The Hindutva Movement: A Struggle Towards a “Hindu Secular India”

Struggle Between Hindu and Secular Nationalisms in India India holds a prominent place in the history of imperialism and decolonization, making recent events in this country of nearly one billion especially important to the current day citizen. India also faces problems associated with accommodating religion and diversity within a large federal republic, making their experience important for Americans concerned with these issues. India faces growing action of governing which invites the use of…

Women’s Movement Aparna Basu∗ The roots of the Indian women’s movement go back to the nineteenth century male social reformers who took up issues concerning women and started women’s organizations. Women started forming their own organization from the end of the nineteenth century first at the local and then at the national level. In the years before independence, the two main issues they took up were political rights and reform of personal laws. Women’s participation in the freedom struggle broadened…

A Hindu ( pronunciation (help·info), Devanagari: हिन्दु) is an adherent of Hinduism, a set of religious, philosophical and cultural systems that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The vast body of Hindu scriptures, divided into Śruti ("revealed") and Smriti ("remembered"), lay the foundation of Hindu beliefs, which primarily include dhárma, kárma, ahimsa and saṃsāra. Vedānta and yoga are one of the several core schools of Hindu philosophy, broadly known as the Sanātana Dharma. The word Hindu is…

weren’t even protesting, killing ten people on the spot. Vilas Ghogre, a Dalit-Marxist poet and singer, moved by the incident to such an extent that he committed suicide. Anand Patwardhan’s documentary “Jai Bhim Comrade” is about Dalit movement and struggle for recognition of their identity and acceptance of their existence within socio-politico-economic milieu. The three hour long movie covers the time period of fourteen years, incorporating layered, personal narratives of Dalits, their aspirations…

Hinduism, Hindutva, Colonial and Post-Colonial Myths "During this period (early history of the British in India) in India, while the Europeans fought one another and the British intrigued among themselves for personal advantage, Mughals killed Mughals, Rajputs killed Rajputs, Mughals killed Rajputs, Rajputs killed Mughals, British killed Mughals and Rajputs, Mughals and Rajputs killed British, and starvation and taxation kept killing the farmers and laborers of India as usual." 1 This is how Wendy…

Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal) were the Swadeshi triumvirate who advocated the Swadeshi movement involving the boycott of all imported items and the use of Indian-made goods in 1907. The last years of the nineteenth century, saw a radical sensibility emerge among some Indian Intellectuals. This position burst onto the national all-India scene in 1905 with the Swadeshi movement - the term is usually rendered as "self reliance" or "self sufficiency".[1] Lal-Bal-Pal, mobilized Indians…

Viceroy in October, 1916 and was finally signed in the December and implemented as the act of Government of India. The British were made aware through this that whatever they try to hurl at the Muslims and Hindus, they would face it acceptingly. A hope was evident among the natives of the sub-continent that they can raise their voice against the Crown and eventually drive them out of India. World War I brought effects to this side of the world as well. As a British colony, they expected us to provide…

later half on the Indian independence movement (1918-1947) leading up till the riots that caused the partition of India. This means that I will be analyzing the complete territory of India that was present during that time period. There are several reasons I am focusing in on this time period. First I will be researching about the independence movement which eventually led to the Indian Independence Act of 1947 and then see how that leads to the partition of India. This specific time period is extremely…

INTRODUCTION 2. BRAHMO SAMAJ 3. ARYA SAMAJ 4. THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 5. YOUNG BENGAL MOVEMENT 6. RAMA KRISHNA MOVEMENT 7. CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION Socio-Religious Reform Movements in India were part of eighteenth century and twentieth-century India. During this time, on one side, India was suffering from stagnating traditional culture and society at very low ebb; while on the other hand, India possessed a still traditional society in the throes and the creative excitement of modernising…

2010), the evidence on other potential causes including the importance of social divisions and political grievances is more controversial (Blattman and Miguel, 2010: p.45). This paper examines Hindu-Muslim violence in India. Muslims constitute India’s largest religious minority, and the observed patterns of Hindu-Muslim violence suggest that Muslims are more likely to have been the victims of such violence (Mitra and Ray, 2010). Since Muslims are also under-represented in elected office (constituting…