From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hindutva
, which means "Hinduness", is a kind of
nationalism
in
India
. The word was made popular by
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
in 1923.
[1]
Groups that believe in Hindutva include the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS), the
Vishva Hindu Parishad
(VHP), the
Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP),
[2]
and the
Sangh Parivar
. Hindutva considers
Hinduism
better than other
religions
and
cultures
.
[4]
Because of this, some people describe Hindutva as almost
fascist
,
[4]
while others say that Hindutva is
conservative
.
[5]
According to Christophe Jaffrelot, a political scientist specializing in South Asia, the Hindutva ideology has roots in an era where the fiction in ancient Indian mythology and the
Vedics
was thought to be valid. This fiction was used to "give sustenance to Hindu ethnic consciousness". Its strategy emulated the Muslim identity politics of the Khilafat movement after World War I, and borrowed political concepts from the West ? mainly Germany.
[6]
According to Anthony Parel, a historian and political scientist, V. D. Savarkar's
Hindutva, Who is a Hindu?
(1923) is a fundamental text of Hindutva ideology. He comments on Savarkar's summary of Hindu culture "as a self-sufficient culture, not needing any input from other cultures" by saying that this is "an unhistorical, narcissistic and false account of India's past".
[7]
Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, a Fellow of the British Academy and a scholar of Politics and Philosophy of Religion, says that Hindutva is a form of
nationalism
that is seen differently by its opponents and its supporters. The Hindutva ideology according to Savarkar, states Ram-Prasad, is based on "
geography
,
race
, and
culture
".
[8]