Motion #03
Hindutva is a political ideology invented in 1922 by Vinayak Savarkar. The ideology Hindutva is fundamentally about cleansing India of Islam and Muslims, ‘equat[ing] Indianness with Hinduism’ (Economist, 2024). ‘The ideology of Hindutva propagates the supremacy of Hindus over religious minorities, denies the latter any special rights and enforces the idea of one nation, one religion, one language, and one culture’ (LSE, 2024). Even when it comes to Hinduism itself, i.e. disregarding how Hindutva places Hinduism in a position of superiority in relation to India’s many minorities, Hindutva presents a distorted view of things. Hinduism can never be reduced to just ‘one culture’ — it is one of the most dynamic, syncretic traditions in world history. Yet Hindutva ideologues seek to promote the idea of a uniform Hindu-ness that is detrimental, in particular, to women and low caste Hindus (and of course other faiths).
Speaking of “Hindu-ness” — that is indeed what Hindutva literally means. “-tva” is a Sanskrit suffix that translates to “-ness” or “the essence of”. Thus, Savarkar smartly called his project Hindutva (or Hinduness) in order to make it easy to conflate his ideology Hindutva with the faith Hinduism. The result of this is that people that criticise Hindutva or the organisations around it can be groundlessly called anti-Hindu or Hinduphobic or accused of criticising Hinduism — even if they are proudly Hindu.
What we see in India is mass-radicalisation that has been carried out painstakingly over around 100 years by Hindutva ideologues. The main organisation behind this mass radicalisation is called the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), which became the grassroots organising vehicle for Hindutva. It used to be a fringe movement, but is now the largest far-right organisation in the world. The founders and foundational figures of the RSS were deeply inspired by the European fascist movements, openly fawning over Hitler and Mussolini. These are the roots of the RSS. Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi, was an RSS member. Godse’s stated reason for the act was that Gandhi supposedly betrayed his Hindu religion and culture by supporting Muslims. Godse, reviled for most of the past 75 years in India, is now revered amidst the mainstreaming of Hindutva in politics and society.
Prime Minister Modi is also a member of the RSS. In fact, India’s ruling party the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is nothing other than the political wing of the RSS with Hindutva as its official party ideology as per the Palampur resolution (Frontline, 2004).
The RSS is the head of a wide network or “family” of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Family of the RSS). There is: the political wing the BJP; a militant wing that is implicated in organising pogroms called the VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad); a youth wing; a students wing; a women’s wing; a wing for older people, and so on. Some of these wings, for example Sewa International, do some good things. The word “sewa”, which translates as “service”, is a beautiful Hindu concept of selfless service to benefit others without any expectation of reward. However the Sewa organisations affiliated with the RSS perform a whitewashing function for the RSS and even provide support for criminal acts. The Channel 4 exposé linked below features Jon Snow in 2002 presenting the results of an investigation into the charity Sewa International. After a devastating earthquake in Gujarat in 2001, Sewa International raised funds from ordinary British donors purportedly for disaster relief. However, it was later found to have been directing some of these funds to the VHP in India, which is reported to have been actively organising pogroms in the genocidal violence that broke out in Gujarat in 2002. It doesn’t matter if some activities organised by organisations like Sewa are decent; the fact is that the entire RSS/BJP network of organisations exists to ultimately contribute towards their vision of a Hindu state (Hindu Rashtra). To this end these organisations have contributed towards the destruction of Muslim buildings and cultural aspects too, most famously the Babri Masjid, which was demolished by a Hindutva mob in 1992.
Just like Sewa, the BJP does some good things — but that doesn’t mean that it is a party deserving of support. It isn’t. The BJP is a party that is inherently at odds with human rights. Since being in power, the party has presided over the worst crackdowns on freedoms in India’s independent history (barring a short period in the 1970s that was reversed). US-based non-profit Freedom House downgraded India from a free democracy to a “partially free democracy”. Sweden-based V-Dem Institute was harsher in its report on democracy, saying India had become an “electoral autocracy”. India, described as a “flawed democracy”, slipped two places to 53rd position in the latest Democracy Index published by The Economist Intelligence Unit.
Sources:
https://www.ihrc.org.uk/from-nagpur-to-nairobi-to-neasden-tracing-global-hindutva/
https://bylinetimes.com/2021/12/09/the-new-strategies-of-hindu-supremacists-in-britain/
https://novaramedia.com/2023/02/23/white-and-hindu-supremacists-are-a-match-made-in-heaven/
Last updated on 2024-09-08 at 15:20