India Moving Toward Outright Fascism

In news from South Asia the term "fundamentalist" usually calls up the image of Islamic radicals. But in India, a virulent strain of Hindu fundamentalism is gathering strength and PNS commentator Andrew Robinson sees in this the foreshadowings of fascism in the world's largest democracy. Robinson, who speak several Indian languages, has been writing about South Asian affairs for over a decade.

"Islamic fundamentalist" is a familiar cliche, one that has haunted the American imagination ever since Iran, 1979. In contrast, the word "Hindu" calls to mind lightly-clad figures dancing about with flowers and finger-cymbals.

So "Hindu fundamentalist" may seem odd -- but they are here. Indeed, with 720,000 Indian troops massed at the Pakistani border, and democracy in a kind of patriotic suspension since this round of fighting over Kashmir began, India is beginning to resemble a fascist state.

The core of this movement are recruited when very young and drilled in the martial arts. They carry lathis (hard cane sticks), wear Gestapo-like uniforms and salute their superiors. Many of them, including high-ranking politicians, openly worship Hitler -- wearing armbands and swastikas (the word is of Sanskrit origin) among other icons.

"Germany has shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures... to be assimilated into one united whole," says M.S. Golwalkar, the leader of India's largest Hindu fundamentalist organization, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). This is "a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by."

Hindusthan means Hindu place. This and Hindutva (Hindu culture) and Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation) are all part of a campaign designed to turn India into the Hindu equivalent of an Aryan state.

And the movement has never been stronger than it is today.

Indian Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, described by Time magazine as "a portly, affable... scholarly moderate," is an RSS cadre. So is his political partner, Home Minister L.K. Advani, who was president of the Bharatiya Janata Parishad (BJP), now India's ruling party. The current BJP president, Kushabhu Thakre, is a lifelong RSS member -- and as fanatic as they come.

In fact, some 75 percent of the BJP's executives have RSS roots, and many consider the BJP nothing more than the RSS dressed in politician's clothing. The BJP's popularity is based almost entirely on nationalistic principals as applied against Christians, Muslims, and India's arch foe, Pakistan -- particularly over the Kashmir, where the majority Muslim population has sought to secede from India.

When the BJP first established a government in 1996, it lasted a total of 12 days. When they took power again a year later, they were still trying to form a stable coalition when Vajpayee ordered underground nuclear tests. Popular support for the BJP swelled -- nowhere more loudly than in Hindu fundamentalist groups like the RSS and Shiv Sena (Shiva's Army).

"We will no longer be thought of as a country of eunuchs!" exclaimed Shiv Sena leader Bal Thakaray, referring to the reputation for non-violence that has dogged India ever since Gandhi shed his lawyer's suit.

The BJP was quick to increase military spending (by as much as 68 percent for its nuclear program). The amount allocated for new weapons was only slightly less than the total for education, health and social programs -- in a country that reports only about 50 percent of its adult population is literate. About 200 million Indians -- some 20 percent -- lack access to clean water and more than 300 million survive on less than 50 cents per day.

Last May, only a few days after learning that his government was on the verge of dissolving, Prime Minister Vajpayee ordered the test of a nuclear-capable missile. Home Minister Advani -- and many others -- publicly declared that India's nuclear capability (often called the "Hindu Bomb" in the press) would finally bring a lasting solution to the Kashmir situation. He was -- as events have shown -- wrong. In fact, the opposite may be true.

The fighting in Kargil at the border "appears to be just one event set off by the forces unleashed after last year's nuclear tests in Pokhran [India]," explains Praveen Swami, a senior journalist with India's Frontline Magazine. "The self-proclaimed defender of national unity, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has led India to its most serious crisis since the war of 1948."

Hard-line Hindus are calling for a nuclear attack against Pakistan. Once relatively balanced newspapers now publish anti-Pakistan commentary and paeans to Indian bravery as hard news. One Internet provider in Bombay has blocked web access to Pakistan's English-language daily. Celebrities rush to Kashmir to donate blood -- including even Sonia Gandhi, president of the opposition Congress(I) party. And Indian cricket authorities are recommending the country's team no longer play against Pakistan -- something Hindu fundamentalists have long sought.

This is not to say that fundamentalism, or for that matter fascism, is any less virulent across the Pakistani border. But in light of current Indian politics, the battle over Kashmir is clearly less about territory than about stirring up mass support for a fundamentalist political agenda.

"When facing discontent from people at home, foster discontent for people abroad," said an Athenian statesman in the 5th century B.C. Perhaps the American media is too jaded by its own history of war distractions and wag-the-dog tales to recognize the phenomenon abroad, but 2500 years later the Athenian's lesson appears to apply to the world's largest democracy.