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Book Review
Contours of fascism
FASCISM IN INDIA — Faces, Fangs and Facts: Chaitanya Krishna— Editor; Manak Publications Pvt. Ltd., B-7, Saraswati Complex, Subhash Chowk, Laxmi Nagar, Delhi-110092. Rs.895.
DID THE post-Godhra Gujarat pogrom mark the arrival of fascism in India? The book under review, a compilation of articles, reports and papers, argues it did. Though consisting mostly of recent writing, it places the Gujarat carnage of 2002 in the larger context of the rise of Hindutva and the politics of fascism.
In effect, it debunks the action-reaction theory of the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, and unravels the systematic nature of the post-Godhra violence. The pogrom against Muslims had been in the making in the "Hindutva laboratory" of Gujarat: the Godhra train-burning incident only helped decide its timing.
While there is no unity of purpose in the various contributions from lawyers, journalists, social activists and political commentators, the book explores how the manifestations of fascism go beyond mere political exploitation of communal divides.
As the editor makes it clear at the outset, there is a "degree of arbitrariness" in the selection of the pieces and their ordering. Not surprisingly for a compendium of this sort, which arranges separately commissioned and already published writings on events of the previous year, different themes run across different parts. However, the book is held together by the effort to trace the roots of Hindutva and probe the social base of fascism, the modus operandi, the liberalisation-globalisation context and the results on the ground.
He begins his introduction with a quote from the article by Arundhati Roy on Gujarat: "Fascism's firm footprint has appeared in India. Let us mark the date: Spring 2002." However, the book itself looks, from different angles, at the larger picture of the politics of fascism of which Gujarat 2002 was but the latest, even though the most brutal, manifestation.
But without losing sight of the larger context, the articles show how Gujarat 2002 was markedly different from earlier communal riots, not only in terms of the number of victims, but also in terms of the number of crime-perpetrators.
For the first time, people from almost all sections participated in the riots: Dalits, adivasis, villagers and the middle-class joined hands with those in charge of the Hindutva project. As is characteristic with majoritarianism all other identities of caste, class and gender are subsumed under a major cultural identity (Hindutva).
Instead of reducing fascism to name-calling, several articles use the concept to explain the nature of the politics of hatred and violence. Marzia Casolari uses evidence of direct contacts between Mussolini and Hindu nationalists to show the links between Hindutva and Italian fascism. Jairus Banaji criticises a supposedly dominant Left view that fascism is primarily a product of the manipulation of capital or big business on the ground this does not explain the mass following of fascism. But, surely, the explanation of fascism as a manifestation of the crisis of capitalism does not necessarily come into conflict with the mass following that fascism attracts.
The book, in parts, refuses to identify Hindutva wholly with the Sangh Parivar, and delineates the streaks of majoritarian nationalism practised by the Congress. But too sharp a focus on the commonalities of the Congress and the BJP (there is a mention on the back cover) blurs the important distinction already made between political exploitation of communal divides and fascism.
Some sections of the book also study Gujarat as an "industrially-developed" and affluent State, which makes it a test case for fascism. These look at the implications of the violence of last year for the survival of India as a democracy. The book, though centred on Gujarat 2002, certainly qualifies as a study of fascism in India.
SURESH NAMBATH
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