Hindu nationalism has emerged as a political ideology
represented by the Hindu Mahasabha. This book explores the campaign
for Hindu unity and organisation in the context of the Hindu-Muslim
conflict in colonial north India in the early twentieth century. It
argues that India's partition in 1947 was a result of the campaign
and politics of the Hindu rightwing rather than the Islamist
politics of the Muslim League alone.
The book explains that the Mahasabha articulated Hindu
nationalist ideology as a means of constructing a distinct Hindu
political identity and unity among the Hindus in conflict with the
Muslims in the country. It looks at the Mahasabha s ambivalence
with the Indian National Congress due to an extreme ideological
opposition, and goes on to argue that the Mahasabha had its
ideological focus on an anti-Muslim antagonism rather than the
anti-British struggle for India s independence, adding to the
difficulties in the negotiations on Hindu-Muslim representation in
the country. The book suggests that the Mahasabha had a limited
class and regional base and was unable to generate much in the way
of a mass movement of its own, but developed a quasi-military wing,
besides its involvement in a number of popular campaigns.
Bridging the gap in Indian historiography by focusing on the
development and evolution of Hindu nationalism in its formative
period, this book is a useful study for students and scholars of
Asian Studies and Political History.
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