The rise of Hindutva

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shaped socio-political discourse in India since 2014 through the lens of Hindu fundamentalism. The BJP advocates dominance of a Hindu way of life or Hindutva (a conflation of religious and national identity), recontextualising the country’s history through a symbolic saffronisation of public space and social practice. This reinforces the power of social constructions by prominent discourse clans that generate dominant frames of meaning and nullify competing voices. Relying primarily on critical discourse analysis, this chapter highlights the weaponising quality of language and ideology in India over the past decade.