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Since the 1980s, feminist scholars have explored the dynamic linkages between nationalism and gender. Case studies have shown representations of women as reproducers, transmitters of culturally sanctioned behaviour, signifiers of ethnic groups and markers of national identity and honour. The emergence of social media created a new digital arena for the circulation of tropes related to gender and nationalism, and the recent rise of Hindu nationalism in India was reflected and perpetuated in social media. This article explores several memes in the intersecting discourse of gender and Hindu nationalism and investigates memes, tweets, Facebook posts and hashtags that were used on social media during the general elections held in India in 2019. Such media content reveals the extent to which nationalist projects relied on gender norms. Although there is no fixed pattern in terms of how gender shapes memes and digital images, we can identify gendered ideologies of nationalism that embrace patriarchal forms of social organization. The article shows that current online discourses of Hindu nationalism often perpetuate patterns of heteronormative, hegemonic masculinity embedded in satire and jokes. Though women's participation and visibility are on the rise in the Global South, sexism and misogyny manifest as mediatized satire in political memes.

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.

This article analyzes the online representations of the identity politics discourse of the elite Hindu nationalist community and the subaltern Dalit community. The assumptions underlying assertions about Hindu and Dalit identity on select Hindu nationalist and Dalit websites are remarkably similar despite deep ideological differences between the two. Developments in the Indian technological and cultural fields in the 1990s have enabled the emergence of a new mode of representing collective identity ('global primordiality'), which explains the resemblance between online Hindu nationalist and online Dalit discourse. The logic of global primordiality typically finds expression in cyberspace, where the realms of technology and culture intersect. The representational framework of global primordiality is shaped primarily by Hindu nationalists who also occupy a privileged position as elites in the Indian technological field. In its participation in cyberspace, Dalit discourse may tend to mirror this dominant mode of online representation, even as it remains opposed to Hindu nationalism.

On 5 August 2019, India's home minister Amit Shah made a shock announcement revoking India's constitutional guarantee of autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. This article focuses on the wider ideological context of Hindu nationalism that has spurred this decision in order to assess the move's far-reaching implications for Indian democracy and peace in South Asia.
In addition to the revocation of autonomy, a key condition of Kashmir's accession to India, India has further partitioned the state into two parts and downgraded its status to a centrally administered territory. This consolidation of the hard-line stance taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in Kashmir since assuming power is bound to fuel further alienation and resentment.
The unilateral decision calls into question India's other federal arrangements too - for instance, with states in India's north-east that also enjoy various degrees of autonomy, increasing the chance of disaffection and instability within the country.
The decision also has the potential to spark tensions with Pakistan and China, both of which occupy portions of Kashmir's territory. Pakistan, which lays claim to the entire Muslim-majority province, has already downgraded its diplomatic relations with India. China, which claims rights to the north-eastern portion of Kashmir, has also issued a warning.
Increased disaffection among the Kashmiri population is also likely to spur intervention by non-state Islamic groups, resulting in long-term strife.
According to a Hindu Right dictum, only a display of might will get India its due in the world. This high-risk manoeuvre in Kashmir appears to be the Modi government's way of testing this axiom. The consolidation of Hindu nationalist politics in India suggests the government is likely to take a more belligerent stance in world politics, especially in issues concerning national security. EU decision-makers can expect to deal with a more uncompromising and hard-line India in their future engagements with the country.

Towards the end of January 2020, COVID-19 made its headway into India. The irresponsible behaviour of the Modi government in containing the spread of Coronavirus forced it to opt for an ill-planned and hastily imposed lockdown. Meanwhile, the poor health infrastructure of the country collapsed. This outbreak also tested the socio-cultural robustness and religious tolerance in India. Pro-Hindutva media outlets and Hindu nationalists employed hate speech to securitize this outbreak as a Muslims-led controversy against India. Furthermore, pseudoscience-based remedies were portrayed as a potential cure for COVID-19. The online disinformation ecosystem of Hindutva extremist groups against minorities used trending campaigns, memes, and sharing of false content. They posted Islamophobic content so extensively that the impact of online disinformation contributed to offline harm to minorities in the form of violent attacks and social boycotts. This paper, therefore, analyses the online and offline activities of Hindu extremists and nationalists during the spread of COVID-19. It concludes with emphasis that the ongoing metamorphosis in the relationship between state, society, and religion in India is a pressing concern for the civilized world, especially the Indian political elite.

Bibliography Entry
Nabeel, Fahad, and Maryam Raashed. 2021. "Online and Offline Manifestation of Hindutva Ideology in India during the Covid-19 Spread." Margalla Papers 25 (1): 70-80.

With reference to Bharatiya Janata Party, political party from India