ABSTRACT This article focuses on the recent history of Hindu nationalist engagement with climate change and renewable energy in the post-2014 era, particularly through the actions of Narendra Modi. It raises questions about the character of climate politics within Hindu nationalist leadership, the role of key cultural and political concepts like a pure and powerful nation, the influence of Bharat’s civilizational identity on the global stage and the strategic utilization of climate change to enhance the popularity and legitimacy of an authoritarian leader and his government. The analysis expands to explore the transformation in India’s climate discourse post-2014, where social movements and grassroots organizations in the climate and renewable energy sector have diminished. The shift in policies toward big industry-driven development under Modi’s leadership has radically altered the sector. This has paradoxically aligned significant civil society groups with Modi’s agenda while the RSS-BJP co-opt the traditional space of social movements.

This article takes a historical view on the Indian civil society; its actors, strategies and issues, and evaluates its democracy-promoting resistance, and the impact from globalization. After a brief overview of the pre-independence context, and the early post-independence developments, the period of advanced globalization from the 1990s is focused. India is a country with a strong social movement culture, formed through its history of anticolonial struggle. The civil society is vibrant, diverse and conflictual, with a multitude of groups. Key examples are the anti-colonial movement, the land reform movement, the mobilization for “Total Revolution”, as well as alliances of movements and recurrent mobilizations by peasants, women, Adivasi (Indigenous), Dalits (“untouchables”). The analysis outlines four historical periods with very different conditions for democracy-promoting resistance. The conclusion is that resistance has been very successful, especially initially. However, the analysis also shows how the counter-mobilization by Hindu nationalists grew strong and more impactful during advanced globalization. The result is that Indian democracy has been undermined. Thus, despite initial and fundamental impact, it is the Hindu nationalist counter-resistance to the resistance of pro-democracy civil society groups, that is impacting contemporary democracy.

This article examines Hindu nationalist responses to organised rationalist critique in Punjab, India. Drawing on ethnographic material including early correspondence and testimonies, it traces how Hindutva groups have sought to contain the Tarksheel movement through legal harassment coupled with threats of purificatory violence. Rather than treating rationalists as external opponents, Hindu nationalists frame them as “enemies within”: figures whose critique threatens Hindu belonging by exposing its contingent nature. Central to these accusations is the claim that rationalism functions as crypto-conversion, a passage toward anti-Hindu allegiance rather than authentic disbelief. The article demons-trates how such disciplinary responses employ “offence archaeology”, namely, the periodic excavation of older texts to generate fresh wounds, whilst also deploying crematory sym-bolism that extends from burning books to threatening the rationalists themselves.

Hindu Nationalism and Kashmir: Modi inspired by Hitler?

In late February 2025, a group of men blackened signboards on Akbar Road and Humayun Road in New Delhi, urinated on the nameplates, and pasted posters of Chhatrapati Shivaji over them (HT News Desk). While this incident might seem strange to many, it was preceded by an even stranger one—locals near Asirgarh Fort in Madhya Pradesh’s Burhanpur began digging up land in hopes of finding treasures and gold (Malpani). Both events shared a common trigger: they occurred after the release of the film Chaavaearlier in the month.

Since 3 rd May 2023, the northeastern Indian state of Manipur witnessed ethnic violence between the communities of Meitei and Kuki-Zomi.These communal clashes symbolise long pending historical grievances and play on identity politics (Krishnan, 2023).The predominantly Hindu Meiteis of the valley have been demanding ST status, which the largely Christian Kuki-Zomi tribes in the hills strongly oppose, fearing losing their rights over land and other resources.The conflict escalated into severe violence, leading to loss of life, destruction of property, and mass displacement of people.Amidst the chaos, there is growing criticism over the role of the media.The selective internet ban by the state government hindered information flow, with news and narratives becoming skewed.Ostensibly aimed to stop misinformation, the ban has promoted a ground where biased narratives dominated.Valley-based media outlets are often accused of supporting the Meitei view (Konwar, 2024).These stories have labelled the Kuki-Zomi as "outsiders" and "illegal immigrants," that suit Hindu nationalist agendas, hence adding to division.The media has been accused of sensationalism and bias.Major news channels have been alleged to cater to the views of the ruling party.They make the Meiteis appear as victims while the Kuki-Zomi tribes are highlighted as perpetrators of various immoral activities, such as drug peddling and even rebellion

The Nexus of Hindu Nationalism, Democratic Governance, and Refugee Rights: A Case Study of Rohingya Refugees in India

Abstract Elite environmentalism is inspired by Malthusian overpopulation scenarios, advocating for authoritarian action through top‐down conservation policies and celebrating ecomodernist climate adaptation/mitigation projects. In doing so, hegemonic mainstream environmentalism (HME) fails to address its colonial, authoritarian, saviorist foundations, which continue to motivate much of environmentalism. But there are also ongoing challenges to this by the work of Indigenous, feminist, anti‐racist, anti‐casteist, anti/de/post‐colonial thinkers and doers. In this work, we build upon such provocations, and through ethnographic stories of non‐elite communities, envision an alternative to HME. We propose a temporary analytical frame that advocates for non‐elite visions of environmentalism—non‐elite and more‐than‐colonial environmentalisms (NEMCEs). We witness the labour and aspirations of non‐elite communities (Indigenous and peasant) from Mato Grosso, Brazil, and Uttarakhand, India, as they pursue lives of defiance and dignity. Their stories reveal the unresolved contradictions at the heart of the capitalist, colonial and scientific worldview. Exploring the contentious identity positions of caste, class, indigeneity and gender, we examine land‐use change and ecological governance with the A'uwe Indigenous community in the agrarian heartland of the Brazilian cerrado and with lower‐caste agrarian families navigating the powerful manifestations of Hindu nationalism and neoliberal territorial management in the Indian Himalayas. These stories help us present a response to HME. They challenge its insidious reproduction of certain elite aspirations and institutions while claiming to support planetary visions of ecological well‐being. Additionally, these moments of non‐elite agency provide moments of hope.

Ancient Epics in the Television Age: Mass Media, Identity, and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism in India

Humanitarianism is deeply linked with the politics of religion, and in South Asia, it has played a vital role in the spread of Hindu nationalism. Prior to British colonialism, South Asian humanitarianism was guided by spiritual traditions of service and duty, and relief typically took the form of religious donations. The only audience of those small-scale humanitarian actions were the giver’s interpersonal community and the gods. However, with the shift to British rule, humanitarian work in the Indian subcontinent became located within the state and donned broader political motivations. Once the audience of humanitarianism also included the ruling British state, relief work, in part, became a method of relationshipbuilding with the state and legitimizing one’s own status as a dutiful and charitable citizen. Therefore, the introduction of British imperialism led to the rise of a new strand of South Asian humanitarianism that was inseparable from political life under imperial conditions.

Veer Savarkar, whose real name is Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, is a controversial yet significant figure in India's independence movement and sociopolitical discourse. Savarkar was an academic, social reformer, and revolutionary leader whose accomplishments go beyond his direct involvement in the fight for independence. This book explores his many facets, including his philosophical contributions, revolutionary ambitions, and the concepts' ongoing relevance in modern-day India. Savarkar's writings, biographical narratives, and academic analyses are among the primary and secondary sources used in this historical research methodology. His leadership in the Indian revolutionary movement, his formulation of Hindutva as a political and cultural ideology, and his reformist views on caste and untouchability are among the main themes. Quantitative data and comparative analyses are integrated to provide a nuanced understanding of his impact. Savarkar’s revolutionary efforts, including as his position in India House in London and his articulation of the 1857 rebellion as India’s first struggle of independence, are studied in detail. His social reform efforts, particularly his advocacy for rationalism, meritocracy, and societal unity, are studied to underline his vision of a progressive India. The study also looks at how applicable Savarkar's ideas are to today's problems, including social justice, cultural identity, and national cohesion. The research is enhanced with tables, charts, and graphs that provide visual depictions of his sociopolitical impact and ideological influence. The study also emphasizes how crucial it is to include Savarkar's legacy into contemporary educational frameworks in order to encourage students' critical thinking and cultural sensitivity. In addition to revisiting Savarkar's accomplishments, this thorough examination establishes him as a significant thinker whose theories still influence and challenge India's sociopolitical and cultural environment. The study intends to offer insightful information to academics, educators, and politicians by connecting the past and present.

Creation of the Telangana state in 2014 coincided with an ascend to power of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that upholds Hindu nationalism. Within the recent decade, India has been witnessing the strengthening of hindutva and the rise of Hindu-Muslim controversies, while in Telangana communalism has begun to decline. As Telangana experience demonstrates, the alleviation of communalism can be achieved by means of symbolic concessions to minorities and by a dialog with their loyal representatives while keeping intact the de-facto domination of the majority in government. However, de-escalation of communal violence brings the “Muslim issue” to a new level: Muslims have put forward additional demands to the state government that go beyond security and include, among other things, the broadening of their political involvement. Muslim political representation at the state level is potentially implemented through one of three mechanisms: Muslims act as party representatives in power and governmental institutions; as an object of party politics which inspires a certain ‘Muslim discourse’; or as a collective subject that brings a party to power. The heterogeneity of Telangana’s Muslim community complicates an optimal combination of the above mechanisms within political parties and organisations. Nevertheless, the provision of political representation for Muslims is a critical task for any party aspiring to succeed in the state.

On the fateful day of December 6, 1992, a mob of Hindu nationalists demolished the Babri Masjid, leading to riots and violence against Muslims all over India. This event culminated after rigorous propaganda by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and R.S.S (both fascist organization). The movement gathered so much heat that India was entirely encompassed by the myth of Rama. The main reason behind this movement was to reclaim the site of Babri Masjid as the birthplace of Rama. In this article, without referring to the legitimacy of their claim, I have tried to read this movement against the background of the advent of postmodernism and its challenge to History. In this article, I tried to do this through Lacanian psychoanalysis. Here, I have used Lacanian real in order to understand the postmodern condition. I have taken the postmodern condition here as reaching the limit of phallogocentric language. For me, the postmodern condition is a crisis of the phallic signifier. From this perspective, I have encountered the absence of metanarratives. I wanted to show that even if the basic facts of History are obliterated through the advent of post-truth and conspiracy theories, there is still reason for History to be alive; still, there is reason for us to be optimistic about if we take the lessons of psychoanalysis seriously. I wanted to show here how present Historians are trying to battle this challenge by referring to crude positivistic empiricism as fundamentally useless, and by accepting the narrative nature of History, we can transform History into a radical discipline and open its windows to the various theoretical innovations that are taking in other disciplines.

Abstract This paper addresses the geography of translation by exploring the language of ‘spiritual consumerism’ in India. Drawing on examples from the Indian company Patanjali's ‘saffron capitalism’, we trace the politically, culturally, and religiously charged nature of ‘travelling translation’ and ‘self‐translation’. Our focus is on commercial language that has journeyed and returned ‘back home’, validating notions of Indian uniqueness in the context of globalisation and the rise of Hindu nationalism. This overarching theme is developed by way of three other arguments. First, we show the utility of bringing recent developments in translation studies to bear on geographical debates on globalisation and glocalisation. Second, we offer an expanded view of translation. With their many colours, fonts, and other devices, the Hindi and English texts found on Patanjali's products offer a complex and lively ‘visual language’. Our discussion shows that an understanding of the placing and patterning of this visual language sheds light on the complex character of ‘spiritual consumerism’. Third, in contrast to the emphasis on transgression, novelty, and resistance associated with earlier work on postcolonial translation, we draw out the splicing of nationalism, capitalism, and cosmopolitanism, and illustrate how Patanjali is creating and packaging a language of Hindu/Indian/global branding.

In the last few years, with the rise of social media, India has witnessed systematic disinformation campaigns attacking Muslim minority communities. Women influencers connected to Hindu nationalism play a crucial role in these campaigns online. This article examines the role of Hindu-Right women as political influencers. I examine the different engagement techniques deployed by these right-wing political influencers to spread disinformation-assisted hate speech online. I argue that the different engagement techniques these influencers deploy are a form of aspirational labour that advances their position within the broader Hindu nationalism project. I develop the concept of virtuous intimacy to explore how women influencers play an important role, especially in drawing women into the fold of Hindutva on the claims of shared experience.

The dominant political discourse in India situates Ambedkar in opposition to the ideology of Hindutva. Ambedkar criticised Hindu religious texts on the ground of sanctioning graded inequality in the Hindu social order. This further gets traction with demands of Ambedkar to treat depressed classes as non-Hindus or protestant Hindus. The twenty-one commandants read out at the time of his conversion also denounced key Hindu gods and goddesses. All this goes against the basic tenets of Hindutva ideology. Therefore, any overtures by Hindutva protagonists in favour of Ambedkar are interpreted as attempts to appropriate him for electoral reasons. This article counters this narrative and argues that there are several political and ideological issues on which both Ambedkar and Hindu nationalists converge. The author has used the discourse analysis method to identify those issues that bring Ambedkar close to Hindu nationalists.

Drawing from year-long ethnographic fieldwork in a North Indian Madrasa, this paper looks at how young Madrasa students are navigating socio-economic precarity in their everyday lives. I primarily focus on young people’s navigation of neoliberal and Hindu Nationalist discourses surrounding work and employment. In doing so, I draw on the recent turn in critical work geographies by de-emphasising a wage-centric approach to studying practices of work. At the same time, I show how work is locally constructed and mobilised in relation to a variety of social and cultural resources by focusing on young people’s articulation of work through the Hindustani word kaam .

Abstract India is one of the most diverse nation-states in the world. After gaining independence from Britain in 1947, it adopted a constitution that was based on pluralism, secularism, and egalitarianism. This constitutional vision guided the national education policies until very recently. The current moment in all areas of public policy is being defined by the ruling party's agenda of Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism. In education, the hallmarks of this move have been a rewriting of history to glorify a mythohistoric version of the Hindu past and a call to engage with ancient Indian knowledge systems and traditions. Unfortunately, Hindu nationalism is creating growing rifts between the majority Hindu population and other groups, including Muslims, Christians, and Dalits (formerly known as “untouchables” or “outcastes”). The aim of this essay is to understand what is happening in Indian education and to consider ways to return to an engagement with the constitutional principles of pluralism, secularism, and egalitarianism.

Abstract This article is an attempt to understand the vexed question of how the Boros of Assam have come to define and realize their ‘traditional’ religious identity amid contemporary assertions of Hindu nationalism in India. Since the early twentieth century, shaped by colonial anthropology and the consolidation of Hinduism, there have been attempts to categorize the Boros as either Hindus or animists. Subsequently, there have been efforts on the part of the Boros themselves to assert and consolidate their ‘traditional’ religious practices into a unified religion called Bathou.1 The process has continued in the complex arena of Boro identity assertion. As this article demonstrates, contemporary efforts at the consolidation of Hinduism by the Sangh Parivar and of Bathou by the Boros have often coincided and, at times, collided with each other, therein producing intricate transactions between traditional religionists and the votaries of Hindutva.

Observers of Indian politics have noted rising acts of violence against Muslims in an atmosphere of increasing Hindu nationalism during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure. Hinduism, however, like all religions, also contains many resources for peace. Looking to both theory and practice, this piece examines how we can theorize Hinduism and religion in general as a source of protection for peace and human rights. It also looks for peaceful practices that may be of use in the contemporary climate of violence. I conclude that we can only get to peace through the acknowledgement of religious motivations within politics and a renewed commitment to the truth.