Hindu Nationalism, History and Identity in India ─ Narrating a Hindu Past Under the BJP

When the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed power in India in 1998 as the largest party of the National Democratic Alliance, it soon became evident that it prioritized educational reforms. The BJP is a cultural nationalist party, which seeks to redefine India according to its Hindu cultural legacy. It may also be construed in terms of identity politics, as the party seeks to define and strengthen Hindu identity as the primary frame of identification for India’s Hindus.

In 2002, a reorganization of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) under BJP rule occurred, and four new history textbooks were published. This study examines these textbooks as integral to BJP’s identity political agenda. It analyses the ways in which they defined and invoked Hindu identity. Employing the concept of decontextualization, the author argues that notions of Hindu cultural similarity were produced, in particular as the textbook paid scarce attention to social, geographical and temporal contexts in their approaches to Indian history.

The book shows that intrinsic to the textbooks’ emphasis on similarity is a systematic backgrounding of any references to internal lines of division within the Hindu community. Through a comparison with earlier textbooks, it sheds light on the contested nature of history writing in India, especially in terms of nation building and identity construction. This issue is also highly relevant in India today due to the electoral success of the BJP in 2014, and the current efforts on part of the Hindu nationalist organization Vishwa Hindu Parishad to construct a coherent Hinduism. This book will be of interest to academics in the field of South Asian studies, contemporary history, uses of history, identity politics and Hindu nationalism.