Hindu Nationalism - What's Religion Got to Do with It
Abstract
It is sometimes said that generals fight the last war. Similarly, political analysts tend to find the most recent global scourge in every societal ailment they encounter. In the 1940s and 1950s many populist movements and regimes were mistakenly viewed as "fascist"; in the 1960s and 1970s numerous third world nationalist movements were perceived as and professed to be communist; and since the Iranian revolution of 1979 "fundamentalisms" seem to have flourished. Sometimes more than one of these labels has been applied to the same movement. In India, Hindu Nationalism was - and often still is - perceived as fascist, particularly by its Indian critics, while outside observers have found it altogether too easy to treat it as the Hindu equivalent of Islamic radicalism. Consequently, we should consider whether Hindu nationalism is religious at all. The first part of this paper accordingly will examine the evolution of Hindu Nationalist ideology to emphasize a point that has been made many times: whether or not Hindu Nationalism is "fascist" it is most assuredly not "fundamentalist." Hindu Nationalists are concerned with the strength and unity of Hindus as a political community not with their forms of worship. They have charged religious minorities with divided loyalty and been responsible for organized mass violence against Muslims. However, they have not, historically, been concerned with imposing any view of Hindu religion on its practitioners or punishing Hindus who violate the precepts of the "true" religion. In short, for Hindu Nationalists, there are traitors, but not apostates. The second part of the paper will review the evolution of Hindu Nationalist organizations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- AD1032665
Entities
People
- Arun R. Swamy
Organizations
- Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies