Victimhood and Hindutva Ideology

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in India

Abstract

Collective memory and victimhood as mobilisation tools for group identification have been garnering interest within studies of nationalism. Applying this to the context of religious national ideology, this paper aims to examine victimhood in the discourses of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in India, and how it is manufactured towards Hindutva or Hindu nationalism. A discourse-historical approach to document analysis of vision statements and speeches by members of the RSS has been conducted using a post-structuralist lens to International Relations. Hindu society and India, as the key objects of victimhood, have been argued to be threatened by an elite, religious others and India’s colonial past. These have been linked to an emotional appeal to convince Hindu society particularly of its integrity to Indian national identity and links the victimhood of the nation to the victimhood of its people. It has further been analysed how this appeal is driven towards a religious nationalist argument basing Hindutva at the core of Indian society through a reawakening of Hindu society itself.