My latest for @project_polis: “It’s no surprise that the #RSS is responsible for such shocking violence considering its ideological ties to European fascism.”
thepolisproject.com/cultural-malwa…
thepolisproject.com/cultural-malwa…
The religious nationalist political ideology of Hindutva was first articulated by VD Savarkar, whose brother was one of the five people who co-founded the #RSS. Another co-founder was BS Moonje. He was the mentor of yet another co-founder, KB Hedgewar, who became...
... the paramilitary’s first Supreme Leader. All three — Savarkar, Moonje, and Hedgewar — were also leaders in the Hindu Mahasabha, a religious nationalist political party formed in 1915. They embraced the idea that, to quote @HartoshSinghBal, the subcontinent “had seen...
... a steady decline from a glorious Hindu past.” Convinced that losing touch with this past made Hindus “easy prey to foreign invaders, whether they were the Muslims or the British,” these men committed themselves to “reviving this ancient past.”
In doing so, they advanced...
In doing so, they advanced...
... the idea that being Indian meant being Hindu. Thus, anything or anyone that was non-Hindu represented the subjugation and oppression of Hindus. True freedom for the Hindu people could only be achieved by recognizing the subcontinent for what it had always been...
... since time immemorial: a Hindu nation. As these three men cultivated the Hindu nationalist movement in India, they took ideological inspiration from — and even engaged in direct contact with — the rising Fascist movements in Italy and Germany.
