The Colonialism of Hindutva
Romila Thapar Romila Thapar, celebrated historian, has been telling us repeatedly that Hindutva is carrying with its whole heart the legacy handed down by the colonial British. Today’s The Hindu newspaper carries an interview with the veteran historian. Let me highlight (with my own additions and accentuations) some salient points here. The core framework of Hindutva for understanding India’s past is built entirely upon the 19 th century British colonial theories. The British saw India as two warring nations: Hindus and Muslims. Hindutva accepted that perception hook, line, and sinker. The tragic irony is not just that Hindutva borrows its basic framework from a country that it hates (thus revealing its utter lack of imagination and/or intelligence), but also that the framework is too simplistic for a country like India that is a complex web of overlapping social, economic, and regional interactions. The Aryan invasion theory is another interesting takeover from the British....
