Culturalism and contemporary right - Indian bourgeoisie and political Hindutva

The formation of a Hindu nationalist government in May 1998 at the crest of hindutva's recent electoral surge clearly testifies to the increasingly au thoritarian urges of India's ruling class. Hindutva's chances of holding st ate power more securely lie in a more complete hegemonisation of this now o verwhelmingly capitalist class. Hindutva pursues this political aim in part by adapting its hitherto excessively shrill and narrowly petty bourgeois i deology to the mort settled. nature, proclivities and imperatives of the ru ling class. To this end it commands the resources of contemporary culturali sm and neo-Gandhian discourse, must be seen as part of this broader effort to change and update hindutva.