Hindu MahasabhaAkhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (All-India Hindu Grand Assembly) is a Hindu nationalist political party in India. Founded in 1915, the Mahasabha functioned mainly as a pressure group advocating the interests of orthodox Hindus before the British Raj and within the Indian National Congress. In the 1930s, it emerged as a distinct party under the leadership of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who developed the Hindutva ("Hinduness") and became a fierce opponent of the secular nationalism espoused by the Congress.
Narendra ModiNarendra Damodardas Modi (ˈnəɾendɾə dɑmodəɾˈdɑs ˈmodiː; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician who has served as the 14th Prime Minister of India since May 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is the longest-serving prime minister from outside the Indian National Congress.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak SanghThe Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( (); , raːʂˈʈriːj(ə) swəjəmˈseːʋək səŋɡɦ, National Volunteer Organisation) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family"), which has developed a presence in all facets of Indian society and includes the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling political party under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The present Sarsanghchalak of the RSS is Mohan Bhagwat.
Hindu nationalismHindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent. "Hindu nationalism" is a simplistic translation of हिन्दू राष्ट्रवाद (IAST: Hindū rāṣṭravāda). It is better described as "Hindu polity". The native thought streams became highly relevant in Indian history when they helped form a distinctive identity in relation to the Indian polity and provided a basis for questioning colonialism.
HindutvaHindutva (Hindu-ness) is a political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. The political ideology was formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1922. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar.
Babri MasjidBabri Masjid (IAST: Bābarī Masjid; meaning Mosque of Babur) was a mosque in Ayodhya, India, at a site believed by many Hindus to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Rama. It has been a focus of dispute between the Hindu and Muslim communities since the 18th century. According to the mosque's inscriptions, it was built in 1528–29 (935 AH) by Mir Baqi, a general of the Mughal emperor Babur. The mosque was attacked and demolished by a Hindu nationalist mob in 1992, which ignited communal violence across the Indian subcontinent.
DalitDalit (from dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming a fifth varna, also known by the name of Panchama. Dalits predominantly follow Hinduism, with significant populations of the adherents of Buddhism, Sikhism, Christianity, and Islam. Scheduled Castes is the official term for Dalits, who get reservation under Positive discrimination, as per the constitution of India.
