Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction: Patrick Olivelle and Indology Major Publications of Patrick Olivelle
- I WORD, TEXT, CONTEXT
- II CUSTOM AND LAW
- III BUDDHISTS AND JAINS ASSELVES AND OTHERS
- IV (RE)CONSIDERING GEOGRAPHICAL AND CONCEPTUAL BOUNDARIES
- Spiritual Practice and Corporate Identity in Medieval Sufi Communities of Iran, Central Asia, and India: The Khalvatī/'Ishqī/Shaṭṭārī Continuum
- Digesting the Sacrifices: Ritual Internalization in Jewish, Hindu, and Manichaean Traditions
- The Hindutva Underground: Hindu Nationalism and the Indian National Congress in Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial India
- Marking the Boundaries of a New Literary Identity: The Assertion of ‘Dalit Consciousness’ in Dalit Literary Criticism
- Young Śvetaketu in America: Learning to be Hindu in the Diaspora
- List of Contributors
The Hindutva Underground: Hindu Nationalism and the Indian National Congress in Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial India
from IV - (RE)CONSIDERING GEOGRAPHICAL AND CONCEPTUAL BOUNDARIES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction: Patrick Olivelle and Indology Major Publications of Patrick Olivelle
- I WORD, TEXT, CONTEXT
- II CUSTOM AND LAW
- III BUDDHISTS AND JAINS ASSELVES AND OTHERS
- IV (RE)CONSIDERING GEOGRAPHICAL AND CONCEPTUAL BOUNDARIES
- Spiritual Practice and Corporate Identity in Medieval Sufi Communities of Iran, Central Asia, and India: The Khalvatī/'Ishqī/Shaṭṭārī Continuum
- Digesting the Sacrifices: Ritual Internalization in Jewish, Hindu, and Manichaean Traditions
- The Hindutva Underground: Hindu Nationalism and the Indian National Congress in Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial India
- Marking the Boundaries of a New Literary Identity: The Assertion of ‘Dalit Consciousness’ in Dalit Literary Criticism
- Young Śvetaketu in America: Learning to be Hindu in the Diaspora
- List of Contributors
Summary
The destruction in 1992 of the Babri Masjid and the waves of violence that have followed it in India, coupled with the linked rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to political prominence, have led in recent years to a flourishing of studies on “Hindutva” or “Hindu nationalism.” Yet for all these works, very few have examined the relationship between the Indian National Congress (INC) and the rightwing religious politics of the Hindu nationalist movement. What work has examined this nexus has largely focused on its two varying poles. The first has dealt with the link between nineteenth-century reform movements and the post-1920 emergence of militant Hindu religious organizations, most notably the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Chetan Bhatt (2001), for instance, has carefully fleshed out the roles played by such mainstream nationalists and Congress stalwarts as Lala Lajpat Rai in developing the foundational ideological rationale bridging earlier ideas with the more rigidly communal ones that followed.
The second focus of scholarship has been on Congress activities of a more recent nature, post-Independence (primarily post-1980) when the party deployed “soft-Hindutva” for political gain. Generally, work in this group points to ways in which Congress-led governments succumbed to pressure from Hindu-right forces as early as the fifties, eventually opening the door for some party members themselves to advocate and practice weaker, more “moderate” versions of Hindu nationalist policy.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Religion and Identity in South Asia and BeyondEssays in Honor of Patrick Olivelle, pp. 321 - 346Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2011