by Carrie Fleharty

Created on: September 18, 2009   Last Updated: September 20, 2009

Hindutva is an ideology from some of the practicing people of Hinduism. With that said, I bet you are even more confused. Hinduism as a religion is very hard to define. According to most researchers Hinduism is not one religion but several religions combined, and described as a culture. What we know about Hinduism we can say this: In a world of suffering, of dangers, cultures and religions, Hinduism does hold out the promise of mutual respect and tolerance.

All religions have radicals, and Hinduism has their share. Some have secluded the religion only in India, and that is not true. The idea of Hindutva is an ideology of radical Hindu nationalism. This ideology of Hidutva is a way of culturally and politically empowering themselves. Hindu identifies in particular to examine the strategies and tactics of the Hindu elite, who want to ethnicize Hinduism. This comes from the problems of the caste system and socio-economic problems of the Indian Political system. The resurgence and operations of Hindutva has it's roots in the communal style of living.

Some say that Hindutva is a philosophy like Communism or Socialism. The general idea or philosophy states that Hindutva is a spiritual, economic philosophy developed from the fundamentals of the original Hinduism. This is to stress to the people to conform to a code of conduct. Sounds familiar to me, anyway, but the included the performance of duty. Because of this economic philosophy there seems to be an underlying political aspect especially in India. The traditional Hindus are being challenged by this new philosophy.

They want their "party" in office. They are in fact anti: Christian, Muslim and other religions. They want their religion mixed in with their politics. After all Hinduism was here before any of these other religions. Research has found that the Hindus believe that because of the mix of Christian, Muslims, and the Western World they are losing their traditional religion. So the duty of Hindus is to take up arms against these enemies therefore keeping the Hindu way of life in place and to protect the glory of Bharat.

No matter how we look at Hindutva it really means a radical group from a branch of Hindus, and it means a way of life and which incorporates personal, social, and politics. This was once seen as "Dharma." Just as their is no clear definition of Hinduism; there isn't of Hindutva. The last elections from India stated that Hindutva was indeed a force to reckon with in politics.

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