Nationalist Fluctuations: from Gandhian Ethics to Hindu Nationalism in the Political Trajectory of Vallabhbhai Patel

Abstract

This article explores Gandhi’s philosophy and methods of political struggle through the prism of their perception and appropriation by Vallabhbhai Patel, a key disciple of Gandhi and an influential political leader in the nationalist struggle for Indian independence. By means of a systematic and nuanced analysis of Patel’s political career, it highlights how Gandhi’s ideas, premised on a politics governed by the moral and the ethical, lent themselves to distinct and contradictory deployments. The blending of the religious and the political in Gandhi’s thought and its particular adaptation by the discourse of Hindu (cultural) nationalism enabled Vallabhbhai to move from Gandhian nationalism to a Hindu nationalism that was hostile to minorities. The career of Vallabhbhai underscores the intimate links between anti-colonial nationalism and militant Hindu nationalism that coexisted in the same context, and induced a culture of social polarization still prevalent in the ways of political mobilization.