Capturing Hindutva: Rhetorics and Strategies

Abstract This article is the second of three in a series surveying research on Hindutva (Hindu nationalism or political Hinduism). Here I review prominent rhetorical characterizations and strategies that scholars have used to come to terms with and politically oppose Hindu religious politics, both in India and transnationally. The essay suggests that this literature represents a distinct approach to the study of hindutva that needs to be separated from other, less politically oriented studies. (The first essay in the series surveyed literature on seminal articulations of hindutva, both historical and contemporary; the third examines writings that take hindutva as a form of practice).