Hinduism

How India’s crackdown on NGOs is serving Hindu nationalism

Over the past decade, the Indian government has systematically cracked down on dissenting, secular, and minority non-governmental organizations (NGOs) by limiting their access to funding. Organizations have been forced to shut down or severely limit their advocacy and community work. The gap that these organizations leave behind in communities is filled with exclusivist volunteer groups, which promote the government’s Hindu-nationalist (Hindutva) ideology. It appears that the crackdown on organizations is not only aimed at silencing critics, but it is also polarizing communitie

Competitive Hindutva

Moumita Sen, Associate Professor of Culture Studies at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society  Kenneth Bo Nielsen, Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo The run-up to next year’s state assembly elections in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh vividly shows us the extent to which political parties across the […]

Soft power: the Mango Festival and the Festival of India