Talk:Hindutva
Hindutva, Hindu tattva and Indianness are all synonymous terms. Hindutva is a self-referential term refering to the plurality of religious & philosophical principles followed by the adherents of Sanatana Dharma.
In the word Hindutva, the term Tattva refers to 24 'principles' of the world of duality (atma-tattva) including the pancha bhutas. The literal meaning of the word is "Hinduness". The term denotes a phenomenon, not a people or organization.
The word is self-referential term and not an attribution. The word Hindutva applies to anyone who thinks of and stands for being Hindu[1].
The term Hindutva is has been used by Bengali and Hindi scholars of the 19th century and popularized by Savarkar and others in the 20th century. It has also been formally by the Supreme Court of India to mean ‘Indianness’.
Hindutva as defined by the Supreme Court of India[edit]
The “Hindutva judgments” is the collective name given to several decisions handed down by the Supreme Court in 1996 that formally defined the term "Hindutva" for use in the criminal and civil justice system of India.
The Supreme Court put forward the view that Hinduism was “impossible” to define. Confronted with this amorphous entity, the Court concluded, “It [Hinduism] does not appear to satisfy the narrow traditional features of any religion or creed. It may broadly be described as a way of life and nothing more” [2].
The Court has held that the Jains, who consider themselves distinct from Hindus, should be treated as Hindus [3].
This was elaborated upon in 1975, where the court noted that
It is necessary to remember that Hinduism is a very broad based religion In fact some people take the view that it is not a religion at all on the ground that there is no founder and no one sacred book for the Hindus. This, of course, is a very narrow view merely based on the comparison between Hinduism on the one side and Islam and Christianity on the other. But one knows that Hinduism through the ages has absorbed or accommodated many different practices, religious as well as secular, and also different faiths [4]
In 1996, Justice Verma interchangbly used the terms Hindutva with Hinduism by arguing that
The words 'Hinduism' and 'Hindutva' are not necessarily to be understood and construed narrowly, confined only to the strict Hindu religious practices unrelated to the culture and ethos of the people of India, depicting the way of life of the Indian people...These terms are indicative more of a way of life of the Indian people and are not confined merely to describe persons practicing the Hindu religion as a faith.
...The word ‘Hindutva’ is used and understood as a synonym for ‘Indianisation’, i.e. development of uniform culture by obliterating the differences between all the cultures co-existing in the country”.
Considering the terms ‘Hinduism’ or ‘Hindutva’ per se as depicting hostility, enmity or intolerance towards other religious faiths or professions, proceeds from an improper appreciation and perception of the true meaning of these expressions emerging from the discussions in earlier authorities of this Court.[5].
Thus, the Supreme Court of India defined the term Hindutva to mean a ‘way of life’ rather than ‘religion’. The judgment recognized a distinction between Hindutva and Hinduism and also held the term Hindutva to be synonymous with ‘Indianness’ or patriotism.
Definition of the term 'Hindutva' in Indian Politics[edit]
In general, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) uses the terms “Hindutva” and “Bharatiya” (Indian) as interchangeably.
It defined the term in its Party Manifresto (1998) as
...the true meaning and content of Hindutva as being consistent with the true meaning and definition of secularism. In fact, Hindutva accepts as sacred all forms of belief and worship. The evolution of Hindutva in politics is the antidote to the creation of vote banks and appeasement of sectional interests. Hindutva means justice for all[6].
In early 2004, RSS chief K. S. Sudarshan referred to the 1996 Supreme Court judgements on this topic and commented that since the Supreme Court had said the term “Hindu” referred to a way of life and not a religion, Muslims and Christians should be considered as Hindus. Former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said in a recent interview, “Hindus cannot be fundamentalists. The Hindu worldview, we must remember, is inclusivist, as opposed to the exclusivist worldview of other faiths.” Former BJP president Lal Krishna Advani, too, repeatedly has made the point that there is no difference between Bharatiyata and Hindutva.