Self - schooled in the history of European nationalism — especially as championed by Giuseppe Mazzini in Italy — Savarkar sought to give expression to
a broad cultural ideology that could challenge the British Raj, counter Western influence more generally, and provide intellectual defenses against Muslim beliefs and the allegedly culture - destroying work of Christian missionaries.
Hindutva's defenders insist that, although reflective of Hindu belief and practice, theirs is in fact a
broader «
cultural» or «civilizational»
ideology and should be viewed alongside other
ideologies such as socialism and communism.