What is it about?
This article analyses the tension between human rights (including secularism) and Hindutva, the Hindu nationalists’ discourse. Particular focus is put on women’s rights and the right to freedom of expression and dissent in India using the film Water and the controversy associated with it in the north Indian district of Varanasi in 2000. Firstly, the relation between human rights, secularism and Hindutva/Hindu nationalism is discussed conceptually. This is followed by a discussion of the narratives of Hindutva’s followers in Varanasi and their involvement in the controversy surrounding the film Water. Extracts from interviews of Hindu nationalists are included to illustrate this tension. The article concludes by claiming that Hindutva is an antithetical to secularism and human rights.
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Why is it important?
To know how hegemonic Hindu nationalism and religion has dismantled the secular democracy of India.
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Human rights and secularism in conflict with Hindutva: the Water controversy, Antropologia Portuguesa, December 2023, Coimbra University Press,
DOI: 10.14195/2182-7982_40_3.
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