=2014 |title=Pawns In, Patrons Still Out: Understanding the Phenomenon of Hindutva Terror |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=49 |issue=13 |pages=36–43 |jstor=24479356}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Bidwai |first=P. |date=2008 |title=Confronting the Reality of Hindutva Terrorism |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=43 |issue=47 |pages=10–13 |jstor=40278200}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Runa |last=Das |date=2006 |title=Encountering Hindutva, interrogating religious nationalism and (En)gendering a Hindu patriarchy in India's nuclear policies |journal=International Feminist Journal of Politics |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=370–393 |doi=10.1080/14616740600792988 |s2cid=142800345 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616740600792988 |access-date=17 May 2023 |archive-date=4 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504120030/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14616740600792988 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> This has principally been perpetrated by or has implicated members, or alleged members, of Hindu nationalist organisations such as the RSS or Abhinav Bharat.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=http://scroll.in/article/759508/hindutva-terror-cases-nia-on-the-backfoot-as-apex-court-questions-complicity-charges|title=Hindutva terror cases: NIA on the backfoot as apex court questions complicity charges|first=Vipin|last=Pubby|website=Scroll.in|date=4 October 2015|access-date=17 May 2023|archive-date=26 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190526191119/https://scroll.in/article/759508/hindutva-terror-cases-nia-on-the-backfoot-as-apex-court-questions-complicity-charges|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="deepsaffron">{{cite news |author=Christophe Jaffrelot |title=A running thread of deep saffron |newspaper=The Indian Express |date=29 January 2009 |url=http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/a-running-thread-of-deep-saffron/416409/ |access-date=2014-11-17 |archive-date=8 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190708193004/http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/a-running-thread-of-deep-saffron/416409 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Gatade saffron terror">{{cite news |author=Subhash Gatade |title=Saffron terror |newspaper=Himal |date=October 2007 |url=http://old.himalmag.com/component/content/article/1340-saffron-terror.html |access-date=16 December 2014 |archive-date=26 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190526191105/http://old.himalmag.com/component/content/article/1340-saffron-terror.html }}</ref> The violence has also been condoned by the BJP politicians and used as an electoral strategy to garner support from the far-right Hindu population.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Why the BJP Won't – and Can't – Give Up on Hindutva as an Electoral Strategy |url=https://thewire.in/communalism/bjp-hindutva-karnataka-election |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=The Wire |archive-date=27 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727162210/https://thewire.in/communalism/bjp-hindutva-karnataka-election |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The politics of Hindutva in India |url=https://www.iiss.org/publications/strategic-comments/2020/hindutva-politics-india |access-date=2023-07-27 |website=IISS |language=en |archive-date=27 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230727162209/https://www.iiss.org/publications/strategic-comments/2020/hindutva-politics-india |url-status=live }}</ref> The veneration of cows as deities and restrictions on meat consumption have also been used by to justify violence against Muslims, Christians, Dalits, and lower-caste Hindus.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Shakuntala |first=Banaji |date=2018 |title=Vigilante Publics: Orientalism, Modernity and Hindutva Fascism in India |journal=Javnost - the Public: Journal of the European Institute for Communication and Culture |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=333–350 |doi=10.1080/13183222.2018.1463349 |s2cid=149962714 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
===Cow vigilantism=== {{Main|Cow vigilante violence in India}}
There has been a rise in the number of incidents of cow vigilantism since the election of a BJP majority in the Parliament of India in 2014. The frequency and severity of cow vigilante violence has been described as "unprecedented."<ref name=PRI>{{cite journal|title=Sacred Slaughter: An Analysis of Historical, Communal, and Constitutional Aspects of Beef Bans in India|journal=Politics, Religion & Ideology|volume=17|issue=4|author=Radha Sarkar}}</ref> Human Rights Watch has reported that there has been a surge in such violence since 2015.<ref name="HRW1">{{cite web|title=India: 'Cow Protection' Spurs Vigilante Violence|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/27/india-cow-protection-spurs-vigilante-violence|date=27 April 2017|access-date=14 March 2022|archive-date=19 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211019165525/https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/27/india-cow-protection-spurs-vigilante-violence|url-status=live}}</ref> The surge is attributed to the recent rise in Hindu nationalism in India.<ref name=PRI/><ref name=JobLoss>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/india-modi-politics-meat-idUSKBN18P129|title=Cattle trade ban to halt beef exports, lead to job losses|date=29 May 2017|access-date=6 July 2019|via=www.reuters.com|newspaper=Reuters|archive-date=5 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190805104533/https://www.reuters.com/article/india-modi-politics-meat-idUSKBN18P129|url-status=live}}</ref> Many vigilante groups say they feel "empowered" by the victory of the Hindu nationalist BJP in the 2014 election.<ref name=BBC>{{cite news|first=Soutik|last=Biswas|work=BBC News|title=Why the humble cow is India's most polarising animal|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-34513185|access-date=14 March 2022|archive-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331120935/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-34513185|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=Risk>{{cite news|author=Ian Marlow and Bibhudatta Pradhan|title=Cow-Saving Vigilantes Are a Sign of Rising Political Risk in India|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-19/shuttered-abattoir-a-sign-of-rising-political-risk-in-india|access-date=14 March 2022|archive-date=20 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170420144758/https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-19/shuttered-abattoir-a-sign-of-rising-political-risk-in-india|url-status=live}}</ref>
According to a Reuters report, there were 63 attacks in India between 2010 and mid 2017 resulting in 28 deaths, 24 of them Muslim, and 124 injuries. Most attacks occurred after Narendra Modi took office in 2014.<ref name=reuters20102017>{{cite news|url=http://in.reuters.com/article/india-protests-muslims-beef-idINKBN19J2BV|title=Protests held across India after attacks against Muslims|work=Reuters|date=28 June 2017|access-date=29 June 2017|archive-date=9 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009014122/https://in.reuters.com/article/india-protests-muslims-beef-idINKBN19J2BV}}</ref>
Many BJP states have passed laws against cattle slaughter such as Gujarat.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/gujarat-to-punish-cow-slaughter-with-14-year-jail/articleshow/57952691.cms|title=Gujarat to punish cow slaughter with 14-year jail – Times of India|work=The Times of India|access-date=2 April 2017|archive-date=1 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170401010727/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/gujarat-to-punish-cow-slaughter-with-14-year-jail/articleshow/57952691.cms|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-39454607|title=Gujarat: India state approves life term for killing cows|date=31 March 2017|work=BBC News|access-date=2 April 2017|archive-date=2 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170402171205/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-39454607|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/gujarat-to-tighten-cow-slaughter-law/article17754329.ece|title=Gujarat to tighten cow slaughter law|last=Langa|first=Mahesh|work=The Hindu|access-date=2 April 2017|archive-date=3 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220603183517/https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/gujarat-to-tighten-cow-slaughter-law/article17754329.ece|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/india/life-term-for-killing-cows-cm-vijay-rupani-says-want-vegetarian-gujarat-slaughterhouses-cow-protection-4594523/|title=Life term for killing cows, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani says want 'vegetarian' Gujarat|date=1 April 2017|work=The Indian Express|access-date=2 April 2017|archive-date=1 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170401182503/http://indianexpress.com/article/india/life-term-for-killing-cows-cm-vijay-rupani-says-want-vegetarian-gujarat-slaughterhouses-cow-protection-4594523/|url-status=live}}</ref> On 6 June 2017, Uttar Pradesh's Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed the state police to take action against cow slaughter and cattle smuggling under the National Security Act and the Gangster Act,<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/lucknow/cattle-smuggling-slaughter-to-be-punishable-under-nsa-gangsters-act-in-up/story-y7yzwXPWtMvu8aj0UzPArJ.html|title=Cattle smuggling, slaughter in UP now punishable under National Security Act|date=6 June 2017|work=Hindustan Times|access-date=8 June 2017|archive-date=8 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608100135/http://www.hindustantimes.com/lucknow/cattle-smuggling-slaughter-to-be-punishable-under-nsa-gangsters-act-in-up/story-y7yzwXPWtMvu8aj0UzPArJ.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and in (2021) Assam Assembly passed a bill that prohibits the slaughter or sale of beef within a {{Convert|5|km|adj=on}} radius of any temple. The legislation seeks to ensure that permission for slaughter is not granted to areas that are predominantly inhabited by Hindu, Jain, Sikh and other non-beef eating communities or places that fall within a {{Convert|5|km|adj=on}} radius of a temple, satra and any other institution as may be prescribed by the authorities. Exemptions, however, might be granted for certain religious occasions.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2021-08-14|title=Assam bans sale of beef within 5 km radius of any temple, passes Cattle Preservation Bill|url=https://zeenews.india.com/india/assam-bans-sale-of-beef-within-5-km-radius-of-any-temple-passes-cattle-preservation-bill-2384702.html|access-date=2021-08-14|website=Zee News|language=en|archive-date=14 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314094331/https://zeenews.india.com/india/assam-bans-sale-of-beef-within-5-km-radius-of-any-temple-passes-cattle-preservation-bill-2384702.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|date=2021-08-14|title=Assam Assembly passes cow protection Bill|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/assam-assembly-passes-cow-protection-bill/article35905184.ece|access-date=2021-08-14|issn=0971-751X|archive-date=14 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314092927/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/assam-assembly-passes-cow-protection-bill/article35905184.ece|url-status=live}}</ref>
== Hindutva pop == {{Main|Hindutva pop}} Hindutva pop is a subgenre of Indian pop promoting Hindutva ideas. It openly calls for violence against many non-Hindu minorities, especially Muslims.<ref name=":02">{{Cite news |last=Schultz |first=Kai |date=2019-11-10 |title=India's Soundtrack of Hate, With a Pop Sheen |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/world/asia/india-hindutva-pop-narendra-modi.html |access-date=2023-05-03 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=5 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230505014721/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/10/world/asia/india-hindutva-pop-narendra-modi.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Hindutva pop artists defend their music as neither xenophobic nor Islamophobic, arguing it promotes truth. Popular Hindutva pop artists like Laxmi Dubey and Prem Krishnavanshi mainstream the xenophobic values of the genre.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rehbar |first=Quratulain |title='Hindutva pop': The singers producing anti-Muslim music in India |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/2/hindutva-pop-the-singers-producing-anti-muslim-music-in-india |access-date=2023-05-03 |website=www.aljazeera.com |language=en |archive-date=27 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230527115935/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/2/hindutva-pop-the-singers-producing-anti-muslim-music-in-india |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":02" />
==See also== * {{annotated link|Communalism (South Asia)}} * {{annotated link|Hindutva pseudohistory}} * {{annotated link|Indian nationalism}} * {{annotated link|Social conservatism}} * {{annotated link|Saffronisation}} * {{Annotated link|NCERT textbook controversies}} * {{annotated link|Trads (Hindutva)}} * {{annotated link|Hindutva boycott of Hindi cinema}} * {{annotated link|Yoga and politics}}
== Explanatory notes == {{Notelist|40em}}
==References== === Citations === {{reflist|30em}}
=== Bibliography === {{Refbegin|30em}} * {{cite book |first1=Walter K. |last1=Andersen |author-link=Walter K. Andersen |first2=Shridhar D. |last2=Damle |title=The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism |orig-date=Originally published by Westview Press |publisher=Vistaar Publications|location=Delhi |year=1987 }} * {{cite book |last=Augustine |first=Sali |chapter=Religion and Cultural Nationalism: Socio-Political Dynamism of Communal Violence in India |editor1=Erich Kolig |editor2=Vivienne S. M. Angeles |editor3=Sam Wong |title=Identity in Crossroad Civilisations |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-90-8964-127-4 |pages=65–83 }} * {{cite book |first=Robert |last=Frykenberg |chapter=Hindutva as a Political Religion: An Historical Perspective |editor1=R. Griffin |editor2=R. Mallett and J. Tortorice |title=The Sacred in Twentieth-Century Politics: Essays in Honour of Professor Stanley G. Payne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGOHDAAAQBAJ |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-230-24163-3 |pages=178–200 |access-date=6 May 2019 |archive-date=7 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007224810/https://books.google.com/books?id=JGOHDAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }} * {{cite book |first=Des Raj |last=Goyal |author-link=Des Raj Goyal |title=Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh |publisher=Radha Krishna Prakashan |location=Delhi |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-8364-0566-8 }} * {{citation |last=Graham |first=B. D. |chapter=Syama Prasad Mookerjee and the communalist alternative |editor=D. A. Low |title=Soundings in Modern South Asian History |publisher=University of California Press |year=1968 |asin=B0000CO7K5 }} * {{cite book |last=Jaffrelot |first=Christophe |author-link=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics |publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers |year=1996 |isbn=978-1-85065-301-1 }} * {{cite book |last=Katju |first=Manjari |title=Vishva Hindu Parishad and Indian Politics |publisher=Orient Blackswan |year=2013 |isbn=978-81-250-2476-7 }} * {{cite book |last=Krishna |first=Ananth V. |title=India since Independence: Making Sense of Indian Politics |publisher=Pearson Education India |year=2011 |isbn=978-81-317-3465-0 }} * {{cite book |author=Krishna |first1=Chaitanya |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LnEMAQAAMAAJ |title=Fascism in India: Faces, Fangs, and Facts |last2=Noorani |first2=A. G |author-link2=A. G. Noorani |publisher=Manak Publications |year=2003 |isbn=978-81-7827-067-8}} * {{cite book |last=Pandey |first=Gyanendra |author-link=Gyanendra Pandey (historian) |chapter=Which of Us are Hindus? |editor=Gyanendra Pandey |title=Hindus and Others: The Question of Identity in India Today |publisher=Viking |location=New Delhi |year=1993 |pages=238–272 }} * {{cite journal |last=Panikkar |first=K. N. |author-link=K. N. Panikkar |title=Culture and Communalism |journal=Social Scientist |volume=21 |pages=24–31 |number=3/4 |year=1993 |jstor=3517629 |doi=10.2307/3517629 }} * {{cite news |last=Panikkar |first=K. N. |author-link=K. N. Panikkar |title=In the Name of Nationalism |newspaper=Frontline |date=13 March 2004 |url=http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2106/stories/20040326005400400.htm |access-date=20 February 2015 |archive-date=4 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904095012/http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2106/stories/20040326005400400.htm |url-status=live }} * {{cite book |last=Parvathy |first=A. A. |title=Secularism and Hindutva, A Discursive Study |publisher=Codewood Process & Printing |year=1994 |asin=B0006F4Y1A }} * {{cite book |last=Prakashan | first= Bharat |title=Shri Guruji: The Man and His Mission, On the Occasion of His 51st Birthday |publisher=Bharat Prakashan |location=Delhi |year=1955 |oclc=24593952 }} * {{cite book |last=Sant |first=Patricia M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3JmAAAAAMAAJ |title=Indigeneity: Construction and Re/presentation |publisher=Nova Science Publishers |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-56072-674-6}} {{Refend}}
== Further reading == {{Refbegin|30em}} ; Articles * Andersen, Walter K., "Bharatiya Janata Party: Searching for the Hindu Nationalist Face", In ''The New Politics of the Right: Neo–Populist Parties and Movements in Established Democracies'', ed. Hans–Georg Betz and Stefan Immerfall (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), pp. 219–232. ({{ISBN|0-312-21134-1}} or {{ISBN|0-312-21338-7}}) * {{Cite journal | last = Desai | first = Radhika | title = A latter day fascism | journal = Economic and Political Weekly | volume = 49 | issue = 35 | pages = 48–58 | publisher = Sameeksha Trust (India) | date = 30 August 2014 | url = http://www.epw.in/journal/2014/35/special-articles/latter-day-fascism.html | access-date = 30 November 2017 | archive-date = 1 December 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171201081005/http://www.epw.in/journal/2014/35/special-articles/latter-day-fascism.html | url-status = live }} * Embree, Ainslie T., 'The Function of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: To Define the Hindu Nation', in ''Accounting for Fundamentalisms, The Fundamentalism Project 4'', ed. Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), pp. 617–652. ({{ISBN|0-226-50885-4}}) * Gold, Daniel, "Organised Hinduisms: From Vedic Truths to Hindu Nation" in: ''Fundamentalisms Observed: The Fundamentalism Project Vol. 4'', eds. M. E. Marty, R. S. Appleby, University of Chicago Press (1994), {{ISBN|978-0-226-50878-8}}, pp. 531–593. * {{cite journal | last = Poonacha | first = Veena | title = Hindutva's Hidden Agenda: Why Women Fear Religious Fundamentalism | journal = Economic and Political Weekly | volume = 28 | issue = 11 | pages = 438–439 | publisher = Sameeksha Trust (India) | date = 13 March 1993 | url = http://www.epw.in/journal/1993/11/commentary/hindutva-s-hidden-agenda-why-women-fear-religious-fundamentalism.html | access-date = 30 November 2017 | archive-date = 1 December 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171201042629/http://www.epw.in/journal/1993/11/commentary/hindutva-s-hidden-agenda-why-women-fear-religious-fundamentalism.html | url-status = live }} * {{Cite web |last=Project |first=The Polis |title=The Transnational Illicit Finance Funding Hindutva |url=https://thepolisproject.com/research/transnational-illicit-finance-hindutva-corporates/ |access-date=2025-10-20 |language=en-GB}}
; Books * Banerjee, Partha, ''In the Belly of the Beast: The Hindu Supremacist RSS and BJP of India'' (Delhi: Ajanta, 1998). {{ISBN|978-81-202-0504-8}} * Bhatt, Chetan, ''Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths'', Berg Publishers (2001), {{ISBN|1-85973-348-4}}. * Chaturvedi, Vinayak, ''Hindutva and Violence: V. D. Savarkar and the Politics of History '' (Albany: SUNY, 2022). * Hansen, Thomas Blom; Roy, Srirupa, eds. (2022). Saffron Republic: Hindu Nationalism and State Power in India. Cambridge University Press. * Desai, Radhika. ''Slouching Towards Ayodhya: From Congress to Hindutva in Indian Politics'' (2nd ed.), New Delhi: Three Essays, 2004. * Nanda, Meera, ''The God Market: How Globalization Is Making India More Hindu'', Noida, Random House India. 2009. {{ISBN|978-81-8400-095-5}}. * Nussbaum, Martha C., ''The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence and India's Future'', Harvard University Press, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-674-03059-6}} * {{cite book | editor-last = Puniyani | editor-first = Ram | title = Religion, power & violence: expression of politics in contemporary times | publisher = Sage | location = New Delhi; Thousand Oaks, Cal. | year = 2005 | isbn = 978-0-7619-3338-0 }} * {{cite book |last=Sampath |first=Vikram |title=Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past |publisher=Penguin Viking |edition=First |year=2019 |isbn= 978-0-670-09030-3}} * Ruthven, Malise, ''Fundamentalism: A Very Short Introduction'', Oxford University Press, USA (2007), {{ISBN|978-0-19-921270-5}}. * Sharma, Jyotirmaya, ''Hindutva: Exploring the Idea of Hindu Nationalism'', Penguin Global (2004), {{ISBN|0-670-04990-5}}. * Smith, David James, ''Hinduism and Modernity'', Blackwell Publishing {{ISBN|0-631-20862-3}} * Webb, Adam Kempton, ''Beyond the global culture war: Global horizons'', CRC Press (2006), {{ISBN|978-0-415-95313-9}}. {{Refend}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Hindutva}} * {{Wiktionary-inline|Hindutva}}
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