Hindutva’s Quiet March into the Indian Army

Reading Time: 4 minutes For much of its post-independence history, the Indian Army stood out in the subcontinent for its disciplined neutrality, its doctrinal secularism, and its robust commitment to professionalism above creed or ideology. In a region where militaries have often been drawn into the vortex of religious and political turbulence, India’s armed forces remained a model of balance and restraint. However, in recent years, a slow and subtle shift appears to be unsettling this equilibrium. The cultural and ideological winds blowing from New Delhi seem to be wafting into the cantonments and command structures of the Army, and the once impermeable barrier between statecraft and soldiering may be fraying at the edges. This concern came into sharp relief when General Upendra Dwivedi, the newly appointed Chief of the Indian Army, made a widely publicised visit to the Mahakaleshwar Temple in Ujjain. Clad in full ceremonial uniform and accompanied