An analysis of the current Indian religious situation re- veals that India is plagued with religious fundamentalism and com- munalism. Religion is politicized and is experienced as a diabolic force, rather than a symbolic revelation. The patriarchal paradigm propagated by Hindutva cannot be dismantled without collabora- tion and dialogue. We need both 'sexually awakened' men and women of all religious traditions to join hands in this common war against the enemies of humanity. Together, we people of good will in India, could search for a "new anthropology" - a new way of under standing what it means to be human in an age which is bent on creating a myth of dehumanization.
Abstract. The 2014 parliamentary election in India reduced Congress party to merely 44 seats in the lower house, big blow for a party whose history is integral the country's founding narrative. In the last parliamentary election the Congress party polled only 19.3% of the votes declining from 28.6% in 2009, while on the other hand the main right wing party i.e. BJP won 282 parliamentary seats and 31% of the national votes. The extreme right-wing organisations have undoubtedly become the central pole of Indian politics. Moreover, its recent success in Uttar Pradesh provincial election, which is one of the most populated province with 215 million inhabitants, is the strongest evidence yet of the broader shift to the right and the BJP's victory in UP state strengthens this shift. This paper intends to study the recent rise of extreme right-wing Hindu organisations in India. Most prominent among these organisations are RSS, BJP, VHP, Bajang Dal and Shiv Sena. However, all of them work together under the philosophy of Hindutva (i.e. Hindu-ness) and are rabidly anti-minority in their stance. The aim of this study is to highlight the recent rise in extreme right-wing Hindu organisations and to examine their ideas and philosophy regarding Indian history and culture. It is also useful to set this against a global context in which divisive and ultra-nationalist forces are on the rise within Europe and Donald Trump has assumed the US presidency. The study argues that the adoption of neoliberal economic policy in 1991 has increased GDP, but hardly any expansion in employment, which is known as 'jobless growth'. The study also finds the far right encroachment into India's liberal institutions and it seems that Indian polity is undergoing a historically unprecedented change with extreme-right to dominance into vast areas of ideology, economy and culture.Keywords: India, Hindutva, Neo-liberalism, Secularism and minorities.JEL. N30, N35, N40.
The 2014 parliamentary election in India reduced Congress party to merely 44 seats in the lower house, big blow for a party whose history is integral the country's founding narrative. In the last parliamentary election the Congress party polled only 19.3% of the votes declining from 28.6% in 2009, while on the other hand the main right wing party i.e. BJP won 282 parliamentary seats and 31% of the national votes. The extreme right-wing organisations have undoubtedly become the central pole of Indian politics. Moreover, its recent success in Uttar Pradesh provincial election, which is one of the most populated province with 215 million inhabitants, is the strongest evidence yet of the broader shift to the right and the BJP's victory in UP state strengthens this shift. This paper intends to study the recent rise of extreme right-wing Hindu organisations in India. Most prominent among these organisations are RSS, BJP, VHP, Bajang Dal and Shiv Sena. However, all of them work together under the philosophy of Hindutva (i.e. Hindu-ness) and are rabidly anti-minority in their stance. The aim of this study is to highlight the recent rise in extreme right-wing Hindu organisations and to examine their ideas and philosophy regarding Indian history and culture. It is also useful to set this against a global context in which divisive and ultra-nationalist forces are on the rise within Europe and Donald Trump has assumed the US presidency. The study argues that the adoption of neoliberal economic policy in 1991 has increased GDP, but hardly any expansion in employment, which is known as 'jobless growth'. The study also finds the far right encroachment into India's liberal institutions and it seems that Indian polity is undergoing a historically unprecedented change with extreme-right to dominance into vast areas of ideology, economy and culture.
Die Erstürmung und der Abriß der Moschee in Ayodhya im Dezember 1992 durch fanatisierte Hindus sowie die anschließende Errichtung eines provisorischen Rama-Tempels an dieser Stelle erschienen als ein Fanal: Steht Indien vor einer Wende vom "multikulturellen" Staat, von einer funktionierenden säkularen Demokratie zu einem fundamentalistischen Hindustaat, der Muslims wie Christen ausgrenzt? Dazu zu passen scheinen die Wahlerfolge, die die hindunationalistische Bharatiya Janata Partei in den letzten zehn Jahren erringen konnte. Wie ist der Erfolg des Hindunationalismus zu erklären, welches sind seine sozialen Trägergruppen, welche Organisationen instrumentalisieren hier Religion für den Machterwerb? Vor allen Dingen aber: Kann eine solche Bewegung in Indien auf Dauer Erfolg haben? Ist nicht vielmehr der Hinduismus viel zu vielfältig, als daß er zu einer geschlossenen politischen Kraft mit Aussicht auf die Machtübernahme geformt werden könnte? Bislang jedenfalls hat die indische Demokratie sich unter ungünstigsten Voraussetzungen als erstaunlich stabil erwiesen.
This paper explores the interconnections of Hindutva fascist repertoires in India and quasi-orientalist discourses. History and common sense are re-written through audiovisual communications to appeal to one section of a dangerously split Indian public and a neoliberal-touristic sensibility elsewhere. Enlightenment rhetorics of progress, democracy and technological development are apparently embodied by WhatsApp groups, electronic voting machines and laws to protect cows. Voting—as a marker of democratic citizenship—becomes a masquerade protecting a resurgent far right Hindutva (Hindu fascist) regime under the aegis of Narendra Modi and the BJP. Caste Hinduism's association of cows with deities, and the proscription on meat-eating in certain versions of religious practice, are used as pretexts for unimaginable violence against Muslims, Christians, Dalits, and working class/lower caste Hindus. Violence against those who dissent is rationalised as patriotic. Hindutva's banal and spectacular audiovisual discourse overwhelms public communication. Its consequences are a form of vigilante citizenship that is marked on the bodies of dead victims and of vigilante publics ready to be mobilised either in ethno-cultural violence or its defence and disavowal. Meanwhile, attracted to India as an enormous market, Western governments and corporations have colluded with the Hindutva regime's self-promotion as a bastion of development.
Hindutva persigue, mediante la agitación entre hindúes, controlar los resortes del poder e imponer la uniformidad cultural. En parte esta preponderancia de Hindutva se debe al fracaso del "centro-izquierda" para consolidarse como fuerza política en las décadas de 1970 y 1980. A lo largo de este tiempo los gobiernos de turno se proclamaban laicos, pero se inhibían de acometer políticas en ese sentido para no perder apoyo entre los musulmanes, lo que ha permitido que el extremismo hindú capitalizara la oposición. En estos momentos el panorama ha cambiado de forma drástica. ¿Puede una sociedad multirreligiosa y multicultural desarrollarse en un estado en descomposición? ¿El subcontinente se está asimilando al modelo europeo de la nación-estado étnica, apoyada en una religión y una cultura exclusivas? En otras palabras ¿es esto una consecuencia de la Partición? ; Hindutva movement is now actively seeking to capture instruments of state power and trying to impose its cultural hegemony by mobilizing Hindus. In post-Independent India, the Hindutva movement has reached such proportions because the much desired 'left-of-centre' consolidation failed to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s. Over these decades, the governments of the day claimed that India was a secular country but in actual practice, because of the fear of losing Muslim votes, they constantly postponed the implementation of a secular agenda thereby opening the space for the Hindutva forces to rush in. Now the political terrain has changed drastically. Is the belief that a multi-religious and culturally diverse society can wield itself into a nation and democratic polity coming apart? Is the sub-continent returning to the European model of building ethnic nation-states underpinned by the cultural codes of a mono-culture or single religion? In a line, could this be attributed to the 'long shadow' of the Partition of India?
Este artículo reflexiona sobre las ramificaciones ideológicas y políticas de la interpretación histórica india. Examina los prejuicios sectario-religiosos en la historiografía, que las instituciones utilizan para arrojar una representación distorsionada de la realidad, sin dar cabida a otros puntos de vista. Así, estudiamos cómo se promueven determinados libros de texto y suprimen otros en beneficio de posiciones sectarias. A su vez, estos grupos se apropian de las figuras representativas del nacionalismo laico. ; This article discusses the ideological and political ramifications of historical interpretation. It examines the communal perspective on the writing of history to show how it is a distorted representation of reality, so institutions propagate the communal point of view and suppress alternative perspectives. The suppression of the textbooks written from a secular scientific standpoint and the distortions in the textbooks for schools sponsored by the communal groups wielding state power are analysed. This need for legitimacy on the part of the communal forces prompts them to appropriate the icons of the secular nationalist movement —clearly a farcical exercise.
Die Arbeit geht von zwei Kernfragen aus: (1) In empirischer Hinsicht stellt sie sich die Frage nach dem Kern und der Struktur von Savarkars soziopolitischen Denken und Handeln. Die leitende Hypothese hierbei ist, dass es einen umfassenden Ansatz bedarf, der Savarkars gesamtes Leben und Werk in die Analyse miteinbezieht; (2) in theoretischer Hinsicht wird die Frage aufgeworfen inwieweit "westliche Theorien und Konzepte" auf den indischen Kontext anwendbar sind. Die Hypothese hier ist, dass jedes Konzept im Einzelfall überprüft werden muss und Pauschalaussagen hinsichtlich der Anwendbarkeit abzulehnen sind. Angesichts des identifizierten Mangels an wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten zu Savarkar sowie dessen inkohärenten Stellungnahmen besteht die erste wesentliche Leistung darin, zum ersten Mal Savarkars politische, soziale und wirtschaftliche Ideen umfassend und systematisch zu ermitteln sowie deren Kausalität für die Sinnstiftung im Rahmen der Konstruktion einer kollektiven Identität aufzuzeigen. Hier wird aufgezeigt, dass es sich bei Hindutva um ein gesamtgesellschaftliches Konzept handelt, welches es nicht erlaubt einzelne Teilbereiche auszublenden. In der theoretischen Dimension konnte anhand der Anwendung von Bernhard Giesens Konzept der codebasierten kollektiven Identitäten nachgewiesen werden, dass westliche Theorien (bzw. Konzepte) zum einen auf den indischen Kontext übertragbar sind und zum anderen es ermöglicht wird Savarkars identitäre Konstruktionssystematik von Hindutva zu ermitteln. Darüber hinaus konnte das methodische Vorgehen Savarkars nachvollzogen und die sich daraus ergebende Konsequenzen für die Sinnstiftung von Hindutva nachgezeichnet werden. Ausgehend von diesen Leistungen konnte ein weiteres Ergebnis erzielt werden, welches in der Erbringung eines Beitrages zur theoretischen Erforschung des Feldes der kollektiven Identität in Indien durch die Vorbereitung des Feldes für weitere komparative Studien besteht.
One of the most noteworthy developments in Indian politics is the occurrence of a phenomenon often described as Hindu-Nationalism or Hindutva-movement (Bhatt 2001; Jaffrelot 2007, 1996; Zavos 2000). The movement refers to efforts to undertake dramatic changes within the political culture of India. This attempted transformation of state and society, which manifested itself through 'communal violence' – clashes between different religious communities especially between Hindus and Muslims (Engineer 2003; 1987) and actions aimed at challenging constitutional provisions such as secularism in combination with increasingly radical socio-political demands, have posed a threat to the Indian model of consensus democracy and have sadly lived up to bleak forecasts (Basu et.al. 1993).
Lecture held at the South Asia Institute in Heidelberg on 11th November, 2008. Professor Desai will discuss how the Indian experience of cultural nationalism has become the basis for an innovative new theoretical perspective on nationalism in our time. She will examine the Indian case from a comparative perspective and explore the implications for conceptions of citizenship.
A significant aspect of India's postcolonial history has been the rise of subnationalism—popularly addressed as the challenge of regionalism—which has often pitted the Indian state against the regional centres of power. In fact, the organisation of Indian territory along linguistic lines favoured the emergence of regional movements challenging the authority of the central government in arguments typical of nationalist rhetoric, such as the specificity of language, territory and traditions. This notion of subnation, however, has taken a new turn during the past two decades of neoliberal reforms as regional states compete with each other to attract greater foreign and domestic investment and to secure higher growth rates. Taking as a point of departure the case of 'Vibrant Gujarat', this article proposes rethinking the emergence of subnational cultures in the past two decades in the light of the effects of the neoliberal economic reforms and the rise of Hindu extremist movements in the political arena.
The task undertaken by this dissertation is to offer a theological response to Hindutva nationalism and its challenges to Christians in India. The particular focus is to understand and critique Hindutva conception of the State and its failure to work towards the common good of all. Towards that end this dissertation expounds a theological frame work in light of Luther's Two Realm theology to help Christians take their Christian faith seriously (exclusive in nature) while embracing an inclusive paradigm (inclusive in nature) which enables Christians to work together with people of different faiths or no faiths for the common good. This dissertation affirms that, Luther's Two Realm theology provides an analytical tool to understand and distinguish between the concerns, activities, and mode of God's rule in relation to God's two realms of life, which is fundamental to any theology of engagement. In light of the principles explicated, this dissertation affirms the state to be an instrument of God in the left-hand realm for the maintenance of external peace, justice, and the common good for all. Such an affirmation helps Christians in India to affirm the Indian constitutional version of the state and government which seeks to represent and accommodates every one irrespective of one's caste, creed, language or culture over against the Hindutva vision of a monolithic Hindu state where people belonging to non-Hindu religions do not have a legitimate space in the nationhood. In our effort to find a common ground with people of different faiths or no faiths, this dissertation emphasizes the importance of two foundations for our common existence, namely common Creatureliness and common morality based on natural law and human wisdom. This dissertation explores a Christian's social engagement in the public square, through their vocational call to be a citizen and/or as political authority. Finally this dissertation examines how the Church as an institution in the left-hand can carry out its divine mandate towards the extension and welfare of all under law in the temporal realm. This dissertation is written as a faithful confession of God's word within the Lutheran doctrinal tradition with an intention to provide a resource to help and equip the church, and Christians in India, to continue to be faithful in the midst of Hindutva challenges in the public square towards the common good for all.
'Marginalization' is a process of segregation of the socio-culturally, economically, politically and religiously underprivileged group. Marginalization is an inequitable behaviour towards the minorities and weaker sections of the society by the majorities or stronger sections. Dalits, untouchables, tribals, muslims, transgenders and female are generally regarded as marginal or peripheral. So, they are vulnerable to exploitation. Arundhati Roy's latest novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is a registered account of violence on the marginals. The novel incarnates the lynching of thousand minorities in Gujrat riot in 2002, mass slaughtering of three dalit men on the rumour of cow slaughtering, the disrespectful demolition and humiliation of an untouchable soldier S. Murugesan's statue for the audacious erection on the edge of touchable's village, the eviction and execution of tribal in Operation Green Hunt in 2009, and humiliation, rejection and segregated life of Transgenders. The novel unfolds the upliftment of Hindutva and their atrocities on the non- Hindus. The objective of this paper is to portray the plight of marginal people in caste ridden India and the violence coming into their life physically and mentally.
The relationship between religion and nationalism is explored in this paper which takes Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as its core focus of analysis. Given the incomplete process of nation-building in the case of India and the intrinsic challenge of how to cultivate a nationalism when the sense of a nation and nationality is lacking, Nandy discusses Savarkar's idea of Hindutva and the use of religion as a vehicle of nation-building. This, despite Savarkar's being a non-believer. Nandy explores parallels with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, whose project of nation and state-building is also seen in terms of political categories that were drawn from the Western experience and ideal of the Westphalian state. Exploring the love-hate relationship with Savarkar that is prevalent in contemporary India, Nandy probes the concerted attempt to demonise Savarkar and asks whether this is yet another means by which a young nation seeks to exorcise its past?
Since India's independence (and even before) there is a growing ideological debate regarding its identity and self-understanding. The focal point of this discussion is the much-disputed and multi-faceted Indian historical figure Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1985-1966). His life and work, and above all his literary compositions, point to numerous paradoxes and controversial phenomena, which divides the discussants basically into two essential camps. On the one side are those who see Savarkar and his socio-political vision (Hindutva) that he proclaimed as the greatest danger to the foundation of the modern, secular state, democracy, and multiculturalism. With this background, Savarkar is used as the synonym for an "anti-modern" regression, and as the ideological founder of a phenomenon that has usually been referred to as "Hindu nationalism" or "Hindu fundamentalism". This side is opposed by a second camp consisting of people who tend to see Savarkar and his perceptions of state theory as a legitimate and ambitious form of democratic self-determination. However, all these controversies about Savarkar do not take into account the philosophical tenets underlying his social and political thoughts. Both Indian as well as Western scholars have focused only on some particular fragments of his thoughts without spending the time and effort to understand his various theoretical concepts in a complex and coherent framework. Therefore, this article aims to explore the philosophical foundation of his notions and actions, and suggests crucial variables for further scientific analysis.
