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Prabhat Patnaik
Social Scientist, Vol. 21, No. 3/4. (Mar. - Apr., 1993), pp. 69-77.
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Wed Apr 2 10:36:07 2008
PRABHAT PATNAIK*
1. Many people stop short of describing the Ayodhya outrage and its
sequel in terms of a rise of Fascism in our country, and prefer to restrict
themselves to the use of the word communalism. In my view however
the communal carnage and the pogroms against the minority commu-
nity that occurred in cities like Bombay and Ahmedabad are the out-
ward and horrendous manifestations of a deeper and more sinister
trend, namely the emergence sf Fascism; consequently, one cannot treat
them as episodic or transient, or concerning the minority community
alone. I am not underplaying the communal nature oi the violence, but I
am arguing that communalism is the form which Fascism takes in our
country.
The Hindutva movement as it has emerged is, almost in a classical
sense, Fascist in its ideology, Fascist in its class support, Fascist in its
methods, and Fascist in its programme. All the ingredients of a Fascist
ideology are present in it: the attempt to unify the majority under a
homogenised concept, 'the Hindus'; a sense of grievance against
alleged injustices done to this homogeneous group in the past by an
excluded homogeneous minority; a sense of cultural superiority vis-a-
vis this minority; a reinterpretation of history exclusively in these
terms; a total rejection of contrary evidence, of dispassionate analysis,
of the scientific method, indeed of rational discourse; and above all an
appeal to the so-called homogeneous majority in passionate, blood-
curdling, and essentially male chauvinist terms to 'stand up', 'assert
their manhood', 'show that it is blood not water that flows in their
veins', all of which amount to an incitement to violence, and result in
actual violence, against the minority group. Unlike progressive social
movements which attack institutions, and not individuals, and whose
attack on institutions derives precisely from the desire to attain equal-
ity and 'universal brotherhood', the targets of Fascism are individuals
belonging to a particular group; the attack on institutions, such as it is,
is derivative from this. It seeks not to transcend the current state, but to