On Hindu, Hindustān, Hinduism and Hindutva

Author(s): Arvind Sharma

Source: Numen, Vol. 49, No. 1 (2002), pp. 1-36
Published by: Brill
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 ON HINDU, HINDUSTAN, HINDUISM AND HINDUTVA

ARVIND SHARMA

Summary

This paper sets out to examine the emergence and significance of the word Hindu
(and associated terminology) in discourse about India, in order to determine the light
it sheds on what is currently happening in India. It concludes that the word, and
its derivatives, contain a series of semantic bivalences characterised by unresolved
tensions, and further that these tensions help account for the complexities generated
by the induction of the word Hindu (and associated terminology) in modem Indian
political discourse.

Hindti (P) n.m. A native of India; a negro; a black Arabian, Indian

or Ethiopian; a Gentoo (Hindu); a slave; a thief. adj.
black.

Hindustan (P) n.m. India; the country of Hindus.

(Ferozsons Urdu-English Dictionary:

A Comprehensive Dictionary of Current Vocabulary
[Karachi: Ferozsons, n.d.] p. 821.)

The word Hindu (with allied formations such as Hindustan, Hin-

duism and Hindutva) has come to possess a unique valence in the
context of India, a valence denied to such words as India, Bhdrata,
Aryadesa, or Madhyadela (as synonyms of Hindustan; see W.C. Smith
1962:256; Takakusu 1966:118; Wink 1990, 1:288; Nehru 1946:49);
Aryadharma, Sandtana Dharma or just Dharma (as equivalents of
Hinduism; see Jaffrelot 1996:18; Stietencron 1989:15; Renou 1953:48)
and Indianness, or Hinduta (as an option for Hindutva; see Lipner
1996:112-113; Nalapat 1999).
Why?

? Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden (2002) NUMEN, Vol. 49

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 2 Arvind Sharma

Arguably the earliest traceable use of the word Hindu appears in the
Zend Avesta (Jackson 1922:324-325):
The first chapter of the Avestan Vendidad (whatever may be the age of the
chapter) contains an allusion to a portion of Northern India in a list which it gives
of sixteen lands or regions, created by Ahur Mazda and apparently regarded as
under Iranian sway. The fifteenth of these domains, according to Vd. 1, 18 was
Hapta Hindu, 'Seven Rivers', a region of 'abnormal heat', probably identical
with the territory of Sapta Sindhavas, 'Seven Rivers', in the Veda (see especially
Rv. VIII, 24, 27).

A tension between two significations of the term Hindu is already

reflected in the two explanations offered of this occurrence. George
Thompson (1999) has recently argued that the imprecations of the
non-believers found in both Avesta and the RgVeda may actually
reflect the religious differences of the two communities at the time, an
interpretation which already imparts to the term a religious flavour. On
the other hand, a Sassanian commentary imparts a political-territorial
ring to it: "The Seven Hindukan; the expression 'Seven Hindukan'
is due to this fact, that the over-lordship (sar-xitatr) is seven; and
therefore I do not say 'Seven Rivers,' for that is manifest from the
Avesta [passage] ..." (Jackson 1922:324).
One of the earliest datable, as distinguished from traceable, refer-
ences to the word Hindu again comes from Persia, with the rise of the
Achaemenid Empire (H.W. Rawlinson 1954:53-54). An inscription of
Darius I which is "considered to have been carved between c. 518 and

515 BC, adds Hidu [Hindu] to the list of subject countries" (Raychaud-
huri 1996:584). Similarly, clay tablets from Persepolis, in Elamite,
"datable to different years from the thirteenth to the twenty-eighth reg-
nal year of Darius" mention Hi-in-tu (India) (ib. 585). These examples,
establishing the primacy of the territorial meaning, are confirmed by
Herodotus (Historiae III, 91, 94, 98-102) in his employment of the
word as 'Indoi' in Greek, which, "lacking an alphabetic character of
the sound of h, did not in this case preserve it" (Narayanan 1996:14).
He is preceded by Hecata~us (520 BC), as the "first to mention India
among surviving Greek writers" (H.G. Rawlinson 1980 [1913]:205).

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 On Hindu, Hindustan, Hinduism and Hindutva 3

There is evidence that Xerxes (486-465 BC), son and successor of

Darius, "destroyed a sanctuary of the Daivas" or false divinities ac-
cording to the Persian concept (Raychaudhuri 1996:586), but this sanc-
tuary was situated not in Hi-in-tu (Hindu or lower Indus region) but in
Gandhara (ib. 586):

One of the newly discovered stone-tablets at Persepolis records that Xerxes "By
Ahuramazda's will" sapped the foundations of certain temples of the Daivas and
ordained that "the Daivas shall not be worshipped". Where the Daivas had been
worshipped, the king worshipped Ahuramazda together with Rtam (divine world
order). 'India' may have been among the lands which witnessed the outcome of
the religious zeal of the Persian king.

This 'India' was still confined to Sind, for it was under Xerxes
that "for the first time in history an Indian expeditionary force fought
on the soil of Europe" and even stormed the "bloody defiles of
Thermopylae." The 'Indian' recruits to the army were called by two
names: "Gandharians and Indians," thereby confirming that while the
former were "from the province of Gandhara" (listed as a separate
province), the Indians were "from the provinces controlled by the
Persian empire to the east of the Sindhu and described as Sindhu in
the Achaemenian inscriptions" (Mukherji 1951:42).
The word Hindu derives, by common consent, from the word
Sindhu. It is remarkable that the direction of transformation of Sindhu

-*Hindu--Ind is paralleled in the account of the Buddhist pilgrim

Xanzuang (= Hiuen Tsang, 7th century), by the words Shin-tu---Hien-
tau-*Tien-chu, and even more surprising that it becomes In-tu, at
which point its connotation overflows into the religious, at least in
Xanzuang's interpretation of it (Beal 1969 [1884]:69):
Names of India

On examination, we find that the names of India (Tien-chu) are various and
perplexing as to their authority. It was anciently called Shin-tu, also Hien-tau; but
now, according to the right pronunciation, it is called In-tu. The people of In-tu
call their country by different names according to their district. Each country has
diverse customs. Aiming at a general name which is the best sounding, we will
call the country In-tu. In Chinese this name signifies the Moon. The moon has
many names, of which this is one. For as it is said that all living things ceaselessly

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 4 Arvind Sharma

revolve in the wheel (of transmigratio

without a guiding star, their case is lik
the torch affords its connecting light,
how different from the bright (cool) m
holy men and sages, guiding the world
this country eminent, and so it is called

The successor pilgrim I-tsing, h

means the moon, and the Chinese
from it; although it may mean this
name" (Takakusu 1966:118).
As one concludes this rapid su
ancient period it is worth contras
of the same word in the east and the west. Sindhu becomes 'India' in

Greek, acquiring a purely territorial reference never compromised once

acquired, but in the east it becomes Indu in Chinese, in the process
acquiring a religious ambience.

II

Thus in the ancient world the formations from the original word,
Sindhu, bifurcated semantically along different lines, as the word trav-
elled to the west and the east. In its Persian and Greek acceptation
the word became a signifier of a region (which was restricted to the
lower Indus in the case of the early Persians and extended to cover the
whole of India in the case of the Greeks). In its Chinese acceptation it
possessed a religious dimension as explained by Xanxuang. When In-
dia came in contact with Arabia, and later the Islamic world, the same
word, Sindhu, again gave rise to two words, whose meanings became
both more distinct and more settled when compared to the usages of
the ancient world, crystallizing as Hind (through Sind) to denote the
land of India and Hindu (from Sindhu) to denote the follower of a 're-
ligion' (though not without some overlap, as discussed later).
The first use preceded the second. India was known as al-Hind in
pre-Islamic Arabia (Wink 1990, 1:195-6), and consequently the word
Hindu simply meant an Indian until it acquired a religious connotation
(B.N. Sharma 1972:128). Even after the word Hindu had acquired

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 On Hindu, Hindustdn, Hinduism and Hindutva 5

a religious connotation, it continued to be used as a synonym for

an Indian in some parts of the world. In fact, according to Wilfred
Cantwell Smith the "use of Hindu in the meaning 'Indian' survived
in popular English into the twentieth century; I can remember as a
boy that in Canada we discriminated red Indians from Hindu [i.e.
Indian] Indians; and, I have heard the phrase a 'Hindu Muslim' as
distinguished from an Arab or a Turkish Muslim" (1962:256; also
see Lorenzen 1995:12). This need not surprise as the word Sindhu
originally had a geographical referent, and one's interest now must
focus on when and how it managed to acquire a religious signification.
The use of the word Hindu in this sense can be dated with some

precision. It begins with the Arab invasion of Sindh by Muhammad ibn

Qasim in 712. "The administrative arrangements which Muhammad
ibn Qasim made with the non-Muslims after his victory over Dahar
are often referred to as 'the Brahmanabad settlement.' The basic

principle was to treat the Hindus as 'people of the book' and to confer
on them the status of zimmis (the protected)" (Ikram 1964:11). The
Hindus now were a people who followed a religion other than Islam.
Right here the word displays an ambiguity which it retains to this
day, namely, its unresolved relation with the Buddhists. For when
Hajjaj, Muhammad ibn Qasim's ambitious father-in-law and viceroy
of the western provinces, approved the request for repairing a damaged
temple, he refers to the fact of being petitioned by the chief inhabitants
of Brahmanabad "to be allowed to repair the temple of Budh and to
pursue their religion" (Ikram 1964:11). Is the Budh here the same as
Buddha? In any case, while it is true that both 'Hindus' and 'Buddhists'
would be zimmis regardless, did he know the difference? It is also
worth noting that according to "one early Muslim historian, the Arab
conqueror countenanced even the privileged position of the Brahmans,
not only in religious matters but also in the administrative sphere"
(Ikram 1964:11). The significance of the Arab conquest of Sind for
the subsequent history of India, as recounted in the following passage,
is also of significance for our exercise.

The conquest of Sind by Muhammad ibn Qasim, and the incorporation of

that province into the Muslim universal caliphate, brought the Hindus and the

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6 Arvind Sharma

Muslims there in a relationship of a

and the ruler. This form of political
extended to the whole sub-continent, a
century inevitably led to the creation
the psychological course of the histor
1964:77).

Not only is the Hindu now identif

from this Hindu religion now b
for instance, that Muhammad ib
appointment of Siskar, the former
Rijfi Dihir, as his adviser after
1964: 101). Collaboration with no
as illustrated by the case of Kak
an early historian, he "was a lear
When he came to transact busin
make him sit before the throne
precedence in the army before
collected the revenue of the countr
his seal. He assisted Muhammad i
was addressed by the title of mu
(Ikram 1964:10-11).
And if Muhammad ibn Qasim
widow, thus becoming the ma
pattern of Hindu-Muslim intera
archetypal in some ways, with p
of the word Hindu, although Islam
Muhammad ibn Qasim's death (M
It is when we reach the next phas
a major divide surfaces. As Na
"It is fashionable to criticize Mi
India has two pasts (Mill's 'Hi
the attack on Somnath by Mahm
emotive significance as the Turk
had for conventional European h
of Ghazna (r. 998-1030) the wor

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 On Hindu, Hindustan, Hinduism and Hindutva 7

semantic journey. According to Percival Spear, Mahmuid's conquests

"set up in Indian minds a tradition of Muslim intolerance. In the
popular Hindu mind [from now on] a Muslim was as intolerant as
a Bania was avaricious or a Rajput brave. Perhaps the chance of the
ultimate conversion of India to Islam was lost in the din of Mahmud's

idol-breaking" (1972:103-4). This, however, tells us more about the

evolving meaning of Islam for the Hindu, than the evolving meaning of
the term Hindu. For that we have to turn to the famous scholar AlbirUini
(973-1048) who was patronised by Mahmid and who refers to Hindus
as "our religious antagonists" (Sachau 1914, 1:7) in the preface of his
much lauded book on India. In the book itself, however, he aimed to
describe what he observed "phenomenologically," as we would call it
now, so that one could "discuss with [the Hindus] questions of religion,
science, or literature, on the very basis of their own civilization" (1914,
2:246).
Albirfini's account is intriguing. We find him wrestling with issues
which bedevil the study of Hinduism to this day. To cite only a few:
(1) What was the relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism?
Albirfini distinguishes between the two (1:40, 121, 249, 326) but he
does not fail to note that the Buddhists are closer to the Hindus than

the Muslims. He writes in a striking passage (1:21, emphasis added;

also see Mukherji 1961:22-23):
Another circumstance which increased the already existing antagonism between
Hindus and foreigners is that the so-called Shamaniyya (Buddhists), though they
cordially hate Brahmans, still are nearer akin to them than to others. In former
times, Khurdsdn, Persis, Irak, Mosul, the country up to the frontier of Syria,
was Buddhistic, but then Zarathustra went forth from Adharbaijan and preached
Magism in Balkh (Baktra). His doctrine came into favour with King Gushtasp,
and his son Isfendiyad spread the new faith both in east and west, both by force
and by treaties. He founded fire-temples through his whole empire, from the
frontiers of China to those of the Greek empire. The succeeding kings made their
religion (i.e. Zoroastrianism) the obligatory state-religion for Persis and Irf.k.
In consequence, the Buddhists were banished from those countries and had to
emigrate to the countries east of Balkh.

(2) Who speaks for Hinduism? According to Albirfini "the main

and most essential point of the Hindu world of thought is that which

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 8 Arvind Sharma

Brahmans think and believe,

preserving and maintaining the
explain, viz. the belief of the
clear that who speaks for Hind
although Albirini chose to resol
creedal or an ethnic religion? A
but when it come to defining i
veers towards a creedal definiti

As the word of confession, "There is

is the shibboleth of Islam, the Trinit
the Sabbath that of Judaism, so met
religion. Therefore he who does not
not reckoned as one of them.

But did Albirmini not know that the Buddhists also believed in it? So

here we are back to the problem of the fluid boundaries. The situation
is even more complex, for his description clearly testifies to the internal
diversity of Hinduism. One often encounters such expressions as:
"Some Hindus believe .. ."; "others hold the more traditional view that

..."; "Hindus differ among themselves ..."; "some Hindus maintain

..., according to others .. ."; "the common people describe these things
..., the educated Hindus do not share these opinions"; "some Hindus
say ..., others have told me .. ."; "if we now pass from the ideas of the
educated people among the Hindus to those of the common people, we
must first state that they present a great variety ..."; etc. (1:61, 63, 82,
104, 175, 176, 324; 2:152, 31).

Albiruini seems to be oscillating between what Richard H. Davis has

described as centralist and pluralist views of approaching Hinduism
already. In terms of this distinction (Davis 1995:6):

Centrists identify a single, pan-Indian, more or less hegemonic, orthodox tradi-

tion, transmitted primarily in Sanskrit language, chiefly by members of the brah-
manic class. The tradition centers around a Vedic lineage of texts, in which are
included not only the Vedas themselves, but also the Mimamsa, Dharmasastra,
and Vedanta corpuses of texts and teachings. Vedic sacrifice is the privileged
mode of ritual conduct, the template for all subsequent Indian ritualism. Various
groups employing vernacular languages in preference to Sanskrit, questioning

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 On Hindu, Hindustdn, Hinduism and Hindutva 9

the caste order, and rejecting the authority of the Vedas, may periodically rebel
against this center, but the orthodox, through an adept use of inclusion and re-
pressive tolerance, manage to hold the high ground of religious authority.

On the other hand (1995:6-7):

The pluralists, by contrast, envision a decentered profusion of ideas and prac-

tices all tolerated and incorporated under the big tent of Hinduism. No more
concise statement of this view can be found than that of the eminent Sanskrit

scholar J.A.B. van Buitenen in the 1986 Encyclopedia Britannica: "In principle,
Hinduism incorporates all forms of belief and worship without necessitating the
selection or elimination of any. The Hindu is inclined to revere the divinity in
every manifestation, whatever it may be, and is doctrinally tolerant ... Hinduism
is, then, both a civilization and a conglomeration of religions, with neither a be-
ginning, a founder, nor a central authority, hierarchy, or organization."

The usage of the word Hindu in the subsequent period retains the
two ambiguities (1) whether it refers to a region or a religion and (2)
whether, as religion, it is to be understood in a centralist or pluralist
manner. Thus during the Delhi Sultanate (c. 1200-1526) the word
Hindu, on the one hand, denoted a religion, on the other, a region, and
it imprints this ambivalence on geography, if the Arabian traveller Ibn
Batttita is to be believed. He states that Hindu Kush ("Hindu-killer")
became known as such "because of the number of Indian slaves who

perished in passing" (Enc. Brit. 1967, 11:514; H.G. Rawlinson 1980

[1913]:193) its snows. Would these Indian slaves not have been mostly
Hindu?

By the time the Delhi Sultanate was replaced by the Moghul Empire,
after it had been consolidated by Akbar the Great (r. 1556-1605), the
question of defining Hinduism once again began to pose the kind of
problems it has before and since. A well-known text of this period is
the Dabistdn-i-mazachib, which attempts an overview of the religious
landscape of the empire. Irfan Habib writes (Joshi and Josh 1994,
3:185):

There were the religious traditions coming from ancient India, which by Mughal
times began to be described under the term 'Hindu'. The author of Dabistan-i-
Mazahib is hard put to describe what the beliefs of a Hindu are and ultimately
he takes shelter in a very convenient position-Hindus are those who have

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 10 Arvind Sharma

been arguing with each other within t

centuries. If they recognise each other
oppose in a religious argument, then bo
they rejected Brahmanism, were stil
polemicising with Brahmins. Such ar
Hindus and Muslims. The Muslims did n
others. Muslims had their own framew
framework ...

It is necessary to introduce a broader consideration at this point,

which will prove to be of lasting significance. Although one is accus-
tomed to looking at the Indian historical reality in terms of a Hindu-
Muslim polarity, this must always be tempered with a recognition
of the pluralism which characterised India. There were always many
castes and kingdoms, and after c. 1000, just as there could be castes
which are not Hindu, so too there could be kingdoms which were not
Hindu. But just as the broad framework of multiple castes could ac-
commodate aberrations or deviations or exceptions, so could the mul-
tiple kingdoms accommodate the new Muslim kingdoms, thereby con-
tinuing rather than replacing the tradition of "intense militarism of
ancient [pre-Muslim] India" (Basham 1967:123). It is perhaps worth
comparing the situation in India with that in China here and to recog-
nize that "Sanskritization differs from sinicization in that it is a more

pluralistic, less unitary process" (Rudolph 1987:741).

The social pluralism of caste and the political pluralism of multiple
kingdoms also played off each other to produce the same outcome all
the more. The significance of the following fascinating details passes
beyond the level of the anecdotal in this light: that the "iconoclast
Mahmtid of Ghazana permitted image worship to his Hindu subjects
in their separate quarters in his own capital" (Ahmad 1964:90), and "at
least three Hindu generals, Sundar, Nath, and Tilak rose to positions
of high responsibility in the Ghazanawid army" (101); and that while
Firfiz Tughluq pursued theocratic policies "his bodyguard consisted
of Raijputs headed by Bhirti Bhatti, a relative of his mother" (102). It
is not being claimed either that the Hindu and Muslim communities
had evolved into or towards a single culture, nor is the opposite

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 On Hindu, Hindustdn, Hinduism and Hindutva 11

being claimed-that they remained poles apart beneath a veneer of

accord. The claim is much more modest-that the social, political
and religious pluralism of the Indian reality allowed for a certain
measure of permeability, malleability and fluidity which may have
been subsequently lost (Sarkar 1996:277-278).
The problem of boundaries with respect to Hindu religion in general
is a difficult one and seems to become more so "during 'early medieval'
or 'late medieval'/'early modem' periods, areas which are the battle
ground between conventional and progressive historians" in India
now-a-days. On numerous occasions Hindus and Muslims are not
distinguished as such, while communities within them are, during the
'early medieval period' (Chattopadhyaya 1998). The predicaments of
the 'early Modem' period in this regard are best indicated by the
headache the "35,000-strong community of 'Hindu-Muhammadans'
in Gujarat" caused for the Bombay census superintendent as late
as 1911, on account of its "inextricable combination of multiple
practices, beliefs, and even self-definitions. The latter was pulled up
sharply by his superior, census commissioner E.A. Gait, who ordered
the location of the 'persons concerned to the one or the other as
best as he could"' (Sarkar 1999:1694). Harjot S. Oberoi has drawn
pointed attention to this aspect of fluid religious loyalties in the "early
Modem" period (1994; 1988:136-158), which William H. Sleeman
experienced first hand in 1849 when he passed through Bahraich. He
thought it "strange" that Hindus should revere the "Muslim" shrine
there of Sayyid Salar as much as the Muslims: "All our Hindu camp
followers paid as much reverence to the shrine as they passed as the
Mahomedans ... The Hindoos worshipped any sign of manifested
might or power, though exerted against themselves" (Wink 1990,
2:133).
The point then is that, in the pre-1900 period, lateral accommo-
dation of non-Hindu elements in general and Muslims in particular
was possible at the social and political levels. Moreover, these tradi-
tions themselves-the Hindu and Muslim-were plural in nature, a
fact which further coincided with the process and furthered it.

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 12 Arvind Sharma

Such accommodation was no long

British rule (Hansen 1999:29ff) be
of the concept of nation and of m
opment meant that political differ
accommodated regionally. Given the
had to be dealt with at the national l
monolithisation of the Hindu and Islamic traditions closed off the fis-

sures of adjustment between them socially and locally, and made them
face, and then confront, each other as single consolidated entities. The
rules by which the game had to be played now were radically altered,
both in terms of the players and the playing field (Kolff 1990; Jaffrelot
1996; Baylay 1985; Sarkar 1996; Lele 1995; Jones 1981).

III

It is important to interrupt the discussion of the religious signif-

icance of the word Hindu (to be resumed later) to cast a glance at
another word which had by now come into play, namely, Hindustan.
As we do so, we might do well to recognise that in the word Hindu
we confronted two ambiguities (or a double ambiguity): (1) whether it
signifies a geographical or a religious referent, and (2) if it denotes a
religion then, what constitutes it?
The word Hindustan may well serve as a metaphor of the first
ambiguity. The word literally means 'the land of the Hindus' (Nag
and Burman 1947, 1:1) and had become a common word for India,
specially north India, by the thirteenth century. It raises the natural
query: how is the word Hindu to be taken here: as a resident of
a geographical region (Wink 1990, 1:125) or as the follower of a
particular faith; or as the resident of a particular region who is also
the follower of a particular faith (Sreenivasan 1989-133)? All these
senses are possible because of the tremendous demographic overlap
between the two categories. Ultimately the meaning remains unclear.
One might initially think that an allusion to a 'place' (stan) in the
word itself would orient its meaning geographically. This is indeed so
(Basham 1967:1-2; Nehru 1946:335) but the significance continues
to remain double-edged, for it could be taken to mean either the

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 On Hindu, Hindustan, Hinduism and Hindutva 13

abode of 'Indians' (Frykenberg 1989:31), or the abode of the Hindus

(Monier-Williams 1960:1298). This statement could be made either
descriptively or pejoratively, depending on how one felt about the
Hindus (Mujeeb 1967:331). It has been used in all these senses (and
even for undivided India) (Nehru 1946, 543).
We are not done yet with the word, for in its adjectival form (as
Hindustani) it opens up another vista of meaning. If one sense of the
word Hindustan includes all Indians and another Hindus, then in its
adjectival form it seems to reach out for a sense which reconciles both,
and specially Hindus with Muslims. This is most obvious in the pre-
Partition proposal that India's lingua franca be Hindustani which steers
a middle course between a Sanskritising Hindi, and a Persianising
and Arabising Urdu, as the language of the undivided subcontinent.
In this sense of happy compromise the word seems to go back a few
centuries. Babur, for instance, even thought that the Indians-Hindus
and Muslims together, had evolved their own way of living together
with each other by the time the foundations of the Moghul Empire
were laid by him in India. He called it the Hindustani way (Shrivastava
1981:12)!

IV

If we wish to connect this hitherto historical discussion of the

terms Hindu (and Hindustan) with first modem and then contemporary
developments in India, then one crucial question needs to be asked in
order to make this transition; when did the 'Hindus' themselves begin
to use the word self-referentially (granting that the word Hindu is not
a Hindu word)?
The key question then is: when did the Hindus start using the word
Hindu for themselves?

Such usage begins to emerge at least by the sixteenth century,

as pointed out by Joseph T. O'Connell (1973:340-343). But R.E.
Frykenberg observes (1989:30):
But here it appears only in texts describing episodes of strained relationships be-
tween Hindus as natives and Muslims as foreigners ("Yavanas" or "Mlecchas").
The term, we are told, was never used by Hindus among themselves to describe

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 14 Arvind Sharma

themselves; moreover, the term "Hind

times in Bengali texts, was only used in
definition or discussion of what "Hindu" of "Hindu dharma" itself meant. "Hindu

dharma," therefore, is the closest resemblance to the term "Hinduism" which can
be found to have arisen out of indigenous sources within India.

It is however possible to identify the self-use of the word Hindu in

an even earlier period.
It is clear that by the sixteenth century 'Hindus' were referring to
themselves as Hindus. Ekanath (1548-1600) writes: "If I call myself
a Hindu I will be beaten up, and Muslim I am not" (Hindu Kahan ta
mariya, muslaman bhee nahe) (Joshi and Josh 1994, 3:189). Earlier on,
several rulers of Vijayanagar had taken the "title Hindurdya-suratrdna
'Sultan of the Hindu kings' in imitation of the sultans of Madurai and
the Bahmani sultans" (Scharfe 1989:79). More precisely, it occurs in
five inscriptions from the reign of Bukka (r. 1344-1377) (Wagoner
1996:861-862) and its use can also be traced, in four cases, by kings
of Vijayanagara's fourth and last dynasty (the Aravidu, c. 1570-1649)
with another five uses in the intervening period, including some by
Krishnadevaraya (r. 1509-1529) (ib. 862 n.8). In some inscriptions of
Bukka the prefix Hindu is also dropped (ib. 863). Thus beginning with
1352 the title, in "one form or another ... continued in use by Bukka's
successors for at least ... 250 years, through three changes in dynasty"
(ib. 862).
The expression is not entirely free from ambiguity but it is gener-
ally accepted that suratrana is a Sanskritised form of Islamic 'Sultan.'
According to Vasundhara Filliozat it is a "title which would have been
given to Bukka by his Muslim neighbours" (Wagoner 1996:862). Ac-
cording to Hermann Kulke, it seems likely that "the early kings of Vi-
jayanagar laid claim to a status among the Hindu Rajas equal to that of
Sultans among the Muslim rulers" (ib. 862). Phillip B. Wagoner is pre-
pared to make a stronger claim and suggests that "both titles 'Sultan'
and 'Sultan among the Hindu Kings' were used in a much more literal
and direct [rather than homological] sense as a means of proclaiming
that the Vijayanagara ruler could actually be considered a Sultan, not
in terms of relative political understanding, but in concrete terms of

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 On Hindu, Hindustdn, Hinduism and Hindutva 15

substance and style. In particular, the title hindurdya-suratrana would

have served to differentiate its bearer from ordinary Hindu (i.e. Indic)
kings signaling his willingness to participate in the political discourse
of Islamic civilization" (ib. 862). Wagoner, however, renders Hindu as
Indic consistently with his view that the Hindu vs. Muslim rhetoric in
the historiography of the Vijayanagar empire has been overdone (ib.
851-852). This may well be so and the issue takes us to the heart of
the matter if we formulate the issue as follows: how is Hindu in the ex-

pression Hindurdya-suratrdna to be understood? Wagoner focuses on

suratrdna, we need to focus on the word Hindu. Is this Hindu here as
in 'Indian' or as in "follower of Hinduism," an ambiguity encountered
earlier in the Persian word Hindustan (W.C. Smith 1962:256) for India:
does it mean the land of the Indians or of Hindus? Is it that outsiders
(Persians) use it in the first sense (ibid.) but Indians themselves also in
the second, as when one might say describe the partition of India as the
division of Hindustdn into Pdkistdn and Hindustdn? Here a reversal is

encountered. Pakistanis may take Hindustan to mean both the land of

Indians and of Hindus simultaneously but Indians would, in that case,
use it only in the former sense for Indians, inclusive of both Hindus
and Muslims as both inhabit present day Hindustan.
In a sense, therefore, the issue remains with us but in another sense it
is resolved. Hindus are clearly using the word to refer to themselves, al-
though whether they are using it to refer to themselves geographically,
culturally, or religiously may not be entirely unproblematic. Neverthe-
less, that there is a religious component in the situation, while it could
be exaggerated (W.C. Smith 1962:257) cannot be denied. One may
propose that by the fourteenth century the use of the word Hindu did
include an element of Hindu self-consciousness.

The case of Shivaji (1627-1680) in relation to the Moghul Empire

provides an interesting example. King Akbar (r. 1556-1605) firmly
established Moghul rule over India. He was known as Pddshdh and
his rule as Pddshaht. Historians have described Shivaji's life's mission
in similar terms, as one of establishing a Hindu pddshdah (Sardesai
1974:263). In a letter written in 1646 A.D. Shivaji describes his
earnest desire (manoratha) to establish a Hindavi Svarajya (Savarkar

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 16 Arvind Sharma

1969:57). Was Shivaji aiming to e

self-rule? Or was it the case tha
foreigner both by lineage and rel
a distinction?

Our task on hand, however, is not to try to answer these questions

but to note that the ambiguity in relation to the word Hindu persists
when 'Hindus' themselves start to use this term. And both the ambigu-
ities persist: it is not always clear whether the connotation is geograph-
ical or religious, and it is not always clear what comprises 'Hinduism,'
if the reference in terms of faith happens to be unambiguous. Richard
King notes (1999:162):
Although indigenous use of the term by Hindus themselves can be found
as early as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, its usage was derivative of
Persian Muslim influences and did not represent anything more than a distinction
between 'indigenous' or 'native' and foreign (mleccha). For instance, when
Belgian Thierry Verhelst interviewed an Indian intellectual from Tamil Nadu he
recorded the following interchange,

Q: Are you a Hindu?

A: No, I grew critical of it because of casteism ... Actually, you should not
ask people if they are Hindu. This does not mean much. If you ask them
what their religion is, they will say, "I belong to this caste."

He goes on to say (ib. 163):

Indeed, it is clear that the term "Hindu," even when used by the indigenous In-
dian, did not have the specifically religious connotations which it subsequently
developed under Orientalist influences until the nineteenth century. Thus, eigh-
teenth century references to "Hindoo" Christians or "Hindoo" Muslims were not
uncommon. As Romila Thapar points out in her discussion of the reception of
Muslims into India, "The people of India do not seem to have perceived the new
arrivals as a unified body of Muslims. The name 'Muslim' does not occur in
the records of the early contacts. The term used was either ethnic, turuska, re-
ferring to the Turks, or geographical, Yavana, or cultural, mleccha." One should
also note the distinctively negative nature of the term, the primary function of
which it to provide a catch-all designation for the "Other," whether negatively
contrasted with the ancient Persians, with their Muslim descendants, or with the
later European Orientalists who eventually adopted the term. Indeed the same is
apparent from an examination of modem India law. For example the 1955 Hindu

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 On Hindu, Hindustdn, Hinduism and Hindutva 17

Marriage Act, section 2 (1) defines a 'Hindu' as a category including not only
all Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs but also anyone who is not a Muslim, Christian,
a Parsee or a Jew. Thus even in the contemporary context the terms 'Hindu' and
'Hinduism' are essentially negative appellations, functioning as an all-inclusive
rubric for the non-Judeo-Christian 'other.'

Despite this lack of clarity (or because of it) the word Hindu, after
a brief period of flirtation with other words (Marshall 1970), was
adopted by the British to "characterize all things in India (specially
elements and features found in the cultures and religions of India)
which were not Muslim, not Christian, not Jewish, or, hence, not
Western" (Frykenberg 1989:31).
It is now time to pause and take stock before we venture into
the British period. By examining the history of the word Hindu,
and its usage, it becomes obvious that the word did not come into
common use until after 1000 AD. During this pre-1000 period India
represented a single politico-religio-cultural entity (Pande 1984:170;
Spear 1972:93). Subsequently its use gradually spread in such a way
that by the eighteenth century it became a common locution often
used by both insiders and outsiders (W.C. Smith 1962:70) to denote
a religio-cultural complex which was distinct from, also different from
and sometimes diametrically opposed to the Islamic presence.
In religio-cultural terms itself, the presence of another religio-
cultural complex now also characterised the land, namely, the Islamic.
The British presence in India introduced another religio-cultural com-
plex on top of it, namely, Western/Christian. Up to a point, the British
presence in India could almost be considered benignly neutral, if not
actually pro-Hindu, from a Hindu perspective. It has even been plausi-
bly argued that "the Company's Raj was actually, for most intents and
purposes, a de facto 'Hindu Raj"' (Frykenberg 1989:34).
By this, I meant several things:-that the Raj, as an imperial system of rule, was a
genuinely indigenous rather than simply a foreign (or "colonial") construct; that,
hence, it was more Indian than British in its inner logic, regardless of external
interferences and violations of that logic by Britain (especially during the Crown
period of this Raj); that, in terms of religious institutions, indigenous elites and

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 18 Arvind Sharma

local forces of all kinds were able to r

as special concessions, from the State
to do this in direct proportion to their
control, numbers, noise, skill or wealt

A breach opens up after 1818, t

Confederacy was defeated, there
lenge to British paramountcy in In
Mill published his famous multi
History of British India, which w
(Davis 1995:46).

Mill's History, an immense and thoroug

to justify the need for British rule a
govern itself. Mill especially condemne
was wrong with India. Hinduism is ritua
ridden, Mill charged, at each step impl
of Christianity that he believed to be
decades the East India Company provid
officials embarking for India, to sustain
superiority while in the colony.

Thus after an initial phase of

relationship came to the fore, ba
reception of this Western/Christ
It is not as widely recognised a
period was characterised by an in
least the Indian army, to Christi
of the return of the supposed ga
the first Afghan War under Lor
period), an ambition that was onl
raised the stakes forbiddingly. I
the Muslims were blamed dispro
Hindu and Muslim sepoys were t
the suppression. This second wav
of the British ebbed with the ris
1885, in which the Indian Nation
convenient benchmark.

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 On Hindu, Hindustdn, Hinduism and Hindutva 19

The upshot of all these developments was the fact that another
religious community apart from the Islamic, namely the Christian, had
also been created. What needs to be clearly recognised in this context
is the role of politics in positing these communities in an oppositional,
rather than an appositional, framework in relation to the Hindu. The
existence of the Jews and Parsis testifies to the fact that minorities

are not unknown to the Hindus but they did not pose a problem for
Hindu polity because their presence was not vitiated by the ruler-
ruled (i.e. political) factor. Until that factor emerged, even Islamic
presence was not perceived as a problem. Arab Muslim traders on
India's coasts "between the seventh and ninth centuries were treated

with tolerance by Hindu rulers and the legend of the conversion of a

Cheraman Perumal Raja shows that they were allowed to propagate
Islam ... at least one [Muslim] contributed financially to a Hindu
temple" (Ahmad 1964:77). Even in the north, there "is persistent
local tradition in certain old centers in the heart of Uttar Pradesh that

Muslim families had settled there long before the conquest of the
area by Muhammad Ghuri. In the city of Benares, there are Muslim
mohallas, which, it is said, are anterior in date to the conquest of
Benares by Muslims, and similar traditions are current about Maner
in Bihar" (Ikram 1964:32). Even after the altered political equation in
the north made the Muslim presence problematical for the Hindu, it
did not affect the south. Thus Abdul Razak, the Persian ambassador at
the Vijayanagar court, could write around the middle of the fifteenth
century: "The People [or Calicut] are infidels; consequently I consider
myself in an enemy's country, as the Mohammadans consider everyone
who has not received the Qur'an. Yet I admit that I meet with perfect
toleration, and even favour; we have two mosques and are allowed
to pray in public" (Radhakrishnan 1939:312). Similarly, the Syrian
Christian presence in India did not pose a problem for the Hindu,
but European Christian presence became a problem, when Christians
became rulers and Hindus the ruled.

This fluid situation, however, began to solidify in the post-Mutiny

period, once the rule of the East India Company was taken over by
the British Crown. This consolidation of British rule was accompanied

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 20 Arvind Sharma

by the consolidation of 'Hinduis

appreciate this development.

VI

The British presence in India

Hinduism. The discussion of when it was first used is itself indicative

of its significance, while the controversy surrounding its relationship

with what passes for Hindu attests more generally to the basic thesis of
the paper (Lorenzen 1999:630-659). The Oxford English Dictionary
identifies its use by Max Mtiller in 1858 (King 1999:165). Charles
Neumann employed it in the title of his work in 1831 (ib. 165).
The Oxford English Dictionary identifies a still earlier use in 1829
(ib.), but Dermot Killingley identifies its use by Rammohun Roy in
1816 and suggests that "Rammohun was probably the first Hindu
to use the word Hinduism" (ib.), although we are not quite certain
whether it was first used by a Hindu. But the word soon caught on
and with the linguistic unification of India through English (Panikkar
1963:120-121), and the increasing use of English in intra-faith activity
within Hinduism (Hein 1977:106) and at the level of the emerging
English-knowing elite (Hinnells and Sharpe 1972:4), in the post-
Mutiny period. This period also saw the culmination, as it were,
of the numerous reform movements, beginning with the Brahmo
Samaj, founded in 1828 and culminating in the Gandhian dispensation,
leading to an "increasing identification of Indian nationalism with
reformed Hinduism" (Everett 1997:74; Panikkar 1963, passim; Jain
1996, Ch. II). Thus the last quarter of the nineteenth century witnessed
the emergence of both Indian nationalism and a pan-Indian Hinduism,
thereby raising the question of the relationship between the two.
This issue, which remains unresolved to this day, goes back to the
ambiguity inherent in the word Hindu-does it stand for a country
or a religion? The fact that both the words: India as well as Hindu,
etymologically go back to the same word (Sindhu) dramatises this
issue of ambiguity, which now reincarnated itself in the question:
will Indian nationalism (or nationalisms) be territorial or religious in
nature? The semantic ambiguity in the word Hindu itself also found

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 On Hindu, Hindustan, Hinduism and Hindutva 21

expression in the question whether this 'new' Hinduism itself will be

parochial or universal in character.
One can thus visualise two channels along which the energies re-
leased by the emerging nationalist forces in India could play them-
selves out, when the pot was stirred by the Partition of Bengal in 1905
(Spear 1994:759). One channel along which the nationalist energies
could flow was that of territorial nationalism-an aspiration repre-
sented by the Indian National Congress. Another was represented by
the All-India Muslim League, formed in 1906, more in line with the
optional channel of religious nationalism. Although there was an ini-
tial Hindu reaction also to move in that direction (Jaffrelot 1996:6,19),
it was basically checked by the rise of Gandhian influence (Everett
1997:73) in Indian politics from 1920 onwards and the primacy which
the Indian National Congress began to enjoy thereafter (D.E. Smith
1963:456). Indian and Hindu nationalisms began to diverge after the
collapse of the Khilafat movement (Minault 1982). The Khilafat cam-
paign, which began with the Muslims joining forces with the Hindus
"before the incredulous eyes of the British" (Spear 1994:784) in 1919,
ended in a series of communal riots by mid-1920s (Page 1982:74).
The founding of the RSS in 1925 symbolised this breach (Anderson
and Damle 1987:34).
In the meantime neo-Hinduism was being revived along essentially
universalistic lines, although it became somewhat revivalistic with the
rise of the Arya Samaj. Nevertheless the Indian National Congress was
able to contain this. It was in the 1920s that neo-Hinduism began to
display a distinctly ethnic streak and evolved a word to go with it-
Hindutva.

VII

The word Hindutva gained currency after it appeared as the title of

a book written by V.D. Savarkar, first published in 1923. V.D. Savarkar
and Mahatma Gandhi may be regarded as the patron saints of the two
distinct forms of Hinduism the ambiguity of the word Hindu gave
rise to. Paradoxical as it might appear, both these trends arose out
of the same problematic-that of defining Hinduism. And both were

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 22 Arvind Sharma

in a sense a response to the attem

Western aegis.
Western attempts at defining Hinduism followed two distinct cours-
es: one moved in the direction of identifying it with Brahmanism
(through caste) and the other in the direction of identifying it with spir-
ituality in general (through 'Hindu tolerance'). They reflect perhaps
the Enlightenment and the Romantic Movement at play respectively,
on the onomastic theatre of 'Hinduism.' It is not often realised that

one of the major concerns of V.D. Savarkar in evolving the concept of

Hindutva was to avoid the political fall-out of an excessively narrow
definition of Hinduism (in his view), which had the unhappy conse-
quence of excluding the Buddhists, the Sikhs, and the Jains from the
Hindu community (1969:106). By comparison, Gandhi did not have
much trouble with their inclusion within or exclusion from Hinduism

because from the point of view of the spiritual interpretation of Hin-

duism, which he espoused, this was immaterial. All religions shared
in this spirituality in common with Hinduism, irrespective of whether
they could formally be labelled Hindu or not. For instance, when S.
Radhakrishnan posed the question: "What is your religion?" in 1936,
Mahatma Gandhi replied: "My religion is Hinduism which, for me, is
Religion of Humanity and includes the best of all the religions known
to me" (Radhakrishnan and Muirhead 1936:2).
The full title of V.D. Savarkar's tract: Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?
identifies the two core issues which he addresses: (1) who is a Hindu,
and (2) what it Hindutva. The two issues are connected. He defines
a Hindu as one who (1) regards the entire subcontinent as his (or
her) motherland/fatherland (Savarkar 1969:84,119); (2) is descended
of Hindu parents (ib. 129-131) and (3) and considers this land holy
(ib. 113,134). These then constitute the three "essentials of Hindutva-
a common nation (Rashtra), a common race (Jati) and a common
civilization (Sanskriti)" (ib. 116). Note that religion does not figure
in this ensemble and the "actual essentials of Hindutva are ... also the

ideal essentials of nationality" (ib. 137). The net effect of this exercise
is to confer a Hindu nationality on all the followers of the four religions
of Indian origin-Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.

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 On Hindu, Hindustan, Hinduism and Hindutva 23

One may wish to distinguish here between two expressions: "In-

dian religions" and "religions practised in India." If the latter category
is used to denote Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Judaism,
Christianity, Islam and so on, then the former category could be used
to include only the adherents of the first four: Hinduism, Buddhism,
Jainism, and Sikhism. According to the concept of Hindutva as elab-
orated by Savarkar, Hindu nationality would be restricted to "Indian
religions," in contrast presumably with Indian nationality which would
be shared by the followers of all religions. This is one salient feature of
Hindutva. The other, as noted already, consists of the fact that it posits
an implicit distinction between religion and (shall we say) culture, in
order to bracket the four "Indian religions" together.
Savarkar's vision lay moribund for a long time, to the extent of be-
ing considered dead. This may be one way of explaining why West-
ern scholars even in the 1960s were actually dissuaded by their In-
dian colleagues from showing interest in any political and cultural
outfit associated with Hindutva, such as the Jan Sangh and the RSS
(Ashby 1974:115). Ever since Mrs. Gandhi's Emergency, however,
these organisations, in their various incarnations, have been incremen-
tally raising their profile and now stand centre-stage at the beginning of
the new millennium (Jaffrelot 1996; Devalle 1995:306-322; Khilnani
1997:189-190). Most Indian and Western scholars feel uncomfortable
in dealing with religion given their secular orientation and the discom-
fort level rises further when it comes to 'fundamentalism' in religion.
This is understandable but it has led to a lack of nuance in dealing with
key concepts. Hindutva provides an example here. Most regard it as
constituting a static and monolithic concept from 1923 onwards when
it was first proposed. The reality is that its context, text and subtext
has changed over time, depending on the period involved (whether it is
the period extending from 1923-1947, or 1947-1975, or 1975-1991 or
post-1991) and the person expounding it (whether it is V.D. Savarkar,
M.S. Golwalkar or Balraj Madhok, for instance).
Up until the attainment of Independence in 1947 the thrust of the
Hindutva movement, as represented by the Hindu Mahasabha and the
RSS, was first to resist what was viewed as a policy of appeasement

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 24 Arvind Sharma

towards the Muslims and to opp

of India, which was viewed as
During this phase the Hindutv
political power. This shift in Hin
of reflection at the ease with w
National Congress, could suppres
of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. This realization led

to the formation of the Jan Sangh in 1951 (Jaffrelot 1996:87; Graham

1990). During the period when the Jan Sangh functioned as a party, the
concept of Hindutva underwent an ideological shift. It took the form of
identifying India with Hindutva, rather than Hindutva with India. As
a result there was much talk of the need for Indianizing the Christian
and Muslim minorities in India, rather than Hinduizing them (Madhok
1969b). This might seem like splitting a particularly fine hair to the
outsider but it reflected a subtle realignment within Hindutva. It should
be noted that the Indian government, both in the language of the Indian
Constitution adopted in 1950, and subsequent legislation, has virtually
adopted the Hindutva definition of a Hindu-as one who belongs to
any religion of Indian origin. Hence the need, in the modem study
of Hinduism, to distinguish one who is Hindu under Indian law from
one who is Hindu "by religion" (Baird 1993:41-43, 31-58; Derrett
1968:46).
The imposition of Emergency by Mrs Indira Gandhi, towards the
end of June in 1975, set a new series of forces in motion. It is now
widely held that the only major elements in public life Mrs. Gandhi
could not successfully suppress during the Emergency, despite a vig-
orous attempt to do so, were the elements associated with Hindutva
(Jaffrelot 1996:273-77). This is what really accounts for its subsequent
legitimation in the public eye. During this phase the Hindutva forces
were ironically also in eclipse after the new government took office be-
cause they had decided to merge their identity in the Janata Party which
consisted of the combined opposition, which had been electorally vic-
torious in 1977. Once again the Hindutva forces had "gone cultural,"
as they had been prior to Independence in 1947.

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 On Hindu, Hindustan, Hinduism and Hindutva 25

The Hindutva forces have always been secure in their cultural

identity; it is their explicit political role they feel unsure about. Once
again the political had lapsed into the cultural. Significantly, the Janata
Party broke up over the issue of requiring its former Jan Sangh
members to go beyond formal merger with the Janata Party and
also renounce their RSS connection, at which the Jan Sangh balked,
splitting the Janata Party in 1980. This issue is elliptically known as
the dual membership issue (Jaffrelot 1996:304-11).
This period is sometimes referred to as return to 'political untoucha-
bility,' originally stemming from the guilt of being associated with Ma-
hatma Gandhi's assassination. The eclipse was to last a decade. With
the re-emergence of the BJP after 1990 the question of 'dual member-
ship' has surfaced again in another and more congenial form, now that
the BJP is no longer a political pariah, in the form of its insistence, on
the one hand, that it has not abandoned its stance on the Ram Temple,
Article 356 and the Uniform Civil Code and its claim, on the other, that
it is committed to the common program of the NDA (National Demo-
cratic Alliance in which the BJP is the lynchpin) which excludes these
issues.

The issue of dual membership is obviously symmetrical with the

double-decker significance of the word Hindu-'Indian' or 'Hindu'?
What requires further comment is a more central issue of Hindutva
identity.

VIII

The issue of Hindutva identity (to be carefully distinguished from

that of Hindu identity) is best investigated by exploring the thought of
its three main ideologues on this point: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar,
popularly known as "Vir" Savarkar (1883-1966), Mahadev Sadashiv
Golwalkar, otherwise known as "Guru" Golwalkar (d. 1973), and
Balraj Madhok (1920-) (Klostermaier 1994, Ch. 30; Kohli 1993;
Madhok 1982; etc.).
The basic template of Savarkar's thought was presented earlier, so
one needs to focus on the transformation of his legacy in the hands of
those who followed him. In the hands of Guru Golwalkar it underwent

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 26 Arvind Sharma

two interesting modifications. (1

thought at the expense of caste i
askance at caste in general, holdin
the downfall of the Hindus (ho
most Hindutva reactions to it ha
however, was to "abolish caste so
aggregate of individuals"' (Jaffre
not defined as a secular but as a Hindu nation: "Golwalkar's definition

of a nation was more restrictive than Savarkar's. Hindus appear in

his writings 'as the nation in India"' (ib. 56). (2) Such integration
in Hindu terms also reflected a stronger sense of separation from
other religious communities within India. In contrast to the overtures
V.D. Savarkar made to these communities on account of their Hindu

"genes," Golwalkar wrote (ib. 56):

The foreign races in Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu culture and
language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must
entertain no ideas but those of glorification of the Hindu race and culture ...
or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming
nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment-not even
citizen's right.

If, however, the ethnic element is emphasised in Golwalkar's thought

at the expense of the universal, the case is the reverse in some ways in
the thought of Balraj Madhok. Madhok, as a member of the Jana Sangh
recommended that it "should renounce the Sangathanist [RSS] model
and its specific identity to submerge itself in the tide of 'Hindu tradi-
tionalism."' This was to go hand in hand with the "'Indianisation' (in
effect 'Hinduisation') of Muslims and Christians" (Jaffrelot 1996:234),
but that it was called Indianisation constitutes a significant difference
in nuance from Golwalkar's ideology.

IX

The time has come to try to relate these evolutions, or even convolu-
tions, of Hindutva to the basic thesis of the paper-that like the words
Hindustan and Hinduism, the word Hindutva is also caught up in the
ambiguity and ambivalence of the word Hindu.

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 On Hindu, Hindustdn, Hinduism and Hindutva 27

Post-Independence conceptual developments in Hindutva basically

turn on two differential axes--of religion (and/or) culture and nation
(and/or) state. Hindutva thought in general has tried to align itself with
the culture axis in terms of the first set of terms and with the nation axis

in the second set of terms. Out of the religion/culture division, culture

would be viewed as a broader category, just as the nation would be
viewed as a broader category in relation to state. Hindutva thought then
has tried to connect itself with the more encompassing of the paired
categories, even occasionally at the expense of the other.
Its agenda has been to thereby solve the problem of the presence
of non-Hindu elements in Indian society and polity-primarily of
the Muslims and Christians, and secondarily of such Buddhists, Jains
and Sikhs as do not respond to the general interpretation of the term
'Hindu' it offers. By inviting them to partake only of Hindu culture and
not religion, it wants to make it socially easier for these communities
to become parts of the larger whole. It seeks to accomplish the same
end politically by identifying itself with the aspiration of nationhood,
as opposed to the machinery of a state, so that all could then belong
to the Hindu nation in this reconstituted society and the state could
then be effectively secular (Banerjee 1990:133). It is significant that
the Hindutva rhetoric to this day has largely and centrally been that of a
nation (Hindu Rashtra) rather than of a state (Hindu Raj) (even Shivaji
spoke of 'Hindu svaraj,' not Hindu Raj) (Savarkar 1969:57). The key
category is not Hindu statism but Hindu nationalism (Jain 1996).
The internal contradictions of the word Hindu, however, imperil
these exercises, whether one turns to religion or culture. One crucial
move Savarkar initiated was the tendency to associate Hinduism with
culture rather than religion. His motive in doing so was to create
a conceptual category for "Indian religions" (as distinguished from
"religions practised in India"). But with this end constitutionally
achieved (although still in contention) it soon evolved the locution
of Hindu culture, from within the space inside "Indian religions," to
embrace all the "religions practised in India," in a manner analogous to
the way it was employed by Savarkar to embrace all "Indian religions"
while situated within Hinduism, through the concept of Hindutva.

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 28 Arvind Sharma

This curiously corresponds to that

the light of which designations s
Christian' were not oxymorons, wi
an explicit pan-Indian identity in
picture, as is now the case (King
This shift in the terms of discourse also carries with it the same

bivalence which has characterised the word in its earlier appearance as

Hindu, Hindustdn and Hinduism. Philip H. Ashby writes perceptively
(1974:121-122):

Modem interpretations of Indian culture have generally fallen into two broad
classifications. The first has identified Hindu culture with Indian culture, sug-
gesting that the operating norm for the latter has been the great tradition of the
Hindu religion and the social strictures and customs that have accompanied that
tradition. This we saw most clearly in the political area-for example, in the Jana
Safigh's ideological platform and its attempt to direct modern Indian political ac-
tivity.

The other interpretation, namely, that India's culture is a composite not to be

identified with the term "Hindu," has been more realistic in recognizing that con-
temporary Indian culture, like all widespread and long enduring cultures, has
been the product of many influences, from the early Dravidian of thirty-five or
more hundred years down to the British and Western of the last hundred or two
hundred years. This approach recognizes the variables and imponderables that at
any given time work together to constitute a culture. Indian thinkers who adhere
to this position have also emphasized with pride India's powers of assimilation
and its potential as a cultural model for the modem world. This view reflects
something of both the position of the nineteenth century reform movements and
the social-cultural ambivalence of the liberal intellectual and political elite of the
twentieth century.

Two conceptions of Indian culture now vie with each other for
acceptance.
With the word Hindu, the two referents in terms of region or religion
were in contention; with the word Hindustan, this bivalence took the
form of nature of the region itself; in the realm of religion it surfaced in
the ethnic and in the universalistic orientations of Hinduism and now
it manifests itself in the realm of culture.

These developments reflect a difference in emphasis in terms of

the evolving world-view (or at least India-view) of Hindutva. But

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 On Hindu, Hindustan, Hinduism and Hindutva 29

along with them a more potentially significant conceptual divide now

surfaces, which can only be mentioned here and cannot be dealt with at
length, because in Hindutva circles itself it is only mentioned and not
developed. This issue turns on the question of whether the Hindutva
movement is directed towards the formation of a Hindu nation or a

Hindu state. The concept of a nation-state merges the two and obscures
the point, but it needs to be addressed squarely in the context of a
country like India.
Actually, a similar problem can be identified in the context of
the nation itself. Here the crux of the issue lies in the distinction

between a multi-nation state and a nation-state. Given its pluralism,

India has in effect usually functioned as a multi-nation state, whether
under Asoka, or Akbar or the British. The attempt to unify India with
the cultural nationalism of the "white umbrella," when it has always
been polychrome, revives the old ambiguity of whether Hindu means
land/people or religion/culture. The ambiguity now begins to manifest
itself within the category of the state itself-national or multinational?
This in addition to the question whether one has in mind an Indian state
or a Hindu state. The last piece of the puzzle reincarnates the original
conundrum.

Hindutva thus comes full circle. In trying to solve the problem of

Hindu identity with that of Hindutva identity, it ends up becoming part
of the problem once again. One may now be on a different part of the
tree but one is still up the same tree.
This should not be taken to mean, however, that our exercise has
been in vain. Such an exercise does allow us to posit a bivalent
'Hindu' reality capable of multiple formulations in several ways:
local/global; geographical/civilizational; ethnic/universal, and so on. It
also enables one to identify four attempts to engage this ambivalent
Hindu historical/empirical reality: in terms of the categories of (1)
region; (2) religion; (3) culture and (4) nation. The first attempt is
represented by the word Hindustan, the second by the word Hinduism,
the third by the expression Hindu culture and the fourth by the term

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 30 Arvind Sharma

Hindutva. The list of the words w

acquire the complexion of an inven
Because of the complex nature of
runs into its own limitations; each
gional approach generates the dile
dus or do Hindus belong to India?
the dilemma: Is Hinduism a religi
it itself include other religions, de
The cultural approach generates th
tutive of Indian culture or expres
approach generates the dilemma: S
of Hinduism or the Hinduism of secularism?

At the heart of each lies the question central to all issues of identity:
does the other belong to me or do I belong to it?

Faculty of Religious Studies ARVIND SHARMA

McGill University
3520 University Street
Montreal, PQ H3A 2A7
Canada

cxlj @ musica.mcgill.ca

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