Volume 1, No. 7, September 2000

— Kamlesh

The writing is on the wall. The fascist Hindu chauvinists are slowly and surreptitiously penetrating each and every aspect of the social, cultural, political and economic life of the people. It is like a cancer, eating into the body-politics of the country. It is a slow poison destroying our minds and corrupting our principles. Organisationally, it moves like a snake, worming its way into vantage positions. Politically, it brays like a donkey, shrill and loud. Economically, it is like a chameleon, resorting to subterfuge, and hiding its real intentions under a cloak of fake slogans. It is ruthless, it is inhuman, it is vile, it is decadent, it is deceitful; it is terroristic, and is led by the dregs of society. But, it is also cowardly. Hanuman-like, it bloats into a bully, only when people cringe before it ..... if one dares to confront it, it scurries away like a rat. It does not listen to reason or appeals or calls to decency given by liberals; it only knows the language of violence. It is wishful-thinking to hope that it will retreat through persuasion, electoral antics or policies of appeasement. Unless it is hit, it will not fall.

It has many faces — the rabble-rousing Singhals, Giriraj Kishores, etc, who are its Goebellian hysteria-mongers; the cold-blooded demons, like the Advanis, Sudarshans and other RSS big-wigs, who plan their strategies; their ‘intellectual’ touts, like the Shouries, journalists, ‘educationists’, who seek to give legitimacy to their hindu fascist agenda; the smooth-talking two-faced hypocrites of the Vajpayee/Gurumurthy types, who seek to give it its ‘tolerant’ face; and finally their assassins, who lead the massacres, rapes, pogroms and butcheries. The last are mere tools of the former. If Dara Singh is the actual murderer; the Vajpayees, Advanis, Sudarshans, Singhals, Shouries, etc., are his collaborators — nay, his instigators, his promoters. All are equally criminal.

The recent nation-wide attack on Christians and their institutions is the mere tip of the ice-berg. It had become an urgent necessity to find a symbol of the West to attack, to cover up the blatant and servile capitulation of the BJP to the imperialists, TNCs, etc. With the rank-and-file fed on a diet of ‘swadeshi’, nationalism, etc, to see their leaders fawning over and boot-licking their white bosses would arouse anger — this was best diverted by attacking symbols of the West and by the ‘swadeshi’ shadow-boxing of the RSS. Hindu Vs Christianity, tradition Vs modernity, and a fake ‘swadeshi’ became the staple diet of the Sangh Parivar, to camouflage its wining and dining with the foreign devil. Besides, with its plan for a total overhaul of the education system, the vast network of missionary school could act as a major hurdle to their plans.

But, the Hindu chauvinist agenda goes far deeper than Christian-bashing. It seeks the creation of its fascist Hindu Rashtra, built on the lines of a Hitler’s Germany.... in the Indian context. And as long as it is able to dupe a sizable section of the masses, the imperialists too know that this is the best medicine, to keep the Indian masses from rising in revolt against its policies, being adopted in the country. Reason : it is, atleast to day, the most organised force amongst the ruling class elements; it is able to rally a sizable section of the masses, and even motivate some into hysterical actions; it is ruthless in its attitude to people’s issues and demands; and, it is proving most servile in implementing its dictates not only in India, but even abroad. Of course, once it losses its appeal in the country, the imperialists can switch their favourites, just as they have done in the Philippines, Chile, Indonesia, Congo, etc. In these countries, autocrats and butchers who had served the US faithfully for decades, were dropped overnight, when their use was over. And in India, in a caste-ridden society, with the bulk comprising of the lower and middle castes, the Brahminical Hinduism of the Hindutva brigade cannot rally the bulk of the Hindus for long. Besides, even amongst the upper-castes, that section which is being hit economically by the imperialist dictated policies, is already growing increasingly disenchanted.

But, for the present, utilising its positions of power at the Centre and in some States, it is infiltrating into all spheres of not only the bureaucracy and state machinery, but also civil society. For this, vast sums of money are being released not only by the governments and their administrative wings, but also by the comprador big bourgeoisie, the NRIs and even the imperialists. Thousands of crores are flowing into its coffers. And the feudal and rural elite act as it main vehicle for spreading its tentacles in the vast countryside.

The Hindu Rashtra of the fascists have two aspects: The first is, big-nation chauvinism, with its aggressive expansionist designs. This is fuelled by the consistent anti-Pak, anti-ISI tirade, which is taken to a high-pitch during border conflicts, or when Hindus are killed, as during the Amarnath Yatra.

The second aspect is a homogeneous Hindu nation, bridging caste divisions, assimilating other religions like Sikhism, Buddhism, tribal religions, etc., while treating non-hindus as aliens — or else converting them to the Hindu fold. No doubt the Hinduism of this ‘Rashtra’ will be Brahminical and the state, fascist.

Of course, big-nation chauvinism and a hindu bias has always been part and parcel of the Indian ruling classes, but since the mid-1980s it has begun to take on an aggressive fascistic character. The Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the IMF introduced in the early 1980s, together with the WTO agreement, was set to push the already impoverished country, still deeper into the quagmire of poverty. The SAP was so harsh, that its immediate impact of price rise, unemployment, cuts in social welfare, etc., was leading to mass discontent. Under this imperialist dictated agenda no reforms were possible, to back slogans like ‘garibi hatao’, etc. To divert the rising discontent, majority chauvinism was the best answer. It was Indira Gandhi who undertook the Ganga-jal Ekatmata Yatra (with Om as the symbol) and it was Rajiv Gandhi who was personally involved in introducing the Ramayana serial on TV, opening the locks of the Babri Masjid, allowing Shilanyas at the site, and initiating his 1989 election campaign from Ayodhya.

1991/92 saw a major leap in this entire process, with the imperialists aggressively pushing ‘globalisation’ throughout the world. So, through the decade of the 1990s, whichever party came to power, both at the Centre and State level, there was a veritable race to open up the economy to imperialist plunder. As a result, the condition of the masses, and even large sections of the middle-class, have been going from bad to worse. The high pitched hindu chauvinism, fuelled by nuclear bomb explosions and border clashes, was the ideal diversion. So the fascist hindutva offensive is nothing but the socio-political face of the current imperialist onslaught on our country.

In this article we shall give a brief sketch of the growth of this monster in the last two years of BJP-led rule. The details will be further elaborated in a series of articles in the coming issues. The article will be divided into two sections. First we shall see the extent of the Hindutva offensive. Then we shall turn to the attitude of various political and social forces towards it.

Now let us look at the extent of the saffronisation of the system.

I
The Hindutva Offensive

Utilising its control over state power, the BJP has systematically pushed RSS elements to all the top echelons of the armed forces, the bureaucracy and the central police forces. The six governors appointed by the NDA are all RSS stooges. The judiciary too is deeply saffronised at the top, which is reflected in some of its judgments. At the State level the penetration is even deeper, wherever the BJP is in power. This is particularly to be seen in Gujarat and UP. In UP it has desperately been trying to pass the ‘Dharmada Bill’ to take control of the vast funds received by temple trusts; and the ‘UP Public Building, Place of Worship Regulation Bill’ to destroy Muslim mosques and prevent their growth. Generally, the police forces in all States are already communalised, this has only been enhanced with the police openly cooperating with the hindu fascists in its attacks, not only on Muslims, but also on Christians.

The process of assimilation of tribals, dalits, Buddhists, Sikhs, etc., into the Hindu fold by the RSS, which has been going on for a large number of years, has peaked during the last two years.

There have been particularly aggressive programmes amongst the tribals. Though tribal religion has never been part of Hinduism, in the name of ‘re-conversion’ from Christianity, a widespread movement is being attempted. Since the last three years, in the Dangs of Gujarat and the neighbouring regions of Maharashtra, the RSS fronts have gone on a rampage against the missionaries burning churches, physically assaulting them and preventing Christmas programmes. It claims to have ‘reconverted’ 2000 tribals. In the Bastar region of Madhya Pradesh, there has been a systematic and widespread promotion of the Bhakti cults resulting in the sanskritisation and hinduisation of the tribal masses. They are forcibly converting tribals to Hinduism and replacing their Gondi language with Hindi. In the Jharkhand region a new campaign has been initiated on a big scale amongst tribals. A two day festival at Bero (near Ranchi) saw central ministers and top VHP officials descend onto the people. In Mayurghanj and Keonjhar districts of Orissa, where Graham Staines and his two sons were murdered, Dara Singh, the chief accused, is being turned into a cult figure. The Sangh Parivar, has established a ‘Dara Sena’ and a number of other organisations, and are distributing highly inflammatory literature — including a booklet entitled ‘I, Dara Speaks’. The VHP’s so-called re-conversion campaigns peaked with the Shankaracharya of Puri ‘re-converting’ 72 tribal Christians in early June in the very village that Staines was burnt alive. Besides, these places, the RSS outfits are working amongst tribals in Rajasthan, the North East, and a number of places in South India.

Since the last one year the RSS has been actively infiltrating the main districts of Sikh militancy — Gurdaspur and Amritsar — and recruiting youth into the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat. This culminated in the high profile convention of the Sangat at Chandigarh in end April, which was inaugurated by no less a person than the RSS chief, Sudarshan. Here he thundered how, historically, the Khalsa was created to protect Hinduism, and how the Sikh Gurus had been tormented by the Muslims. The Sangat does not mince words, it openly propagates that the Sikhs were only a Panth of the Hindu faith.

Infiltrating the dalits has also been a part of the RSS programme. Here they invoke Ambedkar’s name (also introducing it into their morning hymn) focussing on the fact that he did not convert to Christianity or Islam, but to Buddhism, which they say is close to Hinduism. In Maharashtra, they have floated the Samajik Samarast Manch (Social Harmony Forum) and Samata Parishad (Equality Conference) which held a huge function at a village near Devgad in May. This was attended by 16 Buddhist monks, including those from Sri Lanka, Tibet and London.

Of late, the RSS has, for the last four years, been systematically infiltrating the Ladakh region of Kashmir with their so-called Sindhu Darshan — conceived to pay tribute to the river Indus, the bedrock of Sindhu ethos. This year in June, the Jamboree was high profile, with the Prime Minister, Advani, other central ministers, governors and RSS bigwigs attending. A section of the Buddhists of Ladakh have already been made anti-moslem and anti-Christian, and have allied with the saffron infiltration.

In Kerala, they are working to win over the numerically strong Ezhava community by invoking the name of the social reformer Narayan Guru. His fight against Brahminical positions is distorted, and his "one religion, one god" concept is presented as unified Hinduism.

All these assimilation programmes are being conducted amongst the poorer sections, not merely to keep them away from Christianity, but more particularly revolution. With the government cutting off even its limited welfare programmes, these sections are the worst hit by economic reforms and therefore the most receptive to revolutionary ideas. As an RSS man said "if we do not enter the tribals, the vacuum will either be filled by the Christians or the Naxalites."

While the hysteria against moslems continues non-stop, their immediate target has been the Christians, for reasons already mentioned.

Christian bashing has reached epidemic proportions. Serial bombings of churches, raping of nuns, brutal murders or priests, attacks on Christian schools.... have been taking place throughout the country. In UP and Gujarat, even the propagation of Christianity has been turned into a crime, with the police arresting those involved. In the two years upto mid-June 2000 there have been over 300 of such cases. All were cowardly attacks, backed by the government and police. The standard story put out by both, is that these are not communal attacks, but isolated instances of theft. By pretending not to realise the obvious, it is nothing but a call to the goons to go ahead and increase their attacks. What is even more astounding is that the National Commission on Minorities has also been saffronised, as it danced to the same tune, saying that the attacks on Christians was not communal but "local law and order incidents."

Now, to add salt to the wounds, the long awaited amendments to the Christian personal law, has finally been put out by the Law Commission, which has clauses unacceptable to Christians, and was nowhere included in the drafts presented by the community. It seeks to restrict the powers of the church, and church marriages, where one of the partners is from outside the community will now be considered void.

While the focus has been on whipping up a hysteria against conversions, there is no stop to the muslim-baiting. No opportunity is lost to whip up a phobia, and keep tensions smouldering, so that the next anti-muslim pogrom can be unleashed whenever convenient. In this, the RSS has gone to such ridiculous lengths as to even pit the muslim film stars against the Hindus. In a cover page story in their organ, they said that the Khan stars and their backers, were preventing the hindus like Hritik Roshan from rising. Even the attack on Christians have now been blamed on moslem organisations.

At the local level, anti-moslem riots continue, but they have now become so common place as not to warrant much media attention. In the last few months riots have occurred in Ahmedabad, Surat, Mathura, Jaipur, Varanasi, Jammu, Maharashtra and many other places. In Delhi the Jamia Millia students were brutally attacked by the police mouthing foul anti-moslem abuses. In addition, the VHP has maintained its tempo on the Ayodhya campaign. It has announced that the Ram mandir construction at Ayodhya will commence in 2001 after the January Kumb Mela. Daily, one to three trucks of carved stones go from Rajasthan to Ayodhya. And now the Sangh Parivar has announced plans for a massive ‘Hindu Jagran’ focussing on the 50th anniversary of the renovation of the Somnath temple (ravaged by Mohammed of Ghazni in the 11th century) to further ignite anti-moslem sentiments. They plan a rath yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya, joined by 250 smaller yatras.

In their anti-minority campaigns their main attacks will continue to be the muslims; Christians will be targeted for their anti-west propaganda value; and if Sikh assimilation fails, they too will once again be targeted. Basically, the Hindu chauvinists see all non-hindus as aliens, and enemies of their Hindu rashtra.

The level of Hindutva propaganda, blatant and subtle, in both the print and visual media, is enormous. The Doordarshan channel presents daily programmes on the religious epics, presents bias news, and has serials that crudely whip up anti-moslem, anti-Pak and anti-terrorist (i.e., militants and revolutionaries) sentiments. Of late, a large number of films are also on similar themes, and so also are many serials on the private channels. The print media too is filled with pro-hindutva muck .... crudely seen in magazines like India Today, and more mildly presented in the other mainstream magazines, including the business ones. The daily papers are either outright hindutva or mildly so. Film stars and cricketers are used, to add to its effectivity. A most vulgar example has been the subtle glorification of Dara Singh in the media.

But, this Goebellian propaganda is only one aspect of the saffronisation of the mind. The second and even more dangerous one, is the saffronisation of the entire education system. And this, is taking place at enormous speed at the Centre and in those states where the BJP wields power. Poisonous ideas are sought to be drilled into the minds of, not only the youth, but even the children of the country. It is therefore not surprising that there were only two ministries that the BJP was unwilling to share with its alliance partners. These were : Information and Broadcasting and Human Resource Development (HRD). Both are packed with RSS elements from top to bottom.

The steps already taken by the BJP are alarming : It has removed all the 18 members on the body of the ICHR (Indian Council of Historical Research) and packed them with RSS ‘historians’; it has suspended mid-way, the two volumes of the books ‘Towards Freedom’ being published by the ICHR, in order to ‘review’ it, and introduce a distorted version of its role in the freedom struggle; the entire board of the IGNCA (Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts) have been sacked by the Minister of Culture, Ananth Kumar, and in its place he has appointed himself and his stooges — the new body has changed the focus of the IGNCA from research to that of propaganda; the ICSSR (Indian Council of Social Science Research) has been completely taken over by the saffron brigade, who now arbitrarily dictate or veto research budgets to affiliated institutions; they have taken control of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla, and also the Indian Council of Philosophical Research; the new saffron UGC (University Grants Commission) Chairman, Hari Gautam, has announced that all leading universities must open departments in ‘Astrology and Vedic studies’ — funded by the UGC; aggressive plans are there to change the minority states of the AMU (Aligarh Muslim University) — a status for which they fought for years; it has been seeking to replace secular hymns and the national anthem in school assemblies with the ‘Saraswati Vandana’ and ‘vande mataram’......

Besides this focus to grab control of apex bodies of higher learning, it has taken control of the key institution that sets the framework for school curriculums throughout the country — the NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and Training). It has packed the top boards of this institution with saffron fanatics like KG Rastogi. Inspite of immense opposition, he continues to be present on all the top bodies. Rastogi is infamous for proudly writing in his auto-biography, that he shot dead a young muslim woman during partition "to save her from being raped by Hindus."

The NCERT has already put forward a document on the "Proposed New National Curriculam Framework for School Education", which completely overhauls the 1988 NCERT framework. The saffron guidelines now presented puts emphasis on teaching religion, tradition and India’s ‘great cultural heritage’, ‘value-education’, special courses for girls in ‘home-keeping’, etc. It also seeks to bring in elitism at the school level by having two science courses — one, for the ‘ordinary’ student, and another for the ‘bright’ student. And for all its great emphasis on ‘Indianness’, the new framework negates the earlier emphasis on the mother tongue, and puts enormous stress on English — no doubt, to serve the imperialists more effectively. Already many of these changes have been introduced in the schools in UP and Gujarat.

Yet, this is not all. The RSS is spreading its own network of private schools, which already teach highly inflammatory and provocative material. Its vast expanding network of Vidya Bharati schools (going under various names) has increased from 6000 to 14,000 (5000 recognised). They have 18 lakh students and employ 80,000 teachers. They control 60 villages and 25 other institutions of higher education. Besides this, individual BJP members own numerous institutions. For example, P.D. Chitlangia’s Friends of Tribal Society already own 1,300 schools and plan 4000 more.

On the one hand, the Sangh Parivar seeks assimilation of most of the lower castes into its concept of Hindutva; on the other hand, the Brahminical content of its Hinduism alienates the lower castes and OBCs. With its elitist leadership and ideology it will never be able to resolve this contradiction, no matter what gimmicks it resorts to (like making a dalit the president of the BJP).

This contradiction is to be clearly seen in its conversion/sanskritisation activities amongst tribals. Here the pujaris etc., are often turned into neo-brahmins who treat the commoner as untouchable. In fact, in Orissa when the Shankaracharya of Puri called on Christian tribals to convert to Hinduism, he promised that hundreds of SEPARATE (Swastik) temples will be built for them, as entry into the traditional temples may lead to "confrontation" (with the upper castes). In other words, the converts will be treated as neo-untouchables with no right to enter the main temples !!

Besides, often when ordinary dalits seek to assert themselves, they are ruthlessly crushed, either by upper-caste gangs or by the very state itself. Under the BJP dispensation such intolerance is even more visible. The massacres of dalits in the past one year proves this fact. The nurturing of the Ranvir Sena, specifically by the BJP/Samata alliance, and the massacre of 35 dalits and other lower castes in a village in Aurangabad district of Bihar, on June 16, 2000, is a grim reminder on how the elite will not tolerate the self-assertion of the lower castes, being organised there by the Naxalites.

But such brutality against dalits is witnessed not only against those organised by the Naxalites. On July 23, ’99 17 dalits were killed in the heart of Tirunelveli town, Tamil Nadu, by the very police itself. On March 11, 2000 seven dalits were burnt to death by Vokkaliga goons in a village in Kolar district of Karnataka. On May 17, upper castes viciously attacked dalit houses in a village in Pudukkottai district of Tamil Nadu, destroying houses and looting their belongings. Thirty dalits, including women were seriously injured, and another 30 suffered injuries of varying intensity. And then there was the horrifying story of the dalit quarry workers in a village in Mandya district, Karnataka, who had been chained since the last two years, by their employer, for failing to repay a debt. They had been subjected to inhuman treatment, shacked by 15 kg iron chains.

Besides this, the Sangh Parivar’s hostility to reservations, is reflected not only in the massive backlog that continues, in the filling up of posts, but also in a judgment of the highest court in the country. Earlier last year, the Supreme Court gave two highly castiest rulings against reservations in institutes of higher learning.

Having now seen the extent of the penetration and influence of the Hindutva forces, we shall now turn to the attitude of the various political and social forces towards it. Within this, we shall finally end with the attitude of the democratic and revolutionary forces towards this rising monster.

II
Role of Socio-political Forces

Whether it is the BJP’s allies or the opposition, the determining factor of their attitude towards the BJP and the Hindutva offensive is the advantage they can gain electorally. And, quite obviously, with vote-bank politics as the key to their success, secularism cannot get precedence over the hindu vote. If secularism has to be sacrificed at the alter of power, so be it.

First, to take the BJP’s allies (including the earlier AIADMK). In these past two years they have acted as outright collaborators of the Sangh Parivar, giving it a respectability that they never enjoyed earlier. Besides, they actually facilitated entry into new areas where they earlier did not exist. Besides the Shiv Sena which seeks to out-beat the BJP in Hindutva, the others’ stand vary from soft-hindutva (eg. earlier AIADMK, Samata) to silent collaboration. On the continuous vicious attacks on Christians there has been not even token opposition, and in the anti-moslem propaganda most are collaborators. This includes the so-called Dravidian parties of Tamil Nadu, which grew out of the Periyar traditions — now totally foresaken.

As for the opposition, the Congress(I), which, as we have seen, was an initiator of the present trend, continues its soft-hindutva approach. In fact a resolution of the CWC (Congress Working Committee) on January 16, 1999 differed little from that of the Sangh Parivar when it said "Hinduism is the most effective guaranteer of secularism." Soon after this, Sonia herself went on a tour of Hindu temples and held meetings with Hindu saints. Also, top leaders of the party, like VN Gadgil, ND Tiwari, Vasant Sathe, Sudhakar Rao Naik and many others are openly Hindu chauvinists. Maharashtra chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, was, in fact, once close to joining the Shiv Sena. Inspite of vowing to take action on the Srikrishna Report, no action has been taken against the policemen indicted, infact, many have been promoted. Same is the case with the Gundewar report on the Dalit killings. Infact, in its one year rule, in Maharashtra, five muslims have been killed in police firings. Its present antics with the Shiv Sena, and its chief, is more to serve its political interest. After all, its alliance partner, the NCP, has a Home Minister (Bhujbal) with a notorious record of instigating communal riots, and a chief, Sangma, who is openly aligned with the BJP. Sharad Pawar too is known for his long time close relationship with the hindu chauvinists.

As far as the other parties go, the BSP has rarely taken a concrete stand against the hindu chauvinists, and can at any time again form a government with the BJP in UP. The other dalit parties are equally opportunist, selling their dalit vote-banks to the highest bidder. The Samajwadi Party, which has to nurse a large muslim vote-bank, for all its anti-hindutva rhetoric sees no problem in accepting into its fold Sakshi Maharaj — one of the key ‘kar sevaks’ responsible for destroying the Babri Masjid. And as for the CPI, CPI(M) and RJD, in order to serve their opportunist electoral needs, they portray the Congress(I) as the most secular force in the country, and saw no problem aligning with the openly hindu chauvinist AIADMK. They too have done nothing to oppose the hindu fascist attacks on Christians. And most of these opposition parties, including the revisionists and SP, often outdo the BJP in their anti-Pak hysteria.

Firstly, minority fundamentalism cannot be equated with majority fundamentalism, and the state’s sponsorship of the latter. Minority fundamentalism, in the Indian context, is a reaction to the hindutva chauvinists. To effectively fight the fascist offensive, it is necessary to, first and foremost, defend the rights of the minorities, including their rights to their religious beliefs.

Having said this, it is necessary to expose the minority leadership’s role in the fight against hindutva chauvinism. Many either capitulate, or otherwise react with minority fundamentalism which only deepens the divide amongst the communities, and thereby plays into the hands of the fascists.

Take the Christians. Its leadership is busy appealing to the Prime Minister, who is one of the sponsors of the present terror. Also, it is sought to be portrayed that the missionaries are some innocents doing excellent social-service. While the ordinary, missionary may be dedicated to their cause; their top priests are nothing but a colonial legacy seeking to push the masses into passivity through conversion. The top echelon of the priesthood are thugs and arrogant, pompous autocrats with close links to the ruling classes. If the Christian community has to resist, they would have to break free of this influence, and organise a militant youth force to fight back.

As for the muslim fundamentalist leadership, they only act to increase the divide, and push their own community into the most backward, feudal thinking. While they fight back militantly, their targets are invariably diffused, often hitting at the common hindu, rather that at the leadership. This is counter-productive, but serves their interest to maintain their hold on the community. Also, by pushing their community into the vortex of Islamic fundamentalism, they shut the door for any democratic progress. Here too, it is necessary for the Muslim youth to get out of the influence of their fundamentalist leadership, and join with other democratic forces to fight the fascists.

There are a large number of liberals who dream they can bring reason to the fascists, by a policy of appeasement. This was best reflected in their attitude to the destruction of the Babri Masjid. Instead of demanding the re-building of the destroyed monument, they demanded a national monument, public utilities, etc, etc. Some Muslim liberals went so far as to state they should allow construction of the Ram Mandir in return for a guarantee that no other masjids will be demolished. These liberals have obviously learnt nothing from past history. Nowhere in history have fascists ever retreated by soft-pedalling them.

But, most pernicious today, is that vast network of liberals linked to the NGOs. Thousands of such organisations have spread their tentacles all over the country, thriving on funds funnelled from abroad, or from the government and the Indian compradors. Most are infected with a common ideological approach, which defacto fuels the fires of hindu chauvinism. They have two important percepts in their neo-Gandhian approach — glorifying Indian (i.e., hindu) tradition in reaction to Westernisation; and a distaste for mass violence while turning a blind eye to the violence of the fascists.

This approach can best be seen through one of their chief ideological spokesman — Ashish Nandy of the CSDS (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies) founded by Rajni Kothari, whose views are widely propagated by their magazine ‘Lokayan’. Nandy’s tradition Vs modernity concept has been taken to such extremes as to defacto support the Roop Kunwar sati. He legitimised the event by seeing it as a case of ‘self-destruction’, likening it to the ‘heroic’ and ‘traditional’ acts of political fasts by Gandhian leaders. He continues this logic to launch a vehement tirade even against secularism. He says secularism is a Western concept unsuited to India, where ‘true’ religion (i.e., Hinduism) alone can bring good and tolerance. He goes so far as to attack the left, secularists and socialists for being too "eager to fight for the cause of secularism to the last Muslim or Sikh."

Such talk differs little from that of the RSS and its ‘pseudo-secularism’ and glorification of tradition, etc., and results in nothing but fuelling the fires of hindutva. Though Nandy’s views may be extreme, the bulk of the NGOs (take Manushi for example) fall into the tradition Vs modernity dichotomy, which, in the Indian context, results in them becoming apologists of Hindutva. What they do not understand is Westernisation (so-called modernity) is different from democratisation. And in going back to tradition, they merely seek to replace imperialist values with feudal values. The answer to both hindutva and Westernisation, is to fight for a new set of democratic values.

The second aspect of these neo-Gandhians is a vehement opposition to any form of people’s violence. They legitimise fascist terror with the approach that one person’s incorrectness cannot be countered by repeating the ‘mistake’. Thereby, by equating all violence, they are unable to distinguish between just and unjust violence. Today, the Bajrang Dal is openly holding camps in the training of arms. In its fourth such camp held in UP the arms training was given in a ground in the heart of Lucknow, at the peak hour, in full view of the public. This time the weapons used were not air guns, but real guns. When such butchers together with the state machinery are massacring Christians, Moslems, dalits, Kashmiris, North East nationalities and revolutionaries, to talk of non-violence amounts to making people into helpless targets of the fascists.

Not only has the BJP not been able to make any electoral gains in the past elections, the severe divisions within its ranks are eroding its influence even further. Fascists are known for their intolerance, which is getting reflected in their own organisations. Besides, after coming to power, they are falling prey to the Congress culture of putting personal gain before organisational interests. People are beginning to see them as being no different from the Congress in their greed and mania for money and power.

Besides, the people themselves have been fighting back the Hindutva offensive.

In Punjab the RSS got a shock of their lives when their Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, was greeted by a massive demonstration with youth shouting "Sudarshan go back." This has been followed up by the formation of an action committee of 19 organisations with a plan for continuous programmes of propaganda and agitation against the Sangat.

The tribals too have not been passive observers to the RSS’s forays. In Bastar, under the leadership of the CPI(ML) [PW], tribals have been actively resisting the attacks on their culture and self-respect by the Bhakti cults of the RSS. They have also opposed the conversion to Christianity by educating the tribals on the uselessness of such steps. In Jharkhand at the VHP convention in Bero, tribals under the banner of the ABAVP (Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad) demonstrated at the venue itself, threatening to stall the very proceedings. In the Dangs of Gujarat, a widely distributed unsigned pamphlet entitled "we are not vanvasis, we are adivasis", appealed to the tribals to register themselves during the current census only as tribals and not fall prey to the Hindutva propaganda.

In the urban areas a large number of intellectuals have come out opposing the Hindutva’s attacks on cultural freedom, educational institutions and its attempts to saffronise Indian history. In addition the minorities and dalits are organising themselves to more effectively resist the onslaughts by the fascists.

But all this is not sufficient. If the fascists have to be effectively beaten back it requires a large mass movement of democratic and revolutionary forces. This movement will have to take to not merely exposures of fascist misdeeds, but militant actions which curbs their initiative, destroys their self-confidence, and humiliates their leadership. The fascists need to be beaten back on their own terms. The ring leaders should be isolated from the rank-and-file and should be severely punished for their crimes. It is futile to rely on the police, judiciary or government, who openly or tacitly side with the fascists. Justice can only be achieved in the people’s courts.

Finally, the masses must be educated on the socio-economic causes for the rise of Hindutva, their links with the comprador-imperialist combine must be exposed, and thereby a broad front be formed in order to isolate them, in order to more effectively hit them. In the final analysis, though fissures within its camp weaken it; the rise or fall of the fascists is determined by the strength of the people’s movement against it.

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