Hindu Nationalist Conceptions of History: Constructing a Hindu–Muslim Dichotomy

Abstract

In this article, I seek to examine some key mechanisms underlying the dichotomisation between Hindus and Muslims in Hindu nationalist history writing. Two arguments are central to this study. One is that the strict dichotomisation between Hindus and Muslims presupposes homogeneous categories. This is particularly clear if one examines how Hindu nationalist intellectuals made sense of ambiguities, of individuals and cultural traditions that did not fit directly into the categories, ‘Hindus’ and ‘Muslims’. Moreover, I discuss the role of the so-called hidden ‘Others’. I argue that these hidden ‘Others’ represent, in the form of alternative principles of grouping, the largest obstacle to the Hindu nationalist construction of a Hindu–Muslim dichotomy, both at the political level and within the field of history writing.