Review of Hindu Nationalism and Terrorism in India: The Saffron Threat to Democracy

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Samaj), founded in 1925, is the largest paramilitary volunteer organisation in the world. RSS has a membership of more than 3 million individuals and a dedicated workforce of 6,000 full-time volunteers known as “pracharaks”. In order to promote Hindu nationalism from an early age, it operates over 5,000 primary schools and 2,500 secondary institutions throughout India. In 1980, members of the RSS formed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which became its key offshoot and mainstream source of political power. Leading players in Indian politics, such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, began their careers as RSS activists and remain connected with the organisation. Additionally, it maintains robust connections with the global Indian diaspora (See: Introduction and Chapter 3).

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Notes on contributors

Md. Nazmul Arefin

Md. Nazmul Arefin is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta, Canada. He is a Member of the Decolonial Alliance, Anti-Racism Lab, University of Alberta. His research interests include terrorism and radicalization studies, identity politics, right-wing populism, social justice, Islamophobia, and narrative criminology. He is currently working as a Research Assistant on the National Dorothy Killam Fellowship project titled ‘Beyond Victimization: BIPOC Officials in the Canadian Criminal Justice System’.