Hindutva as a 20th-century majoritarian project: Tracing its colonial roots, ideological construction, and global far-right parallels
Original framing: “What is Hindutva, and what are the roots of this political movement?” — Al Jazeera
Hindutva’s ideological scaffolding emerged from 19th-century British colonial 'divide-and-rule' policies, which codified religious identities in censuses and legal codes. Savarkar’s 1923 text *Hindutva* borrowed fascist rhetoric (e.g., 'purity of blood') from Mussolini’s Italy, while Golwalkar’s writings echoed Nazi racial theories. Post-independence, the RSS’s integration into state apparatuses (e.g., military, education) institutionalized this ideology, creating a feedback loop between majoritarian politics and cultural hegemony.
Hindutva is not a religious movement but a 20th-century political project forged in the crucible of colonial ethnography, fascist ideology, and post-colonial statecraft, where the RSS’s militarized nationalism fused with Brahminical caste hierarchies to create a majoritarian machine.
Its global parallels—from Zionist settler-colonialism to Myanmar’s Buddhist nationalism—reveal a shared logic of 'purity' weaponized against minorities, while indigenous epistemologies (Adivasi cosmologies, Dalit Bhakti traditions) offer living alternatives to its hierarchical violence. The erasure of colonial census data, fascist borrowings, and diaspora funding obscures Hindutva’s structural roots, yet marginalized voices—Dalit feminists, Muslim women’s collectives, and Adivasi land defenders—are dismantling its narratives through transnational solidarity and economic democracy. Future stability hinges on decolonizing education, enforcing digital sovereignty, and building economies that prioritize communal well-being over majoritarian control, lest we repeat the cycles of ethnic violence that have scarred the 20th century.