FACT SHEET
The Hindutva movement aims to transition the Indian state from pluralism and secularism to ethno-nationalism, based in symbols and the mythologising of India’s history in line with their ideology.
History
Hindutva – literally meaning Hindu-ness – is a political ideology first formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Savarkar was not personally a believer in religion, but an ardent nationalist. While imprisoned on the charge of complicity with the assassination of a British magistrate, he wrote a book which coined the term in the 1920s. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was established in 1925 under the influence of his ideas. Nathuram Godse, a prominent supporter of Hindutva assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in 148.
Hindutva involves believing that India was a ‘holy land’, a shared culture based in Sanskrit, and sharing the same ‘jati’ or indigenous race. Importantly, given the diversity of practices within Hinduism, the Hindutva conception is cultural, rather than religious, expressing a particular version of Hindu identity rather than the Hindu faith itself. Like other modern ethno-nationalist movements, its categorisations are established in terms of an exclusionary shared culture, rather than a shared faith.
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Ideology
Hindutva expresses the idea that Indian identity is synonymous with allegiance with Hindu culture. It is the guiding ideology behind the Bharatiya Janata Party, or Indian People’s Party (BJP), currently led by Narendra Modi. It combines communalism with majoritarianism, marginalising India’s religious minorities, including Muslims, Christians and Buddhists, as well as atheists. Hindutva also interplays with India’s caste system, capturing the spirit of grievance amongst the lower castes, despite the Hindutva movement being predominantly headed by high-caste Indians.
Many scholars feel that Hindutva undermines the core principles of Hinduism, which is by nature a pluralist faith. Hindutva does, however, place a strongly emotive emphasis on the symbolic content of the religion, such as taboos around the consumption of beef. Muslims in particular have been attacked in communalist mob violence under charges of eating beef. Radical Hindus have called for their slaughter. The Indian government has failed to condemn these acts of violence. This is part of a wider campaign of forcible assimilation to Hindutva’s norms. As a populist leader, Modi combines Hindu nationalism with a strongman persona, and was well positioned to take over from a political elite disrupted by charges of corruption.
Impact
The rule of the BJP has included the brutal repression of human rights defenders in India and the construction of a Hindu temple on the site upon which a mosque had been illegally demolished by extremists. Particularly concerning was the Citizenship Amendment Act, which changes the definition of illegal immigrants to India. The Act changed the cutoff for Indian citizenship from 1971 to 2014, and excludes Muslims – whilst including other South Asian religious groups. There is an implied focus on protecting non-Muslims from persecution in Muslim states such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, and excluding, for instance, Shi’a and Ahmadi refugees from India. Huge protests erupted, and were repressed. The implementation of a state register in Assam made millions of Indians officially stateless, and similarly led to public outrage.