Representative Democracy and Religious Thought in South Asia

What role did popular enthusiasm about democratic participation in the early twentieth century play in the ideas of two key religious revivalists in South Asia: Abul A‘la Maududi and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar? This chapter lays out the differently inflected visions of the two thinkers to argue that they were both working through new conceptions of religion and society, which crystallized around the mythical entity “the people.” How to recognize and organize the people who form the constituency as well as the legislators of a democratic polity was the challenge they tackled. They differed sharply in their analysis of nationalism as the glue that held “the people” together, and in their resistance to prevailing European theories of nationalism and representative government. Despite many differences, the two thinkers were united in an enthusiasm for democratic politics. Understanding the political manifestations of their ideas today requires a reckoning with their respective visions of democracy.