RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS AND POLITICAL MOBILIZATION 65 It is clear that their (Muslims and Christians) original Hindu blood is thus almost unaffected by an alien adulteration, yet they cannot be called Hindus in the sense in which that term is actually understood, because, we Hindus are bound together not only by the tie of the love we bear to a common fatherland and by the common blood that courses through our veins and keeps our hearts throbbing and our affections warm, but also by the tie of the common homage we pay to our great civilization—our Hindu culture, which could not be better rendered than by the word sanskritiy which has been the chosen means of expression and preservation of the culture, of all that was best and worth preserving in the history of our race. We are one because we are a nation, a race and own a common sanskriti (civilization).6 The sangh parivar's concept of cultural nationalism thus had its origins in Savarkar which was elaborated by Guru Golwalker in his book entitled. We or Our Nationhood Defined in 1939 7 Arguing that in India culture and religion are synonymous, Colwalker had sought to establish a connection between culture, religion and nation. He had asserted that 'in Hindustan, the land of the Hindu, lives and should live the Hindu nation ... consequently only those movements are truely 'national* as aim at rebuilding, revitalizing and emancipating from its present stupor the Hindu nation'.8 Golwalker's idea of the assertion of 'Indian nationalism', was not limited to a Hindu awakening; it also meant a subordination, even extermination, of non-Hindus. His attitude towards non Hindus was: The foreign races in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture i.e. of the Hindu nation and must loose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment—not even citizen's rights.9 Abjuring thus the philosophy of universalism and respect for other religions which Hinduism had developed over centuries, Golwalker tried to conceptualise a Hindu Rastra based on Hindu solidarity on the one hand and hatred of non-Hindus on the other. Despite the distinction made by K.R. Malkani, a BJP ideologue, between Hindu state and Hindu country,10 the sangh parivar's political programme and goals are clearly inspired by Golwalker's ideas. According to Ashok Singhal, the President of the VHP, 'A lasting government will be a Hindu government. If people do not like it, they can go to the country of their choice. Otherwise they must live at the mercy of the Hindus.t9A They have, during the last few years, pursued the