Hindutva
Indian nationhood defined by attachment to India as a holy land, making Hindu civilisation the basis of national identity rather than the constitution alone.
What does this mean?
Hindutva is a theory of Indian nationhood, and its founding text is careful to distinguish it from religion. V. D. Savarkar, an atheist, defined a Hindu in 1923 not by belief but by regarding the territory of India as both fatherland and holy land — a criterion that includes Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains, whose religions originated there, and excludes Muslims and Christians, whose sacred geography lies elsewhere. The claim is cultural and civilisational rather than theological.
Its political programme has included a uniform civil code replacing religion-specific personal law, the removal of Kashmir’s special constitutional status, opposition to religious conversion, and the treatment of Indian civilisational heritage as a legitimate basis for public policy. On economics it has moved considerably, from the swadeshi self-reliance of the mid-century to a combination of market-oriented growth with very large targeted welfare delivery.
It is listed separately from both nationalism and religious conservatism because it fits neither cleanly: it is not primarily devotional, and its definition of the nation by sacred geography is a specific claim that generic nationalism does not make. It is the most electorally successful political tradition in the world’s largest democracy, and describing it accurately matters more than placing it.
Where did it come from?
Defined by V. D. Savarkar in Essentials of Hindutva (1923), organised through the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from 1925, and pursued electorally through the Jana Sangh and, from 1980, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has governed India since 2014.
Major thinkers
- V. D. Savarkar
- M. S. Golwalkar
- Deendayal Upadhyaya
Historical figures
- Atal Bihari Vajpayee
- Narendra Modi
What it looks like today
- The Bharatiya Janata Party and its manifesto commitments on a uniform civil code
- The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and affiliated organisations
- The 2019 removal of Article 370 and Jammu and Kashmir’s special status
Where it sits on each dimension
Wealth and inequality
Has shifted substantially over time, from swadeshi economic self-reliance to market-oriented growth paired with large welfare delivery.
The state in the economy
Personal liberty
Tradition and change
Mixed: reformist on caste untouchability in its own founding texts, conservative on family and conversion.
Nation and the world
National identity is defined by civilisational and territorial attachment rather than by constitutional citizenship alone. This is the definitional axis.
Religion and the state
Treats Hindu civilisational heritage as a legitimate source of public values. Savarkar himself was an atheist, so the claim is cultural rather than devotional.
Power and its limits
Environment and growth
Crime and punishment
Its strongest arguments
- It offers an account of Indian nationhood rooted in a civilisational continuity that long predates colonial rule, rather than in institutions inherited from it.
- Its parties have won repeated national majorities, which no account of modern Indian politics can treat as marginal.
- Its founding texts attacked caste untouchability as a social practice, against orthodox opinion of the time.
Its strongest criticisms
- Defining nationhood by sacred geography places roughly one fifth of Indian citizens outside full national belonging by construction.
- It sits in tension with the secularism written into the Indian constitution’s preamble.
- Critics argue the emphasis on civilisational unity has in practice weakened protections for religious minorities.
Common misconceptions
- That it is straightforwardly religious. Savarkar was an atheist and attacked cow worship and religious orthodoxy; the criterion he set is territorial and cultural.
- That it is only a recent development. The doctrine dates from 1923 and its organisational base from 1925.
- That it entails a single economic programme. Its parties have run import-substitution and liberalisation policies at different periods.
A caveat
This states the tradition as its own founding texts and party manifestos state it. Overlap reflects positions on national identity and the public role of cultural heritage, and is not a claim about anyone’s attitude to any community.
Sources
- V. D. Savarkar, Essentials of Hindutva · 1923
- Sankalp Patra: Lok Sabha Election Manifesto · Bharatiya Janata Party · 2024
- Christophe Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics · Columbia University Press · 1996