Hindutva and how some men's insecurity keeps it going.
-: thread :-

Let's start with the beginning.
In 1925 a disenchanted Congressman from Nagpur launches an organisation for Hindu men called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

By the late 1930s, the RSS is an organised group with its own paramilitary. 

The core of the RSS is the shakha.

the core of the RSS is the shakha, a daily gathering of men from its local chapter who partake in a military-style flag hoisting ceremony,and games such as kabaddi and "Veer Shivaji".

Yeah, you heard that right , the game revolves around the Maratha king fighting Aurangzeb.

Shakha is a daily gathering of testosterone-charged boys and men asserting their manliness over each other through “games” and conditioning their minds to understand and accept the idea of the nation as defined by the founders of the RSS, KB Hedgewar and MS Golwalkar.

This military prepration is a direct response to the idea that the Hindus have faced centuries of humiliation, first at the hands of the invading Muslims and then the British.
Islam was brought to the Indian subcontinent by the Arabs trading with what is now Kerala.

The Umayyads conquered Sindh in 711.
Islam expanded in the subcontinent through multiple invasions in the north and by proselytization in the south.
(The share of Muslim population is low around the principal seats of Muslim political power like Delhi, Lucknow, Ahmadabad...

... Mysore and Bijapur.
On the other hand Muslims form nearly 30% of the Malabar region where they were never really a political power.
Bengal saw large-scale conversion of lower caste Hindus.

Yet the masses are convinced beyond any doubt that it was all "barbaric" muslim invaders subduing the godly hindu rulers.

It didn’t help that British India was divided into two nations, one of which was the theocratic state of Pakistan,
seen by the Hindutva camp as the final dagger into the heart of the “original Hindu inhabitants” of the land.

Although the idea of Hindus and muslims as two separate nations wasn't an entirely muslim construct.
In fact it was first proposed by the very founder of Hindutwa, who prefixed his name with "Veer" (brave, gallant and masculine of course) in his essay 'Hindutva', 1923.

Lala Lajpat Rai, one of the Mahasabha leaders laid out his "scheme" of India's partition, just a year later.
He proposed muslims would get four states - the Pathan province or NFWP, western Punjab, Sindh, eastern Bengal.

This was 16 years before the Muslim league adopted the Pakistan resolution in 1940.

Still the Indian public sees the partition as a loss to Hindus.

Wouldn't it be amusing to imagine how Hindutvadis would've lived with a population of 30% muslims, eh ?

In a seminal essay 'Exiled at Home' Ashis Nandy detailed the masculine notion of Gandhi's assassination.
In Godse's imagination Gandhi impersonated the "Ardhnarishwar"
(a composite, half male, half female deity) ...

... and the broader narrative of history of the subcontinent in which the Hindus had been feminine, unable to resist , unable to protect Mother India.
He desired Hindus to attain the masculinity that the colonial rule and by extension the west represented.

This is the ideal, that Hindutva strives to achieve and it makes its way in the propaganda it designs to serves this purpose.

Among the most successful is "Love Jihad"

Popularised through pamphlets, newspapers much before news channels and consequently social media only worsened the paranoia of the masses,
love jihad rumours don't spare even the obvious non practicing bollywood actors.
last pamphlet even gives the money for eloping , lol.

The propaganda is characterized by over sexualized projection of muslim males and a relatively asexual Hindu male who's tryna protect the "innocent childlike" hindu female from the abusive barbarian.
Goes without saying that it serves to hide his sexual insecurities .

Another thing that characterizes the enlightened hindu psyche is ... envy.
They believe a circumsized penis is more arousing and satisfying.
Jerks... why don't they get it done for themselves ?

Anyways , what defines manliness in Modi's india ?
It shouldn't come as a surprise but Modi is the man of India and for India.
He's the perfect "Raja" who showed the barbarians there place in 2002.
It was the first time state machinery was used to execute a carnage.

Modi too ensured he got the most mileage.
Even turning the accusations against him and his government into a conspiracy on the stats and in the turn the nation.
So that kinda explains even though false but why the 56" chest phrase is so popular.

This movement that reached its zenith around modi had been a century in the making.
It was fuelled by a deep sense of anguish over being bested by Non Hindu men.
Modi was the right man at the right time.

Hindutva views women in a binary, either they are to be worshipped, or demonised and stripped of their identity.

The idea of winning over subjugated Kashmiri women conflicts how they oppose interfaith marriages.

This indicates how much repressed the hindu masculinity gets in front of a "barbarian".

The anger is deviated in hope of raping "sullis" one day.

If you notice the iconography used by Hindu nationalists online, particularly their display pictures the angry Hanuman , sketched by Karan Acharya seems to be the most popular.
You'll notice similar aggressive masculine images of Shiva or some legendary warrior.

This is because of two reasons.
One, it expresses the anger and all that insecurity stuff you've read this far.
Secondly, when they go online and face the image India has globally it gives them the one thing they take pride in , being part of the Hindutva horde.

-: Links :-
https://www.newslaundry.com/2020/01/14/upper-caste-hindu-masculinity-hindutva-modi-gujarat-riots-rss

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/17/the-crisis-in-modern-masculinity

https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/hindutva-the-growth-of-violent-hindu-nationalism/217969

https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/patriarchy-in-garb-of-patriotism-desperate-men-rush-to-find-kashmiri-girls-after-article-370-is-revoked-2260371.html