Editing Hindutva (section)

== Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bharatiya Janata Party ==
{{See also|Vishva Hindu Parishad|Bharatiya Janata Party}}

The RSS established a number of affiliate organisations after [[Indian independence movement|Indian Independence]] to carry its ideology to various parts of the society. Prominent among them is the Vishva Hindu Parishad, which was set up in 1964 with the objective of protecting and promoting the Hindu religion. It subscribed to ''Hindutva'' ideology, which came to mean in its hands political Hinduism and Hindu militancy.{{sfn|Katju|2013|pp=3-4}}

A number of political developments in the 1980s caused a sense of vulnerability among the Hindus in India. This was much discussed and leveraged by the Hindutva ideology organisations. These developments include the mass killing of the Hindus by the militant [[Khalistan movement]], the influx of [[Illegal immigration in India#Bangladeshi immigrants|undocumented Bangladeshi immigration]] into [[Assam]] coupled with the expulsion of Hindus from Bangladesh, the Congress-led government's pro-Muslim bias in the [[Secularism in India#Shah Bano case|Shah Bano case]] as well as [[Satanic Verses controversy|the Rushdie affair]].{{sfn|Jaffrelot|1996|pp=343–345 with footnotes}} The VHP and the BJP utilised these developments to push forward a militant Hindutva nationalist agenda leading to the [[Ram Janmabhoomi]] movement. The BJP officially adopted Hindutva as its ideology in its 1989 Palampur resolution.<ref name="The Hindutva Road"/>{{sfn|Krishna|2011|p=324}}

The BJP claims that ''Hindutva'' represents "cultural nationalism" and its conception of "Indian nationhood", but not a religious or theocratic concept.<ref>{{citation |title=BJP PHILOSOPHY: HINDUTVA (CULTURAL NATIONALISM) |publisher=Bharatiya Janata Party |url=http://www.bjp.org/about-the-party/philosophy/?u=hindutva |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140831081149/http://www.bjp.org/about-the-party/philosophy/?u=hindutva |archive-date=31 August 2014}}</ref> It is "India's identity", according to the RSS Chief [[Mohan Bhagwat]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2013-07-21 |title=Hindutva is India's identity: RSS chief |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/hindutva-is-indias-identity-rss-chief/article4937750.ece |issn=0971-751X |archive-date=4 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604095642/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/hindutva-is-indias-identity-rss-chief/article4937750.ece |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to the anthropologist and South Asia Politics scholar Thomas Hansen, Hindutva in the post-Independence era has emerged as a political ideology and a populist form of Hindu nationalism.<ref name="Hansen1999p166"/> For Indian nationalists, it has subsumed "religious sentiments and public rituals into a larger discourse of national culture (Bharatiya culture) and the Hindu nation, Hindu rashtra", states Hansen.<ref name="Hansen1999p166"/> This notion has appealed to the masses in part because it "connects meaningfully with everyday anxieties of security, a sense of disorder" in modern Indian life.<ref name="Hansen1999p166"/> The BJP has deployed the Hindutva theme in its election campaign since early 1991, as well as nominated candidates who are affiliated with organisations that support the Hindutva ideology.<ref name="Hansen1999p166">{{cite book|author=Thomas Blom Hansen|title=The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|year=1999|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=1-4008-2305-6|pages=10–11, 18–20, 165–166|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221903/https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|url-status=live}}</ref> The campaign language of the Congress Party leader [[Rajiv Gandhi]] in the 1980s mirrored those of Hindutva proponents. The political speeches and publications by Indian Muslim leaders have declared their "Islamic religious identity" being greater than any "political ideology or national identity". These developments, states Hansen, have helped Hindu nationalists spread essentialist constructions per contemporary Hindutva ideology.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Blom Hansen|title=The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|year=1999|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=1-4008-2305-6|pages=148–152|access-date=3 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221903/https://books.google.com/books?id=SAqn3OIGE54C|url-status=live}}</ref>