Ancestry, Territory, and Culture: Savarkar and the Essentials of Hindutva

Abstract

This paper explores the conceptual framework of Hindutva as articulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, with particular attention to the triadic essentials of ancestry, territory, and culture. Savarkar’s 1923 treatise ‘Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?’ laid the intellectual foundation for a distinctive form of nationalism that departed from the purely ‘politico-territorial’ sphere largely espoused by Congress nationalists, and sought to define Hindu identity in terms of civilizational belonging. The core of Savarkar’s argument lies in the conviction that Hindutva is not synonymous with Hinduism as a faith but rather a cultural and territorial identity rooted in shared heritage. This paper argues that Savarkar operationalized this identity through three essential markers: common ancestry (jati), shared territory (rashtra), and collective culture (sanskriti). First, the notion of common ancestry posits that Hindus constitute a people bound by descent and historical continuity, tracing their origins to the ancient inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent. This genealogical claim was not meant to be strictly biological but civilizational, encompassing myths, memories, and lineages that collectively constructed a sense of kinship. Second, the principle of shared territory emphasized the sacrality and indivisibility of the Indian landmass, particularly the geography stretching from the Indus to the seas. For Savarkar, a ‘sacred’ territoriality defined the homeland that not only bound Hindus geographically and politically, but also provided the spatial locus of their spiritual and cultural life. Third, the cultural dimension consolidated Hindutva by asserting the role of shared history, myths, and mythologies, language and literature, art and architecture, and social institutions, laws, rites, and customs, as markers of belonging. This cultural framework also served to distinguish Hindus from communities whose ‘holy lands’ lay outside India and who do not identify with ‘Hindutva’ culture, such as Muslims and Christians, thereby demarcating insiders from outsiders in the national body. By situating Savarkar’s thought within the larger context of Indian nationalism, the paper highlights how his redefinition of Hindu identity moved beyond a purely political or territorial conception of national identity to formulate a cultural-nationalist ideology. Ultimately, this work contends that Savarkar’s conception of Hindutva represents both a reimagining of Hindu identity and a profound challenge to secular and civic models of nationalism in India.