ABSTRACT
The ‘long distance nationalism’ of diasporas is generally attributed to the nostalgia of these communities for their original homeland. Benedict Anderson, who coined this expression, even suggested that a nearly automatic allegiance binds members of an ethnic diaspora to its homeland (Anderson 1998: 74). However, the context of the host society often plays a crucial role in the birth of such nationalisms. The specific combination of multiculturalism and racism that can be found in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada has been particularly conducive to this form of identity politics: it has not only made it possible – or even legitimate – but it has also fostered this form of ethnic mobilisation. Yet such an approach still ignores the impact of ideology-driven move-
ments which are usually based in the mother-country but whose networks spread over vast territories. The Hindu nationalist movement illustrates this. Its activities outside India have only recently been brought to light in the wake of the 2002 events in Gujarat, although the Sangh Parivar (the ‘family’ of Hindu nationalist organisations) had been developing several of its offshoots abroad for over thirty years. But far from being a product of nostalgia, Hindu nationalism in the West is a carefully crafted graft first developed in the motherland and then methodically spread around the world to serve ideological and strategic purposes. The careful engineering of the global presence of the RSS thus sheds a new light on the dynamics of long-distance nationalism.
