Amit Singh

Amit Singh, a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) at the University of Coimbra, discusses Hindutva, a political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India, as well as the dangers it poses to religious minorities today. Covering Narendra Modi’s trajectory from Gujarat’s Chief Minister from 2001 to 2014 to the Indian head of state, Singh explains how the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and other far-right Hindutva groups have created conflicts between Hindus and Muslims in order to destabilise communal balance, Singh describes how India’s colonial past has been polarised by far-right Hindu nationalist groups who have aimed at Christian, Muslim and other Indian minority religious groups in order to create division within India on a social level, while Modi and other BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) cohorts have enacted draconian legislation which is aimed at maintaining the Hindutva majority status with the political and bureaucratic plateaus while conterminously creating conflicts throughout the country. Covering the recent history of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, the only Indian territory with a Muslim majority, Singh contends that the application of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which divides Kashmir into regions while artificially populating the area with Hindus, is all part of a greater plan by the BJP to further sow sectarian divides politically which nourish the growing social divide between religious minorities and Hindus, while completely abandoning the forty-second Amendment of the Indian Constitution (1976) whereby the Preamble to the Constitution asserts that India is a secular nation. Get full access to Savage Minds at www.savageminds.co/subscribe