Hindutva in the Breivik Manifesto: A Case Study Inspecting Paradigm Reflexivity in Peace and Conflict Studies

Abstract

Peace and Conflict Studies, as an interdisciplinary field, has long prided itself on normative commitments to justice, nonviolence, and transformation. However, as the field matures, it is imperative to scrutinise the analytical robustness, political implications, and epistemic assumptions of its core paradigms. This kind of reflexivity is especially necessary in the context of hyperconnected globalised extremism, where the boundaries between ‘local and global’, ‘oppressor and resister’, or even ‘coloniser and de-coloniser’ are increasingly blurred. Through a critical discourse analysis of the instrumentalization of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) in the Anders Breivik manifesto (2011), this research aims to serve a compelling case of transnational extremism and ideological diffusion that can test the aptness and/or limits of Galtung’s conflict triangle, decolonial peace, and transitional justice. Key findings suggest that: a) Extremism is now networked beyond national jurisdictions into multidimensional crises, demonstrating the limits of bounded national analysis in the Galtung model, thus making digitally literate transnational analysis essential; b) Groups claiming postcolonial legitimacy can display cynical opportunism (Hindutva’s proponents as defenders against ‘Western imperialism’) or decolonial dissonance (Nordic exceptionalism in perceptions of Norway’s ‘imperial innocence’) and may still perpetuate supremacist violence, thus illustrating the limits of decolonial ethics; and c) In a fast evolving digital era, transitional justice’s state-centric model can struggle to hold accountable the globalised form of complicity in extremism (social media giants or vis-à-vis Hindutva, where the state itself is complicit in violence), thus necessitating hybrid updates combining state-centric responses counter-balanced with grassroots, ‘transformative justice’ mechanisms. [Keywords] Hindutva · Breivik · Transnational Extremism · Galtung · Decolonial · Transitional Justice