Hindutva and the founding of the RSS
V. D. Savarkar defines "Hindutva", Hinduness, as the basis of Indian nationhood, and the RSS is founded in Nagpur to organise and discipline Hindu society.
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
- Essentials of Hindutva — V. D. Savarkar (1923)
- Vinayak Damodar Savarkar — Encyclopaedia Britannica
V. D. Savarkar wrote Essentials of Hindutva while imprisoned by the British; it was published in 1923, amid Hindu–Muslim riots after the collapse of the Khilafat movement. He defined a Hindu as someone for whom India was both fatherland and holy land. That included Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains, but by definition made it harder for Muslims and Christians, whose holy lands lay elsewhere, to belong fully.
- Essentials of Hindutva — V. D. Savarkar (1923)
- Vinayak Damodar Savarkar — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
In 1925, on the festival of Vijayadashami, a Nagpur doctor, K. B. Hedgewar, founded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Organisation). Its members meet in daily shakhas for exercise, drill and ideological training, aiming to build character and Hindu unity from the ground up. The RSS was banned after Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, during the Emergency and after the Ayodhya demolition, but grew into a vast network including the Vishva Hindu Parishad (1964) and the BJP (1980).
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
- India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy — Ramachandra Guha, Macmillan / Picador (2007)
Hindus, divided by caste and region and humbled by centuries of foreign rule, needed to unite and grow strong. Hindutva is cultural, not theological: every Indian shares a Hindu civilisational heritage, and minorities are welcome if they accept it.
- Essentials of Hindutva — V. D. Savarkar (1923)
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
An ethnic nationalism that makes Muslims and Christians conditional citizens. Christophe Jaffrelot traces how it borrowed from European nationalism; M. S. Golwalkar, the RSS's long-time leader, wrote admiringly in 1939 of Nazi Germany's treatment of its minorities, a text the RSS later disowned.
- The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics — Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst (1996)
- Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy — Christophe Jaffrelot, Princeton University Press (2021)
Many devout Hindus, such as the politician and writer Shashi Tharoor, argue that Hindutva is a political ideology, not Hinduism, and that their religion's genius lies in accepting many paths.
- Why I Am a Hindu — Shashi Tharoor, Aleph Book Company / Hurst (2018)
Why it matters today
The RSS, which marked its centenary in 2025, and its family of organisations, the Sangh Parivar, are now among the most influential forces in Hindu life, running schools, charities and the ruling BJP. Whether Hindutva expresses Hinduism or distorts it is the sharpest argument among Hindus today.
Hindutva's idea of India as a Hindu nation, rather than a civic nation of equal faiths, underlies much of today's political debate, from citizenship law to school textbooks.