From Extremism to Terrorism: Threat Implications of Saffron Terrorism for South Asia

The Indian Sub-Continent had two majority religions practiced known as Islam and Hindu, for this the two major ethnicities (Muslims and Hindu’s) got independence in the year 1947. The Muslim state that was formed is known as Pakistan and the Hindu state that was formed is called India. Mahatma Gandhi declared that India would be a secular state where all religions will be allowed to practice. However, Rashtriya Swamyamsevak Sangh (RSS) was formed in the year 1925 where the main aim of the party was to have one identity known as Hindu and followed the ideology of Hindutva, It was impossible as India had many different ethnicities in the state, for this the party formed its political (Bhartiya Janata Party) and social wings (Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena etc). Since 2001 Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) came in power in Gujrat under Narendra Modi the social wing (VHP) started to target Muslim Mosques and even used communal violence as a tool to exploit Muslims due to which Gujrat was known as an Experimental lab where Muslims were targeted economic and socially. The brutality didn’t stop as Bhartiya Janata party under Narendra Modi used religion to gain votes and in 2014. However, the extremist ideology became an organized terrorism when Narendra Modi was elected as a Prime Minister of India since then under the ideology of Hindutva. Hindutva is not restricted to India only it has started to become a huge threat for different states in South Asian