M.S. Golwalkar, The RSS and India – By Jyotirmaya Sharma (Author)

Unpack the foundational ideology shaping India’s contemporary political landscape with a precise, clinical dissection of its most influential architect. In M.S. Golwalkar, The RSS and India, renowned political scientist Jyotirmaya Sharma delivers a vital intellectual critique of Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar (1906–1973), the second sarsanghchalak (supreme guide) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Though Golwalkar was not the organization's founder, he headed it for thirty-three years, single-handedly casting it in his own image. To this day, his ideas remain the ultimate ideological bedrock for the entire network of Hindu nationalist organizations, including India's ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Rather than a standard biography, this screen-free academic work focuses directly on the core arguments, speeches, and extensive writings left behind by Golwalkar. Sharma methodically uncovers the intellectual roots of modern Hindutva, demonstrating how heavily its concepts borrow from Western eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Indologists, while drawing stark, unsettling parallels to mid-twentieth-century European fascist ideology. Published by Westland, this concise but crucial volume lays bare the internal contradictions, systemic exclusions, and historical misunderstandings of faith that underpin the push for a monocultural nation-state. It is an essential, highly scannable roadmap for anyone seeking to look past daily political rhetoric and understand the deep-seated ideological mechanics driving India's current socio-political transformation.

Rather than letting its complex historical linkages and political theories blur into a dense wall of text, M.S. Golwalkar, The RSS and India organizes its critical analysis into four distinct, scannable dimensions: