Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths

by Chetan Bhatt

The rise of authoritarian Hindu mass movements and political formations in India since the early 1980s raises fundamental questions about the resurgence of chauvinistic ethnic, religious and nationalist movements in the late modern period. This book examines the history and ideologies of Hindu nationalism and Hindutva from the end of the last century to the present, and critically evaluates the social and political philosophies and writings of its main thinkers.Hindu nationalism is based on the claim that it is an indigenous product of the primordial and authentic ethnic and religious traditions of India. The book argues instead that these claims are based on relatively recent ideas, frequently related to western influences during the colonial period. These influences include eighteenth and nineteenth century European Romantic and Enlightenment rationalist ideas preoccupied with archaic primordialism, evolution, organicism, vitalism and race. As well as considering the ideological impact of National Socialism and Fascism on Hindu nationalism in the 1930s, the book also looks at how Aryanism continues to be promoted in unexpected forms in contemporary India. Using a wide range of historical and contemporary sources, the author considers the consequences of Hindu nationalist resurgence in the light of contemporary debates about minorities, secular citizenship, ethics and modernity.

Genres: India, History, Hinduism, Religion, Nonfiction

240 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 12, 2001

Reviews

[Nick]

Its a little hard to succinctly communicate the vision of Hindu Nationalism which this book posits, but I'll try: It is in part, a modern political manifestation of orientalism and 19th century British thought (Spencer, and the indo-centric philosophers, linguists, and anthropologists.) From them it takes an evolutionary/organic view of races and societies, and an indo-centric historical narrative. It is also quasi Fascistic, insofar as it takes direct inspiration from Fascism in much of its militancy. But it also conforms to many of the usual pre-Fascist movements. The author sees it as strongly inspired by European thought from these two directions. And I mean *strongly.* From the Hindu side, it is an attempt to take Bhakti devotionalism and apply it to a nation-- India. Hence the creation of Bharatmata deity, veneration of flags, bricks, maps and other nontraditional practices. It is also sort of a Kshatriya movement, insofar as it fosters warrior virtue, and applies the Bhagavad Gita to actual militancy. It also offers lower caste groups a way "up" in caste Hindu society by offering them Kshatriya status (this is common in Indian history btw.) But by this method it also seeks to incorporate dallies (and tribals, and others) into the Hindu political fold. Its objective is to convert or channel religious Hinduism into a political movement, using the principles of European rationalism, and romantic/enlightenment conceptions of the Nation State as an ethnically linguistically and religiously homogenous territory. It has a tendency towards engaging in communal violence in pursuance of this goal. I realize that the above is problematic. I'm leaving things out, simplifying, and treating the ideology as though it is a single coherent system, and as though it has agency. Well, thats what you get for reading the book review rather than the book.

In many ways, it resembles earlier Sikhism (my view, not the book's), in that it seeks to militarize a religious population, and turn its devotionalism towards political ends. I think that in an effort to appear politically opposed to Hindutva, the book misses out on making such obvious comparisons as that. The politics of the author are problematic in other ways as well. For instance the Hindutva perspective on the Bhagavad Gita is portrayed as a twisting of the historically agreed upon meaning of the text towards a militarist focus. But what about actual military applications of Hinduism in the past? Are we to believe that Hindutva is really the first time that Hindus applied a text about war and warrior morality to actual combat? That could be, but I have a feeling that it is at least presaged by Shivaji, or a different Hindu monarch on the eve of the Turkic invasions. In this vein-- there is no examination of premodern Hindu militancy as a potential influence on Hindutva. Maybe the authors analyzed that possibility and dismissed it, but they never write about exactly why that connection isn't a valid one.

Also, while the actions of Hindutva activists are rightly condemned in the cases of mosque destruction, Ram Janambhoomi activism, and other instances of communal violence, no real examination of the origin of that rage is given. It is portrayed as some kind of psychological defect on the part of RSS members, that they feel like their manhood is threatened or some such thing. Not an exaggerated and unjust response to the actual crimes of historical Islamic regimes. Also, things like this: Ayodhya is described as the worst violence since partition, which doesn't seem correct to me just based on numbers.

The first sections focusing on the roots of Hindu Nationalism were the most interesting to me. Savarkar's European influences being more or less what i had expected, but his influence in modern times being much greater than I had expected. The narrative beings in the 1880s an then moves forward into the Bengal renaissance and aristocratic Hindu organizations, to the independence movement (though the book portrays Hindu Nationalism as not contributing much to the independence struggle), on to the formation of the Sangh Parivar, RSS, and VHP, and then the entry of Hinduism into parliamentary politics, and modern events surrounding the Ayodhya and Gujarat violence. As I mentioned, it gets a lot more politically charged as it reaches modern day, and loses the sense of historical objectivity which earlier chapters had. But still, its a pretty well done broad sweeping overview of the origins, ideologies, and modern myths which comprise Hindu Nationalism. It more or less delivers on the cover's promise, outside of the aforementioned critiques.

[Aryan CA]

outstanding work. riveting in every sense of the word

[Akshay]

good