Hindutva Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Hindutva ("Hinduness", a word coined by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in his 1920 book of the same name) is a used to describe movements advocating Hindu nationalism. A major Indian political party, Bharatiya Janata Party claims to be strongly inspired by Hindutva.
| Table of contents |
|
2 Central beliefs 3 Views on other faiths 4 Members 5 External links |
Definition
In a judgment the Indian Supreme Court ruled that "no precise meaning can be ascribed to the terms 'Hindu', 'Hindutva' and 'Hinduism'; and no meaning in the abstract can confine it to the narrow limits of religion alone, excluding the content of Indian culture and heritage. It is difficult to appreciate how in the face of these decisions, the term 'Hindutva' or 'Hinduism' per se, in the abstract, can be assumed to mean and be equated with narrow fundamentalist Hindu religious bigotry."
However in the leftist press Hindutva has come to be identified with the guiding ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu Nationalist organization.
Central beliefs
Some central beliefs of this version of Hindutva are:
Views on other faiths
Hindutva has always had a strong anti-Communist bent, and often portrays Communists as conniving and manipulative of the truth. Some critics consider Hindutva to be anti-Muslim and anti-Christian.
Hindutva advances a strong critique of secularism as it is practiced in India, which it dubs pseudo-secularism, because of different standards for Hindus, Muslims and Christians. It rebels against what it sees as an impossible and spurious attempt to create a 'separate-but-equal' system; some even see it as the Indian National Congress party's effort to woo the sizeable minority vote bank at the expense of true equality. The subject of a Uniform Civil Code, which would remove special religion-based provisions for Muslims and Christians from the Indian Constitution, is thus one of the main political planks of Hindutva. Followers contend that in a secular democracy it makes little sense to allow Muslims, for example, to marry more than once, but to prosecute Hindus for doing the same. Muslims are also funded for the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, while Hindus are accorded no similar privilege for their own pilgrimages. Christians are also given separate standards for divorce. Furthermore the amendment of the Indian constitution to overturn a Supreme Court judgment under pressure from the Islamic fundamentalists incensed the Hindutva supporters. The amended laws, more in tune with the Shariat, took away whatever rights divorced Muslim women previously had.
Supporters of the separate laws contend that that the Civil Code was fragmented to accommodate the considerable ethnic and religious diversity of the Indian people whereas many Hindutvadis and non-Hindutvadis alike contend that the separate codes based on religion further exacerbate disunity among India's major religious creeds. The questions of whether certain citizens, based on cultural background, should be given monetary and civil advantages and how secularism is truly created in governance are contentious issues in India, especially when India's brand is compared to that found, for example, in the United States. In the case of comparable African-American civil rights the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately slammed the idea that a 'separate-but-equal' system was viable and that the means to achieve equality was to expunge race as a criterion for a citizens' rights.
Hindutva started gaining more widespread acceptance among some of the Hindu middle class after 1989 when Islamic fundamentalists drove 400,000 Kashmiri Hinduss (known in general as Kashmiri Pandits) away from the Kashmir valley. Further escalation was instigated at the baiting by Arundhati Roy and the Indian media with their derogatory comments against Hinduism and Indian culture which greatly offended mainstream Hindus across the country and abroad.
What motivates many followers of Hindutva organizations is social service. Hindutva organizations are active in many disaster relief efforts, notably the Gujarat earthquake of 2001. They also coordinate extensive education and public health efforts amongst the tribal communities across India.
This is an Article on Hindutva. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Hindutva Members
Social work
External links