ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a particular reading of muscular nationalism that fuses the concept of a Hindu India with armed masculinity. It delineates the evolution of the ideology of muscular Hindu nationalism by discussing the ideas of one of the most revered thinkers of this ideology, V.D. Savarkar, and then moving on to trace the genealogy of this ideology as it unfolds in a globalizing modern India. The brave warriors of Savarkar’s story strove to protect a powerful nation, worthy of their loyalty. Founded in 1925 by Dr Hedgewar, the RSS remains a dominant advocate of this perspective, efficiently disseminating its ideology through local centres of activity known as shakhas. It is worth mentioning that this unfolding of Hindu muscular nationalism has in the years since 1991 existed in an interesting tension with a particular masculinized nationalist triumphalism that has emerged in a globalizing India.
