Religious Extremism in Contemporary India: A Study on Hindutva Ideology and Its Impacts on Hindu Muslim Relations

This thesis explores the concept of Hindutva ideology implemented by the right-wing Hindu organization in India and examines how it affected the Hindu-Muslim relations in the country. By delving into the key texts penned by Hindutva ideologues V.D Savarkar and M.S Golwalkar, this thesis examines their ideologies followed by analyzing the historical context of India during the formation of the Hindutva ideology. The impact of Hindutva ideology on Hindu-Muslim relations is demonstrated through two case studies: The Babrimasjid-Ramajanmabhoomi Dispute and the issue of the Holy cow. This research concludes that the Hindutva managed to build a strong communal line with baseless evidences and arguments between the Hindus and Muslims in India by projecting the presence of Muslims in India as an "internal threat" for the country. Moreover, this research makes a firm attempt to address the strategies implementing by the Hindutva ideology to attract more followers on one hand and the role and position of the Hindu scriptures in their ideology on the other. This research figures out that for proponents of Hindutva, Hindutva ideology is more important than Hinduism and implement their strategies from grassroot levels by manufacturing fabricated and baseless history from school levels itself.