External links
- 1923 edition at the Internet Archive
- 1969 edition at the Internet Archive
| Author | Vinayak Damodar Savarkar |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Hindutva |
| Genre | Political manifesto Political philosophy |
Publication date | c. 1923 |
| Publication place | British India |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 88 (original publication) |
| ISBN | 9-788-188-38825-7 |
| OCLC | 0670049905 |
Essentials of Hindutva is a 1923 political pamphlet by Indian politician and ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. It was published while Savarkar was still in jail. It was retitled Hindutva: Who Is a Hindu? when reprinted in 1928. Savarkar's pamphlet formulated the Hindu nationalist ideology of Hindutva.
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was tried and convicted of sedition in 1910. In 1911, he was transported to Port Blair and incarcerated in Cellular Jail to serve a fifty-year sentence. [1] After submitting a series of clemency petitions, he was transferred to a prison in Ratnagiri, where he remained until his conditional release in 1924. [2] During his imprisonment in Ratnagiri, he wrote Essentials of Hindutva in 1922. [3] [4] The pamphlet was smuggled out of his cell and published in 1923 under the pseudonym 'A Mahratta', by a lawyer named Vishwanathrao Kelkar. [5] [6] The pamphlet was written and published in English, [7] comprising just eighty-eight pages. [8] It was reprinted in 1928 under the title Hindutva: Who Is a Hindu?, with the second phrase serving as a subtitle. [9] Much of what he wrote reflected views he had already held. [8]
Essentials of Hindutva is organised into thirty-one chapters, arranged as follows:
In Essentials of Hindutva, Savarkar racialises and ethnicises Hindu identity. [10] [11] He contrasts Hinduism, which he describes as merely a "spiritual or religious dogma or system", [12] [9] [a] with Hindutva (transl. Hindu-ness), [14] which, he writes, "embraces all the departments of thought and activity of the whole being of our Hindu race". [15] Appealing to the "racial unity" and "racial oneness" of the Hindus, [5] his criteria for being considered a Hindu is inclusive across caste, creed, and faith; [16] [17] any person for whom India is both pitrabhumi (transl. Fatherland) and punyabhumi (transl. Sacred land) qualifies as a natural and national inhabitant. [18] [19] Savarkar also forms clear boundaries between those deemed Hindus and non-Hindus, [16] advocating for the purification of the nation from those deemed outsiders, such as Muslims and Christians, who, according to Savarkar, have their sacred lands outside of India, in "Arabia or Palestine". [12] He further argues that Hindus who had converted to Islam or Christianity may be readmitted if they convert back to Hinduism, thereby reclaiming what he regards as their original home and being welcomed back to the "Hindu fold". [20]
Some of us were Aryans and some Anaryans; but Ayars and Nayars—we were all Hindus and own a common blood. Some of us are Brahmins and some Namshudras or Panchams; but Brahmins or Chandals—we are all Hindus and own a common blood. Some of us are Dakshanatyas and some Gouds; but Gouds or Saraswats—we are all Hindus and own a common blood. Some of us were Vanars and some Kinners: but Vanars or Nars—we are all Hindus and own a common blood. Some of us are monists some pantheists; some theists and some atheists. But monotheists or atheists—we are all Hindus and own a common blood. [21]
Articulating a militantly chauvinistic and nativist form of genomic and geocentric nationalism, Savarkar stresses Hindu devotion to common ethnic ties, rooted in the ideals of sacred blood and sacred soil. [22] He advances a radical form of Hindu ethnic nationalism, [23] [24] arguing that Hindus constitute a distinct and primordial civilisation, sharing common history, literature, art and architecture, jurisprudence, as well as cultural practices. [25] [26] His emphasis on race was an attempt to downplay caste divisions within Hindu society, which, as a Brahmin, he sought to preserve. [11] Savarkar's conception of Hindu ethnic nationalism drew heavily on British and German orientalist thought as well as on contemporary currents of ethnic nationalism in Europe. [26] [24] [27] He was particularly influenced by Johann Kaspar Bluntschli's concept of German ethnic and racial nationalism. [11] While imprisoned, he read and taught Bluntschli's works. Bluntschli distinguished between a racially superior "principal nation" and a racially inferior "alien nation". This framework appealed to Savarkar, as it allowed him to compensate the British claims of racial superiority, by asserting the racial superiority of the Hindus against an imagined Muslim race. Adopting Bluntschli's model, Savarkar argued that Hindus constituted the principal nation, while Muslims constituted the alien nation. [28] Philosopher Martha Nussbaum has described the pamphlet as a "European product". [24]
Savarkar posits that a "conflict of life and death" had ensued ever since Mahmud of Ghazni of the Ghaznavid Empire crossed the Indus River into the Indian subcontinent in the 11th century CE. Drawing on the British Raj's colonial policy of 'divide and rule', his pamphlet sought to redirect the prevailing anti-British sentiment of the time into anti-Muslim mobilisation by portraying Hindus chiefly in opposition to Muslims. [29]
