"What kind of Hindu are you?" Muscular Hinduism and the making of majorities and minorities

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) is often interpreted as the perversion of religion for politics. However, this idea can confound rather than clarify the question of religion (and politics) in India because it is based on the idea that religion is a fixed and immutable theory about the world rather than a form of being in the world. Rather than assume that Hindu supremacy is a perversion of religion, the chapter suggests that Hindu supremacy as performed by Bajrang Dal activists in Ahmedabad, Gujarat is based on crafting a particular kind of everyday religion in public within secular states like India that reinforces and establishes majorities and minorities. Here, religion is not a fixed set of rules but deeply implicated in the genealogy of religion as a form of life in postcolonial states and as a resource for making permanent majorities and minorities in the public sphere, which are recognized as such by the state and the wider public.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationStudies in Religion and the Everyday
EditorsFarhana Ibrahim
PublisherOxford University Press
Chapter4
Pages89-108
ISBN (Print)9780198902782
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2024

Publication series

NameOxford Studies In Contemporary Indian Society
PublisherOxford University Press

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