Communalism is far more dangerous to India than fundamentalism. And what is particularly dangerous is Hindu communalism when compared with the communalism of the minority communities. This is because the Hindus form about 85 percent of the Indian people and any growth of communalism among them naturally gets associated with chauvinistic nationalism. It is not an accident that members of the organizations like the RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, and of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena are simultaneously ardent communalists and ardent nationalists. This coupling of communalism and nationalism is a typically fascist combination. It is comparable to Hitler’s technique of combining Aryan racialism with German nationalism. The growth of Hindu communalism in recent years is in reality the growth of nascent fascism in India. An individual merges his separate identify into that collectivity, which then becomes for him the source of the power required to face the various vicissitudes of life. But this submergence of the individual is attended by the urge to strengthen that collectivity and make it supreme. One such power collectively is the religious community and the other is the nation. According to Dr. Errich Fromme, submission inside and aggression outside are the two features of every collectivity. When an individual merges his identity with a religious community or a nation, he becomes a combative communalist or an aggressive nationalist. Both these dangerous collectives are represented in the recent growth of Hindu communalism in India. The remedy lies in promoting the values of humanism and democracy so as to combat the oncoming Indian brand of fascism. Justice V.M Tarkunde
Article extracted from this publication >> July 27, 1990
