Author: Christophe Jaffrelot
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 596
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0140246029
Description
A most systematic study, painstakingly researched and gracefully written on the topic of Hindu nationalism, a movement that has grown rapidly over the past decade.
In a historically rich, detailed account of the Hindu nationalist movement in India since the 1920s, the author explores how rapid changes in the political, social, and economic climate have made India fertile soil for the growth of the primary arm of Hindu nationalism, a paramilitary-style group known as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS), together with its political offshoots. He shows how the Hindu movement uses religion to enter the political sphere and argues that the ideology they speak for has less to do with Hindu philosophy than with ethnic nationalism.
This work makes a major contribution to the study of the genesis and development of religious nationalism, and is essential reading for anyone who seeks to comprehend the spread of ethnic conflict.
Although the peaceful, inward-looking doctrine of the Hindu religion hardly seems to lend itself to ethnic nationalism, a phenomenal surge of militant Hinduism has taken place over the last ten years in India. Indeed, the electoral success of the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has proven beyond doubt that these forces now pose a significant threat to India's secular character.
PRESS REVIEW: Perhaps the most important contribution to the study of Hindu nationalism. - - BUSINESS STANDARD