According to Christophe Jaffrelot, a political scientist specialising in South Asia, Savarkar - declaring himself as an atheist - minimizes the importance of religion in his definition of Hindu, and instead emphasises an ethnic group with a shared culture and cherished geography. To Savarkar, states Jaffrelot, a Hindu is first and foremost someone who lives in the area beyond the Indus river, between the Himalayas and the Indian Ocean. Savarkar composed his ideology in reaction to the pan-Islamic mobilization of the Khilafat movement, where Indian Muslims were pledging support to the Istanbul-based Caliph of the Ottoman Empire and to Islamic symbols, his thoughts predominantly reflect deep hostility to Islam and its followers. To Savarkar, states Jaffrelot, Muslims were the real enemies, not the British, because their Islamic ideology posed a threat to the real nation, namely Hindu Rashtra in his vision. All those who reject this historic common culture were excluded by Savarkar. He included those who had converted to Christianity or Islam but accepted and cherished the shared Indic culture, considering them as those who can be re-integrated.