Towards a Hindu Rashtra: Hindutva, religion, and nationalism in India

This contribution, in answer to the question posed in this collection ‘right-wing nationalism, populism, and religion: what are the connections and why?’, attempts to account for the development of Hindu nationalism in India as articulated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Hindu nationalism represents a fusion of conservative right-wing nationalism and religion, which has proved highly successful at the ballot box. It aims at the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra or state. Central to Hindu nationalism is the idea of Hindutva, which interpellates all Indians as belonging to a Hindu civilisation based on a common pan-Indian Hindu national identity. Muslims occupy the position of a ‘constitutive outside’ enabling the construction of a Hindu Rashtra; they remain ‘enemies’ to be either excluded or assimilated to a Hindu national culture. Consequently, they remain targets of government legislation. This will be illustrated with reference to the recent abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, the building of a temple to the Hindu God Ram in Ayodhya, the Citizen Amendment Act, and the government of India’s responses to COVID-19. India under Modi, it concludes, is on the way to becoming a Hindu Rashtra.