Hindu Nationalism

Much like Christian nationalism, which focuses on “restoring” America to its “Christian roots”, Hindu nationalism is seen as a doctrine concerned primarily with promoting unity within the nation among Hindus, but wherein the motivation is focused on discriminating minorities, specifically the Muslims (Swami, 12). The Hindu Nationalists are neither a religious sect nor a political party, though they have a party. They are not a single organization; rather, they are a network of fundamentalists, traditionalists, anti-modernists, and right-wing conservative whose members are strong believers of the representative democracy (Bhargava, 11). They run the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP), in hopes to capture state power, just like Christian dominionism. Despite the tendencies of the people to move independently, they are cemented through their belief of antiliberalism, disgust in socialism, belief of reinstating a strong Hindu nation, and antipathy to Muslims.

The origin of Hindu Nationalism started as a response to British colonialism. Uprooted from tradition, the Indians suffered because they had not defined their own identity. They had to compare themselves with others to come up with their own identity; thus, the birth of Hindu nationalism (Swami 11). Clearly, perverse comparison does not only play a major role in the Hindu-Muslim conflict; one can clearly see that perverse comparison also made possible the creation of religions, as dictated by Weber’s theory of religion. One figure important to the movement’s conception was K.B Hedgewar, who saw that the Hindus were disunited and physically weak compared to the strong, cohesive Muslims. He made a notion that if the Hindu were to unite and become strong, they would have gained political power, which was threatened by the growing numbers of Muslims and Christians. This led to the mindset of creating a pure culture focused on the “formation of a narrow, hardened, and belligerent identity-formation” (Bhargava 12).

As what I have learned from another class, the core values of Hinduism are eclecticism and diversity, yet “stigmatization and emulation” defined the strategy used by the nationalists to attain the goal of defining a national identity (Bhargava 14). An example would be the protection of the holy cow, the symbol of upper-caste Hindu identity. They had clearly defined themselves from the Muslims, the barbaric cow-slaughterers. They had missionaries to spread their dedication to “Mother India,” while mainly servicing people of upper-caste families. They put up schools, money-lending agencies, and youth associations, not for social service, but to spread the “conflictual, violent engagement with the ‘Other’” (Bhargava 14). Would the contradiction between the religion’s core and the strategies only nullify the belief and the system?

Extreme Hindu nationalism cannot survive without an enemy. Until today, perverse comparison propels extreme Hindu nationalism. Only 11 percent of the population is Muslim, British imperialism can only be found through the traces it left behind, and self identity has grown strong, yet the upper-case Hindus still dominate all political institutions. Hindu nationalism has only grown stronger since the 1980s, and the BJP has heavily influenced the elections (Bhargava 14). Why does the majority still feel and behave like a persecuted minority?



Bhargava, R. (2003). The cultural nationalism of the new Hindu. Politics Abroad. 11-17

Swami, A. (2003). Hindu nationalism: What’s religion got to do with it? Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. 1-17.