Hindutva

Further information: Hindutva

Modi pays obeisance at Tirumala Temple in Andhra Pradesh

During the 2014 election campaign, the BJP sought to identify itself with political leaders known to
have opposed Hindu nationalism, including B. R. Ambedkar, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Ram
Manohar Lohia.[129] The campaign also saw the use of rhetoric based on Hindutva by BJP leaders in
certain states.[247] Communal tensions were played upon especially in Uttar Pradesh and the states of
Northeast India.[247] A proposal for the controversial Uniform Civil Code was a part of the BJP's
election manifesto.[14]
The activities of a number of Hindu nationalist organisations increased in scope after Modi's election
as Prime Minister, sometimes with the support of the government. [129][247] These activities included a
Hindu religious conversion programme, a campaign against the alleged Islamic practice of "Love
Jihad", and attempts to celebrate Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, by members
of the right wing Hindu Mahasabha.[129] Officials in the government, including the Home Minister,
defended the conversion programmes. [247] Modi refused to remove a government minister from her
position after a popular outcry resulted from her referring to religious minorities as
"bastards."[129] Commentators have suggested, however, that the violence was perpetrated by radical
Hindu nationalists to undercut the authority of Modi. [129] Between 2015 and 2018, Human Rights
Watch estimated that 44 people, most of them Muslim, were killed by vigilantes; the killings were
described by commentators as related to attempts by BJP state governments to ban the slaughter of
cows.[248]

Modi at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi

Links between the BJP and the RSS grew stronger under Modi. The RSS provided organisational
support to the BJP's electoral campaigns, while the Modi administration appointed a number of
individuals affiliated with the RSS to prominent government positions. [248] In 2014, Yellapragada
Sudershan Rao, who had previously been associated with the RSS, chairperson of the Indian
Council of Historical Research (ICHR).[14] Historians and former members of the ICHR, including
those sympathetic to the BJP, questioned his credentials as a historian, and stated that the
appointment was part of an agenda of cultural nationalism. [14][249][250]
The North East Delhi riots, which left more than 40 dead and hundreds injured, were triggered by
protests against a citizenship law seen by many critics as anti-Muslim and part of Modi's Hindu
nationalist agenda.[251][252][253][254]