This introduction provides a historical background to Hindu nationalism and examines several theoretical and empirical themes that are important for its analysis both in India and the diaspora. It is argued that there has been a relative neglect within the research eld of diaspora nationalist movements and the impact they can have on constituting antisecular and absolutist orientations to minorities and majorities both within the diaspora and in the "homeland". The introduction examines the rise of the Hindutva movement in the 1920s and considers the debates about its relation to ethnic, nationalist, religious, racist and fascist ideologies. We consider how an examination of Hindu nationalism can modify many recent debates on "race" and ethnicity, multiculturalism and "diaspora". Several themes relating to caste, gender and "Aryanism" are examined. The contents of this Special Issue are contextualized within these debates and a summary of the key themes of the contributions is provided.

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In the context of the ‘global war on terror’ and related debates about development and the new imperialism, this essay looks at the involvement of religious absolutist militias in humanitarian aid following the Kashmir earthquake in 2005. By analysing how organizations which are considered ‘terrorist’ are simultaneously working with and fighting against US ‘Empire’, the essay considers the form of the Pakistani ‘development’ state, its geostrategic importance and how this relates to a religious absolutist militia infrastructure. The transformation of (often violent) religious right groups since the 1990s into development and welfare agencies is considered within the broader context of new ‘hypergovernance’ processes unleashed within ‘Empire’. Some general comparisons are also made between the processes of juridical hypergovernance that international humanitarian and human rights NGOs initiate in the ‘South’, and those created by violent groups of the religious right. Both reflect contending strategies for the management of populations by bodies having ambitions on a planetary scale.