By: Partha S. Ghosh *[Partha Ghosh retired as professor at JNU.]* Published in: The Wire Date: May 6, 2026 Source: https://thewire.in/communalism/bengal-was-the-first-breeding-ground-of-hindu-nationalism-and-the-idea-of-hindutva-originated-there *Note*: Please access the source to read the antire article.
"The question now is: Is Hindu nationalism which had started in Bengal in the second half of the nineteenth century coming full circle? It may be underlined that Bengal was the first breeding ground of Hindu nationalism. Even the idea of Hindutva originated there. It was not Vinayak Damodar Savarkar who had invented the word through his 1949 book Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? Which is commonly believed. The idea was developed by a Bengali, Chandranath Basu (1844-1919). He wrote a book in Bengali in 1892 called: *Hindutva: Hindur Prakita Itihas *(the true history of the Hindus). Even much prior to that, in 1858, another Bengali, Tarinicharan Chattopadhyay, had written *Bharatbarsher Itihas* (the history of India), which was out-and-out a Hindu chauvinistic-nationalistic statement spouting venom at everything Muslim."
