Al-Qalam 
Source: Scroll in
By Imraan Buccus
The right-wing authoritarianism that has surged in much of the world in recent years was defeated in the US, and just been dealt a body blow in Colombia. The buffoonish Boris Johnson is hanging onto power by the skin of his teeth and the hard right duo of Jair Bolsonaro and Narendra Modi are still in office.
There are growing grounds for hope that Bolsonaro will soon be defeated by the return of Lula da Silva, but in India; Modi, and his fascist party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are well entrenched, and face no immediate threat to their hold on power.
Along with its authoritarianism, and its support for a terrifyingly rapacious form of capitalism, the BJP’s fundamental project, directly influenced by European fascism, is to make India a Hindu state. Minorities of all kinds are under threat as they are increasingly treated as illegitimate interlopers in Hindu India.
In recent times the world has stood appalled as the Indian state has continued to demolish the homes of Muslims. Muslims are said to have led protests against the government after recent Islamophobic comments against the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his wife Aisha, by leading members of the BJP party. This led to several Muslim countries calling for an apology and pulling Indian goods off their shelves. This has given the fascist government an excuse to escalate their misrepresentation of Muslims as being a fifth column in Indian society.
As shattering images of homes being demolished are beamed across the world, one can’t help but point out the striking similarity to the actions of the brutal Israeli forces who continue to demolish the homes of ordinary citizens and activists. In 2021 close to 1 000 homes were demolished.
Recent history records that both India and Israel have been engaged in atrocities dating back decades. The world remembers, for example the horrific anti-Muslim violence led by Modi as chief minister of Gujerat in 2002. Today WhatsApp videos of the public lynching Muslims and Dalit Hindus are regularly circulated in India.
Indian Islamophobia can be traced back to the formation of the Hindu nationalist paramilitary organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in 1925. In 1929, the leading RSS intellectual Madhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar, a Nazi sympathizer, is recorded to have said that Muslim culture was incompatible with Indian culture. He openly admired Hitler’s “final solution”. There are well documented links between the RSS and the Hindu Mahasaba, a well-known and influential Hindu organisation.
Of course there are many Hindus around the world who are fiercely critical of the BJP, just as many Muslims are fiercely critical of the leadership of Saudi Arabia and many Jews oppose the Israeli state. But Hindu fascism has wide support in India itself, and in diaspora communities in places like California. Modi was rapturously received by some in South Africa in 2016 and 2018.
All forms of fascism must be opposed everywhere, whether in states, such as India, or in the form of movements outside of the state, such as Operation Dudula here in South Africa. Just as there is global solidarity with the oppressed in Palestine, so too does global solidarity need to be built with all the minorities suffering oppression in India.
We cannot be selective in terms of where we build solidarity, and which states we call to order. Just as the Israeli government and the Saudi Arabian government need to be called to order, so too does the government that is not only wreaking havoc in India but is effectively denying millions of people full citizenship in their country. There is a human rights catastrophe under way in India, and at a staggering scale. It must be opposed by all decent people.
Dr Buccus is academic director of a university study abroad program and editor of Al Qalam.
