hindutva means hindudom. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 83 out of 100.
hindutva is pronounced /hɪnˈdʊtvə/.
Why “hindutva” is a great word
A political ideology defining the Indian nation as fundamentally unified by a shared Hindu cultural, ethnic, and civilizational essence. Its name derives from Hindi हिंदुत्व (hindutva), from Hindu (referring to the people and culture of the Indian subcontinent) + the Sanskrit abstract noun suffix -tva (denoting state or quality), thus literally 'Hinduness' or 'state of being Hindu'. Coined in 1892 by Chandranath Basu and later appropriated and defined politically by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the 1920s. Unlike 'Hinduism'—the ancient, sprawling tapestry of religious and philosophical traditions—or 'secularism'—the principle of state neutrality toward all faiths—Hindutva is a programmatic assertion of majoritarian identity as the bedrock of the state. It is the saffron flag flown over a public square, the textbook revised to chronicle a singular historical narrative, and the legal argument redefining citizenship by ancestral faith. It translates a civilization’s depth into a border, and devotion into a demand for sovereignty.
Etymology
Transliteration of Hindi हिंदुत्व (hindutva) / Bengali হিন্দুত্ব (hindutto, literally “Hinduness”). Coined by Chandranath Basu in 1892 and appropriated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
name
- Hindudom.
- Hindu Rashtra.
- The state or quality of being Hindu
- The ideology of Hindu nationalism.“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.”
noun
- A member of a Hindutva group or a supporter of Hindutva.