Presenting the Past

S. P. Udayakumar directs the South Asian Community Center for Education and Research (SACCER) at Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, India.

"Endorsement From Joseph E. Schwartzberg Professor Emeritus University of Minnesota: Rewriting the history of India to promote the fundamentalist Hindu nationalist agenda has been a major project of the so-called Sangh Parivar, a still potent collectivity of exclusivist political, social and cultural entities that flourished under the aegis of India's recently deposed BJP-led government. In this trenchant and salutary work, S.P. Udayakumar exposes the methods employed by the revisionists and demonstrates their remarkable similarity to those developed so effectively under the European Fascist and Nazi regimes more than half a century ago. Endorsement From Johan Galtung Professor of Peace Studies Director, TRANSCEND Rector, TRANSCEND Peacre University: Presenting the Past has two very basic ramifications. The BJP-led government in Delhi was substituting Nehruvian secularism with its virulent Hindutva, a fundamentalist ideology that put Muslims and other minorities in India on a collision course with the "Hindus." It also sought to replace another Nehruvian principle, Non-alignment, and create a sort of Asian NATO with the United States against China. If the reader wants to know the background, this is the best book."

• Preface Abbreviations Introduction Rambhakts: Defining 'Us' and Depicting "Our Story" Ramayana: Historicizing Myth and Mythologizing History Ramarajya: Envisioning the Future and Entrenching the Past Ramjanmabhumi: Hinduizing Politics and Militarizing Hindudom Ramraksha: Ram-ifying the Society and Modi-fying the State Conclusions Glossary Selected Bibliography About the Author