Download or read book Hindu Nationalism History and Identity in India written by Lars Tore Flåten and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed power in India in 1998 as the largest party of the National Democratic Alliance, it soon became evident that it prioritized educational reforms. Under BJP rule, a reorganization of the National Council of Educational Research and Training occurred, and in 2002 four new history textbooks were published. This book examines the new textbooks which were introduced, considering them to be integral to the BJP’s political agenda. It analyses the ways in which their narrative and explanatory frameworks defined and invoked Hindu identity. Employing the concept of decontextualization, the author argues that notions of Hindu cultural similarity were conveyed, particularly as the textbooks paid scarce attention to social, geographical and temporal contexts in their approaches to Indian history. The book shows that intrinsic to the textbooks’ emphasis on similarity is a systematic backgrounding of any references to internal lines of division within the Hindu community. Through a comparison with earlier textbooks, it sheds light on the contested nature of history writing in India, especially in terms of nation building and identity construction. This issue is also highly relevant in India today due to the electoral success of the BJP in 2014, and the efforts of the Hindu nationalist organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad to construct a coherent Hinduism. Arguing that the textbooks operate according to the BJP’s ideology of Hindu cultural nationalism, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of South Asian studies, contemporary history, the uses of history, identity politics and Hindu nationalism.
Download or read book Hindu Nationalism History and Identity in India written by Lars Tore Flåten and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed power in India in 1998 as the largest party of the National Democratic Alliance, it soon became evident that it prioritized educational reforms. Under BJP rule, a reorganization of the National Council of Educational Research and Training occurred, and in 2002 four new history textbooks were published. This book examines the new textbooks which were introduced, considering them to be integral to the BJP’s political agenda. It analyses the ways in which their narrative and explanatory frameworks defined and invoked Hindu identity. Employing the concept of decontextualization, the author argues that notions of Hindu cultural similarity were conveyed, particularly as the textbooks paid scarce attention to social, geographical and temporal contexts in their approaches to Indian history. The book shows that intrinsic to the textbooks’ emphasis on similarity is a systematic backgrounding of any references to internal lines of division within the Hindu community. Through a comparison with earlier textbooks, it sheds light on the contested nature of history writing in India, especially in terms of nation building and identity construction. This issue is also highly relevant in India today due to the electoral success of the BJP in 2014, and the efforts of the Hindu nationalist organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad to construct a coherent Hinduism. Arguing that the textbooks operate according to the BJP’s ideology of Hindu cultural nationalism, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of South Asian studies, contemporary history, the uses of history, identity politics and Hindu nationalism.
Download or read book Hindu Nationalism written by Christophe Jaffrelot and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-10 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hindu nationalism came to world attention in 1998, when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won national elections in India. Although the BJP was defeated nationally in 2004, it continues to govern large Indian states, and the movement it represents remains a major force in the world's largest democracy. This book presents the thought of the founding fathers and key intellectual leaders of Hindu nationalism from the time of the British Raj, through the independence period, to the present. Spanning more than 130 years of Indian history and including the writings of both famous and unknown ideologues, this reader reveals how the "Hindutuva" movement approaches key issues of Indian politics. Covering such important topics as secularism, religious conversion, relations with Muslims, education, and Hindu identity in the growing diaspora, this reader will be indispensable for anyone wishing to understand contemporary Indian politics, society, culture, or history.
Download or read book Messengers of Hindu Nationalism written by Walter Andersen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-15 with total page 405 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is a Hindu nationalist volunteer organization. It is also the parent of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Prime Minister Modi was himself a career RSS office-holder, or pracharak. This book explores how the RSS and its affiliates have benefitted from India's economic development and concurrent social dislocation, with rapid modernization creating a sense of rootlessness, disrupting traditional hierarchies, and attracting many upwardly mobile groups to the organization. India seems more willing than ever to accept the RSS's narrative of Hindu nationalism--one that seeks to assimilate Hindus into a common identity representing true 'Indianness'. Yet the RSS has also come to resemble 'the Congress system', with a socially diverse membership containing a distinct left, right and center. The organization's most significant dilemma is how to reconcile the assault from its far right on cultural issues like cow protection with condemnations of globalization from the left flank. Andersen and Damle offer an essential account of the RSS's rapid rise in recent decades, tracing how it has evolved in response to economic liberalization and assessing its long-term impact on Indian politics and society.
Download or read book Hindu Nationalism written by Chetan Bhatt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of authoritarian Hindu mass movements and political formations in India since the early 1980s raises fundamental questions about the resurgence of chauvinistic ethnic, religious and nationalist movements in the late modern period. This book examines the history and ideologies of Hindu nationalism and Hindutva from the end of the last century to the present, and critically evaluates the social and political philosophies and writings of its main thinkers.Hindu nationalism is based on the claim that it is an indigenous product of the primordial and authentic ethnic and religious traditions of India. The book argues instead that these claims are based on relatively recent ideas, frequently related to western influences during the colonial period. These influences include eighteenth and nineteenth century European Romantic and Enlightenment rationalist ideas preoccupied with archaic primordialism, evolution, organicism, vitalism and race. As well as considering the ideological impact of National Socialism and Fascism on Hindu nationalism in the 1930s, the book also looks at how Aryanism continues to be promoted in unexpected forms in contemporary India. Using a wide range of historical and contemporary sources, the author considers the consequences of Hindu nationalist resurgence in the light of contemporary debates about minorities, secular citizenship, ethics and modernity.
Download or read book Rethinking Hindu Identity written by Dwijendra Narayan Jha and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-18 with total page 111 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent years have seen the emergence of a virulent version of Hindu nationalism and fundamentalism in India under the banner of Hindutva. This xenophobic movement has obfuscated and mystified the notion of Hindu identity and reinforced its stereotypes. Its arguments range from the patently unscientific - humankind was created in India, as was the first civilisation - to historical whitewash: Hinduism has continued in one, unchanged form for 5000 years; Hinduism has always been a tolerant faith. 'Rethinking Hindu Identity' offers a corrective based on a deep and detailed reading of Indian history. Written in a riveting style, this study provides a fresh history of Hinduism - its practices, its beliefs, its differences and inconsistencies, and its own myths about itself. Along the way, the book systematically demolishes the arguments of Hindu fundamentalism and nationalism, revealing how the real history of Hinduism is much more complex.
Download or read book The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics written by Christophe Jaffrelot and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 1999 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although The Peaceful, Inward-Looking Doctrine Of The Hindu Religion Hardly Seems To Lend Itself To Endemic Nationalism, A Phenomenal Surge Of Militant Hinduism Has Taken Place Over The Last Ten Years In India. Indeed, The Electoral Success Of The Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp) Has Proven Beyond Doubt That These Forces Now Pose A Significant Threat To India S Secular Character. In A Historically Rich, Detailed Account Of The Hindu Nationalist Movement In India Since The 1920S, Christopher Jaffrelot Explores How Rapid Changes In The Political, Social, And Economic Climate Have Made India Fertile Soil For The Growth Of The Primary Arm Of Hindu Nationalism, A Paramilitary-Style Group Known As The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (Rss), Together With Its Political Offshoots. He Shows How The Hindu Movement Uses Religion To Enter The Political Sphere, And Argues That The Ideology They Speak For Has Less To Do With Hindu Philosophy Than With Ethnic Nationalism The Hindu Nationalist Movement And Indian Politics Makes A Major Contribution To The Study Of The Genesis And Development Of Religious Nationalism, And Is Essential Reading For Anyone Who Seeks To Comprehend The Spread Of Endemic Conflict.
Download or read book Hindu Nationalism in India written by Tanika Sarkar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the twenty-first century, there has been a seismic shift in Indian political, religious and social life. The country's guiding spirit was formerly a fusion of the anti-caste worldview of B.R. Ambedkar; the inclusive Hinduism of Mahatma Gandhi; and the agnostic secularism of Jawaharlal Nehru. Today, that fusion has given way to Hindutva. This now-dominant version of Hinduism blends the militant nationalism of V.D. Savarkar; the Brahmanical anti-minorityism of M.S. Golwalkar; and the global Islamophobia of India's ruling regime. It requires deep cultural analysis and historical understanding, as only the sharpest and most profoundly informed historian can provide. For two decades, Tanika Sarkar has forged a path through the alleys and byways of Hindutva. She has trawled through the writing and iconography of its organisations and institutions, including RSS schools and VHP temples. She has visited the offices and homes of Hindutva's votaries, interviewing men and women who believe fervently in their mission of Hinduising India. And she has contextualised this new ferment on the ground with her formidable archival knowledge of Hindutva's origins and development over 150 years, from Bankimchandra to the Babri mosque and beyond. This riveting book connects Hindu religious nationalism with the cultural politics of everyday India.
Download or read book The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India written by Christophe Jaffrelot and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using techniques similar to those of nationalist groups in other nations, Jaffrelot contends, the Hindu movement polarizes Indian society by stigmatizing minorities - chiefly Muslims and Christians - and by promoting a sectarian Hindu identity.
Download or read book Coalition Politics and Hindu Nationalism written by Katharine Adeney and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-04-11 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new collection examines the emergence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India and the ways in which its Hindu nationalist agenda has been affected by the constraints of being a dominant member of a coalition government. Religious influence in contemporary politics offers a fertile ground for political-sociological analysis, especially in societies where religion is a very important source of collective identity. In South Asian societies religion can, and often has, provided legitimacy to both governments and those who oppose them. This book examines the emergence of the BJP and the ways in which its Hindu nationalist agenda has been affected by the constraints of being a dominant member of a coalition government. The collected authors take stock of the party's first full term in power, presiding over the diverse forces of the governing NDA coalition, and the 2004 elections. They assess the BJP's performance in relation to its stated goals, and more specifically how it has fared in a range of policy fields - centre-state relations, foreign policy, defence policies, the 'second generation' of economic reforms, initiatives to curb corruption and the fate of minorities. Explicitly linking the volume to literature on coalition politics, this book will be of great importance to students and researchers in the fields of South Asian studies and politics.
Download or read book Majoritarian State written by Angana P. Chatterji and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019-08 with total page 551 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Majoritarian State traces the ascendance of Hindu nationalism in contemporary India. Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP administration has established an ethno-religious and populist style of rule since 2014. Its agenda is also pursued beyond the formal branches of government, as the new dispensation portrays conventional social hierarchies as intrinsic to Indian culture while condoning communal and caste- and gender-based violence. The contributors explore how Hindutva ideology has permeated the state apparatus and formal institutions, and how Hindutva activists exert control over civil society via vigilante groups, cultural policing and violence. Groups and regions portrayed as 'enemies' of the Indian state are the losers in a new order promoting the interests of the urban middle class and business elites. As this majoritarian ideology pervades the media and public discourse, it also affects the judiciary, universities and cultural institutions, increasingly captured by Hindu nationalists. Dissent and difference silenced and debate increasingly sidelined as the press is muzzled or intimidated in the courts. Internationally, the BJP government has emphasised hard power and a fast- expanding security state. This collection of essays offers rich empirical analysis and documentation to investigate the causes and consequences of the illiberal turn taken by the world's largest democracy.
Download or read book Hindu Nationalism in the Indian Diaspora written by Edward T.G. Anderson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-01-01 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hindu nationalism is transforming India, as an increasingly dominant ideology and political force. But it is also a global phenomenon, with sections of India's vast diaspora drawn to, or actively supporting, right-wing Hindu nationalism. Indians overseas can be seen as an important, even inextricable, aspect of the movement. This is not a new dynamic--diasporic Hindutva ('Hindu-ness') has grown over many decades. This book explores how and why the movement became popular among India's diaspora from the second half of the twentieth century. It shows that Hindutva ideology, and its plethora of organisations, have a distinctive resonance and way of operating overseas; the movement and its ideas perform significant, particular functions for diaspora communities. With a focus on Britain, Edward T.G. Anderson argues that transnational Hindutva cannot simply be viewed as an export: this phenomenon has evolved and been shaped into an important aspect of diasporic identity, a way for people to connect with their homeland. He also sheds light on the impact of conservative Indian politics on British multiculturalism, migrant politics and relations between various minoritised communities. To fully understand the Hindutva movement in India and identity politics in Britain, we must look at where the two come together.
Download or read book Hindutva written by Jyotirmaya Sharma and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2011 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Gender and Hindu Nationalism written by Prem Kumar Vijayan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-08-23 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents an innovative approach to gender, nationalism, and the relations between them, and analyses the broader social base of Hindu nationalist organisation to understand the growth of 'Hindutva', or Hindu nationalism, in India. Arguing that Hindu nationalist thought and predilections emerge out of, and, in turn, feed, pre-existing gendered tendencies, the author presents the new concept of 'masculine hegemony', specifically Brahmanical masculine hegemony. The book offers a historical overview of the processes that converge in the making of the identity ‘Hindu’, in the making of the religion ‘Hinduism’, and in the shaping of the movement known as ‘Hindutva’. The impact of colonialism, social reform, and caste movements is explored, as is the role of key figures such as Mohandas Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, and Narendra Modi. The book sheds light on the close, yet uneasy, relations that Hindu nationalist thought and practice have with conceptions of 'modernity', 'development' and women's movements, and politics, and the future of Hindu nationalism in India. A new approach to the study of Hindu nationalism, this book offers a theoretically innovative understanding of Indian history and socio-politics. It will be of interest to academics working in the field of Gender studies and Asian Studies, in particular South Asian history and politics.
Download or read book Technology and Nationalism in India written by Rohit Chopra and published by Cambria Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the phenomenon of "technocultural Hindu nationalism" or the use of the internet by global Indian communities for the promotion of Hindu nationalist ideologies. Since the introduction of Western science and technology under colonial rule in the eighteenth century, science and technology have been used as instruments of transforming Indian society. Scientific and technological expertise have been authorized as essential attributes of a modern Indian selfhood. And the possessors of technological skills have historically been vested with the authority to speak for the nation. The associations between technology and nationalism have condensed in ideas about self and other, they have been incorporated in imaginings of the state and the nation, and they have materialized as claims about identity, community, and society. In the present historical moment, this relationship manifests itself, in one form, as an online Hindu nationalism that combines cultural majoritarian claims with technological triumphalism. Technocultural Hindu nationalism yokes together the core proposition of Hindu nationalist doctrine-the idea that India is a Hindu nation and that religious minorities are outsiders to it-with arguments about the imminent rise of Hindu India as a technological superpower in the global capitalist economy of the twenty-first century. Additionally, while technocultural Hindu nationalism is obsessed with 'Western' technology, it also defines itself, in strategic respects, in opposition to Western civilization. On Hindu nationalist websites, this apparent paradox is resolved through the construction of a narrative where Hinduism is defined as the historical and philosophical foundation of global capitalist modernity itself and Hindus are presented as the natural heirs to that heritage. This book locates these and other characteristics of Hindu nationalist identity politics in cyberspace with reference to the relationship between technology and nationalism in India from the period of British colonial rule in the mid-eighteenth century to the present era of an economically and technologically interconnected world. This book argues that technocultural Hindu nationalism needs to be understood in terms of the general dynamic of technology and nationalism with its continuities and discontinuities: through the period of colonial rule till Indian independence in 1947; the period of Nehruvian nationalism with its emphasis on technological development in a socialist framework; and the current post-1991 context following the liberalization of the Indian economy, which accords pride of place to information technology and the internet. This book also proposes that the particularities of technocultural Hindu nationalism need, at the same time, to be assessed with reference to the modalities of online communication. Toward this end, the book takes shape as an interdisciplinary endeavor, combining qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, and drawing on historical scholarship about South Asia, social and cultural theory, and the sociology of new media, specifically, the field of internet studies. Technology and Nationalism in India is an important book for all in communication, Internet studies, South Asian studies, and postcolonial studies.
Download or read book The Construction of History and Nationalism in India written by Sylvie Guichard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-06-25 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most studies on nations and nationalism argue that history, or more precisely a 'common past', is crucial for the process of national identity building. This book focuses on the construction, elaboration and negotiation of the narratives that have become official history in India.
Download or read book Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear written by D. Anand and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The representation of the Muslims as threatening to India's body politic is central to the Hindu nationalist project of organizing a political movement and normalizing anti-minority violence. Adopting a critical ethnographic approach, this book identifies the poetics and politics of fear and violence engendered within Hindu nationalism.
