Sunset of religious fascism

India can be a useful field of study for students of fascism considering the sudden  growth and acrimonious splintering of the far-right elements. For anyone interested in finding out how the ultra-nationalists can prosper and then fall apart, the latest rumpus involving the BJP and the two parochial outfits of the Shiv Sena and MNS should provide valuable material.

There is another angle, too, that of religion, which is somewhat unusual where the xenophobes are concerned. But more of that later. For the present, what is important is that India provides a unique opportunity to study how fascism functions, and falters, in a democracy considering that, till now, the doctrine has mainly been associated with autocratic regimes.

Its lifespan, too, is rather limited, compared to a dogma like Marxism. As an article in Contemporary Political Ideologies notes, “the term ‘fascism’ was coined in 1919 at the time of the founding of the Italian Fascist movement” and then the doctrine reached its “post-1945 pariah status” when the defeat of Germany and Italy rang its death-knell. However, the term has been loosely applied to almost any kind of authoritarianism, whether the Pinochet-type dictatorships or the apartheid regime, adding to the difficulty of a close analysis.

Some of its basic features, however, are obvious. These are the identification of a community as an enemy, contempt for democracy, the propagation of a myth about the superiority of the Chosen People, an unapologetic preference for violence, and so on. Of these, the marking out of a section of people as the adversary is undoubtedly the main feature. In India, the minorities fall in this category where the BJP and the two Senas are concerned. But what is of interest is how and why the targeting of such a group can change.

In a sense, this multiple choice of adversaries can be said to be the distinctive characteristic of Indian fascism unlike what happened in, say, Nazi Germany, where Jews were the primary hate objects although there were others like gypsies and non-whites. If the targets of the Shiv Sena and the MNS have been changing from “Madrasis” to Muslims to north Indians, then the explanation lies in, first, the rupture among the far-right parties, forcing each one of them to take a distinctive stand to highlight its separateness and, secondly, the diminishing political gains from a continuous focus on a single community.
That does not mean, of course, that the other targets are embraced as brothers. For the two Senas, the south Indians and the Muslims remain the enemies although the spotlight for these parties has shifted at present to the north Indians. Besides, the problem with attacking Muslims is that it entails the possibility of widespread riots because of their larger numbers, which forces the government to clamp down with curfews and harsh police action. This, in turn, can have damaging political and legal consequences for the instigators, as Narendra Modi is finding out.

While these aspects of extreme right-wing politics are confined to Maharashtra at the moment, a look at the BJP’s rise and fall can provide a wider perspective. Its spectacular growth in the Nineties underlines yet another distinct characteristic of Indian fascism, viz the cynical intermingling of nationalism and religion. It has to be remembered, of course, that in the lexicon of fascists, nationalism is synonymous with the love of the majority for their homeland. The minorities are second class citizens in this context, as in a theocracy like Iran.

The BJP’s success in the Nineties was based on merging its longstanding anti-Muslim outlook with history and myth. The historical aspect sought to revive memories of medieval atrocities of the Muslim invaders and linked them with the destruction of a mythical temple by Babur on the Hindu deity Ram’s putative birthplace in Ayodhya, which was a legend. It was this highly combustible combination of present-day animus against Muslims with the events of a real as well as shadowy past, which boosted the BJP’s electoral fortunes.

But it didn’t take long for the people to see through this game of mixing religion and politics. But even before the BJP’s advance had tapered off, the party had shifted gears (as the Shiv Sena and MNS have done in Maharashtra) to target the Christians. If the Muslims had remained unpatriotic “invaders”, the Christians were guilty of conversions, which threatened to reduce Hindus to a minority, as well as cultural dominance, which were cutting them off from their native roots. For all these nimble-footed tactics, however, it is Indian democracy which has been the saviour as the BJP’s declining fortunes at the national level show. In Maharashtra, too, the two parochial outfits can never have anything more than nuisance value.