Part I · 1923–2000

Hindutva's Roots

Hindutva, commonly referred to as Hindu nationalism or Hindu supremacy, is the ideology behind the mainstreaming of organized violence against religious minorities, hate speech, and democratic decline in India. It is often described by its supporters as a movement of Hindu cultural pride and civilizational restoration. However, like Zionism, its origins stem less from religious doctrine, and instead are rooted in modern political nationalism and ethnofascism.

In simple terms, Hindutva is a fascist political ideology that conflates Indian identity with Hinduness, and justifies mass violence against Muslims and other minorities. While some of the ideas that would later inform Hindutva emerged in the late 19th century, the term itself was coined by V.D. Savarkar in the early 20th century, at the height of British colonialism. Hindutva sharply deviated from the secular independence movement led by Gandhi, Nehru, and other freedom fighters. Rather than calling for united anticolonial resistance, its proponents drew inspiration from European ethnonationalist movements, including Italian fascism and Nazism.

Hindutva's thought leaders cast people of other faiths, especially Muslims, as enemies of the nation. V.D. Savarkar made this clear in his 1923 pamphlet Essentials of Hindutva, in which he wrote:

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Nothing makes Self conscious of itself so much as a conflict with nonself. Nothing can weld peoples into a nation and nations into a state as the pressure of a common foe. Hatred separates as well as unites. Never had [India] a better chance and a more powerful stimulus to be herself forged into an indivisible whole as on that dire day, when the great inconoclast crossed the Indus. The Mohammedans had crossed that stream… The contest began in grim earnestness with Mohammad and ended, shall we say, with Abdalli?

Even as Savarkar cast Hindus as victims of Muslim and Christian 'foes', he was unabashed in his admiration for the fascist majoritarian movements sweeping Europe at the time. In a 1938 speech, he declared:

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Who are we to dictate to Germany, Japan or Russia or Italy to choose a particular form of policy of government? Hitler knows better . . . what suits Germany best. The very fact that Germany or Italy has so wonderfully recovered and grown so powerful at the touch of [a] Nazi or fascist magical wand is enough to prove that those isms were the most congenial tonic their health demanded.

Importantly, Savarkar himself was not religious and clearly distinguished Hindutva from Hinduism in the foundational text of the ideology:

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Hindutva is not identical with what is vaguely indicated by the term Hinduism. By an 'ism' it is generally meant a theory or a code more or less based on spiritual or religious dogma or creed… Hindutva embraces all the departments of thought and activity of the whole Being of our Hindu race.

This phrasing is telling: Hindutva conceptualizes Hindus as a distinct racial group separate from Indian Muslims and Christians, allowing its adherents to characterize Hindus as indigenous to India while casting others as 'foreign' — similar, once again, to Nazism. This distinction has had violent consequences for communities designated as outsiders.

Additionally, the Hindu supremacist conceptualization of Hinduism flattens the vast variety of practices and beliefs that Hindus across India have historically followed. Hindu traditions have never been unified by a single dogma or standardized practice across the subcontinent. Hindutva, meanwhile, seeks to produce a more standardized conception of Hindu identity, characterized by caste hierarchy, patriarchy, and Brahminical supremacy, while excluding or marginalizing the religious expressions of many indigenous and marginalized communities.