The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is a Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation in India. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar, which have presence in all facets of the Indian society, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi, the incumbent Indian prime minister. The present Sarsanghchalak of the RSS is Mohan Bhagwat.
Hindutva ("Hindu-ness") is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India. The term was formulated as a political ideology by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar.
Ram Swarup, born Ram Swarup Agarwal, was an Indian author and one of the most important thought leaders of the Hindu revivalist movement.
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Marathi pronunciation: [ʋinaːjək saːʋəɾkəɾ]; also commonly known as Veer Savarkar, was an Indian politician, activist, and writer.
Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, also known by his moniker Doctorji, was an Indian physician and the founding Sarsanghachalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Hedgewar founded the RSS in Nagpur in 1925, based on the ideology of Hindutva with the intention of creating a Hindu Rashtra.
Sir William Mark Tully, KBE is the former Bureau Chief of BBC, New Delhi, a position he held for 20 years. He worked with the BBC for a total of 30 years before resigning in July 1994. The recipient of several awards, Tully has authored nine books. He is a member of the Oriental Club.
Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalkar, popularly known as Guruji was the second Sarsanghchalak ("Chief") of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Golwalkar is considered one of the most influential and prominent figures among Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He was the first person to put forward the concept of a cultural nation called "Hindu Rashtra" which is believed to have evolved into the concept of the "Akhand Bharat Theory", united nations for Bharatiyas. Golwalkar was one of the early Hindu nationalist thinkers in India. Golwalkar authored the book We, or Our Nationhood Defined. Bunch of Thoughts is a compilation of his speeches.
François Gautier is a journalist based in India who served as the South Asian correspondent for multiple reputed French-language dailies. He advocates for an Indigenous Aryan narrative.
Hinduism is the largest religion in India. According to the 2011 Census of India, 966.3 million people identify as Hindu, representing 79.8% of the country's population. India contains 94% of the global Hindu population. The Indian subcontinent is the birthplace of four of the world's major religions: namely Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—collectively known as Indian religions that believe Moksha is the most supreme state of the Ātman (soul). The vast majority of Indian Hindus belong to Shaivite and Vaishnavite denominations. India is one of the three countries in the world where Hinduism is the dominant religion.
Girilal Jain, was an Indian journalist. He served as the editor of The Times of India from 1978 until 1988. He advocated establishing old glory and re establishing the great tenants of Hinduism aligned with nationalism and authored books on the subject, the best known of which, The Hindu Phenomenon, was published posthumously. The government of India awarded him the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan in 1989.
Walter K. Andersen is an American academic known for his studies of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – a Hindu nationalist organization. He currently serves as Senior Adjunct Professor of South Asia Studies at Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and is a part of the faculty of Tongji University, Shanghai (China). Previously, he taught comparative politics at the College of Wooster before joining the United States State Department as a political analyst for South Asia specializing in India and Indian Ocean affairs. Additionally, he was an adjunct professor at The American University in Washington, D.C.
Essentials of Hindutva is an ideological epigraph by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar published in 1923. It was retitled Hindutva: Who Is a Hindu? when reprinted in 1928. Savarkar's epigraph forms part of the canon of works published during British rule that later influenced post-independence contemporary Hindu nationalism.
Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras, popularly known as Balasaheb Deoras, was the third Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Hindu Revolution is a term in Hindu nationalism referring to a sociopolitical movement aiming to overthrow untouchability and casteism to unified social and political community to create the foundations of a modern nation.
Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent. "Hindu nationalism" or the correct term Hindū rāṣṭravāda is a simplistic translation and it is better described with the term "Hindu polity".
Ravish Kumar is an Indian journalist, author and media personality. He was the Senior Executive Editor of NDTV India. He hosted a number of programmes including the channel's flagship weekday show Prime Time, Hum Log, Ravish Ki Report, and Des Ki Baat.
Our Hindu Rashtra is a book about Hindu majoritarianism in India by journalist Aakar Patel, published by Westland Books in 2020. It surveys historical documents, government committee reports, court judgments, media archives, and records personal anecdotes on a range of issues. It argues that India is today a Hindu state in practice, and that the erosion of secularism in India began soon after India became independent, although the process accelerated after the election of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister in 2014.
Price of the Modi Years is a book authored by Aakar Patel, published by Westland Publications Limited in 2021. The book details the history of India since 2014 when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister. It examines the potential human and economic price that it claims India will be paying for the decisions made in the seven years spent under the BJP government since 2014.
In December 2021, a dharma sansad of Hindu ascetics was held at Haridwar in Uttarakhand, India, where hate speeches were delivered in which the speakers called for a genocide against Muslims in the name of protecting Hinduism. The government's apathy in the face of the hate event has been condemned by a wide cross section of Indian society, including retired military leaders, civil society activists, students, academics, and retired judges.
Aakar Patel is an Indian journalist, activist and author. He served as the head of Amnesty International in India between 2015 and 2019, and currently serves as the chair of the Board of Amnesty International in India. He is the author of Our Hindu Rashtra, an account of majoritarianism in India, and of Price of the Modi Years, which examines the administrative performance of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In 2014, he authored a translation of Saadat Hasan Manto's Urdu non-fiction Why I Write.
