Hindu Rāshtra (Hindi : हिन्दू राष्ट्र, approx. Hindu Nation) is a socio-cultural concept and a political agenda aimed at making India a Hindu nation, culturally and politically. The concept is central to political Hindu nationalism, and is heralded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a nationalist political party, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Hindu nationalism is the political and cultural expression, histriographical and political theories of Indian nationalism distinctive to Hindu society in India, which asserts being Hindu as not merely a religious identity, but a national identity. ... The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), literally meaning Indian Peoples Party, created in 1980, is one of the two major national political parties in India. ... The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP; World Hindu Council in Hindi), is a Hindu nationalist organisation in Bharat, an offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. ... It has been suggested that RSS survey be merged into this article or section. ...

Advocates of Hindu Rashtra contend that Hinduism's strong legacy of tolerance for diverse philosophies and reform movements, and the root idea of universal human brotherhood is the reason for the country's vibrant fabric of diversity, and thus every person, community and institution is perenially Hindu.

The adherents of the Hindu Rashtra philosophy claim that the English tern nation is only a crude translation of the Sanskrit term rāshtra. Their term rashtra does not mean a European-type nation with one ethnicity, one common history, one language and one religion.

History

Early concept

The concept of Hindu Rashtra is based upon imaginery, legendary and somewhat mythological collection of beliefs about the origins of human civilization, religion and culture in India. It was conceived way back in the early 20th century, that the vast majority of the population of the country is Hindu, an identity merging diverse religious communities and cultures including Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists, as well as the more distinguished Muslim and Christian communities. It was argued that since the word "Hindu" literally is derived from the word "Sindhu," (the Indus river), it applies to any inhabitant of the land of and beyond the river Indus, i.e. India. A Sikh man wearing a turban A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism, a religious faith originating in the Punjab. ... JAIN is an activity within the Java Community Process, developing APIs for the creation of telephony (voice and data) services. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by... A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم) is an adherent of Islam. ... A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. ... The Indus River in northern Pakistan, near the rock Aornus. ...

The proponents of Hindu Rashtra argued that Hinduism is the ancient system of religious philosophy and social traditions developed in Bharat by a combination of Indo-Aryan and Dravidian belief systems and philosophies. It has been continually added to by migrant races, and has spawned famous reform movements like Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, all of whom were classified as separate religions only with the advent of the British census system and the colonial policy of "divide and rule." This article is about the Hindu religion. ... Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatama Gandhi and a Rajasthani tribesman The Indo-Aryans are the ethno-linguistic descendents of the Indic branch of the Indo-Iranians. ... The Dravidian Race is the name sometimes still given to the peoples of southern and central India and northern Sri Lanka who speak Dravidian languages, the best known of which are Tamil (தமிழ்), Telugu (తెలుగు), Kannada and Malayalam. ... Pre-Kushana Ayagapatta from Mathura Jainism (pronounced in English as //), traditionally known as Jain Dharma (जैन धर्म), is a religion and philosophy originating in the prehistory of South Asia. ... Buddhism is a nontheistic religion and philosophy focusing on the teachings of the Buddha Śākyamuni (Pāli:Sakyamuni), born Siddhārtha (Pāli: Siddhattha) of the Gautama (Pāli: Gotama) gotra, who probably lived in the 5th century BCE. Buddhism spread throughout the ancient Indian sub-continent in the five... The Golden Temple is a sacred shrine for Sikhs Sikhism (Punjabi: , ), is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of ten Gurus who lived in northern India during the 16th and 17th centuries. ... In politics and sociology, divide and rule (also known as divide and conquer) is a strategy of gaining and maintaining power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into chunks that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy. ...

Partition of India

See Also: Partition of India Britains holdings on the Indian subcontinent were granted independence in 1947 and 1948, becoming four new independent states: India, Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Pakistan (including East Pakistan, modern-day Bangladesh). ...

The rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the partition of India to create an Islamic nation Pakistan gave "Hindu Rashtra" a more political meaning: it became the heading of an agenda to preserve the Hindu majority in India, politically and culturally. The term Islamic fundamentalism is primarily used in the United States, Europe, and Australia to describe Islamist groups. ... Britains holdings on the Indian subcontinent were granted independence in 1947 and 1948, becoming four new independent states: India, Burma (now Myanmar), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and Pakistan (including East Pakistan, modern-day Bangladesh). ...

To some hardline Hindu leaders like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, "Hindu Rashtra" meant a nation free of the Muslim and Christian peoples; some extend the vision to include the heavily Muslim and separate Pakistan and Bangladesh. Such extremists were known to praise Adolf Hitler, condone genocide and loath Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the Indian freedom struggle and a man they blame for conceeding a Pakistan to extremist Muslims. Savarkar in fact is widely considered to be behind Gandhi's murder in 1948, and his group, the Hindu Mahasabha is blamed with masterminding the murder of thousands of Muslims in the partition riots. Veer Savarkar on a stamp issued by Government of India. ... (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 and Führer (Leader) of Germany from 1934 until his death. ... Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Devanagari: मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी; Gujarati: મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી; Telugu: మోహన్�దాస్ కరమ్�చంద్ గాంధీ; Tamil: மோஹன்தாஸ் கரம்சந்து காந்தீ; Kannada: ಮೋಹನ್�ದಾಸ್ ಕರಮ್�ಚಂದ್ ಗಾಂಧೀ) October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India, and the Indian independence movement. ... The Indian independence movement was a series of steps taken in the Indian subcontinent for independence from British colonial rule, beginning with the Rebellion of 1857. ... Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, a Hindu nationalist organization originally founded in 1915 to counter the Muslim League and the secular Indian National Congress. ...

During the partition, over 10 million Hindus and Sikhs were forced to leave their ancestral homes in what became Pakistan and Bangladesh almost overnight; more than 1 million were killed in the violence. The advocates of Hindu Rashtra argue that while the Muslims who left India also suffered from violent attacks, they at least obtained a new state all to themselves (non-Muslims make up less than 4% of all Pakistanis; Hindus are less than 2% of that figure), while the Hindus simply lost a chunk of their ancestral motherland in the batting of an eyelid. These 10 million Hindus and Sikhs had lived only months ago in complete peace with their Muslim neighbors.

Modern times

To modern advocates and Hindu nationalists, the "Hindu Rashtra" is here to defend: Assortement of Hindus make up more than 60% of Bharat's population, and thus naturally dominate and define the country's cultural, economic and political life. But the secular Congress Party and Leftist politicians are accused of mollycoddling the sizeable Muslim minority for votes, and ignoring the coercion of poor Hindus to convert to Islam and Christianity, the influx of illegal Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, separatist movements and the waves of Islamic terrorism in Kashmir that has struck many major cities as well.

The Agenda of the Hindu Rashtra

• Banning of cow slaughter, possibly extending to ban beef and pork all together (Cows are sacred for Hindus).

• Establishing a uniform civil code for all citizens (Muslims and Christians enjoy a separate civil justice code based upon their religious values), abrogating Article 357 of the Constitution of India (granting Muslim-majority state of Kashmir a special status which disallows any non-Kashmiri citizen from settling in Kashmir).

• Building a Ram Janmbhoomi Temple ("the birthplace of Rama temple") at the site of the destroyed Babri Mosque in Ayodhya.

• Resurrecting of ancient Hindu temples around India (especially at the holy cities of Mathura and Kashi) which where destroyed by the Muslim invaders and super-imposed by mosques.

• Ban on religious conversions.

• An aggressive war on Islamic fundamentalism and Islamic terrorism. This call may extend to a full war with Pakistan based on the Kashmir territorial dispute and the Islamic terrorism being supported by Pakistan in Kashmir and other major parts of the country.

Slaughter may refer to: result of slaughtering, see slaughterhouse a music group Slaughter Jimmy Ray Slaughter awaiting execution in Oklahoma amidst brain fingerprinting controversy This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Beef makes you fart ... Two halves of a pig being delivered Pork is the meat taken from pigs. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Rainbow arching over a paddock of cattle Cattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... Uniform civil code is a term originating from the concept of a civil law code. ... The Constitution of India is the constitution of the Republic of India. ... Shown in green is the Kashmiri region under Pakistani control. ... Lord Rama (center) with wife Sita, brother Lakshmana and devotee Hanuman. ... A view of the Babri Mosque, pre-1992. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Mathura (मथुरा) is a city in India, located approximately 50 km north of Agra, and south of Delhi. ... There are multiple meanings of Kashi: Benares (a. ... Islamist terrorism, sometimes called Islamic terrorism, is terrorism that is carried out to further the political and religious ambitions of a segment of the Muslim community. ...

See also

• Hindu nationalism, Indian nationalism
• Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishva Hindu Parishad, Bharatiya Janata Party
• Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Praveen Togadia, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, Narendra Modi