Savarkar before Hindutva: Sovereignty, Republicanism, and Populism in India,<i>c.</i>1900–1920

Visana, Vikram

doi:10.1017/s1479244320000384

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Yet, Hindutva activists have also proven themselves to be pragmatic and willing to make alliance with non-Hindu movements in order to achieve political goals. Hindu Mahasabha, a political party inspired by Savarkar and Hindutva, formed a coalition with the Indian Muslim League, and refused to participate in the Civil Disobedience Movement in 1930 and the Quit India Movement (Visana 2020;Tharoor 2018, pp. 40-50;Bapu 2013, pp.…”

Section: Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Civilizational Populism: Definition, Literature, Theory, and Practice

Yilmaz

Morieson

2022

Religions

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The purpose of this article is to clarify the concept of ‘civilizational populism’ and work towards a concise but operational definition. To do this, the article examines how populists across the world, and in a variety of different religious, geographic, and political contexts, incorporate and instrumentalize notions of ‘civilization’ into their discourses. The article observes that although a number of scholars have described a civilization turn among populists, there is currently no concrete definition of civilization populism, a concept which requires greater clarity. The article also observes that, while scholars have often found populists in Europe incorporating notions of civilization and ‘the clash of civilizations’ into the discourses, populists in non-Western environments also appear to have also incorporated notions of civilization into their discourses, yet these are rarely studied. The first part of the article begins by discussing the concept of ‘civilizationism’, a political discourse which emphasizes the civilizational aspect of social and especially national identity. Following this, the article discusses populism and describes how populism itself cannot succeed unless it adheres to a wider political programme or broader set of ideas, and without the engendering or exploiting of a ‘crisis’ which threatens ‘the people’. The article then examines the existing literature on the civilization turn evident among populists. The second part of the article builds on the previous section by discussing the relationship between civilizationism and populism worldwide. To do this, the paper examines civilizational populism in three key nations representing three of the world’s major faiths, and three different geographical regions: Turkey, India, and Myanmar. The paper makes three findings. First, while scholars have generally examined civilizational identity in European and North American right-wing populist rhetoric, we find it occurring in a wider range of geographies and religious contexts. Second, civilizationism when incorporated into populism gives content to the key signifiers: ‘the pure people’, ‘the corrupt elite’, and ‘dangerous ‘others’. In each case studied in this article, populists use a civilization based classification of peoples to draw boundaries around ‘the people’, ‘elites’ and ‘others’, and declare that ‘the people’ are ‘pure’ and ‘good’ because they belong to a civilization which is itself pure and good, and authentic insofar as they belong to the civilization which created the nation and culture which populists claim to be defending. Conversely, civilizational populists describe elites as having betrayed ‘the people’ by abandoning the religion and/or values and culture that shaped and were shaped by their civilization. Equally, civilizational populists describe religious minorities as ‘dangerous’ others who are morally bad insofar as they belong to a foreign civilization, and therefore to a different religion and/or culture with different values which are antithetical to those of ‘our’ civilization. Third, civilizational populist rhetoric is effective insofar as populists’ can, by adding a civilizational element to the vertical and horizontal dimensions of their populism, claim a civilizational crisis is occurring. Finally, based on the case studies, the paper defines civilizational populism as a group of ideas that together considers that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people, and society to be ultimately separated into two homogenous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’ who collaborate with the dangerous others belonging to other civilizations that are hostile and present a clear and present danger to the civilization and way of life of the pure people.

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Section: Indiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Civilizational Populism: Definition, Literature, Theory, and Practice

Yilmaz

Morieson

2022

Religions

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“…Savarkar was certainly rousing a large majority of people against the corrupt elite, but his prime target changed depending on the time, from British, the Congress, to Muslims. Moreover, as far as strategy and style were concerned, he was not a populist leader, trying to lead an unorganized mass against the enemy using dirty rhetoric and bad manners (Visana 2020;Tharoor 2018, pp. 40-50).…”

Section: Two Distinctions: Hindu Nationalism (Hindutva) Vs Hindu Populism and Populist Political Leaders Vs Populist Partiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hinduism, Hindutva and Hindu Populism in India: An Analysis of Party Manifestos of Indian Rightwing Parties

Saleem

2021

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Since the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a lot has been written on Hindu nationalism. Prime Minister Modi’s ascendency has similarly resulted in a plethora of books and articles on Hindu populism. However, most of the literature does not distinguish between the two. Hindu nationalism and Hindu populism overlap, particularly in Modi’s India and Modi’s BJP, but they are not the same. In this article, after a discussion on Hinduism’s affinity to populism, an attempt has been made to distinguish between Hindu nationalism and Hindu populism based on an analysis of Hindutva parties’ election manifestos. Since independence, three Hindutva parties have made a name for themselves at the national level: Hindu Mahasabha, Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) and BJP. Based on their importance and success at the national level, one manifesto of Hindu Mahasabha, two manifestos of BJS and four manifestos of the BJP were analyzed based on criteria chosen after literature review. The results show that while Hindu nationalism was strong and visible in early Hindutva parties (Hindu Mahasabha and BJS), Hindu populism was weak and sporadic. Interestingly, for the BJP, there is rise and then drop in Hindu nationalism while Hindu populism has consistently increased.

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“…62 Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a self-claimed atheist, was the initial architect of Hindutva that developed Basu's Hindutva into a more pragmatic and political sense. He was the theorizer behind the Hindutva, which radically reconfigured India as a Hindu majoritarian state (Chatterji et al, 2019;Visana, 2021). Chandranath Basu, a Bengali Hindu conservative litterateur, invented the term "Hindutva"(Hinduness), an idea that was later further developed by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in his influential book Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?…”

Section: Jugaad Realismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Encountering the BRI: India’s Pride and Prejudice?

Gao¹

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India and China, two competing developing nations in the Global South, are the two most populous countries in the world. In the twenty-first century, China not only became the nation with the fastest rate of economic growth globally and a rising rival to the West, but also started to focus its outward strategy on attracting developing nations in the global south with its Belt and Road Initiative. This initiative, which seeks to speed up development by financing infrastructure and connectivity projects, should appeal to India, which also seeks to accelerate its development but has a significant infrastructure deficit. India, however, declined to take part in this program. The causes and consequences of this rejection are examined in this dissertation; it weighs both realist and constructivist explanations and comes down in favor of constructivist explanations rooted in the construction of "self" and "other". This dissertation examines India's rationale towards its encounters with China by taking the historical and cultural contexts of the construction of state identity into account. The theory of identity formation in relation to self

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Savarkar before Hindutva: Sovereignty, Republicanism, and Populism in India,c.1900–1920

Cited by 12 publications

References 25 publications

Civilizational Populism: Definition, Literature, Theory, and Practice

Civilizational Populism: Definition, Literature, Theory, and Practice

Hinduism, Hindutva and Hindu Populism in India: An Analysis of Party Manifestos of Indian Rightwing Parties

Encountering the BRI: India’s Pride and Prejudice?

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