The Rise of Fascism in Modern India

“There’s something pitiable about a people that constantly bemoans its leaders. If they’ve let us down, it’s only because we’ve allowed them to. It could be argued that civil society has failed its leaders as much as leaders have failed civil society. We have to accept that there is a dangerous, systemic flaw in our parliamentary democracy that politicians will exploit. ” – Arundhati Roy, The Algebra of Infinite Injustice.

Today, Indian politics often seems to be just another topic to joke about at the dinner table. Something for the Eastern world to laugh at and the Western world to stare at, utterly confused. If an outsider is looking for anything else to be confused about in India (other than of course the religious hypocrisy and the various vernaculars), he can find it in politics. For me, as an outsider-insider Indian looking at my own nation from half way across the world.. you can only imagine my confusion.

Firstly, I asked my mother, aren’t all these parties the same? After going through tons of Wikipedia articles on each political party (national and Kerala state), this was the only conclusion I could come to. Out of the twenty I researched, at least ten had the same ideologies and differed in things so slight that even the strongest of the world’s magnifying glasses would utterly fail at detecting them. Slight slight differences. The Indian coalitions are a true joke to me. Either form a unified party or stay seperated. I’m not saying that it’s a sin to work together but a bit of sense in these could help.

Then the Shiv Sena, Shri Ram Sena, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak, Bharata Janata Party, etc… all of them seem to be the exact same to me; different deities, different leaders and perhaps different uniforms but the very same ideologies. Hindu nationalism. Perhaps even bordering on fascism. What a pity! In this generation, which has seen the worst of sectionalism’s antics, which has lived through and silently seen the effects of this truly evil idea. Almost all of genocide, the wars, the blood that has been shed in this century has been the result of this idea. Indian nationalism is not, and cannot, mean the same thing as Hindu nationalism. India has a myriad religions and myriad cultures. In these, how can we define what India is? or what an Indian is? or what Indian nationalism means?

In Mangalore, a group of men belonging to the Sri Ram Sena burst into a pub and literally beat out a handful of women who were sitting outside the pub. They were deemed “westernizers”, an abhorrence to true pure moralistic culture. Though which culture justifies the degradation and physical beating of women, I don’t quite get. How can we be un-Western? Yes, I concur, being modern doesn’t have to mean being Western. Modernization without westernization is possible. But you can’t really ever take out the west from the east, after all the three letters they share are inseparable. The world is a round and constantly turning. With that, how do we define west? or east? or north? or south? Directions are only inventions of the unnecessary human ambition. Nature has neither directions nor borders. So how exactly do we remain anti-western?

As Arundhati Roy noted, in The End of Imagination, an anti-westernizer has to be anti-democracy, not just anti-coke. Anti-tea with milk and sugar, not just anti-jeans. And of course, also against cricket, tobacco, coffee and chilies. Anything imported should be banned. And what does that leave India with? Even the strongest of optimists would agree that it won’t be much. We’ll just sit in our corners, hugging our holy books close to our chests. We’ll be isolated from the rest of the modern world but that’s okay; our women would be the epitomy of ideal behavior. Our children will grow up in an unadulterated world without sin and hatred (or any modern advances in technology). Sounds like a true Utopia, doesn’t it? Here’s to the future of our nation!

I wish these stupid parties would use their resources in a more productive way. Instead of proclaiming a harthal for every little thing, use that anger to prove that your party is really the best by doing something to help the community (find innovative ways to manage wastes, provide infrastructure, improve public transportation, create more public goods, etc). Instead of lobbying against Valentine’s day by proclaiming to physically abuse anyone celebrating it, build schools, help the the next generations and perhaps, teach them the importance of tradition and culture. What good does this do now? I wish, that just for a minute, a practicing Indian politician can step outside of their box and just look in from the outside, as a true, pure outsider. I’m sure that this will truly teach him how ridiculously laughable everything is.

This government is supposed to be for the people and by the people. They say that is what a democracy is. But where is the people? I don’t quite see them anywhere here.

Update: Yet another chapter to this story. This is ridiculous! http://www.indianexpress.com/news/moral-policing-victim-commits-suicide-in…/422981/