A Few Thoughts on Hindutva

Credit for this post goes to Center Right India's debate on similar theme. I begin with a simple question - Is Hindutva a subset of Hinduism or a superset?

Nowhere is Hindutva described as an exclusivist ideology. Savarkar described Hindutva as - those who consider India to be their motherland, fatherland, as well as their holy land, irrespective of his caste, creed and religion. Hinduism, according to Savarkar is only a derivative and a part of Hindutva, and he lets the subjects themselves decide rather than deciding who is included in Hindutva. For the record, Savarkar was an atheist. (link)

According to RSS, Hindutva "is inclusive of all who are born and who have adopted Bharat as their Motherland". Even that does not exclude any Indian citizen out of Hindutva's fold on any basis whatsoever. (link)

Supreme Court's three judge bench says the following about Hindutva: "it may well be that this word is used in a speech to promote secularism or to emphasise the way of life of the Indian people and the Indian culture or ethos". (link)

"Hinduism" on the other hand has a strict hierarchical Caste system and, exceptions apart, is largely an exclusive domain of not only people following a particular religion but also discrimates according to the Caste within that religion as well. Casteism is a characteristic of Hinduism - the religion, not Hindutva. Having said that, it's also pertinent to add that Hinduism is also said to be the most tolerant and relatively liberal among all major religions and unlike others doesn't have an expansionist agenda. Since Sandeep seems to have covered Hinduism really well in the Center Right debate so will not delve further on that.

It is conclusively proven that Hindutva is a superset of Hinduism that is inclusive of followers of any religion or theism, shuns caste system, and is more secular and liberal than Hinduism. On the other hand, the people on the far right are followers of unadulterated Hinduism, not Hindutva, and can be termed as Hindu fundamentalists. Let's not conflate Hindu fundamentalism which is a subset of Hinduism with Hindutva which is a superset of Hinduism. Yes, Hindu fundamentalism is also a subset of Hindutva as much as White Supremacism is a subset of European and American culture and so forth. So given a choice the left liberals should have problem with Hinduism with it's exclusiveness and casteism, instead of Hindutva. If they have no problem with Hinduism then they should have none with the more inclusive Hindutva. if the word Hindu is what troubles them then they can coin a new term, everything else being equal.

So here we have some people who are trying to get all Indian citizens into an inclusive single cultural unit, ok they are not the Harvard types, but instead of a genuine critique we simply club them with the far right fundamentalists who could be found in every society.

Be that as it may, coming to the oft repeated question from the detractors of Hindutva in general and BJP in particular - Are there closet Hindu fundamentalists in BJP? That's like asking - are there closet Fascists in Congress? or are there closet Maoists in CPI(M)? The answer to all three questions is - yes it's possible, but have these parties declared that as their stated objectives? No they haven't, they all have reiterated their commitment to the Indian Constitution and that's what should matter to us.

Picture from here