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CHRISTOPHE JAFFRELOT (ed.), Hindu Nationalism: A Reader. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. ???, 391 pages, $ 27.95 (pb.). ISBN 978-0691-13098-9
In 2005 Christophe Jaffrelot, the foremost expert on Hindu nationalism, published a collection of seminal essays by scholars dealing with the Hindu nationalist network Sangh Parivar and its various subgroups (The Sangh Parivar. A Reader, Oxford University Press 2005). The present volume Hindu Nationalism: A Reader, which conveniently presents excerpts from more than 30 important Hindu nationalist writings, pamphlets, election manifestos and resolutions, speeches, statements or interviews, will serve as a splendid companion to Jaffrelot's earlier publication. Moreover he now deals with the development of the movement as a whole, from its genesis in British colonial India to the present, including the forerunners like the Hindu reformist Arya Samaj or the more political and radical Hindu Mahasabha.
In Part 2 of Hindu Nationalism, the sources are organized chronologically to highlight the leading personalities and to show the gradual development of a Hindu nationalist ideology, whose elements remain important to this day. By contrast Part 3 focuses on thematic issues. In the introduction (Part 1 ), Jaffrelot notes that he has included only those persons "who have played a role in organized...