Hindu nationalism and the Hindu faith are two distinct concepts; the former is a political ideology, while the latter is a belief or religion with around a billion believers and, like most religions, is not inherently political. According to Dr Niranjan Sahoo, Senior Fellow with Observer Research Foundation’s Governance and Politics Initiative, “Hindu nationalism is a majoritarian project which is based on Hindu supremacist ideology. It attacks the very idea of a diverse and multicultural India.”
The roots of Hindu nationalism can be traced back to the early 19th century. However, it gained prominence in the early 20th century as “Indian Nationalism” during the struggle for independence from the British Raj. It is also known as Hindutva, a term coined in 1923 by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in his epigraph titled ‘Who is a Hindu?’
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, presents itself as a cultural, not a political, organization that nevertheless advocates a Hindu nationalistic agenda under the banner of Hindutva, or “Hindu-ness.” The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) is widely viewed as a political wing of the RSS. Their ideology is based on the exclusionary ideology of Hindutva.
Hindu nationalism has always remained a part of Indian politics; nevertheless, since the BJP came into power in 2014, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Hindu nationalism has come to dominate the Indian political landscape entirely.
According to the Indian Constitution 1950, India is a secular democratic state. However, the BJP has been cited for passing laws and policies that seek to make India a “Hindu State” and have led to an increase in intolerance and communal violence in India, including the killing and targeting of religious minorities, journalists, and civil society.
The establishment of Hindutva politics has led to some unfounded narratives that ‘Hinduism’ in India is constantly under threat from external powers of Islam, Sikhism, Christianity, and ‘secularism.’ They justify the violence against these groups as a form of ‘self-defence’.
The Hindutva ideology claims Muslim ‘invaders’ caused tremendous destruction, destroyed religious places, and built Islamic monuments on some of those sites, such as the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, which was violently razed by a Hindu mob led by BJP seniors. In 2022, conservative groups attempted to halt Muslim prayers at Gyanvapi Masjid in Varanasi. Prime Minister Modi justified it by claiming that Muslim rulers captured hidden Hindu relics.
In December 2021, Al Jazeera reported 42 occurrences of attacks against Christians in the Indian state of Karnataka. In February 2020, brutal Hindu groups rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods in Delhi after being incited by a BJP activist. Fifty-three people were killed: 38 Muslims and 15 Hindus.
Hindutva is an extremist ideology, and the suppression of religious minorities is indicative of its extremism. Modi-led India is hypocritical. India was a secular democratic state, but Hindutva ideology is swaying its secularism and fueling the marginalization of minorities and communal hatred. India needs to implement its secularistic policies for the betterment of the globe.
As a political ideology, Hindutva advocates the supremacy of Hindus and the re-establishment of ‘Akhand Bharat,’ in Hindustan. Akhand Bharat (Greater India) is a mythological nation-state exclusively for Hindus which spanned over land presently in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Tibet.
In terms of the danger of Hindu nationalism in the Indian diaspora, there is extremism, radicalization, and targeted killing of critics of Hindutva ideology. Pro-RSS groups are promoting their Hindutva ideology through Indian diaspora communities, resulting in unrest, conflicts, and civil issues between ethnic or religious groups in different parts of the world.
Dhirendra K. Jha, a renowned Indian author, has underscored, “Under Mr Modi, the RSS has become increasingly active overseas in countries with large Indian Diasporas.” The President of the Toronto-based Canadian Organization for Hindu Heritage Education, Ms Ragini Sharma, stated, “There is this bogey of Hindu nationalism that is being applied to innocent people.” The leader of the most important Sikh temple in British Columbia, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, criticized Narendra Modi’s hegemonic Hindu policies. India labeled him a terrorist in 2020. After his criticism of the Modi-led Indian government, he was gunned down outside a gurdwara in British Columbia on 18 June 2023. The US Department of Justice released an indictment vividly detailing how an Indian agent had attempted to recruit a hitman in New York to kill another Sikh activist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
A high-profile Sikh leader, Paramjit Singh Panjwar, was shot dead in Lahore in May 2023. Pakistan’s foreign secretary, Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi, stated that India is carrying out a “sophisticated and sinister” campaign of “extraterritorial and extrajudicial killings” in Pakistan.
In 2022, Al Jazeera reported that the dream of propagating Hindutva ideology has become a reality in new, violent ways beyond Indian borders, exemplified by an event on 17 September 2022, when young Hindu men marched through the streets of Leicester, shouting “Jai Sri Ram.” This represents the muscular brand of Hindu pride and bias that Hindu nationalists have always aspired to. These tensions have been simmering.
In May 2022, after an unprovoked attack by a Hindu crowd, a Muslim teenager in Leicester had to be hospitalized. Before attacking a Sikh, a Hindu group walked through the streets shouting “Death to Pakistan” after Pakistan’s defeat against India in a cricket match.
Likewise, in the USA, in August 2022, bulldozers adorned with posters of Modi and Yogi Adityanath, BJP chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, appeared at the Indian Independence Day parade in Edison, New Jersey, evidently celebrating the disturbing trend of local governments razing the homes of Muslim activists in India.
Hindutva is an extremist ideology, and the suppression of religious minorities is indicative of its extremism. Modi-led India is hypocritical. India was a secular democratic state, but Hindutva ideology is swaying its secularism and fueling the marginalization of minorities and communal hatred. India needs to implement its secularistic policies for the betterment of the globe. It is important to remember that India may not be at war with the world, but Hindutva is at war with the world.
