ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 analyzes how Hindu nationalist movements for women’s equality and empowerment actually reify the Hindutva gender dynamics and ideals of masculine nationhood. It begins with a brief historical overview of nationalist rhetoric regarding women, comparing Savarkar’s and Gandhi’s approaches. Consideration is then given to how the BJP has presented their campaigns of Nari Shakti over the years and how such organizations articulate women’s equality and envision women’s roles in the nation. Chapter 6 concludes with some hashtag campaigns which directly challenge religiously informed nationalist agendas (#HappyToBleed, the 2016 campaign against menstrual taboos, and #AintNoCinderella, the 2017 campaign for women’s right to be out at night). This opens up a discussion for rape threats online and how such digital violence affects discourse and reifies tropes of masculinity in Hindu nationalism.
