11-27-2003, 06:44 AM
http://www.opendemocracy.net/themes/article-3-1566.jsp
The political psychology of Hindu nationalism
Rajeev Bhargava
5 - 11 - 2003
Why does Hindu nationalism take an aggressive, exclusive form? This is a question of psychology as well as politics. Rajeev Bhargava, in New Delhi, examines the worldview of activists who use âIndiannessâ as a weapon against their Muslim, Christian, and secular fellow-citizens.
Hindu nationalists think of themselves as a large Indian joint family, a parivar. And perhaps rightly so, for they are propelled by a family of closely-related ideas and, put together, all their networks and organisations constitute an enormous right-wing platform, a massive arena that showcases all known varieties of illiberalisms.
The movement brings together fundamentalists, traditionalists, anti-modernists, and right-wing conservatives who covet a form of modernisation radically different from the one begun by secular humanists such as Jawaharlal Nehru. Under its wings, there are proponents of old-fashioned terrorism, authoritarianism and fascism packed closely together with those who reluctantly submit to the constraints set by representative democracy. Present in the movement are people with a rigidly hierarchical cast of mind who fail to shed their strong upper-caste leanings as well as half-hearted egalitarians who, for strategic reasons, grudgingly include the lower castes within their fold.
The political psychology of Hindu nationalism
Rajeev Bhargava
5 - 11 - 2003
Why does Hindu nationalism take an aggressive, exclusive form? This is a question of psychology as well as politics. Rajeev Bhargava, in New Delhi, examines the worldview of activists who use âIndiannessâ as a weapon against their Muslim, Christian, and secular fellow-citizens.
Hindu nationalists think of themselves as a large Indian joint family, a parivar. And perhaps rightly so, for they are propelled by a family of closely-related ideas and, put together, all their networks and organisations constitute an enormous right-wing platform, a massive arena that showcases all known varieties of illiberalisms.
The movement brings together fundamentalists, traditionalists, anti-modernists, and right-wing conservatives who covet a form of modernisation radically different from the one begun by secular humanists such as Jawaharlal Nehru. Under its wings, there are proponents of old-fashioned terrorism, authoritarianism and fascism packed closely together with those who reluctantly submit to the constraints set by representative democracy. Present in the movement are people with a rigidly hierarchical cast of mind who fail to shed their strong upper-caste leanings as well as half-hearted egalitarians who, for strategic reasons, grudgingly include the lower castes within their fold.