Hindu Nationalism
Since the end of the 1980s, Hindu nationalism has emerged as a major political force in India. Although it had played only a marginal role in Indian politics for many decades, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party, or BJP) succeeded in gaining more and more votes during the various national elections from 1989 on, ultimately forming the central government of India as leader of a multiparty coalition in 1998. For the first time in the history of modern India, Hindu nationalists had come to power at the national level. Parallel to the growing support for the BJP, the Congress Party lost its former ideological and political hegemony and now finds itself in the role of an opposition party. However, the Hindu nationalists' gradual accession to power was also marked by a high level of militancy, at its worst on 6 December 1992, when Hindu fanatics destroyed the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya and subsequent riots left more than one thousand people dead and many others injured.
History
The origins of Hindu nationalism can be traced back to the 1920s and even further to 1875, when the neo-Hindu organization Arya Samaj (Society of Aryans) was founded by Dayanand Saraswati.
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