Reconfiguring nationalism: Transnational entanglements of Hindutva and radical right ideology

Abstract

This dissertation explores a minority within the Indian diaspora who support the radical right in the West. It highlights the Brexit referendum and Trump’s election in 2016 as manifestations of the radical right, which provided an opportunity to merge the ideology of Hindutva (or Hindu nationalism) with these phenomena. This dissertation traces the historical origins and growth of Hindutva in India, its reformulation with the diaspora in the UK and US, and its convergence with the Brexit and Trump campaigns. It engages with scholarship in nationalism studies, as well as diaspora and radical right literature, focusing on the conceptual overlaps between these fields. Over the course of five articles, it combines a genealogical approach, online-based methodologies, and semi-structured interviews in order to demonstrate that Hindutva and radical right ideology are operationalised at multiple scales and sites. This dissertation finds that transnational entanglements between Hindutva and the Western radical right results in an ideological hybridity, in which exclusionary elements within each are brought forth and merged into a new expression by virtue of the Indian diaspora acting as a bridge between these movements. Such transnational dynamics aim to reinforce and reproduce not competing, but complementary nationalisms. Consequently, the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion in identity making are constantly being redefined within nationalist imaginaries.