restricted from political activity. Yet he served as president of the Hindu
Mahasabha for seven years, one of the most militant and “communalistic”
of the Hindu organizations.
Savarkar advocated the reconversion of Muslims and Christians to
Hinduism and the incorporation of the untouchables into Hindu institu-
tions. He coined the term “Hindutva,” which represented his vision for
Hinduizing the Indian polity and making Hinduism more militant. Hindutva
incorporated the idea that all of India shared a common geography and
culture that was infused with sacrality. That sacrality was the heritage of the
Vedasand the Epics which should become the basis for India’s political order.
Hinduism was to be more homogenized, its central “unity” transcending
sectarianism. Converted Muslims and Christians would be part of the vision
only insofar as they reaffirmed their Hindu roots.^57
Savarkar’s legacy has continued to be part of India’s religious landscape.
One of his disciples assassinated Gandhi for the latter’s alleged softness
toward India’s Muslims. Some of the organizations which have become the
exponents of Hindu nationalism today draw inspiration from Savarkar’s
agenda: these include the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS – the National
Assembly of Volunteers), and the Jan Sangh (People’s League).
The religious landscape of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
India was marked by a wide range of activity. There was reawakening and
rediscovery of some elements from a perceived past; accommodation, con-
frontation, and negotiation between communities in a pluralistic landscape;
the rearticulation of Hindu and/or Muslim identities; the resurgence
of vernacular sensibilities at the same time as there was increased national
and global consciousness; the use of religion for political purpose; the
increased visibility of folk practice and its intermingling with neo-classical
developments; and a resurgence of pietism and popular religion. It was, in
short, a century of transition that set the stage for the contemporary period
and, in the process, illustrated the religious options available to a globe
facing similar dynamics in the twenty-first century.
Recommended reading
On religious minorities in India
Beyrenther, E. Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg. Trs. S. G. Lang and H. W. Gensichen. Madras:
Christian Literature Society, Diocesan Press, 1955.
Boyce, M. B. Zoroastrians: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Third revision. London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988.
Brown, L. W. The Indian Christians of St. Thomas. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1956.
Streams from the “West” and their Aftermath 189