What to read about Hindutva
Six books explain the dangerous ideology of India’s ruling party
ON JANUARY 22nd 2024 Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, inaugurated the inner sanctum of a new temple in Ayodhya in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The temple is dedicated to Ram, a Hindu god believed to have been born in the city. It was built on the remnants of a 16th-century mosque that a mob of Hindu nationalists demolished in 1992. Its consecration was widely seen as the opening gambit of Mr Modi’s bid for a third term in office. More important, it is the latest sign of India’s transformation from the secular republic envisaged in its constitution to a nation defined by the hegemony of Hinduism. “This is a temple of national consciousness in the form of Ram,” Mr Modi said shortly after the inauguration. “Ram is the faith of India, Ram is the foundation of India. Ram is the idea of India, Ram is the law of India.”
The Hindu-nationalist ideology at the heart of this transformation, and of the agenda of Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is known as Hindutva, or “Hinduness”.
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