Hindutva ideology between Orientalism and Postcolonial Critique

Abstract

Hindu nationalist ideology is not only rooted in primordialist thinking—attempting to forge a unified Hindu identity from a distant, imagined past—but its proponents today also incorporate vocabulary and ideas from postcolonial and broader global human rights discourses. This phenomenon, which Rohit Chopra describes as feeding into ‘global primordialities’ in his analysis of online identity politics rhetoric, allows Hindutva advocates to frame their resistance to Western colonial hegemony or perceived Muslim oppression within India in terms that align with global narratives on human rights and oppression. In doing so, they effectively whitewash (or perhaps “wokewash”?) the Hindutva agenda while leaving its nationalist and exclusionary ideology fundamentally unchanged. Beyond this strategic rebranding, Hindutva discourse on Hindu identity continues to rely on outdated orientalist assumptions, creating a striking contrast between its appropriation of modern postcolonial vocabulary and its reliance on orientalist reasoning.In my paper, I will analyze how these competing narratives—one rooted in orientalism, the other in postcolonialism—are reconfigured into a rhetoric that is meant to serve the Hindu nationalist cause on a global stage.