Out of Saffron Ashes: Revival of Hindutva in India

Abstract

In early 2014, citizens of the largest democratic nation on the planet turned up in record-breaking numbers to vote in India's sixteenth Lok Sabha elections. This election was particularly monumental for several reasons: firstly, it broke records with the largest voter turnout in Indian history, and secondly, it resulted a landslide victory for the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), delivering the long-standing Congress party its largest defeat in history. The 2014 victory of the BJP is the latest high point in the recent revival of Hindu nationalism(Hindutva) in Indian politics. In this thesis, I trace the Hindutva movement to its pre-independence roots, analyze the causes of its revival through the BJP in the 1990s and examine its future role in the Indian political system.