India, Dec. 22 -- Mahatma Gandhi was never a comfortable figure for the Narendra Modi-led government. His name is invoked, his spectacles are displayed, his statues are garlanded across continents, but his ideas sit uneasily with the ideology that governs the present dispensation. That ideology is Hindutva, far removed from Gandhism.

Hindutva is a political-cultural ideology that seeks to define India primarily as a Hindu nation. It views national identity through a religious lens, emphasising cultural homogeneity, majoritarian values and historical grievance, often blurring the line between faith, culture and state power.

The term itself was coined by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, whose ideas continue to influence the ruling establishment....