Editing Hindus (section)

=== Hindu nationalism ===
{{Main|Hindu nationalism|Hindutva}}
Christophe Jaffrelot states that modern [[Hindu nationalism]] was born in [[Maharashtra]], in the 1920s, as a reaction to the Islamic [[Khilafat Movement]] wherein Indian Muslims championed and took the cause of the Turkish Ottoman sultan as the Caliph of all Muslims, at the end of the [[World War I]].<ref name=chrisjaffrelot /><ref name=minault>Gail Minault (1982), The Khilafat Movement: Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India, Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-231-05072-2}}, pages 1–11 and Preface section</ref> Hindus viewed this development as one of divided loyalties of Indian Muslim population, of pan-Islamic hegemony, and questioned whether Indian Muslims were a part of an inclusive anti-colonial Indian nationalism.<ref name=minault /> The Hindu nationalism ideology that emerged, states Jeffrelot, was codified by Savarkar while he was a political prisoner of the British colonial authorities.<ref name=chrisjaffrelot>Christophe Jaffrelot (2007), Hindu Nationalism: A Reader, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-691-13098-9}}, pages 13–15</ref><ref>Amalendu Misra (2004), Identity and Religion, SAGE Publications, {{ISBN|978-0-7619-3226-0}}, pages 148–188</ref>

Chris Bayly traces the roots of Hindu nationalism to the Hindu identity and political independence achieved by the [[Maratha Confederacy|Maratha confederacy]], that overthrew the Islamic [[Mughal empire]] in large parts of India, allowing Hindus the freedom to pursue any of their diverse religious beliefs and restored Hindu holy places such as Varanasi.<ref>CA Bayly (1985), The pre-history of communialism? Religious conflict in India 1700–1860, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 19, No. 2, pages 186–187, 177–203</ref> A few scholars view Hindu mobilisation and consequent nationalism to have emerged in the 19th century as a response to [[British colonialism]] by Indian nationalists and [[neo-Hinduism]] gurus.<ref>Christophe Jaffrelot (2007), Hindu Nationalism: A Reader, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-691-13098-9}}, pages 6–7</ref><ref>[[Antony Copley]] (2000), Gurus and their followers: New religious reform movements in Colonial India, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-564958-1}}, pages 4–5, 24–27, 163–164</ref><ref name = Hardy>Hardy, F. "A radical assessment of the Vedic heritage" in ''Representing Hinduism: The Construction of Religious and National Identity'', Sage Publ., Delhi, 1995.</ref> Jaffrelot states that the efforts of Christian missionaries and Islamic proselytizers, during the British colonial era, each of whom tried to gain new converts to their own religion, by stereotyping and stigmatising Hindus to an identity of being inferior and superstitious, contributed to Hindus re-asserting their spiritual heritage and counter cross examining Islam and Christianity, forming organisations such as the ''Hindu Sabhas'' (Hindu associations), and ultimately a Hindu-identity driven nationalism in the 1920s.<ref name=chrisjaffrelot2>Christophe Jaffrelot (2007), Hindu Nationalism: A Reader, Princeton University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-691-13098-9}}, pages 13</ref>

The colonial era Hindu revivalism and mobilisation, along with Hindu nationalism, states Peter van der Veer, was primarily a reaction to and competition with Muslim separatism and Muslim nationalism.<ref name=peterveer /> The successes of each side fed the fears of the other, leading to the growth of Hindu nationalism and Muslim nationalism in the Indian subcontinent.<ref name=peterveer>Peter van der Veer (1994), Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India, University of California Press, {{ISBN|978-0-520-08256-4}}, pages 11–14, 1–24</ref> In the 20th century, the sense of religious nationalism grew in India, states van der Veer, but only Muslim nationalism succeeded with the formation of the West and East Pakistan (later split into Pakistan and Bangladesh), as "an Islamic state" upon independence.<ref name=peterveer31>Peter van der Veer (1994), Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India, University of California Press, {{ISBN|978-0-520-08256-4}}, pages 31, 99, 102</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Jawad Syed|author2=Edwina Pio|author3=Tahir Kamran|display-authors=etal|title=Faith-Based Violence and Deobandi Militancy in Pakistan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Mx5DQAAQBAJ|year=2016|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-349-94966-3|pages=49–50|access-date=11 July 2017|archive-date=9 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240209183715/https://books.google.com/books?id=0Mx5DQAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Farahnaz Ispahani|title=Purifying the Land of the Pure: A History of Pakistan's Religious Minorities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jl7ODQAAQBAJ|year=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-062167-4|pages=28–37}}</ref> Religious riots and social trauma followed as millions of Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs moved out of the newly created Islamic states and resettled into the Hindu-majority post-British India.<ref name=peterveer53>Peter van der Veer (1994), Religious Nationalism: Hindus and Muslims in India, University of California Press, {{ISBN|978-0-520-08256-4}}, pages 26–32, 53–54</ref> After the separation of India and Pakistan in 1947, the Hindu nationalism movement developed the concept of [[Hindutva]] in second half of the 20th century.<ref name = RamPrasad>Ram-Prasad, C. "Contemporary political Hinduism" in ''Blackwell companion to Hinduism'', Blackwell Publishing, 2003. {{ISBN|0-631-21535-2}}</ref>

The [[Hindu nationalism]] movement has sought to reform Indian laws, that critics say attempts to impose Hindu values on India's Islamic minority. Gerald Larson states, for example, that Hindu nationalists have sought a uniform civil code, where all citizens are subject to the same laws, everyone has equal civil rights, and individual rights do not depend on the individual's religion.<ref name=larson55>GJ Larson (2002), Religion and Personal Law in Secular India: A Call to Judgment, Indiana University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-253-21480-5}}, pages 55–56</ref> In contrast, opponents of Hindu nationalists remark that eliminating religious law from India poses a threat to the cultural identity and religious rights of Muslims, and people of Islamic faith have a constitutional right to Islamic [[sharia]]h-based personal laws.<ref name=larson55 /><ref>John Mansfield (2005), The Personal Laws or a Uniform Civil Code?, in Religion and Law in Independent India (Editor: Robert Baird), Manohar, {{ISBN|978-81-7304-588-2}}, page 121-127, 135–136, 151–156</ref> A specific law, contentious between Hindu nationalists and their opponents in India, relates to the legal age of marriage for girls.<ref name=sylviavatuk /> Hindu nationalists seek that the legal age for marriage be eighteen that is universally applied to all girls regardless of their religion and that marriages be registered with local government to verify the age of marriage. Muslim clerics consider this proposal as unacceptable because under the shariah-derived personal law, a Muslim girl can be married at any age after she reaches puberty.<ref name=sylviavatuk>Sylvia Vatuk (2013), Adjudicating Family Law in Muslim Courts (Editor: Elisa Giunchi), Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0-415-81185-9}}, pages 52–53</ref>

Hindu nationalism in India, states Katharine Adeney, is a controversial political subject, with no consensus about what it means or implies in terms of the form of government and religious rights of the minorities.<ref>Katharine Adeney and Lawrence Saez (2005), Coalition Politics and Hindu Nationalism, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0-415-35981-8}}, pages 98–114</ref>