HINDUTVA AND POLITICS- A GAME OF DIVIDE AND RULE.

With the increasing hindu-phobia in India, minorities are being re-introduced by a term which
was not even heard by them for the last 4 decades, Hindutva.

Hindutva in real terms means the modification of Hinduism into an exclusive intimidation.

Hinduism is considered to be Dharma on the other hands Hindutva is a political formula.

Hinduism promotes open-minded, acceptance and non-violence whereas Hindutva gives
importance of imposing prohibitive thoughts, biased morale and restricted ideology.
For when it comes to playing dirty politics, it has always been recorded in every election held in
India that religion is the main play-card through which any political party has ever stepped into
politics let it be Congress or BJP.

The Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had very clearly summed up Hindutva and Hinduism at the
18th edition of India Today Conclave 2019 in New Delhi, “Hinduism is a very large, eclectic,
vastly encompassing religion that has tremendous amount of choice of freedom within it, which
is actually one of the greatest strengths of Hinduism. The problem with Hindutva is that it takes
this vast all encompassing religion and tries to reduce it to something much narrower and
specifically tie it to a political identity." the Congress leader articulated.

Tharoor further briefed, "For me Hinduism is a faith and it is a very broadminded faith that
fundamentally rests on notions of an acceptance of difference. More than tolerance Hinduism is
about acceptance as it is something far more profound, it is about respecting each other's
truth. But, Hindutva doesn't admit that, it rather believes that its way is the only way and
everybody else is either inferior or must be excluded, they must be bashed on their heads and
that's what my problem with Hindutva is."

VD Savarkar was the first to use the term ‘Hindutva’ – ‘Hinduness’ or ‘Hindudom’ According to
him, Hindutva is not only a history of the spiritual or religious life of the Indian people but a
history of entire civilisation. It is more “comprehensive, inflexible, concrete, and well defined
than the flexible and vague Hinduism”. Hindutva “embraces all departments of thought and
activity of the whole being of our Hindu race”.

Savarkar was not content with his utilization of the term Hindutva. Left to himself, and obliged
by constraints of syntax of the English language he would have favored the utilization of the
term 'Hinduness'. Savarkar rejected the utilization of 'ism' as in 'Hinduism' on the grounds that
by "an 'ism' it was for the most part implied a hypothesis or a code pretty much dependent on
otherworldly or religious authoritative opinion or framework."

Only those who trust in the political power aspect of religion trust the Hindutva doctrine. This
shows that conflicting to Savarkar’s belief ‘Hindutva is much wider than Hinduism’, it is the
other way round whereas Hinduism is inclusive and Hindutva is exclusive.
It is championed by the Hindu nationalist volunteer organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS), Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Hindu Sena. These three organisaions are the roots of
the emerging fascism that is being promoted by Bhartiya Janta Party on large scale. All these
together are making sure to make the best use of the old trick that the Britishers left to us, “The
Game of divide and rule”.

The center of the philosophy of the RSS shows that however it is basically political in nature,
regardless it doesn't wish to control the State not at all like the extremists. Or maybe they
might want to focus on long haul programs. The RSS embraces its political motivation of Hindu
Rashtra under the pretense of the social. The mission and the thought process of the RSS is only
political.

Bhartiya Janta Party made sure to use the divide and rule card to its full extent by deadly
communal campaigns designed to inflame Hindu sentiments and by association, patriotic
determination in a negative manner that whosoever goes against the party’s sentiments is an
anti-national. They cleverly made a connection between Hindutva and Patriotism which so far
has helped them enough to win the elections and blind the youth with aggressive and violent
decisiveness.

This fusion of Hindutva and Politics may have given BJP a huge success but it has drastically
affected the overall economy of India to such a point that the conditions of the country are
deteriorating every year but The BJP’s IT cell makes sure to blind fold its followers and show it
off as if the country is at its best right now. Such excessive show-off of phony development
makes the image of BJP crystal clear. A political party that can do anything in its power just to
promote itself even if it seems necessary to take lives.