Editing Hindutva (section)

===Adoption===
Savarkar's Hindutva ideology reached [[K. B. Hedgewar|Keshav Baliram Hedgewar]] in [[Nagpur]] (Maharashtra) in 1925, and he found Savarkar's ''Hindutva'' inspirational.{{sfn|Andersen|Damle|1987|p=34}}<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p96">{{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=Hindu Nationalism: A Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOXWgr53A5kC|year=2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-2803-6|pages=15–17, 96–97, 179–183|access-date=2 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221357/https://books.google.com/books?id=mOXWgr53A5kC|url-status=live}}</ref> He visited Savarkar in [[Ratnagiri]] shortly after and discussed with him methods for organising the 'Hindu nation'.<ref>{{harvnb|Keer|1988|p=170}} cited in {{harvnb|Jaffrelot|1996|p=33}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Kelkar |first=D. V. |title=The R.S.S. |journal=Economic Weekly |date=4 February 1950 |url=http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/1950_2/4/the_rss.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108154837/http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/1950_2/4/the_rss.pdf |archive-date=2014-11-08 |url-status=live |access-date=26 October 2014 }}</ref> Savarkar and Hedgewar discussions led in September that year to Hedgewar starting [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]] (RSS, lit. "National Volunteer Society") with this mission. This organisation rapidly grew to become the largest Hindu nationalist movement.<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p96"/> However, the term ''Hindutva'' was not used to describe the ideology of the new organisation; it was ''Hindu Rashtra'' (Hindu nation), with one RSS publication stating, "it became evident that Hindus were the nation in [[Names of India#Bhārata|Bharat]] and that ''Hindutva'' was ''Rashtriyatva'' [nationalism]."<ref>{{harvnb|Prakashan|1955|pp=24–25}} quoted in {{harvnb|Goyal|1979|p=58}}</ref>

Hedgewar's RSS not only propagated Hindutva ideology, it developed a grassroots organizational structure (''[[RSS shakha|shakhas]]'') to reform the Hindu society. Village level groups met for morning and evening physical training sessions, martial training and Hindutva ideology lessons.<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p96"/> Hedgewar kept RSS an ideologically active but an "apolitical" organisation. This practice of keeping out of national and international politics was retained by his successor [[M. S. Golwalkar]] through the 1940s.<ref name="Jaffrelot2009p96"/> Philosopher [[Jason Stanley]] states "the RSS was explicitly influenced by European fascist movements, its leading politicians regularly praised [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] and [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]] in the late 1930s and 1940s."<ref>[[Jason Stanley|Stanley, Jason]] (2018). ''How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them''. New York: Random House. pp. 14–15. {{Isbn|978-0-52551183-0}}</ref> In 1931, [[B. S. Moonje]] met with Mussolini and expressed a desire to replicate the fascist youth movement in India.<ref>{{cite book|title=Hindutva and Dalits |first=Anand |last=Teltumbde |year=2019 |page=38 |publisher=SAGE}}</ref> According to Sali Augustine, the core institution of Hindutva has been the RSS. While the RSS states that Hindutva is different from Hinduism, it has been linked to religion. Therefore "cultural nationalism" is a euphemism, states Augustine, and it is meant to mask the creation of a state with a "Hindu religious identity".{{sfn|Augustine|2009|pp=69-70}} According to Jaffrelot, the regional heads of the RSS have included Indians who are Hindus as well as those who belong to other Indian religions such as [[Jainism]].<ref name="Jaffrelot1999p140">{{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s: Strategies of Identity-building, Implantation and Mobilisation (with Special Reference to Central India)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iVsfVOTUnYEC|year=1999|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-14-024602-5|pages=140–145|access-date=5 May 2019|archive-date=7 October 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241007221902/https://books.google.com/books?id=iVsfVOTUnYEC|url-status=live}}</ref>

In parallel to the RSS, Savarkar, after his release from the colonial prison, joined and became the president of [[Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha]] in 1937. There, he used the terms ''Hindutva'' and ''Hindu Rashtra'' liberally, according to Graham.{{sfn|Graham|1968|pp=350-352}} [[Syama Prasad Mukherjee]], who served as its president in 1944 and joined the [[First Nehru ministry|Jawaharlal Nehru Cabinet]] after independence, was a Hindu traditionalist politician who wanted to uphold Hindu values but not necessarily to the exclusion of other communities. He asked for the membership of Hindu Mahasabha to be thrown open to all communities. When this was not accepted, he resigned from the party and founded a new political party in collaboration with the RSS. He understood Hinduism as a nationality rather than a community but, realising that this is not the common understanding of the term ''Hindu'', he chose "Bharatiya" instead of "Hindu" to name the new party, which came to be called the [[Bharatiya Jana Sangh]].{{sfn|Graham|1968|pp=350-352}}