in India — by P J James — 14/01/2023
Approaching
RSS Fascism
BJP with
180 million-membership (as claimed by it in 2019) and wielding India’s state power today is the political
tool of RSS, the longest-running and biggest fascist organization in the world.
The RSS
with Manusmriti as its ideological basis was founded in 1925 with Hedgewar as
the first Sarsanghchalka almost at the same time when ‘classical’ fascism
appeared in Europe.
In
the case of India, the decade of the 1920s when RSS
originated was a turbulent one that challenged not only the colonial rule but
also the feudal order and Brahminical caste system. Inspired by Mahatma Phule
and then led by Dr Ambedkar, the ‘untouchable’ Dalits, had started entering
into the political mainstream from inaccessible social peripheries.
Including
this, it was the challenges to the upper caste elite domination that prompted
the Brahmin leadership to reassert its hegemony through the formation of RSS.
Before
the formation of RSS in 1925, Savarkar had laid down Hindutva, or ‘political
Hinduism’ (which is different from Hinduism) as its ideological background. In
his manuscript, ‘Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?’, Savarkar had argued that ‘Hindus
were a nation unto themselves’, excluding Muslims, Christians and all other
minorities in India.
After
Hedgewar’s death in 1940, Golwalkar who became the second Sarsanghchalka of RSS
expanded it as a militant Hindutva organisation with its Manuvad approach to
the untouchables together with its commitment towards stigmatization and
elimination of Muslims as nation’s principal enemies.
From the
very beginning, RSS had its close association with European fascism (classical
fascism) that originated in Italy and Germany during the biggest
political-economic crisis during the interwar period, and the RSS leadership of
that time had established direct contact with fascist Mussolini along with its
adulation of Nazi Hitler.
For
instance, Moonje, the mentor and political guru of Hedgewar, who had
visited the Italian fascist dictator Mussolini in 1931 and inspired by the
Fascist Academy of Physical Education that trained paramilitary “storm
troopers” and goons like Black Shirts, started the Bhonsala Military School
in Nasik in
1937 for imparting military training to RSS cadres and Hindutva goons under the
management of Central Hindu Military Education Society.
Bhonsala School’s links with terrorist actions by
Hindutva extremist groups including the 2008 Malegaon blasts are a much discussed
topic.
Golwalkar
who had high regard for Hitler, upheld the latter’s doctrine of racial purity.
He
praised the Nazi method of purging the Semitic races, the Jews by Hitler, and
even suggested the same as a good lesson for India to resolve the Muslim question.
According
to the core ideology of RSS or doctrine of Hindurashtra, “Hindus and Hindus alone,
constitute the Indian Nation”, whereas for Golwalkar, casteism was synonymous
with ‘Hindu Nation’, though India has been historically
multi-religious, multilingual, multi-ethnic, multicultural and comp
However,
as a fascist organisation, RSS from its very inception has been Islamophobic,
anti-Christian, anti-communist, anti-woman and anti-Dalit, and has been in the
habit of using violence to achieve its objectives.
Under
colonial oppression, nationalism and patriotism for the oppressed countries
were invariably anti-colonial in essence. But the ‘cultural nationalism’ of RSS
was a camouflage for its betrayal of the anti-imperialist struggle.
Along
with its genocidal hatred towards Muslims, extreme servility to British
imperialism has been inherent in RSS from the very beginning.
On
account of this, it totally dissociated itself from the independence movement
during the British period.
Top RSS
leadership even advised its cadres not to waste their energy fighting the
British but save it for fighting ‘internal enemies’ such as Muslims, Christians
and Communists.
As such,
the organization continued to remain on the periphery of Indian politics.
When
Constituent Assembly was drafting the Indian Constitution, RSS came
forward vehemently opposing the adoption of that Constitution and suggested
‘Manusmriti’ (the sacred book of chaturvarnya or varna system that identified
women and Dalits as subhuman) in its place on the ground that a Republican
Constitution would give equality to all castes against the interest of the
elite castes.
In fact,
much before its objection to the Constitution that was drafted under the
leadership of Ambedkar, the RSS’ mouthpiece, Organiser in August 1947 had
opposed the tricolour National Flag also.
Of
course, following the assassination of Father of the Nation in 1948, the RSS
was banned for a few months, and one of the conditions that Sardar Patel put
forward for lifting the ban on RSS on July 11 1949 was “loyalty to the Constitution
of India and the National Flag”.
However,
it took more than half-a-century for the RSS to hoist the National Flag
during the time of the Vajpayee government which also unveiled Savarkar’s
portrait in the central hall of Parliament in 2003.
Obviously,
as in the case of European fascism during the interwar period, it is the
sharpening of the inherent contradictions and crisis of the ruling system that
create the opportune moment for the ascendance of fascists who are the most
reactionary sections of corporate capital.
In other
words, when the crisis cannot be resolved through normal methods of loot and
exploitation and when people’s struggles become uncontrollable, the
political-economic situation and social tension become favourable for the
fascist forces to capture power.
As far as
India is concerned, it was the crisis of the 1970s and
declaration of Emergency by the Indira Gandhi regime that enabled RSS which
till then remained outside the mainstream to come to the political limelight.
As is
obvious, it was the absence of a progressive-democratic alternative that
enabled RSS to effectively utilise the situation to come to the forefront of
the anti-Emergency movement.
Within no
time, replacing the Jan Sangh, RSS constituted BJP as its political tool and
the rest is part of contemporary history.
Leading
hundreds of open, secret and militant organisations and outfits, and widening
and deepening its clout across space and time and with its far-right economic
philosophy and unwavering allegiance to the US-led imperialist camp, today RSS
still claiming itself as a cultural organisation, has grown into the biggest
fascist organisation in the world with innumerable overseas saffron extensions
and affiliates backed by immense corporate funding.
The
sudden shot up of RSS during the recent period spanning half-a-century is to be
seen in the broader context of the emergence of global neoliberalism.
For,
following the advent of the first major postwar crisis called ‘stagflation’,
and taking advantage of the ideological-political setbacks of the international
Left, the bourgeois state abandoned its welfare mask and resorted to a change
in the capital accumulation process through what is called neoliberalism.
As noted
above, the political-economic crisis that confronted India in the 1970s leading to the
proclamation of Emergency by Indira regime in 1975 was integrally linked up
with this international context.
Though
Emergency was lifted in 1977, the post-Emergency period saw Indian state’s
abject surrender to neoliberal diktats and intensified neocolonial plunder by
imperialist-corporate capital.
It has
been in the context of this extremely crisis-ridden period of India resulting
in its further integration with global corporate capital and consequent
abandoning of the Nehruvian ‘state-led model of development’ and consequent
embrace of neoliberal policies that RSS designed its well-thought-out strategy
of eventually transforming India into a Hindurashtra, i.e., a Hindutva fascist
state by floating BJP as its political party.
And, effectively
taking advantage of the facilitating role of the soft-Hindutva pursued by the
Congress and with immense corporate-backing, it has been easy for RSS to
transform BJP as India’s biggest ruling class party within a relatively short
span of time, leading to fascist usurpation of state power with its
multidimensional repercussions at micro and macro levels integrally linked up
with the ascendance of neofascism at the global level.
It is not
intended here to draw out the whole trajectory of the process that facilitated
RSS to establish its fascist tentacles in the entire political, economic and
cultural spheres.
Unlike
Mussolini-Hitler fascism that suddenly shot up from the political-economic
crisis of the 1920s, Indian fascism led by RSS is rooted in a systematic,
steady and long drawn out process spanning almost a century with deep-rooted
and multi-dimensional penetration into the entire civilian and military
apparatuses of the Indian state.
And
unlike classical fascism which had sharp contradictions with other imperialist
forces, Hindutva fascism from the very beginning has been subservient to
international finance capital during the colonial and postwar neocolonial
period.
However,
in the neoliberal period, this process has started with the Ram Janmabhoomi
movement since the 1980s, demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 in the context of
Rao government’s abandoning of Nehruvian model and embrace of far-right
neoliberal policies, the ‘second generation of globalisation’ under Vajpayee
government in the late 1990s and early 21st century, Gujarat Pogrom in
2002, the ascendancy Modi regime in 2014 and its reiteration as Modi.2 in 2019,
which are some of the important milestones towards this neo-fascist
transformation.
As is
obvious, under Modi.2, in the background of all round
privatisation-corporatisation of the economy and saffronisation of both
civilian–including constitutional and administrative and institutional spheres
and military structures (ranging from RSS initiative to start Military Schools
to the Agnipath scheme), RSS is now moving towards its ultimate goal of
establishing the Hindurashtra, which is an intolerant theocratic state
unequivocally defined by Golwalkar in 1939 in his magnum opus, ‘We, Our
Nationhood Defined’ and in conformity with the principles of Manusmriti.
All
specificities of Hindutva such as anti-Muslimness as manifested in the
multi-dimensional discrimination towards Muslim migrants through CAA, Uniform
Civil Code, etc., (culminating in, for instance, depicting the Rohingyas whom the
UN characterised as “the most persecuted” minority on earth today as
“infiltrators”), pan-Indian homogenizing drive of deconstruction and
subjugation of the oppressed caste organisations aimed at integrating them into
Hindutva, rejection of all values of modernity such as rational-scientific
thinking, fostering the cult of tradition and obscurantism, treating dissent
and disagreement as treason, worship of heroism and elitism, anti-communism
together with uncompromising integration with corporate finance capital are
manifestations RSS neofascism.
Neofascism
or Fascism Under Neoliberalism
At this
critical juncture, concrete understanding of neofascism – i.e., fascism under
neoliberalism where old terms and practices connected with fascism have become
irrelevant — is indispensable for building up the anti-fascist movement and
defeating fascism. No doubt, fascism’s inseparable integration with the
hegemony of most reactionary corporate-finance capital is its universal
character.
However,
ascribing a static form or pattern to the emergence of fascism for all
situations is erroneous, and it will impede the building up of anti-fascist
struggles too. For instance, in the context of building up the wide
Anti-Fascist
People’s Front, the 7th Congress of Comintern (1935) that defined fascism
in relation to its firm foundations in finance capital, had also underlined
different course of development of fascism in colonial and semi-colonial
countries where “there can be no question of the kind of fascism that we are accustomed
to see in Germany, Italy and other capitalist countries”.
That is,
depending on the specific political, economic and historical conditions of
countries, fascism may assume different forms.
There is
a macro dimension to this crucial question today. No doubt, fascism is the
government of the most reactionary and terrorist elements of corporate-finance
capital directed against the entire progressive-democratic sections, working
class, peasantry, oppressed peoples and intelligentsia of the country.
However,
when ‘classical fascism’ emerged during the interwar years of the 20th century,
finance capital or imperialism was in its colonial phase.
On the
other hand, today in the postwar neocolonial phase, and especially in the
neoliberal period today, wealth accumulation is taking place through
globalisation or internationalisation of capital as manifested in the
limitless and uncontrollable cross-border movement of corporate capital.
With
the aggravation in the crisis of accumulation since the dawn of the 21st century,
and especially since the 2008 “sub-crime crisis’, using the advancements in
frontier technologies such as digitisation, global capital is engaged in
further shifting of its burden to the shoulders of world people.
In this
context neofascism is intensified to enforce the tyranny of corporate capital
at a global level effectively utilising reactionary, racial, chauvinistic,
revivalist, religious fundamentalist, xenophobic and obscurantist ideologies as
its political basis, according to the concrete conditions of countries.
Thus,
neoliberal fascism or neofascism needs to be analysed with respect to the logic
of corporate accumulation today. Of course, globalisation has resulted in
a restructure of the erstwhile ‘nation-centred production’ by superimposing a
new international division of labour and unleash a worldwide super-exploitation
of the working people, thereby temporarily overcoming its crisis of
accumulation.
On the
other, taking advantage of the ideological setbacks of the Left and by
utilising the heterogeneity and diversity among working and oppressed people of
different countries and through the effective use of a whole set of postmodern
ideologies such as “identity politics”, “multiculturalism”, etc., finance
capital has also succeeded in creating division among working class and
oppressed by diverting attention from corporate plunder thereby disorganising
and fragmenting resistance to capital.
Thus,
given the internationalisation of capital along with its terribly destructive
reactionary essence and decadence, fascism has become transnational in
character today.
To be
specific, unlike ‘classical fascism’ which was specific to
capitalist-imperialist countries, neofascism, i.e., fascism under neoliberalism
has become global in character cutting across national borders.
For
instance, a concrete evaluation of the international situation today amply
makes it clear that majoritarian religion everywhere is amenable to be used by
finance capital as the ideological basis of neofascism (for instance,
Evangelism in the Americas, Political Islam in West Asia, Hindutva in India, Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Myanmar).
Another
example is the manner in which the financial oligarchs of Europe have initiated a pan-European
neofascist alliance against workers, migrants and refugees.
Today,
neofascists everywhere are working overtime to take advantage of the mass
psychology of social and economic insecurity created by the loss of livelihood,
employment, habitat and environment arising from corporate plunder as well as
people’s loss of faith in mainstream traditional parties including ‘social
democrats’ who have no alternative to neoliberal policies. Making use of the
specificities of countries, neofascists in general pursue an exclusivist and
majoritarian line by propping up the so called ‘homogeneous’ part of the
population pitting it against the ‘heterogeneous’ sections often composed of
religious, ethnic/racial and linguistic minorities, migrants, refugees, dalits,
tribals and other marginalized and oppressed sections of society.
Using
them an all round depoliticising and social engineering is resorted to prepare
a fertile ground for the flourishing of neofascism. In this context, with its
own specificities, the BJP regime in India is a typical example of
neofascism (corporate-saffron fascism) today. Basing itself in unbridled
neoliberal-corporatisation, the Indian regime today is engaged in establishing
a Hindu theocratic state or Hindurashtra in accordance with the RSS ideology of
aggressive ‘Hindu nationalism’ or Hindutva.
On
Building Up the Anti-Fascist Movement
Viewed in
this perspective, the antifascist offensive is to be initiated based on
the lessons from past experiences but also on the basis of a concrete
evaluation of 21st century laws of motion of finance capital in relation
to country specificities.
Obviously,
as already noted, neofascism is the regime of the most reactionary sections of
corporate-finance capital under neoliberalism.
Therefore,
though ruling class/bourgeois parties are basically neoliberal in orientation,
all of them are not fascistic and, of course, there are sections who stand for
rule of law, bourgeois-democratic rights, freedom of expression and press, free
and fair election, etc.
However,
their class character with roots in neoliberalism and links with corporate
capital along with electoral politics as the only sphere of action, make these
parties incapable to take initiative in the struggle against fascists who have
usurped the entire micro and macro spaces of social life.
Hence, an
electoral victory alone is not sufficient as the threat of fascist come-back
( as is evident for the recent neofascist coup attempt in Brazil) will be there until and unless
fascist tentacles are wiped out from their already occupied strategic
positions.
This is
so because, along with the control over the organs of the state, the saffron
fascists through their vast and unparalleled organisational structure also have
established spectacular control over ‘street power’ through lumpen and
paramilitary goons.
Even when
electoral option of challenging fascists through the parliamentary route is
theoretically there today, free and fair elections are also becoming
increasingly difficult too.
Hence
mere preoccupation with parliamentary work, devoid of a nation-wide and
broad-based anti-fascist people’s movement, cannot confront the fascists, an
aspect that the non-fascist ruling class parties often ignore.
Coming to
the case of the broad ‘left spectrum’, it ranges from the ‘social democrats’
(e.g., CPI and CPM ) to adventurists (e.g., Maoists).
The
latter section that does not make a distinction between pro-fascist and
non-fascist sections of the ruling classes (fascism for them is a mere change
of regime among the ruling classes) fails to put forward an
ideological-political position towards the most reactionary and terrorist class
essence of neofascism.
For the
CPM, on the other hand, fascism is yet to come to India, and according to its ideologues,
Modi regime is “on the verge of turning fascist” and only “symptoms of fascism”
are there. Here it is to be stated that this evaluation arises from a
stereotyped approach to fascism, a way of looking at fascism as a textbook copy
of the ‘classical fascism’ of the interwar period.
This
mechanical approach to neofascism is contrary to the scientific analysis that
any social phenomenon when transforms and develops further in a new historical
context and in a different social formation will inevitably adapt itself to the
particularities and specificities of that concrete situation.
Even
under the veil of parliamentary democracy, fascism today has become capable to
use terrorist methods of ethnic and racial cleansing, oppression and
extermination of minorities, immigrants, refugees, and women, elimination of
hard-earned democratic rights, super-exploitation of the workers through new
technologies, plunder of nature leading to climate catastrophe and all round
militarisation.
No doubt,
the mechanical approach to fascism by ‘social democrats’ is related to their
own position as implementer of far-right neoliberal policies wherever and
whenever they are in power.
These
varying perceptions on fascism, however, should not be a justification for
refraining from the immediate and indispensable task of building up the broad
anti-fascist movement for resisting and defeating RSS neofascism.
No doubt,
an ideologically equipped, politically and organisationally strong Left
movement is the need of the hour.
At the
same time, we cannot wait till such an all India movement is ready, since it will
be suicidal.
Hence
taking care to avoid both sectarian and opportunist deviations, efforts are
needed on the part of left-democratic forces to ally with non-fascist
sections of the ruling classes in fighting the most reactionary corporate crony
capital and the neofascist state propped up by them.
However,
in doing so, the genuine left, progressive and democratic forces must be
aware of the overlapping, interpenetrating and complex neoliberal
inter-linkages and interests among different sections of ruling class parties
today.
That’s
while joining with nonfascist ruling class parties and even with social
democratic parties untiring ideological struggle should be carried forward
upholding the long-term and strategic interests of the working and toiling people
and all oppressed.
Any
laxity on the part of progressive democratic forces in this issue will lead to
surrender of the interests of the working and oppressed people in the
interests of “anti-fascist unity”.
To avoid
such a possible mistake, it is high time to build up a coordination of the
country-wide people’s struggles against corporate-saffron fascism and its
manifestations.
Many
peoples movements have been there that combine struggles against both
Hindutva fascism and far-right neoliberal policies.
The
Anti-CAA Movement or the people’s movement against denying citizenship to
Muslim migrants, and the historic Farmers’ Movement against the corporatisation
of agriculture were two examples in this regard.
Along
with them, many struggles of workers, especially the vast unorganised
sections, peasantry, oppressed peoples including women, Dalits, adivasis,
minorities, especially the persecuted Muslims, youth and students are emerging
throughout the length and breadth of the country against corporate onslaughts,
displacement from habitat, environmental destruction, caste atrocities,
communal oppression, violation of democratic rights and so on.
While
engaging in these struggles through appropriate organisational forms,
progressive and democratic forces have to take conscious efforts to initiate
debates and discussions on a political alternative against neoliberal policies
and RSS neofascism.
Such
initiatives at the level of states can lead to a national coordination based on
a common minimum program against corporate-saffron fascism.
If
proper interventions are made, this move can be extended to tactical alliance
with non-fascist fascist parties in the coming elections for isolating and
defeating the most reactionary neofascists, also utilising the
contradictions among ruling class parties in the process.
Here a
specific note is also required on the particular relevance in building up
effective resistance against Manuvad and growing inhuman Brahmanical caste
practices against Dalits.
Hence
appropriate ideological, political and cultural interventions joining with all
progressive intellectuals and like-minded people against Manuvadi-Hindutva, the
ideological basis of Indian fascism.
This
is essential since, it is based on the the Hindutva ideology that RSS is
engaged in the maddening pace towards transforming India into a full-fledged
theocratic state with the material backing of corporate capital.
P J James is
general secretary of CPI ML (Red Star)
