"Hindutva": Reimagining India

The new debate on Indian identity has been provoked by a sense of discontinuity and decline. The movement of Hindutva, emerged in the 1980s as the most powerful expression of the malaise pervading Indian society. The debate centers around the cultural regeneration of India. It is framed by three developments that have matured over the last forty years: the decline of the Nehruvian enterprise of a secular and socialist India resulting from the (partial) fulfillment of its own promise; the growth and differentiation of the Indian economy and the emergence of new social groups; and finally, the proliferation of alternative cultural sites, autonomous of the state, that allow for expression of diverse views and the construction of alternative identities.