S/P/88. Is the rise of Hindu nationalism in India primarily a product of the rise of a consuming middle class from the 1980s?

The essay examines the causes of the rise of the Hindu nationalist movement in India and especially the effects of a growing middle class upon it. It argues that the rise of the middle classes in India’s ‘consumer revolution’ provided the catalyst for the growing strength of Hindu nationalism. However, whilst their growth was crucial for the current position of power the movement possesses, this power was also contingent on a number of important background factors being in place. Had the ‘Sangh parivar’ not been well institutionalised and the Congress party not disintegrated, leaving an authority vacuum in the late 80s, the Hindutva movement may have taken longer to bear fruit. The importance of these background factors is discussed and explained in detail.