‘Neo-Hindutva’: evolving forms, spaces, and expressions of Hindu nationalism

Abstract

The start of this century has seen Hindu nationalism emerge as a more dominant force than ever before. Hindutva is also evolving and shifting in new, surprising, and significant ways, requiring us to reassess and reframe prevailing understandings. This special issue seeks to identify and understand the ways in which Hindu nationalism increasingly permeates into new spaces: organisational, territorial, conceptual, rhetorical. It develops and expands on the idea of 'neo-Hindutva': 'idiosyncratic expressions of Hindu nationalism which operate outside [or on the peripheries] of the institutional and ideological framework of the Sangh Parivar' [Anderson, Edward. 2015. "'Neo-Hindutva': The Asia House M.F. Husain Campaign and the Mainstreaming of Hindu Nationalist Rhetoric in Britain." Contemporary South Asia 23 (1): 45-66].The scope of the articles in the special issue reflects the diversity of contemporary Hindutva, which appears simultaneously brazen but concealed, nebulous and mainstreamed, militant yet normalised. They cover a wide range of topics and places in which we can locate new forms of Hindu nationalism: courts of law, the Northeast, the diaspora, Adivasi communities, and the internet. The special issue also includes an in-depth interview with Christophe Jaffrelot and a postscript by Deepa Reddy. These interventions, we hope, go some way to helping us make sense of contemporary Hindutva.

Ethnicization of religion in practice? Recasting competing communal mobilizations in coastal Karnataka, South India

“…However, the framework of communalism is inadequate to characterize the contemporary scenario in India in the context of the ascendance of Hindutva to state power, undermining the secular character of state institutions, its hegemonic rise in the civic as well as social spheres of society and its institutionalized system of religious vigilantism and violence carried out by vigilante groups owing allegiance to this ideology. In this context, we agree with the characterization of the revitalized form of Hindutva supremacism as neo-Hindutva implying the expansion of Hindutva beyond institutional and ideological boundaries of the Sangh Parivar1 and its near-complete encapsulation of state, civic, institutional and political spaces (Anderson and Longkumer, 2018).…”

“…Emerging scholarship on the changing forms of Hindu nationalism has described these new militant vigilante Hindutva organizations using the category of neo-Hindutva. This term is understood as the ‘ways in which Hindu nationalism permeates into new spaces, organizational, conceptual, territorial and rhetorical’ (Anderson and Longkumer, 2018: 371). It aims to capture the expressions of Hindutva that ‘operate outside or on the peripheries of the institutional and ideological framework of the Sangh Parivar’ (Anderson and Longkumer, 2018: 373).…”

“…This term is understood as the ‘ways in which Hindu nationalism permeates into new spaces, organizational, conceptual, territorial and rhetorical’ (Anderson and Longkumer, 2018: 371). It aims to capture the expressions of Hindutva that ‘operate outside or on the peripheries of the institutional and ideological framework of the Sangh Parivar’ (Anderson and Longkumer, 2018: 373). Anderson and Longkumer (2018) make a distinction between soft and hard neo-Hindutva.…”

“…It aims to capture the expressions of Hindutva that ‘operate outside or on the peripheries of the institutional and ideological framework of the Sangh Parivar’ (Anderson and Longkumer, 2018: 373). Anderson and Longkumer (2018) make a distinction between soft and hard neo-Hindutva. The label of soft neo-Hindutva applies when Hindu nationalism is propagated in not so obvious ways, in expressions that are often concealed, denying explicit linkages and commitment to Hindu nationalism; whereas hard neo-Hindutva is ‘not reticent about being connected with Hindu nationalism, but, for various reasons, often departing from the positioning and praxis of the Sangh’ (Anderson and Longkumer, 2018: 373).…”

Associational Structures and Beyond: Evolution and Contemporary Articulations of Bhumihar Caste Associations in Bihar, India

“…The analysis shows that the voting share for the BJP from the Bhumihars has grown from 43 to 69 per cent. 16 The consecutive electoral victories of the BJP in the general elections in 2014 and 2019 have consolidated the ascendance of Hindu nationalism and made it a hegemonic power in the socio-cultural as well as political realms of the country (Anderson & Longkumer, 2018;Hansen, 2019;Jaffrelot, 2019;Palshikar 2018). This hegemonic rise, with significant consequences on the question of citizenship and democracy in India, has been made possible by attracting almost every caste including the OBCs and Dalits into the Hindutva fold (Hansen, 2019;Jaffrelot, 2019;Palshikar, 2018).…”