Hindutva as a political religion: An historical perspective

Abstract

This essay attempts to show how - from an analytical or from an historical perspective - Hindutva is a melding of Hindu fascism and Hindu fundamentalism. Claims that it is a profoundly religious and profoundly, even aggressively, political form of militant nationalism are clear. From earliest glimmerings of its inception, its agents have combined ambiguity with confrontation, compromise, and contradiction as tactical devices for achieving long range corporatist designs for gaining paramount power and imposing a totalistic agenda upon all of India. This agenda of ‘Hindutva’ or ‘Ram Rajiya’ (‘Rama’s Realm’) aims to forge ‘One Nation (in One State), One Culture, One Religion, and One Language.’ In Lord Rama’s name, a single ‘Hindu Nation’ for the whole Indian Continent must be ruled by the precepts of Arya Dharm, or Sanat ana Dharma.1 Sanskriti icons, norms, and symbols, invoking cosmic and eternal verities of Vedic Law, must be reflected in principles on which this Nation must stand. Under this regime, a changeless social structure of the Four Colour Categories (Chatur Varnya), as manifest in varnas hramadharma, both reflected the proper place of each birth (jat) or caste (j-at i) in its rightful rank and status - its strata of purity or impurity. Birth and Earth, Genomes in Sacred Blood and Molecules of Sacred Soil, determined everyone’s place and rank within an all-encompassing and cosmic ‘World Order’ (Vishwa Dharma).