This article is written by Rohan Aditya.
Table of Contents
Introduction
You would be forgiven if you thought fascism and the superior complex on racial concepts would die a slow death in the 21st century. In the ’90s, scientists would have expected flying cars in the near future, but in March 2020 even aeroplanes can’t fly. Abdul Kalam envisioned India to be a superpower in 2020 and that the youth of the country would have mobilized and made this possible. However, we’re no closer to being a superpower than we were in his time, nor are the youth being allowed to do anything meaningful as they’re being groomed in the next generation of hate politics.
Since the document is named ‘Thesis on Fascism’ let us begin with a definition of this concept. “Fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultra-nationalism, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in 20th Century Europe.”
It is said that of all the movements that happened in Europe in the 19th and 20th century, fascism is the weakest of them, but still the most shocking movement. You could imagine liberalism or modernism being a mainstay and be accepted and practised across the world, but fascism? Fascism shouldn’t have even come up in the first place and that it led to two world wars being fought and immediately dying after the end of the war is entirely surprising. This is because an ideology that preys on the opposition and stifling of their voices and ruling with an iron hand was an idea of the Slavery Era and that had been long passed. This is why historians couldn’t fathom this idea.
It started in Italy and spread to Germany and other European nations. Fascism serves as a notable example that systematic and prolonged oppression cannot exist because there is always a world order toppling and with that, the existing world order dies and a new one comes in place. This is how democracy came in and served to be the exact opposite of each of the tenets of Fascism. In the upcoming pages, we’ll take a look at how fascism exists in the modern world despite its perceived demise at the end of World War II.
Existence in the modern world
Fascism is an offshoot of right-wing politics and as long as right-wing politics exists, so will fascism. Fascism also doesn’t need to concern itself with only right-wing ruling party countries, countries like China, the Gulf Countries and North Korea serve as primary examples as being fascist countries with dictatorship.
Notice that earlier I said that Democracy is more widespread and therefore it being the opposite of fascism, there arises a Catch-22 which leaves everyone, including the author, flummoxed. But therein lies the ingenuity of this situation. To ensure that there is no hurting of the fundamental rights of the citizens of the country, there exists a strong judiciary in every democratic country that serves its duty of protecting the constitution of the country and safeguarding the fundamental rights of the citizens. In countries where fascism is seen, the judiciary is also weak there.
Take the case of India. India is a country that is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP is an offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The founder of the RSS, KD Hedgewar was heavily inspired by European right-wing parties and his entire ideology revolved around in creating a ‘Hindu nation’. ‘Hindutva’ is its most important ideology and despite all the favourable arguments for it, it cannot be considered anything more than a religious zealot’s gold. Despite all its societal benefits and goodwill activities, it has more negatives to be considered than positives.
The reason why right-wing politics are always alarming is that we have a genocide on our hands that is waiting to happen. Genocide has been broken down into 10 stages and they are listed as:
- Classification
- Symbolization
- Discrimination
- Dehumanization
- Organization
- Polarization
- Preparation
- Persecution
- Extermination
- Denial
India is currently in the 7th stage though it can be argued that the 8th stage is very well in place with all the multiple arrests of Muslim activists and scholars.
Dr Gregory Stanton, founder of Genocide Watch addressed the Kashmir Issue and persecution of citizens in Assam under the National Registry of Citizens and the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and said that India is in the 7th stage in the 10 stages of genocide. There has also been the construction of concentration camps for the people who will be displaced with the effect of the CAA-NRC. This is alarming and this shows how easily we’ve accepted that things are going to be like this.
The fascist government has been ably aided by the hate-mongering media, subservient judiciary and its IT cell. Among all these tools, the IT cell of the ruling party is its most devastating weapon and causes the most damage than the other two.
The IT cell solely exists not to spread the news about the ruling party’s activities and schemes but exists only to spread fake news in order to create communal hatred. This is how they function:
Imagine X kills Y in Z place. Now there would be documented evidence about the crime (photos and/or videos). The IT cell picks up these photos and/or videos which happened somewhere else in some other time and morph it or edit to suit their purposes. The IT cell will spread news now that A killed B in C place due to some religious issue. Now the unknowing public will express outrage and target people of A’s religion and this thus leads to bloodshed and communal hatred.
It doesn’t stop here though. The mainstream news houses pick up this fake news article and use it as their primetime headlines. We’ve all come across headlines like ‘Hinduon Khatre Mein Hai’ or ‘CoronaJihad’ and other baseless headlines like these. This is how the fake news article that the IT cell creates becomes headlines on national TV despite it being fake. There are fact-checkers on the internet to counter these fake news, but it takes time to verify the news article and by the time they’re done, the damage is also done and outrage would have been created.
This is how the fascist government works in order to create genocide and we need to realize that just like Germany is associated with the Holocaust, India is going to be soon associated with a similar Holocaust of the Muslims.
Why Fascism?
It is very difficult to accept the fact that fascism still exists in the modern world. A regressive ideology like that should be rejected by everyone and yet it’s still at the fore of Indian politics and is slowly being accepted by the masses. This is a grave issue and needs to be sorted out at the root stage.
Fascism in our country has given birth to Hyper Nationalism. There is a heightened feeling of ‘my country’ in many parts of North India. This is mostly shown by extreme right-wing Hindu parties who believe that India is a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and that all minorities need to conform to this ideology. Due to the increase of the prominence of right-wing parties corresponding with the ascent to power by the BJP, there really is no chance of it being a coincidence. There has been a tenfold increase in hate crimes since the BJP assumed power with the Muslims being the most affected. They’ve been killed for eating beef because it goes against Hindu practices, not understanding that eating beef is considered legal in Islam.
They’ve been discriminated and demonized and now there is a notion of ‘us and them’ and this has laid down the foundation for a genocide. The fact that this has been done in a systematic procedure with robotic precision is alarming. First, it was the Ayodhya dispute, then it was the Kashmir issue, then it was the CAA-NRC issue. Institutes like Aligarh Muslim University and Jawaharlal Nehru University are regularly targeted by goons and when students protest against this, the police target the students and unleash brute fury on them. All in all, it is a pathetic state of affairs that is happening in our country.
Conclusion
One must need to understand that minorities will always be in danger wherever a right-wing party assumes power. Anti-Semitism and Nazism are on the rise in Germany, the Ku Klux Klan are staging a comeback in the United States, there is increased Islamaphobia in the United Kingdom and France. India has its Muslims under attack because it is a minority. We can’t say that the Christians will be spared since it is also a minority. There is a divide being created in an already divided country. The Caste system is very much active in the country. Once the Muslims are purged from our country, it’ll be the turn of the lower castes next to be purged.
The RSS-BJP is very much influenced by Hitler and his Nazi Germany and KB Golwalkar has expressed interest in bringing the Holocaust to our country and subjecting the Muslims to it. There cannot be a more clear indication of what is going to happen in the future. Sooner or later our country is going to be mentioned along with Germany for orchestrating an ethnic genocide.
In their quest for a pure Aryan country, the Muslims and Christians will have to be purged first. Then the lower castes will have to be destroyed in order to further achieve their dream. So my question is, what does this entail for the Dravidians in South India? South India has always been the staunchest opponent for the BJP and has never allowed them to just go about their activities as they want. So does this mean that there is going to be a civil war? Only time will tell what will happen. The most that we can do now is not to follow the propaganda of the ruling party, join the protests against it and use our votes to stop them from assuming power once again.
Thus I’d like to conclude this article with a quote by Jesse Ventura, ‘I love my country, not my Government’
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