The Sangh was founded in 1925 with the declared aim of opposing the ‘yavan-snakes’ (i.e the Muslims) who ‘were spreading riots in the country.’ It declared with equal determination that it was not concerned with the independence movement. The Sangh kept its word and opposed the freedom struggle with determination. When independence appeared a possibility, Golwarkar dreamt of India as[Read More...]
Along with broader movement against the authoritarian project of RSS and BJP, emphasis must be laid on politicisation of society and balance of social forces must be changed Recently, senior journalist Santosh Bhartiya interviewed me on the contradictions of left movement. Responding to his question, I said that for me left movement in India is a democratic movement which stands[Read More...]
Any moralistic discussion on social dialectics and civilized ethics is bound to generate euphony when the positive vibes of Harmony vibrate and are complemented by Justice. The great Greek philosopher Aristotle summed up the sentiment by saying, ‘Give each man his due’. It’s a classical philosophical assumption that human instinct craves for justice. It is ingrained in the conscious morality[Read More...]
PART 1 RSS Modelled After Nazi & Fascist Parties The process of Hindutva takeover of the democratic-secular Indian polity got huge push with Narender Modi, a seasoned RSS ideologue becoming PM of India in 2014. His commitment to the cause of the Hindutva politics and hatred for the Indian democratic-secular polity has been unambiguous. While ruling the State Gujarat as[Read More...]
Mr Narendra Damodardas Modi is a consummated practitioner of remorseless Hindutva politics of hate. He does not spare a moment to capture the headlines with his diversionary tactics, which makes him as one of the sharpest managers of media and prime master of propaganda. The Hindutva propaganda machine with the organisational network of RSS is erasing the idea of India[Read More...]
Given the events of August 5th in Ayodhya, how do we conceive Savarkar as a progenitor of this invidious movement? The answer to your question is not an easy one, given the complexities of Savarkar’s ideas and the interpretation of those ideas over one century by a number of thinkers. However, in thinking specifically about Rama, Ayodhya, and the Babri[Read More...]
Nationalism is like a jellyfish that can take on new forms, but of late in India it has become more like an octopus, spreading its menacing tentacles, arbitrarily declaring some as ‘anti national’ others more intimidating, for being a threat to ‘national security’ which invariably ends up in slapping of law of sedition against the person whose only offence might[Read More...]
The feudal character of Indian society and Brahmanical Hindu religious order based on caste has become a fertile ground for the growth of Hindutva fascism in India. The seed of Hindutva fascism was germinated with the establishment of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the “National Volunteers Organisation” in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. Mr Hedgewar’s mentor Dr B.S. Moonje was fascinated and[Read More...]
The BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP, Swapan Dasgupta, in an opinion piece titled The rise of the proud, global Hindu which appeared after the Aug 5 Bhoomi Pujan at Ayodhya, mentioned “the new Hindutva” that seems to have emerged in recent times. He contrasted it with the older Hindutva, identified with V. D. Savarker, describing that as “too ideological for popular[Read More...]
This post should be read as a sequel to my earlier post of 16 July, which had discussed the discourse of “Hindu Unity” and questions before the struggle against the Right. That post had ended with the claim that the struggle against the Hindu Right is not so much about what we understand as “secularism” … Continue reading Intimations of a Bahujan Counter-Tradition and the Hindu Right →
