The Spread of Hindu Nationalism into the Indian Academia on the Example of Astrology

This thesis deals with the spread of Hindu nationalism into the Indian academia on the example of astrology. In 2001, the Indian government's institution University Grants Commission included astrology and Vedic mathematics among the university's fields of study and the subsequent introduction of astrological departments at selected Indian universities with the support of state subsidies. This decision sparked a wide-ranging debate among Indian academics at home and abroad. Most of them evaluated the introduction of astrology at universities as a manifestation of the so-called saffronization of education and a deflection from secularism to cultural nationalism and religious fundamentalism, rather than as the promotion of traditional forms of knowledge. The thesis focuses on the development of the RSS organization and its influence on Indian education policy. Further on it deals with astrology as an important phenomenon of Indian culture and its institutionalized form. The aim of this thesis is to set the institutionalization of astrology into the broader context of the discourse of modern Hindu nationalism