Hindutva Ideology and Development of Political Landscape in Contemporary India

Sanjith Gurikar

Abstract: The most common strain of Hindu nationalism in India is known as Hindutva (also known as Hindu Ness). The phrase was first used by Chandranath Basu, and in 1923 Vinayak Damodar Savarkar proposed it as a political ideology. The Sangh Parivar, which includes the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), and other groups, uses it. This ideology has played a tremendously crucial part in the current political landscape of India since its inception, and given its rise over the previous few years, one can definitely predict the role it will play in the future as well. This paper attempts to study the role of RSS in the politics of India over the years and tries to comprehend the impact of Hindutva ideology on government policies while determining whether fundamentalist ideas such as Hindutva are beneficial to a secular democracy like India.

Keywords: RSS, Hindutva, BJP, Sangh