Have Hindus Become More Intolerant, Or less Indulgent? (original) (raw)

Hindutva in India: Rise of Bigotry against Muslims

South Asian Studies, 2020

The preface of the Indian Constitution declares India a sovereign, democratic, republic, and socialist state. Later on through the 42nd amendment, socialist and secular terms were incorporated into the constitution. Indian social order is known to be a multi-cultural and multireligious society on account of an assortment of castes, religions, and cultures. Within all that disparities, Muslims form the main minority in the state. However, a clear-cut pluralistic discrepancy between the theory and practice of the Indian constitution is obvious. Indian Muslims are deprived of cultural, religious, and political rights due to the escalation of Hindutva policies throughout the Modi reign. The continued Kashmir dispute and the recent Pulwama attack intensified India- Pakistan animosity and the root cause seems to be the rise of Hindutva in India. For that reason, the authors delve into the matter and strive to present a descriptive analysis on the rise of Hindutva in India and the illicit silence of the international actors on this grave Indian fanaticism.

Tolerance and Intolerance in Hinduism

Hinduism is one of the most tolerant religions in the world. However, followers of Hindutva political ideology, who seek to misuse Hinduism to construct political ideology of nationalism, are most intolerant. This paradox is not unique to Hinduism alone. Islam is religion of peace, but some of those who claim to be followers of Islam and have a political objective of establishing Islamic caliphate are most violent. Extremist sections amongst Christians too preach hatred against other religions even though the message of Jesus Christ is to spread love and compassion around the world. Religion has a wide and strong influence among people since millenniums. The right wing that wants to mobilize citizens in support of its exclusivist policies propounding hegemony on grounds of race, ethnicity or religion, misuse religion to justify its appeal. The aggression in Iraq was justified by President Bush calling it ‘crusade’. Islamic State (IS) invokes the vocabulary of jihad. Hindutva nationalists use Hinduism to construct ‘nationalist’ political ideology which aims to relegate Muslim and Christian ‘outsiders’ as second class citizens. Hindu nationalists call upon Hindus to wage a war with its ‘outsiders’.

The Roots of Religious Intolerance: A Select Study of the Indian Novels

Ars Artium, Vol. 5, 2017

The paper seeks to explore how the lunatic fringe is hell-bent on whipping up communal frenzy. As evidenced in the novels, most of the communal leaders are rank practitioners of politics and therefore, foment trouble for one or other paltry reason. The Indian ethos, which has long been extolled, has been at stake in the last part of the second millennium. It has also witnessed, as evidenced in the novels, the animosity and rancour between the secular and communal forces each trying to outwit the other. The ideologues of communal leaders would always like to harp on the contradictions between Hindu-Muslim traditions. Some of the worth mentioning differences between them come handy for communalists to subvert popular discontent of economic oppression in the main. A few novels are pressed into service to substantiate the argument.

Hindutva 2.0 as a Variant of Indian Islamophobia: An Analysis of Praxis of Indian Society

Hindutva 2.0 as a Variant of Indian Islamophobia: An Analysis of Praxis of Indian Society, 2022

The resurgence of Hindutva as a political ideology aims to promote Hindu Rashtra in India. The revival of Hindutva, at the helm of Indian Premier Narendra Modi, seeks to promote and preserve the majoritarian cultural and pan-identity of Hindus in India. Hindutva is a term that refers to the ideology of Hindu nationbuilding aiming to transform the face of the Indian secular democratic republic into a Hindu Rashtra (state). The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), having many similarities with Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany, is a right-wing Hindu nationalist organization that is closely associated with the development and promotion of Hindutva ideology of political monotheism and Hindu nationalist ideas of Indian society and culture. This paper is an attempt to unveil the historical traces of Hindutva as a political ideology with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in office and its exclusionary impacts on Indian Muslims.