Author ORCID Identifier
Degree Year
2022
Document Type
Thesis - Open Access
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Religion
Advisor(s)
Emilia Bachrach
Corey Ladd Barnes
Keywords
Hindu Nationalism, Hindutva, Integral humanism, Brahminical Hinduism, Brahmanical Hinduism, Sangh Parivar, Ghar Vapsi, Ghar Wapsi, Post-colonial studies
Abstract
This paper explores the roots of Hindu Nationalist religiopolitical rhetoric. The argument centers around Ram Madhav’s 2021 book The Hindutva Paradigm: Integral Humanism and the Quest for a Non-Western Worldview. In addition, it examines texts from the websites of various organizations in the Sangh Parivar, a term used for a collection of groups that are aligned in their conservative, Hindu Nationalist agenda. A rhetorical analysis of Hindu Nationalists’ language reveals how the Sangh Parivar attempts to distinguish its worldview from so-called western social structures in order to establish the ancient legitimacy of Brahminical Hinduism. Further, this paper frames contemporary Hindu Nationalist rhetoric within the context of historical British colonial efforts to reify Brahminical Hinduism and consolidate Hindu identity in contrast to a Muslim ethnoreligious “other” for Britain’s political benefit. This framing reveals how Hindu Nationalist rhetoric parallels and builds on colonial political tactics, illuminating the fallacy of Hindu Nationalists’ anticolonial narrative.
Repository Citation
Binder, Julia, "“I am a Hindu; I am an Indian and I am a Man” A Rhetorical Analysis of Contemporary Hindu Nationalist Political Ideology" (2022). Honors Papers. 852.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/honors/852
