Daniela Berti, Nicolas Jaoul and Pralay Kanungo (eds). 2011. Cultural Entrenchment of Hindutva: Local Mediations and Forms of Convergence. Delhi: Routledge.
The book reflects on the discreet influence of Hindutva in situations/places outside or at the margins of its organisational and mobilisational arena, where people denying any commitment to the Sangh Parivar incidentally show affinities and parallelisms with its discourse and practice. By starting with the notion of entrenchment, this study reconsiders how Hindutva is affecting a wide range of social, cultural and religious milieus in contemporary India.
The contributors analyse Hindutva’s entrenchment, emphasising on the ethnography of the forms of mediation and/or convergence produced in certain contexts. The 11 case studies highlight three different dynamics of Hindutva’s cultural entrenchment. The first section gathers cases where RSS-affiliated organisations have set up specific cultural or artistic programmes at the regional level, involving the meditation of local people whose interest in these programmes does not necessarily mean that they endorse the Hindutva agenda completely. The next section deals with convergence and refers to cases where the followers gather around a charismatic personality, whose precepts and practice may bring them towards a closer affinity with the Hindutva programme. The last section deals with the contexts of resistance, where social milieus engaged in opposing Hindutva may, in fact, paradoxically, and even inadvertently, imbibe some of its ideas and practices in order to contest its claims.
Contents
PART I: Hindutva-affiliated Organisations and Local Mediators
• Music and Politics in Kerala: Hindu Nationalists Versus Marxists Christine Guillebaud
• The Local Enactment of Hindutva: Writing Stories on Local Gods in Himachal Pradesh Daniela Berti
• Casting Community, Culture and Faith: Hindutva’s Entrenchment in Arunachal Pradesh Pralay Kanungo
• The Shakha and the Mandal: The Shiv Sena, ‘Popular Culture’ and People’s Associations in Mumbai Djallal G. Heuzé
PART II: Convergence, Gurus and Sects
• Health, Yoga and the Nation: Dr Karandikar and the Yoga Therapy Centre, Pune, Maharashtra Anne-Cécile Hoyez
• On the Margins of Hindutva: The Krishna Pranâmî Sect in Nepal and India Gérard Toffin
• In the Image of Jhulelal: Sindhi Hindus, Humanitarian Action and Hindu Nationalism Frédérique Pagani
• Social Services, Muscular Hinduism and Implicit Militancy in West Bengal: The Case of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha Raphaël Voix
PART III: Entrenchment amidst Resistance
• The Symbolism of Krishna in Uttar Pradesh Politics in the 1990s: Understanding the ‘Normalisation’ of Hindutva in North India Lucia Michelutti
• Casting the ‘Sweepers’: Local Politics of Sanskritisation, Caste and Labour Nicolas Jaoul
• The Boa and its Petty Enemy: Contemporary Relationships between Hindu Nationalists and the Sikhs Christine Moliner
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