“Hindu fascism” has been the subject of our writings in these columns for years now. Despite this, we admit, we have not been able to make a dent in the train of thought in the U.S.A. regarding India not as a fascist menace but the largest democracy in the world. This could be attributed partly to ignorance of India in this country and partly to the lure of business opportunities. True, the U.S. administration issued reports on human rights situation in India from time to time pointing out large scale violations by the Indian authorities. But these reports have often tended to equate violence by private individuals and groups with the state sanctioned violence to nearly justify or at any rate keep silent on the phenomenon. A section of the U.S. media as well as human rights groups like the Amnesty International and the Asia Watch have done a signal service to the cause of truth and human rights by informing the world about the sad state of Indian affairs.

Whatever the U.S. administration’s responses to the situation in India, it is notable that realization has been growing amongst intellectual’s about the emergence of a dangerous kind of fascism the Hinda fascism. Prof Amartya Sen last week delivered an important lecture at Cambridge University on the Indian situation. Prof Sen is ‘a well-known economist. “There are fascist features present in parts of Hindu extremist politics like use of violence and threat to achieve Sectarian objectives, reliance on victimizing members of a particular community, mass mobilization based on deeply divisive appeals and ‘willingness to use unconstitutional and strong-arm procedures,” he Observed. Prof Sen noted that an important factor in the gullibility that led to the acceptance of the new brand of politics was the shockingly low level offiteracy in the Hindi belt. The Ramjanambhumi movement banks on educational and scientific naiveté. Hindu political activists want to project India as a country or unquestioning idolaters, credulous fanatics, quarrelsome devotees and religious murderers. Communal fascism, Prof Sen said, could be handled only by determined confrontation bat it was terrible to watch responsible political leaders waiting for a shift in public opinion, rather than leading it.

The realization of the danger of the Hindu fascism at intellectual level is welcome more so when it came from a Hindu. It is, however, ‘wrong to believe that “responsible political leaders” in India are only ‘Waiting for the public opinion to shift away from fascism. They, in fact, are a party to the game. I tall began with the operation Blue star in June 1984 and the author was Indira Gandhi. She banked on the fascist features of the Hindu politics in devising her own party’s Politics to win elections in the Delhi municipal corporation in 1982 and in Jammuregion of Kashmirin 1983, These fascist features were further exploited by Rajiv Gandhi when he planned and executed the wholesale slaughter of several thousand Sikhs in Delhi and other towns of north India in November 1984 as a prelude to general elections in early 1985. In fact, Gandhi became ‘a bit of an expert in Hindu fascism when he trained Hindu armed forces to become a part and parcel of the fascist Hindu mobs. These armed forces were set on the Sikhs of Punjab and Muslims of Kashmir to murder lakhs of people, a process that is still on. The next “responsible political leader” in the series is none else than India’s present prime minister Narasimha Rao.

Rao was India’s home minister when thousands of Sikhs were killed by fascist Hindi mobs with the connivance of Hindu armed forces. It was, again, under Rao’s prime minister ship that Babn masjid was permitted 10 be destroyed despite his hypocritical statement on August 15,1992, rally that the masjid would not be allowed to be demolished. And, under his very nose, nay, presumably under his direct order, more than a thousand Muslims were killed by Indian armed forces merely for raising a voice of protest against the demolition. The so-called prime minister’s house is nothing but a be chive of Hindu communal fascism.

Every police officer of some note in Punjab and Kashmir, for instance, takes orders directly from the prime minister’s house; the latest shocking incident involving the deaths of an advocate of Ropar, his wife and their minor son by drowning at the hands of the Indian police is a grim reminder of the ugly face of the Hindu fascism. No one in that part of India believes the police concoction that the deaths of the three innocent persons have taken place at the hands of their abductors who allegedly happen to be Sikh militants. The false plea has been dismissed by thousands of advocates of Punjab and Haryana ‘who organized satin protests demanding a judicial enquiry into the coldblooded murders by the police. Of course, the Indian prime minister will not order an enquiry or prosecution of the guilty police officers, Rao is an authentic representative of India’s Hindu fascism notwithstanding the fact that there are more vicious representatives available to complete the picture. That is precisely why Indian minister Arjun Singh’s efforts last week within the Congress Working Committee to ensure that the ruling party distances itself from the ‘rising menace and meets the fascist challenge resulted in a fiasco. So long as Rao is at the helm of affairs in India, Hindu fascism is likely to grow by leaps and bounds in the months to come.

Article extracted from this publication >>  February 12, 1993