The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism

Abstract

This article maps the incursion of Hindu nationalism in Orissa, eastern India. It interrogates Hindu cultural dominance and nationalist mobilization as it gains momentum in the state. It speaks to majoritarianism in the context of liberal development, the related apparatus of nation making, mediated by issues of religion, caste, class, culture, tribe and gender. The text, as history of a discontinuous present, offers counter-narratives of lives often reduced to ‘lack’ or ‘spectacle’, reciting minority-subaltern claims in rethinking nation, rights and difference.

Landlock: Paralysing Dispute over Minerals on Adivasi Land in India

“…But the failure to achieve significant change, as in the case of opposition to the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada River, seems to have provided the opportunity for counter-claims. One example of this is the way that right-wing Hindu organisations have made significant inroads into tribal India in recent years (Chatterji 2004;Baviskar 2005). This ongoing fight for the right to interpret tribal identity remains uncertain and, like the many other contestations underway at any point in time in India, is cross-cut by a multitude of different issues and voices.…”

The Vivekananda Kendra in India: Its ideological translations and a critique of its social service

“…Hindu nationalism attests Hindu cultural dominance and nationalist mobilization and majoritarianism in the context of liberal development (Mallampalli, 1999). In time, the RSS set up a series of front organizations known as the Sangh Parivar, the predominant one being the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, established in 1964 (Chatterji, 2004;Zavos, 2000). This laid the foundation for the emergence of Hindutva as a form of ethnoreligious nationalism (Hansen, 2009).…”

Anxious Sexualities: Masculinity, Nationalism and Violence

“…As most recent incidents of communal violence in India show, the victims are usually the non‐Hindu minorities. Hindutva has at its core a conception of Muslims and Christians as the threatening others (for Christians as threat, see Chatterji 2004). A VHP slogan captures this well—‘ Pehle kasai, phir isai ’ ( Frontline 2006)—‘First the butcher [pejoratively associated with Muslims], and then the Christian’ (all translations are my own unless otherwise stated).…”