PERSPECTIVES

The Fascism of the Sangh Parivar target-area steadily expands, and efforts
intensify to terrorise wider and wider
circles of potential dissent, that perhaps
Sumit Sarkar requires a little additional emphasis. The
Hitler analogy is, once again, appropriate:
Jew and communist had quickty expand-
Central to Hindutva as a mass phenomenon (or to Fascism) is the ed to cover social-democrats, liberals.
Catholics, everyone who dared to think
development of a powerful and extendable enemy image through with any independence—even, by June
appropriating stray elements from past prejudices, combining them 1934, a number of Nazis, massacred in the
with new ones skilfully dressed up as old verities, and "night of the long knives'. The BJP turn
towards open terror had begun with two
broadcasting the resultant compound through the most up-to-date incidents in Madhya Pradesh unconnected
media techniques. with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement—
the murder of Shankar Guha Neogy,
labour leader of unusual initiative and
FASCISM in contemporary Indian as violations of laws and constitutional originality, in autumn 1991, and the public
distinct from the European historical con- norms consequently had alternated in humiliation recently of B D Sharma,
text had appeared till the other day a mere Fascist and Nazi behaviour with loud pro- distinguished progressive retired civil ser-
epithet, worn out by overmuch, indis- testations of respect for legality. It is not vant. (The Shiv Sena of Maharashtra had
criminate use, signifying little more than always remembered, for instance, that shown the way even earlier, of course,
particular blatant acts of authoritarian Hitler had become chancellor on January smashing through street terror the oncc
repression or reactionary violence. With 30,1933 in an entirely constitutional man- formidable Red Flag unions of Bombay
the 6th of December and its aftermath, ner, as leader of the largest party in the in the 1970s.) The beating-up of jour-
elements frighteningly evocative of its Reichstag, at the invitation of president nalists on December 6 is thus not an aber-
totality of horror stalk our streets, obtain Hindenburg. He repeatedly asserted his ration, but part of a broader, emerging
connivance and implicit sustenance from party's respect for legality throughout the pattern. The forces of Hindutva have
within the highest corridors of power, next month—but meanwhile Goering assiduously cultivated the press, with great
emerge from everyday conversations with Nazified the Berlin police, organised street success till recently, but fascists always like
relatives, colleagues, friends of yesterday. encounters in which more than 50 anti- to combine persuasion with the occasional
Not that exact parallels can be found, in fascists were murdered, and set the scene bis; stick.
most part India 1992-93 remains very dif- for the notorious Reichstag fire, after
ferent from the Germany of 60 years back. which first the communists, and then all
Yet a closer look at the pattern of af- Certain little-reported developments in
opposition political parties and trade
finities and differences may help to Delhi acquire relevance here, i n d i c a t e
unions were quickly destroyed.
highlight certain crucial features—most once again the typical combination of
notably, the ways in which the implica- There is much, surely, that is ominously street violence with administrative collu-
tions of the current all-out offensive of the reminiscent here. A mosque is syste- sion even in a city where the December
Sangh Parivar go far beyond even the ob- matically reduced to rubble over five long riots were relatively localised and minor, 1
vious and terrifying fact that the subcon- hours, in total violation of a direct right next to a central government which
tinent has just witnessed the most wide- Supreme Court order and repeated assur- is said to have banned the RSS, the VHP,
spread round of communal violence since ances given by the leading opposition par- and the Bajrang Dal. Peace activists trying
the Partition years. The drive for Hindu ty and its allies, and the central govern- to do things as innocuous as singing
Rashtra has put in jeopardy the entire ment does not lift its little finger. Coun- songs, distributing leaflets calling for har-
secular and democratic foundations of trywide riots follow, marked by blatant mony. and staging street plays have been
our republic An old warning of Nehru police partiality, with the guardians of the repeatedly attacked: the police come a
sounds particularly appropriate today. law not unoften turning rioters them- little later, ignore the RSS-Bajrang Dal
Muslim communalism is in its nature as selves. And then come strange political elements supposedly under a ban, but ar-
bad as Hindu communalism, and may and judicial manoeuvres that in effect rest and harass the anti-communal groups.
even be stronger among Muslims than its have allowed the land-grabbing vandals to Even a peace march led by men as dis-
counterpart within the majority com- build a temporary 'temple' complete with tinguished as P N Haksar and Habib
munity. "But Muslim communalism can- darshan, where curfew exists for MuslimsTanvir was obstructed by the police, while
not dominate Indian society and intro- and not for Hindus, and which suddenly a Delhi University student in an anti-
duce fascism. That only Hindu commu- is not a 'disputed structure' unlike the communal group whose name begins with
nalism can" (quoted in Frontline, January 462-year-old monument it has displaced, Ram was slapped by the policeman who
1, 1993). Probing the fascist analogy, then, but something worthy of protection. had arrested him: a man with such a
may contribute towards a greater under- Meanwhile the BJP alternates between an name, he was told, should not be doing
standing of the dangers that confront us occasional apology and much more fre- such things.
today. Just occasionally, it may provide us quent aggressive justification, and V H P
The Bajrang Dal thugs often openly
also with what is most needed, and is in leaders add the Delhi Jumma Masjid to
declare that anyone who criticises the
woefully short supply: resources of hope. Varanasi and Mathura, and openly de-
destruction of the Babri Masjid will
nounce the Indian Constitution as
Fascism had come to power in Italy and have to go to Pakistan, while in the selec-
anti-Hindu.
Germany through a combination of street tively curfew-bound Muslim pockets of
violence (carefully orchestrated from Seelampur in east Delhi, the police had
above but still undeniably with great mass EXPANDING T A R G E T - A R E A
rounded up all Muslim men in some areas,
support), deep infiltration into the police, beaten them up unless they agreed to say
bureaucracy and army, and the conni- It is this wider dimension, in which the Jai Shri Ram, and even pulled out the
vance of 'centrist' political leaders. Crude obvious, classically communal Muslim beard of a Muslim gentleman.

Economic and Political Weekly January 30, 1993 163

 M Y T H S AS C O M M O N SENSE But there is an element of hope here, too, Sangh and the BJP have been advocating
for despite the tremendous effort spread such a repudiation of the Nehruvian
What is making all this possible is
across decades, the conquest of hearts and legacy of self-reliance and planning for
evidently a wide, though very far from
minds remains far from complete. It needs many years, but the forces of Hindutva,
universal, degree of consent, where large
to be recalled that around four out of five in whose propaganda and activity matters
numbers may keep away from communal
Indians voted against the BJP even in 1991 economic so far have occupied only a
riots, maybe, even sincerely condemn
(its all-India percentage was 21.9)—and if minor place; can claim little 'credit' for ac-
them, and yet be participants in a kind of
that had been a vote about Ram, the U P tually bringing about the shift. The Indian
communal consensus in which a whole
victory was at best some kind of a man- business groups that support Manmohan
series of assumptions and myths have
date for a Ram temple, not for the des- Singh's New Economic Policy (not neces-
turned into common sense. Far from be-
truction of the masjid. The real base of sarily the entire class) might still prefer a
ing a spontaneous or 'natural' product of
the Sangh Parivar remains the predomi- tougher anti-labour line under a Hindu
popular will expressing a legitimate
nantly upper-caste trader-professional Right regime no longer dependent even
'Hindu hurt', however, as the organised
petite bourgeoise of the cities and small marginally on Left votes in parliament.
forces o f H i n d u t v a sedulously propagate,
towns in the Hindi heartland, with Conversely, however, if the fascistic thrust
this consent is something constructed and
developing connections perhaps with of Hindutva, even now, encounters deter-
carefully nurtured, a product of more
upwardly-mobile landholding groups in mined resistance, the traditional centrist
than 60 years of strenuous and patient ef-
the countryside. Extensions beyond this option might appear more reliable and at-
fort. The RSS, founded way back in 1925,
remain unstable, as the panic evoked by tractive for bourgeois groups, precisely
and spawning from the 1950s a whole
Mandal and the Bihar example seem to because there is much less 'need' for
series of affiliates manned at crucial levels
indicate—and the whole bloated structure Fascism in the interests of capitalist sur-
by its cadres (among which the Jan
of today's Hindutva requires for susten- vival and profit than in inter-War Italy and
S a n g h / B J P and the V H P have been the
ance constant excitement, a high pitch of Germany.
most important), concentrated for many
hysteria, the stimulus of communal
years on unostentatious, slow, 'cultural'
violence. Hence perhaps the gamble of
work..Shakhas combined physical train- SUICIDAL W O B B L I N G
sacrificing the BJP ministries, which
ing of young men with indoctrination
could have got discredited and shown up It is in this context that the wobbling—
through bauddhik sessions, a chain of
as little different, if not worse, from Con- and worse—of the Congress, and parti-
schools was built up, ideas were dissemi-
gress regimes by any long period of nor- cularly of the prime minister, before and
nated through personal contact and con-
mal governance. after December 6 appears so disastrous,
versation, and even a very popular Hindi
comic series was brought out (the A mar An early perceptive analysis of Fascism indeed suicidal, even from the point of
Chitra Katha extolling Hindu mythical or had defined it as "not only an instrument view of narrow party interests. There did
historical figures). It was for long, almost, at the service of big business, but at the exist a possibility of retrieval just after the
a Gramscian process of building up hege- same time a mystical upheaval of t h e . . . sixth. The much-quoted Vajpayee inter-
mony through molecular permeation. petite bourgeoisie". 3 That a 'mystical view was an indication that the BJP for
Then, in the early and middle 1980s, came upheaval' has happened around the a few days had been forced into the defen-
the efforts of Indira and Rajiv to play the slogan of Ram is undeniable, and its lavish sive. But Narasimha Rao, to quote a rather
'Hindu card', communalising the state ap- orchestration indicates an evident abun- apt comment by a journalist, then pro-
paratus on an unprecedented scale dance of funds. But the specific linkages ceeded "to snatch defeat from the jaws of
through the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 and of Fascism with capitalist interests have victory". Sporadic, l a t e l y unimplemented,
the subsequent cover-up of the guilty, and remained a controversial issue even for obviously half-hearted measures of repres-
further eroding the rule of law through Europe, and most historians have found sion, not backed up by any political cam-
rampant corruption. All this directly it necessary to make distinctions between paign by the Congress, have by now been
prepared the ground for the Ram Janma- various kinds of capital, as well as across succeeded by what appears to be yet
bhoomi blitzkrieg of the Sangh Parivar, countries. Relatively underdeveloped Italy, another attempt to compete with the BJP
now spearheaded by the VHP. It must not for instance, differed quite fundamentally for the 'Hindu card'. Principles apart,
be forgotten that it was the Congress from highly industrialised Germany. Con- elementary realpolitik suggests that the
government that updated the Ramayana troversies exist also as to whether capitalist more determined and consistent always
epic into a pseudo-nationalist TV serial, interests were linked to Fascism by positive win in that kind of game. The shift in the
and allowed access in 1986 to the idols in- intention, as the term 'instrument' sug- attitude of the major Delhi-based dailies
stalled inside the Babri Masjid by stealth gests, or more through-accommodation to from virtually total condemnation of the
and administrative collusion in December circumstances. 4 The Indian situation is BJP just after December 6 to much more
1949, under an earlier Congress regime. significantly different above all because of ambiguous alignments in recent days
The Sangh Parivar's war of position now the absence of any major threat to pro- might in this context be a straw in the
gave place to a spectacular war of move- pertied interests from organised labour or wind of a most dangerous kind.
ment, pressing into service the latest in apparently impending socialist revolution. That leaders who subjectively no doubt
advertising and audio-visual techniques The scale and nature of the economic demarcate themselves from the BJP, their
on a scale and with resources never before crisis is also not quite comparable. In post- principal political rival, can still stoop to
seen on the subcontinent. Hitler, by the Depression Germany, Nazism arguably such levels of opportunism indicates the
way, had also been a bit of a pioneer in could have appeared to many business degree of spread of what I have tried to
these matters, fully realising the impor- groups "as the last available means of argue lies at the heart of our present
tance of spoken propaganda through the preserving the capitalist system", 5 while tragedy: a communalised common sense,
then relatively new techniques of the Fascism in Italy had had a developmental, produced through sustained e f f o r t .
loudspeaker and the radio. 2 if anti-popular, 'passive revolution' aspect Analysis-cum critique of the varied com-
that Gramsci realistically recognised even ponents of this common sense is clearly
Unlike Fascism, then, which came to from within a Fascist prison. Neither vital for any effective resistance to what,
power in Italy and Germany within a feature is particularly noticeable so far in with many qualifications, may still be call-
decade or less of its emergence as a India, where Narasimha Rao has been ed the Indian variety of fascism.
political movement, Hindutva has had a carrying through wide-ranging changes in Fascist ideology in Europe had combined
long gestation period. This, no doubt, has economic policy with a degree of deter- already quite widespread, crudely na-
given it added strength and stability, time mination and skill conspicuously absent tionalist, racist, and in Germany anti-
to get internalised into common sense. in his handling of Ayodhya. The Jan Semitic, prejudices with fragments from

164 Economic and Political Weekly January 30, 1993

much more sophisticated philosophies. circles. In post-Independence India, titudes, finally, are neatly encapsulated in
That it had owed something to a general Muslims in contrast are grossly under- the very recent coinage of the formula
turn-of-the-century move away from what represented at elite levels, however defin- 'Babar ki aulad'. Alleged descent from
were felt to be the sterile rigidities of ed. The alleged privileges, in the second Babar is sufficient to damn, no overt
Enlightenment rationalism is not a fact place, are the product of Appeasement' misdeed is really required... just as once
wu, . some relevance today, for not of Muslims by 'pseudo-secularist, and so in fanatical Christian circles all Jews stood
imilar ideas have become current in- very quickly the communal target starts condemned because of what their ances-
tellectual coin in the west, and by exten- broadening itself, and Mulayam Singh tors had supposedly done at the time of
sion they have started to influence Indian Yadav, to take one example among many, the crucification of Christ.
academic life. The ideologists of the becomes a 'mulla'. The stock examples of Such is Hindutva ideology at its crudest,
Sangh Parivar (a Girilal Jain or a Swapan 'appeasement' in recent days have been the engaged in the direct justification of com-
Dasgupta apart) may themselves be still destruction of temples in Kashmir, allegedly munal violence. The slightly 'softer' or
largely unaware of the varied possibilities never condemned by the 'pseudo-secula- more insidious levels should also be con-
of post-qiodernism: that certain current rists', and Muslim personal law permitting sidered, for these can indicate almost as
academic fashions can reduce the resis- polygamy. Desecration must be condemned, clearly the fascistic implications of Hindu
tance of intellectuals to the ideas of whether by Muslims or by Hindus, but it Rashtra. Fascism has often tried to appro-
Hindutva has already become evident. is a strange condemnation that uses it to priate elements, or at least terms, from
The 'critique of colonial discourse' in- justify or condone the wanton desecration ideals considered laudable and progressive
spired by Said's Orientalism, for instance, of December 6. The destruction of in the society it sought to conquer: thus
has stimulated forms of indigenism not numerous Muslim religious places in riots the Nazis claimed to be not only 'na-
too easy to distinguish from the standard (at Bhagalpur, lor instance) is of course tionalist' in post-Versailles Germany, but
Sangh Parivar argument, going back to never mentioned. The Kashmir temples also, keeping in mind the very strong
Savarkar, that Hindutva is superior to issue, incidentally, became very prominent working class political presence in the
Islam and Christianity (and, by extension, in conversation just after the destruction Weimar Republic, 'socialist' and represen-
to creations of the modern west like of the Babri Masjid, indicating a con- tative of labour'. The Sangh Parivar,
science, democracy or marxism) because certed whisper campaign as well as, possi- similarly, tries to establish its claim to be
of its allegedly unique indigenous roots. bly, an element of guilt suppressed truly and uniquely 'national' by a 'demo-
An uncritical cult of the 'popular' or through verbal excess. The oft-repeated cratic' argument: Hindu interests should
'subaltern', particularly when combined argument that Muslims must repent or prevail always in India, and maybe, it
with the rejection of Enlightenment ra- atone for their acts of past or present ag- should at some stage be declared a Hindu
tionalism as irremediably tainted in all its gression has meanwhile acquired a strange Rashtra, for Hindus after all are the ma-
forms by colonial power-knowledge, can flavour in the context of some current jority, by Census reckoning 85 per cent of
lead even radical historians down strange reports from Bombay. Muslims offering the population. But democracy logically
paths. 6 It is not unimportant, therefore, to rebuild destroyed temples have been must connote two other features in addi-
to recall that Giovanni Gentile had defin- spurned by the Shiv Sena, and in Dharavi tion to rule of majority: protection of
ed Fascism as a "revolt against positi- a group of them who were actually rights of minority ways of life and opi-
vism", or that Mussolini in 1933 had con- rebuilding one have just been stabbed nions, and, even more crucially, the legal
demned the "movement of the 18th cen- (Pioneer, January 9). possibility that the political minority of
tury visionaries and Encyclopaedists" today can win electoral majority in the
along with "teleological" conceptions of On the Muslim personal law issue, the future and thus peacefully change the
progress. Ominously relevant, too, is Sangh Parivar once again takes full ad- government. Otherwise it becomes diffi-
another peroration of the Italian dictator, vantage of Rajiv Gandhi's misdeeds, when cult to deny the status of democracy to the
in July 1934, where he called for an end he tried to counterbalance the opening of one-party regimes of Hitler, Mussolini (or
to "intellectualising and of those sterile the locks at Ayodhya by the Muslim Stalin), for all of them did go in for oc-
intellectuals who are a threat to the na- Women's Bill The Muslim fundamentalist casional elections of a single-list, plebis-
tion". Hitler at the Nuremberg Nazi Con- side of the appeasement (from which the citary type, and won majorities which may
gress next year similarly exalted the only real and direct sufferers were Muslim not have been entirely rigged. Democratic
"heart", the "faith", the "inner voice" of women) is always mentioned, never the theory, in other words, stands in total con-
the German volk over "hair-splitting simultaneous appeasement of Hindu tradiction to any notion of permanent
intelligence".7 communalism. The real importance of the majorities—but such, by Sangh Ptarivar
question, however, is in the light it can definition, would be the position of the
' E N E M Y ' IMAGE
throw on the presuppositions, reminiscent
of racism, of the Hindutva ideology. The
This, however, has been a bit of an continuation of the legal right of poly-
aside: far more central to Hindutva as a gamy among Muslims is constantly linked
mass phenomenon (or for that matter to up to assertions that Muslims consequently
Fascism) is the development of a powerful breed faster: 'hum panch hamare pachis',
and extendable enemy image through as the Delhi VHP leader (currently BJP
appropriating stray elements from past MP) B L Sharma elegantly described it in
prejudices, combining them with new ones an interview he gave to a group of us in
skilfully dressed up as old verities, and April 1991. The Report on the Status of
broadcasting the resultant compound Women in India (1975), however, had
through the most up-to-date media techni- found the rate of polygamy actually
ques. The Muslim here becomes the near- higher among Hindus than Muslims (5.06
exact equivalent of the Jew—or the Black per cent as againsi 4.31 per cent). The
(more generally, immigrants felt to be in- Muslims, then, become dangerous simply
ferior for one or another reason) in con- by going through the basic biological pro-
temporary White racism. The Muslim in cesses of birth, procreation—and even
India, like the Jew in Nazi propaganda, death, for we were told during an investi-
is unduly privileged—a charge even more gation of the 1991 Nizamuddin riots in
absurd here than it was in Germany, where New Delhi that a dead Muslim always
the Jews had been fairly prominent in in- grabs a bit of land by burial, unlike the
tellectual, professional and business self-effacing cremated Hindu. Racist at-

Economic and Political Weekly January 30, 1993

165
party that claims to speak uniquely for all of Ram and Ayodhya—a single supreme rationalism and scepticism, brought into
Hindus: the BJP. Inherent in that claim deity and pilgrimage centre, steam- India in the baggage of colonial discourse,
is a second assertion, equally reminiscent rollering out of existence differences of and subsequently embodied in the repres-
of Fascism: only s/he is a true Hindu who region, sect, caste, gender, class. Even sive nation-states that have emerged on
accepts the leadership of the RSS-BJP more basic is the effort to transform what the western pattern. Actually, even in
V H P combine. Any dissent runs the risk millions of Hindus sincerely believe—with Europe, the roots of secularism go back
of being branded as pseudo-secular ap- what degree of historical accuracy does at least another 200 years, to the times of
peasement. So had Hitler and the Nazis not matter very much in this context—to the religious wars ('communal riots, we
arrogated to themselves the right to speak be a supremely tolerant and Catholic might legitimately call them) sparked off
for all 'pure' Germans, along with the religion into a terrifying instrument of by the Reformation. The first advocates
power to decide who was racially pure. vandalism, murder, and usurpation of of toleration based on separation of
political power. The traditions of catholi- church from state were not rationalist
What the triumph of Hindutva, 'hard 1
city in our country are deep and them- freethinkers, but Anabaptists passionately
or 'soft', implies for Muslims and other
selves extremely diverse. They range from devoted to their own brand of Christianity,
minority groups is already obvious
syncretic, at times radically iconoclastic who still believed that coercion, persecu-
enough: a second-class citizenship at best,
Bhakti-Sufi 'sants' and 'pirs', for some of tion and any kind of compulsory state
constant fear of riots amounting to
whom, in the words of a Baul song, the religion was contrary to true faith.
genocide, a consequent strengthening of
path seemed blocked by mandir and mas- In India, as in other countries with
the most conservative and fundamentalist
jid, purohit and mulla—to the conser- multiple religious traditions, the need for
groups within such communities. The
vative, yet profoundly Catholic, Rama- and therefore the bases of co-existence are
near-coincidence in time between the
krishna, in whose vision Hindu, Muslim broader and deeper than the teachings of
destruction of the Babri Masjid and the
and Christian differed as little as jal from the vast majority of holy men of all creeds
barbarous assault on Professor Mushir-
pani and water. And our thoughts today or the policies of many kings, among
ul-Hasan does not appear accidental—
inevitably go back, time and again, to whom Akbar is only the best remembered.
and the police, interestingly, were strangely
another dark January 45 years ago, when They have been grounded in the neces
absent or inactive in both cases. The fall-
a man died, a devout Hindu whose last sities of daily existence itself, which might
out o f December 6 has already strengthen-
words had also evoked Ram, murdered by occasionally produce conflict, but also
ed Muslim fundamentalist forces in
a youth reared in the culture of the Sangh tend towards the restoration of interdepen-
Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Muslims
Parivar. An ocean separates the Ram of dence—if allowed to do so by organised
in India, it needs to be added, are not an
Mahatma Gandhi, conceived of as both communal forces, which means less and
insignificant minority, but 120 million—
Iswara and Allah, from the Ram in whose less often nowadyas. 1 0 And if com-
the biggest in the world next to Indonesia.
n a m e the Babri M a s j i d has been munalism shatters everyday existence, it
The sheer size and diversity of the Indian
destroyed. simultaneously halts and turns back all ef-
people make secularism, democracy and
the preservation of national unity more forts to improve the condition of living
closely inter-dependent than perhaps SECULARISM H A S M A N Y MEANINGS through striving to reduce exploitation
anywhere else in the world. The perma- and want. It does so in two fundamental
What is necessary today is the recogni-
nent and total alienation the BJP seems ways: by shattering the unity in struggle
tion that secularism can and indeed does
working for can lead to a Lebanon or of toilers and all subordinate groups, and
have many meanings, that its wide and
Yugoslavia on vastly enhanced scale The fostering, within the rigid community
varied spectrum can extend from the
Sangh Parivar certainly has peculiar ways boundaries it erects, tendencies towards
devoutly religious to the freethinker-
of living up to its much-touted claim to ruthless homogenisation. Such homogeni-
atheist, on a common minimum ground
be mote 'national' than anyone else. sation invariably helps the groups and in-
of total rejection of communal hatred and
terests occupying positions of power—in
a theocratic state. This does not mean that
the context of Hindu communalism, most
S C O P E FOR C O M M O N A C T I O N non-religious secularists should engage in
obviously, the high caste elites. It is
a breast-beating exercise for having been
noteworthy how every move towards im-
One major distinction between the 'alienated' from the 'mainstream* and sud-
plementing even the fairly limited
Hindutva of today and European Fascism, denly claim to be more 'truly' Hindu or
measures towards social justice promised
particularly the Nazi variety lies in a very Muslim than the V H P or the Muslim fun-
by the Mandal recommendations are
different relationship with established damentalist. 9 It involves, rather, an
being met by a Hindutva offensive. The
religious traditions. Nazis sought to awareness that even profound differences
noticeable silences so far about specific
ground identity on race, not religion, and need not rule out common action in
socio-economic issues in the programmes
called on youth to build a new civilisation defence of basic human values, that, as
and activities of Hindutva (no effort has
which could at times sound openly anti- TYotsky had once said while pleading for
been made to spell out the 'roti' concomi-
Christian. The Sangh Parivar, by very a united front against Fascism, it is possi-
tant of Ram, and that slogan itself seems
definition, has to preach total adherence ble to "march separately, but strike
forgotten) can be made into a space for
and deference towards Hindu traditions together". 9
effective secular intervention—provided,
even while fundamentally transforming That the Hindutva forces are afraid of however, the habit of segregating the
them. That this has been a source of such unity is indicated by their persistent 'economic' and 'political' from the
tremendous strength hardly needs to be efforts to brand secularism, and indeed all 'cultural' or 'ideological', fairly deep-
stated; just possibly, it could also be anti-communal attitudes as necessarily rooted in Indian Left traditions, is aban-
transformed into a weakness given effec- somehow anti-Hindu. Simultaneously doned. Anti-communal campaigns cannot
tive counter-strategies. For Hindutva is they try to conflate secularism uniquely be left to seminars or middle-class cultural
really homogenising and changing Hindu with the policies of the 'Nehruvian' state, programmes alone, important though
beliefs and practices on a truly colossal thus making it bear the burden ot the these are, nor can everyday economic
scale. The statement of a V H P leader, many sins of opportunism, excessive and struggles afford to skirt questions of
exulting over the destruction of Muslim bureaucratic centralisation, and repression religion communalism and ideology in the
houses near what had been the Babri of which that state has been often quilty. facile hope that material issues and 'real'
Masjid, epitomises this transformation: Here, once again, current intellectual class identities will automatically assert
this was necessary, he said, to make of that tendencies have provided respectability to themselves.
area a Vatican. But the vast and enor- such critiques, for it is often assumed
mously variegated Hindu world has never nowadays that secularism was a creation t hinking back about the Racist era in
had what the V H P is trying to make out of the now much-abused Enlightenment Europe may seem a grim and depressing

Economic and Political Weekly January 30, 1993

166
exercise, now that chauvinist forces are
rearing their heads virtually everywhere.
But the memories of the 1930s and early
40s are not just of Storm Troopers,
Holocaust, concentration camps, and the
not unrelated deformations that have
CENTRE FOR SOCIAL STUDIES
culminated today in the shattering of the
world's first socialist experiment. They in- South Gujarat University Campus,
clude the experiences of united, and in
their time victorious, anti-fascist struggle,
SURAT - 395 007.
popular fronts, a Barcelona very different
from the one seen on TV last year, the
heroism of Stalingrad and not just Stali- The Centre, a multi-disciplinary Social Sciences
nist terror. The time may have come tq
draw sustenance once again from the research institute, invites applications for the follow-
slogan of the defenders of Republican
Spain: Fascism shall not pass. ing positions to reach the Director before 28-2-93
Notes
Faculty Level: Senior Fellows, Fellows and Associates
1 In terms, ot course, of the high standards
set in Kanpur, Bhopal, Surat, Bombay and which correspond to the positions and scales of univer-
a host of other towns in a country »vhere
213 places were under curfew at one point sity Professors, Readers and Lecturers respectively.
after December 6, affecting 97 million peo- Scholars specialised in agricultural and industrial
ple. Cry The Beloved Country (PeopleN
Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi, economics, sociology, political science, anthropology
December 1992).
2 For a more detailed account of the evolu- and law and interested in studying Western India and
tion ot the Sangh Parivar, see Tapan Basu,
Pradip Dana, Sumit Sarkar, Tanika Sarkar. Gujarat in particular may apply.
and Sambuddha Sen, Khaki Shorts and
Saffron Hags: The Polities of the Hindu
Right (Orient Longman, Delhi 1993) Supporting Level: Research Asstt. in the grade of
3 Daniel Guerin, Fascism and Big Business
(1936; New York, 1974), p 10. Rs. 1400-2600. Specialization required is in any one of
4 Guerin, op cit; Alan S Milward, 'Fascism
and the Economy' in Walter Laqueur (ed) the fields related to Sociology of education, develop-
Fascism: A Reader's Guide (1976; Penguin,
1979).
ment administration, rehabilitation, tribal and women's
$ Milward, op cit, p 414. studies. Knowledge of Gujarati and acquaintance with
6 Thus Gautam Bhadra, in an interview given
to a Bengali journal in early 1991. manag- quantitative research methods and computer is
ed to find elements of laudable subaltern
assertion of identity in the first kar seva preferred.
movement and even in the speeches of
Sadhvi Ruhambara Dipesh Chakrabarti,
another member of the Subaltern Studies Supporting and Administrative Level: Research Co-
editorial team, in a more recent article has
argued that we need to search for creative ordinator and Administrator (temporary) with a con-
elements in everything condemned by the
"His Master's Voice" of the post-Enlighten- solidated salary of around Rs. 3,500/- P.M. The appli-
ment West. This, for him, explicitly includes
M a r x just as much as Macaulay (Naiya, cant should be below the age of 30 years and should
I cbruary 1991; Baromas, October 1992).
7 Zeev Stern hell, 'Fascist Ideology' in
possess a Master's Degree in Social Sciences, Social
liqueur, op cit, p 334 (the quotation from Work or Management, and have a reasonable amount
Gentile); Guerin, op cit, pp 65, 168 69, 171.
8 They are less alienated, surely, from Indian of experience in field research, administration, acquain-
culture or elementary human values than
those young men of Surat who, in the name tance with computer and an ability to write and speak
of Hindutva, videotaped their gang-rape of
Muslim women. The tape, I have been told, English. Knowledge of Gujarati is essential.
is being avidly watched at evening-parties
in some affluent Bombay homes.
9 Leon Trotsky, 'For a Workers' United Front SC/ST, Backward Classes and Women candidates,
againsi Fascism' (December 1931) in The
Struggle against Fascism in Germany especially those who would like to join on tenure/con-
(Penguin, 1975, p 106).
10 The Frontline of January 15, 1993, pp 60-81, tract basis shall be given preference.
carries some moving reports of the strivings
of ordinary people to restore the torn fabrics
of inter-community mutual dependence
even after the post-December 6 riots.

Economic and Political Weekly January 30, 1993 167