Indian Hindutva   and Italian Fascism: A Critical Appraisal

Ayub Rehman; Dr. Amir Ullah Khan; Syed Naeem Badshah

Ayub Rehman Department of Political Science, Islamia College, Peshawar
Dr. Amir Ullah Khan Associate Professor & Chairman, Department of Political Science, Islamia College, Peshawar; Email:
Syed Naeem Badshah Chairman,Department of Islamic Studies, The University of Agriculture Peshawar

Keywords: Fascism, Hindutva, Nationalism, Savakar

Abstract

In post WWI, the wave of nationalism had influenced many European countries particularly Italy and Germany. The Italian fascism and German Fascism emerged as the most influential nationalist policies. Other parts of the world also came under the influence of nationalism. In the Indian subcontinent, the rise of political struggle against British imperialism was started. There were different political groups or parties started that their political struggle. One of them was the rise of Hindu nationalism based on the ideology of Hindutva. Hindutva was wholly influenced by Italy and German Fascists. This was the reason that the founder of Hindutva, V. D. Savarkar systematized his ideology due to the influence of Italian fascism. Due to such influence, both Hindutva and fascism have similar and distinctive features. This paper has mainly focused on the comparative study of both the Hindutva and fascism based upon qualitative approach.