A Genealogy Of Knickers

Jawid Laiq February 16, 2004 00:00 IST A Genealogy Of Knickers -0001-11-30T00:00:00+05:53

This is a clear and concise exploration of the writings of Dayanand Saraswati, Aurobindo, Vivekananda and Savarkar, who articulated the notion that "the Hindu nation had to be founded on racial and doctrinal unity". To admit to variations within the Hindu faith was seen as a sign of weakness.

Sharma cogently traces the virulence of present-day Hindutva politics to the feverish exhortations of the four figures who constructed Hinduism as the mother superior of all other, lesser religions. They were also perversely obsessed with the Muslim and Christian faiths. Sharma’s explorations leave one with the impression that they were the ideological fathers of Hindu separatism rather than Hindu nationalism. They sought to separate Hindus from the grand concept of a Mother India with its glorious mingling of religious, racial traditions.

The study also meticulously connects the aggressive actions of the Sangh parivar with the thoughts of the four angry men but barely looks at other, more sinister connections.

Recent research at the Foreign Office archives in Rome has...