Hindutva and Dalit caste identities: Erasure via inclusion?

Hindutva’s proponents have a complex relationship with caste that this article examines through a thematic analysis of the movement’s public rhetoric, centered on the annual Vijayadashami addresses delivered by the RSS sarsanghchalak (supreme leader) between 2012 and 2025, together with caste-related statements made by other senior functionaries. Reading this corpus through critical intercultural communication scholarship and a culture-centered approach, we argue that Hindutva enacts what we term inclusionary erasure: a communicative strategy that dissolves caste as a category of collective claims-making while leaving the material structures of caste domination intact. We identify three mechanisms through which this strategy works – the framing of caste division as an existential threat to the nation, the relocation of caste from social structure to individual conduct and familial sentiment, and the appropriative commemoration of Dalit and Adivasi icons – and show how each converts recognition into absorption. The article offers intercultural communication scholarship a vocabulary for analyzing majoritarian projects that advance domination through the language of embrace rather than the language of exclusion.