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{{Short description|1923 political pamphlet by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar}}
{{pp|small=yes}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Under construction|nosection=yes|date=April 2026}}
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2026}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2015}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Essentials of Hindutva
| image = Essential of Hindutva 1923 title page.jpg
| caption = Title page of the 1923 edition.
| author = [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]]
| language = [[English language|English]]
| subject = [[Hindutva]]
| genre = [[Political manifesto]]<br />[[Political philosophy]]
| pub_date = {{Circa|May 1923}}
| pub_place = [[British Raj|British India]]
| media_type = Print<br />([[hardcover]] and [[paperback]])
| pages = 88 (original publication)<br />141 (1969 publication)
| isbn = 9788188388257
| isbn_note = (2003 publication)
| oclc = 0670049905
}}

'''''Essentials of Hindutva''''', also titled '''''Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?''''' or simply '''''Hindutva''''', is a 1923 political pamphlet by Indian politician and ideologue [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]]. It was published pseudonymously while Savarkar was in prison. Savarkar's pamphlet formulated [[Hindutva]], a [[Hindu nationalist]] ideology.

== Background ==
=== Socio-political context ===
Following [[World War I]], South Asian Muslims launched the [[Khilafat Movement]] across [[British Raj|British India]] in opposition to [[Partition of the Ottoman Empire|the planned dismemberment]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]]. Its alliance with the [[Indian National Congress]], however, collapsed after [[Mahatma Gandhi]]'s withdrawal of the [[Non-cooperation movement (1919–1922)|non-cooperation movement]] in 1922, heightening [[Communal violence#Asia|communal tensions]] and polarisation between Hindus and Muslims.{{Sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1998|pages=43–44}}{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|1999|pages=25–26}} Among sections of the Hindu intelligentsia, there emerged a majoritarian inferiority complex, partly rooted in a loss of self-esteem fostered by a 19th century colonial stereotype that portrayed Hindus as a "puny race".{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|2021|page=12}} The same period witnessed [[B. R. Ambedkar]]'s first organisation of [[Dalit|Dalits]] as an [[Anti-Brahminism|anti-Brahmin]] movement in the [[Bombay Presidency]];{{Sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1998|pages=43–44}} on the other hand, caste and sectarian divisions within Hinduism came to be obsessively viewed in [[Hindu nationalism|Hindu nationalist]] discourse as weaknesses.{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|2021|page=12}} Meanwhile, the proportion of Hindus in British India, as recorded in the decennial census, fell from 74% in 1881 to 68% in 1931, prompting some Hindu nationalist ideologues to describe Hindus as a "dying race",{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|2021|page=12}}{{Efn|One prominent example was in 1909, when U. N. Mukherji published a series of articles from ''[[The Bengalee]]'' as a pamphlet entitled ''Hindus: A Dying Race''.{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|1999|page=24}}{{Sfn|Das|2023|page=115}} Based on census data, Mukherji claims that the Hindu population of [[Bengal Presidency|Bengal]] will disappear completely,{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2022|page=193}} and that extrapolating demographic trends, Hindus will go numerically extinct within 420 years.{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|1999|page=24}}{{Sfn|Guha|2024|pages=5002–5016}} He speaks of a "united [[Mohammedan|Mahomedan]] world",{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2022|pages=193–194}} drawing on exaggerated stereotypes of Muslim communal unity,{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|1999|page=24}} which he contrasts with Hindus who, according to him, are "crumbling to pieces" due to caste and [[Class struggle|class conflict]].{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2022|pages=193–194}} He states, "Disunion is the cornerstone of our community".{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2022|page=194}}}} a notion that was exploited by the British in their colonial policy of "[[Divide and conquer#British India|divide and conquer]]".{{Sfn|Das|2023|page=115}} It was in this socio-political context that ''Essentials of Hindutva'' was written.{{Sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1998|pages=43–44}}{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|2021|pages=12–13}}

=== Savarkar and publication ===
In 1910, [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]] was arrested in London on multiple criminal charges, including the procurement and distribution of arms, [[Aiding and abetting|abetment of murder]], "waging war against the [[Emperor of India|King Emperor of India]]", and [[Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code|sedition]]; extradited to [[Mumbai|Bombay]] to stand trial, he was convicted and sentenced to serve two life terms in [[Cellular Jail]] in the [[Andaman Islands]].{{Sfn|Bakhle|2010|page=151}}{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2015|page=19}} After submitting [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar#Clemency petitions|a series of clemency petitions]], he was transferred to a prison in [[Ratnagiri]], where he remained until his conditional release in 1924.{{Sfn|Jha|2022|pages=17–19}} During his imprisonment, he wrote ''Essentials of Hindutva''.{{Sfn|Basu|2017|page=23}}{{Sfn|Nederman|Shogimen|2009|page=190}} The pamphlet was smuggled out of his cell and published in [[Nagpur]] in May 1923{{Sfn|Bakhle|2024|page=5}}{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2015|page=22}} under the pseudonym 'A Maratha',{{Efn|Also spelled as 'A Mahratta'.{{Sfn|Bakhle|2024|page=5}}}} by a lawyer named Vishwanathrao Kelkar.{{Sfn|van Driem|2021|pages=26–55}}{{Sfn|Bakhle|2024|page=5}}{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2015|page=14}} The pamphlet was written and published in English,{{Sfn|Basu|2017|page=133}} comprising just eighty-eight pages.{{Sfn|Bakhle|2024|page=318}} Much of what he wrote reflected views he had already held.{{Sfn|Bakhle|2024|page=318}}

== Titles and editions ==
There is little agreement on the title of the pamphlet. The original 1923 publication simply states "''Hindutva'' by 'A Maratha', May 1923" on the title page, while the first page is entitled ''Essentials of Hindutva''; this was not a chapter title, as this edition had none. A 1938 edition retains the 1923 title but now names Savarkar as the author and includes a portrait of him. In that edition, however, the opening pages feature a [[Sanskrit]] [[Epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] with an English translation, entitled ''Who is a Hindu?''.{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2022|page=7}}{{Efn|A [[foreword]] is included in the same edition by [[Bhai Parmanand]] who refers to the pamphlet simply as ''Hindutva'', using neither of the other two titles.{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2022|page=7}}}} The sixth edition in 1989 retains ''Hindutva'' on the [[dust jacket]] and ''Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?'' on the title page, yet the first page reverts to ''Essentials of Hindutva''; this edition also includes chapter titles and subheadings. The [[Page header|running heads]] add further inconsistency, with ''Hindutva'' appearing on the [[verso]] and ''Essentials of Hindutva'' on the [[recto]].{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2022|pages=7–8}} The 2007 edition is simply entitled ''Essentials of Hindutva''. The [[Marathi language|Marathi]] and [[Hindi]] translations follow a similar pattern, with both dust jackets entitled ''Hindutva'', while the first page of each carries a translation of ''Essentials of Hindutva'' as a subtitle.{{Efn|The [[Marathi language|Marathi]] translation is ''Hindutvaci Mulabhuta Tattve'' and the [[Hindi]] translation is ''Hindutva ke Pramukhatam Abhilakshan''.{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2022|page=8}}}} All three titles have been used in scholarly analysis.{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2022|page=8}}

== Themes ==
=== Racial and ethnic Hindu identity ===
In ''Essentials of Hindutva'', Savarkar [[Racialization|racialises]] and ethnicises an imagined Hindu identity.{{Efn|Sources:{{Bulleted list
|{{Harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|1998|page=50}}
|{{Harvnb|Bhatt|2020|page=95}}
|{{Harvnb|Bakhle|2010|pages=149–186}}
|{{Harvnb|Guha|2024|pages=5002–5016}}
|{{Harvnb|Lakhi Mangharam|2025|pages=91–127}}
|{{Harvnb|Kapur|2022|pages=499–516}}
|{{Harvnb|Baber|2021|pages=151–169}}
}}}} He contrasts Hinduism, which he describes as merely a "spiritual or religious dogma or system",{{Sfn|Zachariah|2015|pages=608–612}}{{Sfn|Basu|2017|pages=101}}{{Efn|Savarkar was personally an [[Atheism|atheist]].{{Sfn|Nandy|2014|pages=91–112}}}} with the term "[[Hindutva]]" ({{Translation|Hindu-ness}}),{{Sfn|van der Linden|2024|pages=1–26}} which, he writes, "embraces all the departments of thought and activity of the whole being of our Hindu race".{{Sfn|Bakhle|2010|pages=159}}{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2022|page=175}} His criteria for being considered a Hindu is inclusive across caste, creed, and faith;{{Sfn|Bakhle|2010|pages=161}}{{Sfn|Sen|2015|pages=690–711}} any person for whom India is both ''pitrabhumi'' ({{Translation|Fatherland}}) and ''punyabhumi'' ({{Translation|Sacred land}}) qualifies as a natural and national inhabitant.{{Sfn|Bakhle|2010|pages=154}}{{Sfn|Thobani|2019|pages=745–762}} Savarkar also forms clear boundaries between those deemed Hindus and non-Hindus,{{Sfn|Bakhle|2010|pages=161}} advocating for the purification of the nation from those deemed outsiders, such as Muslims and Christians, who, according to Savarkar, have their sacred lands outside of India, in "[[Arabian Peninsula|Arabia]] or [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]".{{Sfn|Zachariah|2015|pages=608–612}} However, he does not strictly argue for racial purity;{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2022|pages=191–192}}{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|1999|pages=28–29}} he contends that Hindus who had converted to Islam or Christianity may be readmitted if they [[Shuddhi (Hinduism)|convert back to Hinduism]]{{Sfn|Samuel|2020|pages=127–149}} as well as marry and have children with Hindus,{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|2021|page=13}} thereby being welcomed back to the "Hindu fold".{{Sfn|Samuel|2020|pages=127–149}}

{{Blockquote|Some of us were [[Aryan|Aryans]] and some [[Aryan#Historical usage|Anaryans]]; but Ayars and [[Nair|Nayars]]—we were all Hindus and own a common blood. Some of us are [[Brahmin|Brahmins]] and some [[Namasudra|Namshudras]] or Panchams; but Brahmins or [[Chandala|Chandals]]—we are all Hindus and own a common blood. Some of us are Dakshanatyas and some [[Goud|Gouds]]; but Gouds or [[Saraswat Brahmin|Saraswats]]—we are all Hindus and own a common blood. Some of us were Vanars and some Kinners: but Vanars or Nars—we are all Hindus and own a common blood. Some of us are [[Monism|monists]] some [[Pantheism|pantheists]]; some [[Theism|theists]] and some [[Atheism|atheists]]. But [[Monotheism|monotheists]] or atheists—we are all Hindus and own a common blood.{{Sfn|Bakhle|2010|pages=160–161}}}}

Articulating a [[Militant|militantly]] [[Chauvinism|chauvinistic]] and [[Nativism (politics)|nativist]] form of genomic and geocentric nationalism,{{Sfn|Frykenberg|2008|page=190}} Savarkar argues that Hindus constitute a distinct and [[Primordialism|primordial]] civilisation{{Sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1998|pages=49}}{{Sfn|Thobani|2019|pages=752}} and stresses Hindu devotion to common ethnic ties, rooted in the ideals of [[Blood and soil|sacred blood and sacred soil]].{{Sfn|Frykenberg|2008|page=190}} He blends Hindu [[ethnic nationalism]]{{Efn|Sources:{{Bulleted list
|{{Harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|1998|page=44}}
|{{Harvnb|Nederman|Shogimen|2009|pages=190–191}}
|{{Harvnb|Jaffrelot|1999|pages=26–27}}
|{{Harvnb|Lakhi Mangharam|2025|pages=91–127}}
|{{Harvnb|Baber|2021|pages=151–169}}
}}}} with [[Historical Vedic religion#Modern usage|Brahminical authority]] in the [[Caste system in India|caste system]];{{Efn|Sources:{{Bulleted list
|{{Harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|1998|page=44}}
|{{Harvnb|Jaffrelot|1999|pages=31–32}}
|{{Harvnb|Bhatt|2020|pages=94–96}}
|{{Harvnb|Kapur|2022|pages=499–516}}
}}}} his emphasis on race was an attempt to downplay caste divisions that he, as a Brahmin, sought to preserve.{{Sfn|Bhatt|2020|pages=94–96}}{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|1999|page=28}}{{Sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1998|pages=50}} Appealing to the imagined racial unity, racial oneness, and racial superiority of the Hindus,{{Sfn|van Driem|2021|pages=26–55}}{{Sfn|Kapur|2022|pages=499–516}} Savarkar attacks the British conception of the castes being racially differentiated, yet argues for the defence of a caste system which was barely distinguishable, founded on a hierarchically conceived nobility and purity of "upper" caste "blood".{{Sfn|Bhatt|2020|pages=94–95}} His over-integrated conception of an imagined Hindu race was both formed against, and mirrored, the racial supremacism of [[British Empire|British colonialism]];{{Sfn|Bhatt|2020|page=95}}{{Sfn|Dusche|2010|page=45}} he repeatedly asserts that racial inheritance of Hindu blood is the defining characteristic of Hindutva.{{Sfn|Bhatt|2020|page=95}}

Savarkar's conception of Hindu ethnic nationalism drew heavily on British and German [[Orientalism|orientalist thought]] as well as on contemporary currents of ethnic nationalism in Europe.{{Efn|Sources:{{Bulleted list
|{{Harvnb|Bhatt|2020|pages=86–88}}
|{{Harvnb|Jaffrelot|1999|pages=28–32}}
|{{Harvnb|Thobani|2019|pages=752}}
|{{Harvnb|Nederman|Shogimen|2009|page=190–191}}
}}}} He was well acquainted with the works of [[Charles Darwin]], [[Herbert Spencer]], [[Ernst Haeckel]], and [[Thomas Henry Huxley]], and supported the application of ethnicity to [[Scientific racism|the scientific]] and [[Social Darwinism|political fields]].{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|1999|page=28}} He was particularly influenced by [[Johann Kaspar Bluntschli]]'s concept of [[Völkisch nationalism|German ethnic and racial nationalism]].{{Sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1998|pages=50}} While imprisoned, he read and taught Bluntschli's works.{{Sfn|Dusche|2010|page=45}}{{Sfn|Jaffrelot|1999|page=32}}{{Efn|Bluntschli distinguished between a racially superior "principal nation" and a racially inferior "alien nation". This framework appealed to Savarkar, as it allowed him to compensate the British claims of racial superiority, by asserting the racial superiority of an imagined Hindu race against an imagined Muslim race. Adopting Bluntschli's model, Savarkar argued that Hindus constituted the principal nation, while Muslims constituted the alien nation.{{Sfn|Dusche|2010|page=45}}}} Philosopher [[Martha Nussbaum]] has described the pamphlet as a "European product".{{Sfn|Nederman|Shogimen|2009|page=190–191}}

=== Hindu global colonialism ===
{{Blockquote|This definition of Hindutva is compatible with any conceivable expansion of our Hindu people. Let our colonists continue unabated their labours of founding a [[Greater India]], a Mahabharata, to the best of their capacities and contribute all that is best in our civilization to the upbuilding of humanity [...] The only geographical limits to Hindutva are the limits of our earth!{{Sfn|Thobani|2019|pages=745–762}}}}

Savarkar argues that Hindus who had reached distant parts of the world as merchants and traders were colonisers, with the potential to "own a whole country" and "form a separate state". He contends that the process of Hindu colonisation would improve lives on a global scale or, as he puts it, "from Pole to Pole". In his view, Hindus needed not only to unify territorially, a notion that later evolved into the concept of [[Akhand Bharat]], but to colonise parts of the planet in order to establish a Hindu [[World domination|world empire]]. Throughout the pamphlet, he uses the terms "Hindu nation" and "Hindu empire" interchangeably.{{Sfn|Chaturvedi|2022|pages=122–123}}

=== Conflict of life and death ===
Savarkar wrote that a "conflict of life and death" had ensued ever since [[Mahmud of Ghazni]] of the [[Ghaznavid Empire]] crossed the [[Indus River]] into the [[Indian subcontinent]] in 11th century CE, and that this prolonged conflict made Hindus "intensely conscious of ourselves as Hindus and were welded into a nation". According to journalist Dhirendra K. Jha, Savarkar's pamphlet sought to channel the dominant [[Indian independence movement|anti-British sentiment]] of Hindus into [[Violence against Muslims in India|anti-Muslim]] action by portraying Hindus chiefly in opposition to Muslims, drawing on the British Raj's colonial policy of '[[Divide and conquer#British India|divide and conquer]]'.{{Sfn|Jha|2024|pages=43–44}}{{Sfn|Jha|2022|pages=21–22}}

== References ==
=== Explanatory notes ===
{{Notelist}}

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite journal |first=Janaki |last=Bakhle |year=2010 |title=Country First?: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883–1966) and the Writing of Essentials of Hindutva |journal=[[Public Culture]] |volume=22 |issue=1 |doi=10.1215/08992363-2009-020}}
* {{Cite book |first=Janaki |last=Bakhle |year=2024 |title=Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691250366 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KwbOEAAAQBAJ }}
* {{Cite book |first=Manisha |last=Basu |year=2017 |title=The Rhetoric of Hindu India: Language and Urban Nationalism |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107149878 |url=https://archive.org/details/rhetoricofhindui0000basu/ |via=archive.org |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite journal |first=Vinayak |last=Chaturvedi |title=A revolutionary's biography: the case of V D Savarkar |journal=Postcolonial Studies |volume=16 |number=2 |year=2013 |pages=124–139 |doi=10.1080/13688790.2013.823257}}
** {{Cite book |first=Vinayak |last=Chaturvedi |chapter=A revolutionary's biography: the case of V D Savarkar |editor1=Kama Maclean |editor2=J. Daniel Elam |title=Revolutionary Lives in South Asia: Acts and Afterlives of Anticolonial Political Action |publisher=Routledge |year=2015 |isbn=9781138379374 |url=https://www.routledge.com/Revolutionary-Lives-in-South-Asia-Acts-and-Afterlives-of-Anticolonial-Political-Action/Maclean-Elam/p/book/9781138379374 |url-access=subscription}}
* {{Cite book |first=Vinayak |last=Chaturvedi |year=2022 |title=Hindutva and Violence: V. D. Savarkar and the Politics of History |publisher=[[SUNY Press]] |isbn=9781438488783 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oiRbEAAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite journal |first=Michael |last=Dusche |year=2010 |title=Origins of Ethnic Nationalism in Germany and Repercussions in India |journal=[[Economic and Political Weekly]] |volume=45 |issue=2 2 |jstor=27807077}}
* {{Cite book |first=Robert E. |last=Frykenberg |author-link=Robert Eric Frykenberg |chapter=Hindutva as a Political Religion: An Historical Perspective |editor1=Roger Griffin |editor1-link=Roger Griffin |editor2=Robert Mallett |editor3=John Tortorice |title=The Sacred in Twentieth-Century Politics: Essays in Honour of Professor Stanley G. Payne |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2008 |isbn=9780230537743 |doi=10.1057/9780230241633_10 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGOHDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA178 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGOHDAAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite book |first=Nicholas |last=Goodrick-Clarke |author-link=Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke |title=Hitler's Priestess: Savitri Devi, the Hindu-Aryan Myth, and Neo-Nazism |publisher=New York University Press |year=1998 |isbn=9780814731109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5_ETCgAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite book |first=Christophe |last=Jaffrelot |author-link=Christophe Jaffrelot |year=1999 |title=The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s |publisher=C. Hurst & Company |isbn=9780140246025 |url=https://books.google.com/books/edition/The_Hindu_Nationalist_Movement_and_India/iVsfVOTUnYEC}}
* {{Cite book |first=Christophe |last=Jaffrelot |author-link=Christophe Jaffrelot |year=2021 |title=Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691223094 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-fuUEAAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite book |first=Dhirendra K. |last=Jha |year=2024 |title=Golwalkar: The Myth Behind the Man, The Man Behind the Machine |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=9788197949241 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2W4lEQAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite book |first=Dhirendra K. |last=Jha |year=2022 |title=Gandhi's Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India |publisher=Penguin Random House |isbn=9789354921681 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dW2cEAAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite journal |first=Ashis |last=Nandy |author-link=Ashis Nandy |year=2014 |title=A Disowned Father of the Nation in India: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and the Demonic and the Seductive in Indian Nationalism |journal=[[Inter-Asia Cultural Studies]] |volume=15 |issue=1 |doi=10.1080/14649373.2014.882087}}
* {{Cite book |first1=Cary J. |last1=Nederman |first2=Takashi |last2=Shogimen |year=2009 |title=Western Political Thought in Dialogue with Asia |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9780739123782 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pA-rf_aqQ6oC}}
* {{Cite book |first=Joshua |last=Samuel |year=2020 |title=Untouchable Bodies, Resistance, and Liberation |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn=9789004420052 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LRfUDwAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite journal |first=Satadru |last=Sen |year=2015 |title=Fascism Without Fascists? A Comparative Look at Hindutva and Zionism |journal=South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies |volume=38 |issue=4 |doi=10.1080/00856401.2015.1077924}}
* {{Cite journal |first=Sitara |last=Thobani |year=2019 |title=Alt-Right with the Hindu-Right: Long-Distance Nationalism and the Perfection of Hindutva |journal=[[Ethnic and Racial Studies]] |volume=42 |issue=5 |doi=10.1080/01419870.2018.1468567}}
* {{Cite book |first=Bob |last=van der Linden |year=2024 |title=Romantic Nationalism in India: Cultivation of Culture and the Global Circulation of Ideas |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn=9789004694804 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z04HEQAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite book |first=George |last=van Driem |author-link=George van Driem |year=2021 |title=Ethnolinguistic Prehistory: The Peopling of the World from the Perspective of Language, Genes and Material Culture |publisher=Brill Publishers |isbn=9789004448377 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6EswEAAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite journal |first=Benjamin |last=Zachariah |year=2015 |title=Global Fascisms and the Volk: The Framing of Narratives and the Crossing of Lines |journal=South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies |volume=38 |issue=4 |doi=10.1080/00856401.2015.1080404}}
* {{Cite book |first=Chetan |last=Bhatt |year=2020 |title=Hindu Nationalism: Origins, Ideologies and Modern Myths |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781000184228 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-0MHEAAAQBAJ}}
* {{Cite journal |first=Ayan |last=Guha |year=2024 |title=Hindu Nationalism and the Converging, Diverging and Intersecting Identities of Caste and Race in India: Dialogue, Dilemma and Discourse |journal=[[Journal of Asian and African Studies]] |volume=60 |issue=8 |doi=10.1177/00219096241275409|doi-access=free }}
* {{Cite journal |first=Mukti |last=Lakhi Mangharam |year=2025 |title=Decolonizing Decolonization: Undoing Ethno-Nationalist Conceptions of "Indigeneity" |journal=Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory |volume=36 |issue=2 |doi=10.1080/10436928.2025.2516394}}
* {{Cite journal |first=Ratna |last=Kapur |author-link=Ratna Kapur |year=2022 |title=Race-making, religion and rights in the post-colony: unmasking the pathogen in assembling a Hindu nation |journal=International Journal of Law in Context |volume=18 |issue=4 |doi=10.1017/S1744552322000155}}
* {{Cite journal |first=Zaheer |last=Baber |year=2021 |title='Race might be a unicorn, but its horn could draw blood': Racialisation, Class and Racism in a Non-Western Context |journal=[[Critical Sociology (journal)|Critical Sociology]] |volume=48 |issue=1 |doi=10.1177/0896920521992093}}
* {{Cite book |first=Sayan |last=Das |chapter=Colonial Census and Saffron Demography: The Shaping of Numerical Communities and Contestations in India |editor1=Sarah Bracke |editor2=Luis Manuel Hernández Aguilar |year=2023 |title=The Politics of Replacement: Demographic Fears, Conspiracy Theories, and Race Wars |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |isbn=9781003813095 |url=https://www.routledge.com/The-Politics-of-Replacement-Demographic-Fears-Conspiracy-Theories-and-Race-Wars/Bracke-HernandezAguilar/p/book/9781032304069 |url-access=subscription}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
* [https://archive.org/details/hindutva1923 1923 edition] at the Internet Archive
* [https://archive.org/details/hindutva-vinayak-damodar-savarkar-pdf 1969 edition] at the Internet Archive

{{Subject bar |portal1=India |portal2=Politics |portal3=Conservatism |portal4=Books}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Essentials of Hindutva}}
[[Category:Hindutva]]
[[Category:Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]]
[[Category:Pamphlets]]
[[Category:1923 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:1923 in politics]]
[[Category:1923 in India]]
[[Category:Fascism in India]]
[[Category:Far-right politics in India]]
[[Category:Prison writings]]
[[Category:Political manifestos]]

Essentials of Hindutva - Revision history

Coolblack5 at 10:23, 8 May 2026