411 REFERENCE · Wiktionary
Hindutva
Reference material by Wiktionary contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
English
Etymology
en hi हिंदुत्व / en bn হিন্দুত্ব Hinduness 1. en Bankim Chandra Chatterjee 1 in its literal sense, in his novel Anandamath, published in 1882.
The term was popularised by Chatterjee's friend Chandranath Basu in his magnum opus titled "Hindutva : Hindur Prakrita Itihaas", published in 1892.
It was later appropriated and popularised in its modern political sense by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in his political pamphlet titled "Hindutva : Who is a Hindu?", published in 1923.
Pronunciation
en /hɪnˈdʊtvə/ RP
en /hinˈdətvə/ /hɪnˈdətvə/ GA
en LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sumxr-Hindutva.wav US
Proper noun
The state or quality of being Hindu
en politics The ideology of Hindu nationalism
en 2016 w:Sunil Khilnani Incarnations Penguin 284 In India, too, people now wish to bring that argument to a close: to replace the ruckus of politics with the moralized ideology of Hindutva.
en Ross Douthat Yes, There Is a Clash of Civilizations The New York Times 2022-03-30 https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/opinion/ukraine-clash-of-civilizations.html 0362-4331 China’s one-party meritocracy, Putin’s uncrowned czardom, the post-Arab Spring triumph of dictatorship and monarchy over religious populism in the Middle East, the Hindutva populism transforming Indian democracy — these aren’t just all indistinguishable forms of “autocracy,” but culturally distinctive developments that fit well with Huntington’s typology, his assumption that specific civilizational inheritances would manifest themselves as Western power diminishes, as American might recedes. https://web.archive.org/web/20251023053704/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/opinion/ukraine-clash-of-civilizations.html 23 October 2025
Derived terms
en Hindutvist H-pop
Related terms
en Hindutvavadi
en Hinduness
Translations
Arabic: ar الهِنْدُوتْفَا f, ar القَوْمِيَّةُ الهِنْدُوسِيَّة f
Bengali: bn হিন্দুত্ব
Chinese:
Mandarin: cmn 印度教特性 yìndùjiào tèxìng, cmn 印度教民族主義 yìndùjiào mínzú zhǔyì
Gujarati: gu હિંદુત્વ n
Hindi: hi हिंदुत्व m
Japanese: ja ヒンドゥトヴァ hindutova, ja ヒンドゥー国民主義 hindū kokumin shugi
Korean: ko 힌두트바, ko 힌두 민족주의
Sanskrit: sa हिन्दुत्व n हिन्दुत्वम्, sa सनातनत्व n सनातनत्वम् pure
Urdu: ur ہِنْدُوتوا m
See also
en saffronization
en Hindudom
en Hindu Rashtra
en bhagwa, en chaddi, en sanghi, en bhakt (terms for Hindutva supporters, often used derogatorily & pejoratively)
en swayamsevak (a member of RSS, a Hindutva paramilitary organisation)
Noun
en informal A member of a Hindutva group or a supporter of Hindutva.
en Conservatism Hinduism Nationalism Indian politics Hindutva Ideologies