Hindutva Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It by Analytical Monthly Review There is reason to believe that is the case given the hype from the corporate media on the issue of Gujarat Model with the headlines Modi moves centre-stage!, Modi storms in as the BJPs PM candidate, Its Narendra Modi vs Rahul Gandhi!, Modi wants to serve the nation. Looking forward, the corporate and financial masters might well prefer the efficiency with which Modi has implemented the neo-liberal policies in Gujarat. As a review of Atul Soods Poverty Amidst Prosperity: Essays on the Trajectory of Development of Gujarat sums up, the rule of law in Gujarat has meant more of political culture of authoritarianism, which might explain the high incidence of labour unrest in Gujarat, but interestingly it is this culture of authoritarianism, which gives faith and belief to the investor, to invest in Gujarat, even when this authoritarianism has manifested itself more recently in spectacular form in acts of violence against the religious minorities, scheduled tribes and lower castes. As reported in the Indian Express earlier this year, Anil Ambani, head of Indias third-largest telecommunications company, sitting beside Modi on the dais of Vibrant Gujarat-2013, said Narendrabhai has Arjuna-like clarity of vision. Narendrabhai literally is the lord of men, a leader among leaders and the king among kings. Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, who flanked Modi on the other side, described the CM as a leader with a grand vision. Describing Gujarats progress as stunning, Ron Somers, the president of US-India Business Council, said Modi had set a new benchmark of progress trumps politics. Even the unofficial EU boycott of Modi has now been ended over a lunch in residence of Michael Steiner, Germanys envoy to India in January. The boycott stemmed from the 2002 pogroms in Gujarat. The U.S. State Department is yet to reconsider its 2005 decision to revoke Modis visa, but when it does one should not be surprised. In our mainstream media dissent in Modis Gujarat is rarely mentioned. It would appear that, unlike other states, farmers protests or acts of violence by disadvantaged groups do not seem to occur. As Praful Biswai writes, the reason is the lionising of Mr. Modi by Indian businessmen and the corporate media. They depict him as a Knight in Shining Armour who will rescue India from economic stagnation, poverty, and missed opportunities towards progress, and promote the Gujarat Model of development. . . . Big Business loves the Gujarat Model precisely because it likes imbalances biased towards private industry and because Modi lavishes favours upon capital through huge tax write-offs. The RSS also counts on evidence of increasing religiosity. According to the 2007 IBN-CNN-Hindustan Times State of the Nation poll (conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies), cited by Meera Nanda in her book The God Market: How Globalization Is Making India More Hindu, among Indians, the level of religiosity has gone up considerably during the last five years. While 30 per cent said they had become more religious during the last five years, only 5 per cent mentioned in negative. The same survey, says Nanda, also found that education and exposure to modern urban life seems to make Indians more, not less religious: urban educated Indians are more religious than their rural and illiterate counterparts . . . religiosity has increased more in small towns and cities than in villages. Nanda perfectly assesses the present condition: Popular Hinduism is undergoing a great resurgence. . . . The rich and the poor alike are turning to gods and gurus; pujaris, astrologers, vastu shastris, spiritual advisers are all doing a thriving business. What may seem like a paradox, the resurgence of popular Hinduism is happening not against the grain of Indian secularism, but because of it. The Indian brand of secularism has allowed the state to maintain an intimate and nurturing relationship with the majority religion. As the neo-liberal state has entered into a partnership with the private sector, a cosy triangular relationship has emerged between the state, the corporate sector, and the Hindu establishment. . . . The state-temple-corporate complex is creating new institutional spaces where Hinduism is renewing itself so as to remain relevant to the new social context created by the global political economy. But in the process of renewing itself, it is also taking on nationalistic overtones by turning rituals into politicized assertions of Hindu identity. This process of converting ritual spaces into politicized public spaces is so commonplace, so banal, and so much a part of our collective common sense that it passes unnoticed -- and unchecked. . . . [O]rdinary Hindu rituals end up merging the worship of god with the worship of the nation. To harvest political power on this fertile ground, RSS has now overtly taken control of its political wing BJP and dreams of a far deeper turnover than that achieved in 1998. They are preparing to say and do whatever it takes to win power now in their own right, using different tactics for different regions, segments of the society -- if in some places they are using economic agenda then in other places the core issues of Ram Temple, abolition of Article 370 in Kashmir and Uniform Civil Code. They are even changing their stand in some cases where the situation is going against their vote bank. After the brutal murder of Dr Narendra Dabholkar, leading crusader in the anti-superstition movement, suddenly the BJP and Shiv Sena are no longer opposing the Maharashtra Eradication of Blind Faith Bill. In short we can expect no lie too big, no position too inconsistent, if it brings the RSS closer to power. Led by the blood-stained Modi, the RSS-BJP-Sangh Parivar is moving on to the next step in seizing power nationwide as a force properly described as fascist, that is primarily a specific type of politics, involving radical authoritarianism, militarized activism, and the drive for a centralizing repressive state, with a radical-nationalist, communalist, and frequently racialist creed, and violent antipathy for both liberal democracy and socialism. Neo-liberal policies and legal repression have pulverized the masses away from collective activities to change their life, the only decisive barrier to this development. In the event of what the mass media would call a stunning victory -- even if it falls short of Parliamentary majorities -- it would be a mistake to expect successful resistance from the totally discredited Congress regime, yet less from regional secular corrupt politicians who have collaborated with the BJP in the past and will do so again. We are describing a course of events that to us seems possible, but by no means certain. Yet the danger is now clear, and is the result of over twenty years of neo-liberal reforms. What can decent political people do? The parliamentary Left stumbles toward the futile mistake of unprincipled alliances with corrupt secular politicians -- but the only correct course is a turn to the left, a mass mobilisation based on opposition not only to the threat of Hindutva fascism but also to the breeding ground of that danger, neo-liberalism. The RSS, on their own terms, are gearing up for an all-out assault; we must prepare to fight back on ours.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 11:14:06 +0000
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