000 01851nam a2200181 4500
020 _a9781859733486
082 _a320.550954
_bCHE/H
100 _aChetan Bhatt
245 _aHindu nationalism : origins, ideologies, and modern myths
260 _aOxford
_bBerg
_c2001
300 _a232 p.
520 _aThe rise of authoritarian Hindu mass movements and political formations in India since the early 1980s raises fundamental questions about the resurgence of chauvinistic ethnic, religious and nationalist movements in the late modern period. This book examines the history and ideologies of Hindu nationalism and "Hindutva" from the end of the last century to the present, and critically evaluates the social and political philosophies and writings of its main thinkers. Hindu nationalism is based on the claim that it is an indigenous product of the primordial and authentic ethnic and religious traditions of India. The book argues instead that these claims are based on relatively recent ideas, frequently related to western influences during the colonial period. These influences include eighteenth and nineteenth century European Romantic and Enlightenment rationalist ideas preoccupied with archaic primordialism, evolution, organicism, vitalism and race. As well as considering the ideological impact of National Socialism and Fascism on Hindu nationalism in the 1930s, the book also looks at how Aryanism continues to be promoted in unexpected forms in contemporary India. Using a wide range of historical and contemporary sources, the author considers the consequences of Hindu nationalist resurgence in the light of contemporary debates about minorities, secular citizenship, ethics and modernity.
650 _aPolitics and government
650 _anationalism
650 _aHinduism and politics
700 _aIndia
942 _cBK
999 _c61717
_d61717