The Encyclopedia of World Religions

fundamentalism, Islamic S 165

the aftermath, anti-Muslim fervor led to massacres in other parts of India. The envisioned temple to Rama has yet to be built. The latest outbreak of violence occurred in 2002. On February 27 a train carrying volunteer workers returning from Ayodhya was attacked at the train station in Godhra, Gujarat. Over 50 vol unteers were trapped in a train car and burned to death, presumably by Muslims opposed to Hin dutva programs. In the ensuing riots, more than 500 people were killed throughout Gujarat, most of them Muslims. Hindu fundamentalists have seen the Septem ber 11, 2001, attacks on the United States in terms of their own struggles. For example, one official spokesperson for the VHP in the United States has equated the Hindu fundamentalist struggle against Islam and the U.S. “war on terror” as two parts of the same struggle of civilization versus barbarity and democracy versus tyranny. Further reading: Ainslie T. Embree, Utopias in Conflict: Religion and Nationalism in Modern India (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990); Gerald James Larson, India’s Agony over Religion (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995); David Ludden, ed., Making India Hindu: Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India, 2d ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005); Khushwant Singh, The End of India (New Delhi, India: Penguin Books, 2003). fundamentalism, Islamic A common term for movements today that seek to revitalize I SLAM and return to stricter observance of Islamic practices. Especially because of the attacks of September 11, 2001, and suicide bombings directed against Israe lis in the Middle East, many outsiders associate Islamic fundamentalism with terrorism and vio lence. That is not only true of people in the United States and Israel. Many Hindus, too, see themselves as engaged in a struggle against Muslim attempts to destroy their heritage ( see FUNDAMENTALISM , H INDU ). Only some Islamic fundamentalist groups, however, have engaged in terrorism and violence.

B UDDHISM , J AINISM , and S IKHISM . It also takes an active interest in projects for social benefit, such as medical relief and education. The VHP sees main stream, secular society as antagonistic to Hindu ism and Hindu causes. It also sees Hinduism as under attack by Islam; some VHP members feel threatened by the fact that Muslims are reproduc ing at a greater rate than Hindus. The third Hindutva group is a political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party) or BJP. A successor to an earlier party known as the Jana Sangh, the BJP was formed in 1980 through the efforts of RSS members. It rose to prominence in the late 1980s as a result of Hindutva agitation, and it ruled India several times during the 1990s and early 2000s. When it fell from power in June 2004, some partisans of the Hindutva movement criticized its policies as having been too moderate or even anti-Hindu. Hindu fundamentalists reject the example of Mohandas Gandhi and the ideal of a secular state enshrined in India’s constitution. They see Paki stan and Bangladesh as rightfully parts of India and hold Gandhi responsible for their loss. They also see secularism as violating India’s traditional culture and pandering to its enemies. These funda mentalists have attacked Indian Christians, as they did in tribal areas of Gujarat in western India in 1999. But the main object of Hindutva antagonism has been Muslims. A single symbol has served to focus Hindutva anti-Muslim sentiment: the supposed birthplace of R AMA , an AVATAR of V ISHNU , at Ayodhya. Since the 1500s the place had been the site of a mosque known as the Babri Masjid. Hindutva support ers claim that the mosque was built on top of a destroyed temple, and they consider the mosque a symbol of what Muslims want to do to all of Hindu culture. In the late 1980s the leader of the BJP, L. K. Advani, toured India lobbying for the demolition of the mosque and the building of a temple. The VHP gathered bricks donated from Hindus throughout the world to use in building the new temple. Although the government promised to protect the mosque, on December 6, 1992, mobs broke through the barriers and demolished it. In