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Hindutva
Hindutva is a right‑wing Hindu nationalist ideology that frames Indian culture and politics around Hindu values and identity. It underlies the Bharatiya Janata Party’s platform, shaping policies and communal narratives. A notable event was the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, carried out by Hindutva activists claiming it as a reclaimed Hindu site.
Hindutva, literally “Hinduness,” denotes a right‑wing, cultural‑nationalist ideology that seeks to define Indian nationhood primarily through Hindu religious and historical symbols. Conceived as a political project rather than a theological doctrine, it frames the nation’s polity, law, and public space as an expression of a singular Hindu identity, thereby influencing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) electoral platform, legislative agenda, and communal narratives.
Historical Origins and Intellectual Foundations
The term entered public discourse with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s 1923 pamphlet Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?, which argued that “Hindutva” encompassed a common ancestry, culture, and territory extending from the Indus to the Brahmaputra. Savarkar’s definition excluded Muslims and Christians on the basis of “foreign” ancestry, establishing a doctrinal core that later organisations would operationalise.
Parallel to Savarkar’s writings, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar founded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1925, modelling it on a disciplined, paramilitary cadre that promoted “nation‑building” through daily shakhas (meetings). By the 1930s, the RSS had recruited roughly 30,000 volunteers in Maharashtra and Gujarat, laying the organisational groundwork for a nationwide Hindutva network.
Organizational Development and Political Mobilisation
The RSS gave rise to a family of affiliates known as the Sangh Parivar, including the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP, 1964), the Bajrang Dal (1984), and the political wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, 1980). By 2022, estimates placed RSS’s active membership between 6 million and 7 million, with an additional 30 million sympathisers across its affiliates.
The BJP’s first major electoral breakthrough came in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, when it secured 182 seats and formed a coalition government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The party’s vote share rose from 11 % in 1996 to 31 % in 2014, culminating in a 303‑seat majority in the 2019 election, the largest ever for a single party in independent India.
Legal and Institutional Impact
Hindutva’s most visible legal manifestation was the demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992, carried out by VHP activists who claimed the site as the birthplace of Lord Rama. The demolition triggered nationwide riots that claimed an estimated 2,000 lives, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
In November 2019, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark verdict allocating the disputed Ayodhya site to a trust for a Hindu temple while granting an alternate plot for a mosque, effectively legitimising the Hindutva claim to the land. More recently, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) of 2019—passed with 345 votes in favour and 69 against—fast‑tracked citizenship for non‑Muslim refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, a provision widely interpreted as aligning with Hindutva’s exclusionary vision.
Contemporary Manifestations and Electoral Politics
Since Narendra Modi’s ascent to the prime ministership in May 2014, Hindutva‑aligned policies have entered mainstream governance. The 2020 farm‑laws, introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture, were framed as “modernising” agrarian markets; their repeal in November 2021 followed mass protests that critics linked to a perceived erosion of secular democratic norms.
The BJP’s 2024 state‑level campaign in Uttar Pradesh, the nation’s most populous state, emphasized “Hindu unity” and promised the construction of a “Ram Temple” in Ayodhya, a pledge that contributed to the party’s 2024 victory with a 41 % vote share and 280 seats in the state assembly. The strategy illustrates how Hindutva continues to shape electoral calculus through symbolic projects and identity politics.
Significance and Critiques
Hindutva’s significance lies in its capacity to translate cultural nationalism into concrete policy outcomes, from land‑allocation judgments to citizenship legislation. Scholars such as Christophe Jaffrelot argue that the ideology reconfigures the Indian public sphere by marginalising minority voices while consolidating a Hindu majority electorate.
Human‑rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have documented a rise in hate crimes and communal violence correlating with Hindutva‑driven rhetoric, noting a 27 % increase in reported incidents against Muslims between 2014 and 2022. The ongoing debate over Hindutva therefore encapsulates a broader contest over India’s secular constitutional framework, the balance of majority rule, and the future of its pluralistic identity.