a contextual missiology of the spirit - eTheses Repository ...

Sumit Sarkar, an Indian professor of History, notes that Savarkar’s teachings on
Hindutva invested ‘culture’ with ‘Hindu religious meanings and associations.’ 71
Later his ideology was further propagated and developed by Hegdewar and his
successor M.S. Golwalkar. Hegdewar argued that Hindu culture was to be
protected, safeguarded, and nourished as ‘Hindu Culture was the life and breath of
Hindustan.’ 72 Golwalkar opposed territorial nationalism as he thought that it had
deprived the people of their real Hindu nationhood. 73 The words of K.S. Sudarsan,
the current leader of RSS, shows that Hindutva still holds the same position. He
said, ‘The country can have only one Hindu culture . . . and so all must accept
Ram – if not as divine, at least as the nation’s hero.’ 74 The formation of militant
organizations of Sangh Parivar like the Bajrang Dal illustrates the fact that
Hindutva ideology encourages the use of violent and unethical means to achieve
its end. Hansen’s study shows that Bajrang Dal was formed in 1984 by Vinay
Katiya, an RSS pracharak (preacher) in Uttar Pradesh ‘as a militant youth wing of
the VHP, with the intention of recruiting young underemployed men from the
lower castes for militant and daring action in conjunction with the ensuing battle
for the Hindu nation that the VHP envisaged.’ 75
Meanwhile, the verdict of the Supreme Court regarding the concept of Hindutva
seems to be significant in the propagation of Hindutva ideology, and at the same
71 Sarkar, ‘Indian Nationalism,’ 274.
72 Cherian, Hindutva Agenda, 190.
73 Sarkar, ‘Indian Nationalism,’ 274.
74 Tapan Basu, et al., Khaki Shorts Saffron Flags (Hyderabad: Orient and Longman, 1993), 7.
75 Thomas Blom Hansen, The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 155.
194