Glen Ford, Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report, tells his story as a red-diaper baby, growing up facing racism in the North living with his white activist mother, and living in the Deep South with his black deejay father

Draft Joint Statement on the Acquittal of the Convicts of Laxmanpur bathe dalit massacre for endorsement

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Draft Joint Statement on the Acquittal of the Convicts of Laxmanpur bathe dalit massacre for endorsement

 

We the undersigned are extremely  distressed and outraged by the Patna High Court judgement on the 9th of October acquitting the murderers of the infamous and shocking Laxmanpur Bathe Dalit masacre in the Arwal district of Bihar.

 

In the year 1997, Ranveer Sena, a dreaded upper caste feudal private army of mostly Bhumihar and Rajput landlords descended on the dalit tola of Laxmanpur bathe in the broad daylight and masacred 58 dalits, which includes 27 women and 10 children.

 

 The cruelity and bestiality of the upper caste vigitante attack of the Ranajir Sena was such that it didn’t spare even 3 year old children.

 

Atrocities on the dalits, sexual violence and exploitation of dalit women, including genocides and day to day humiliation that the dalits have been goingon since centuries.

 

From the time when this shameful graded inequality, brahmanical social order came into existence, which is India specific caste-feudalism; after the transfer of power by the colonial masters to their desi compradors in India, the ruling classes of India had betrayed its so called social contract with the Indian people which it had promised after taking over the reins of state power from their imperial masters.

 

From the Nehruvian era, Kilvemani, Tsunduru, Permakudi, Khairlanji and Karamachedu to Bathanitola is the bleeding post colonial history of caste violence and genocides on dalits in this country. which aspires to become a superpower, boasts of being the largest democracy, liberal rights discourse, being its legitimising ideology which Indian state has inscribed in its constitution.

 

All those various rights enshrined in the Indian constitution is turned into a sick joke every moment. Indian liberalism is the most despicable fraudulence which the Indian ruling elites have done to their toiling subaltern masses.

 

Throusands of fake encounters, custodial deaths and tortures, genocides and mass gang rapes of oppressed nationalities, minorities, dalits, adivasis, ethnic minorities and other marginal groups of the Indian caste Hindu society. Indian state has made made mockery of the very term of liberalism. The day to day caste violence and acquital of armed, feudal, vigilante private armies clearly proves that Indian state is a upper caste Hindu fascist state. From police to judiciary, Indian state stinks of extreme caste prejudices towards  oppressed nationalities,religeous minorities, dalits, sexual,linguistic, ethnic and other marginal groups.

 

The district and sessions court of Patna in its judgement against Laxmanpurbathe masacre had convicted 26 armed goons of Ranveer Sena. The district sessions court had pronomunecd death sentence for 16 Ranavir sena members and life sentence for 10 other members in 2010.

 

The court had acquited 19 accused for lack of evience.

 

 The then district and sessions judge in Patna in his judgement had remarked about the masacre that ‘the Laxmanpur Bathe Dalit masacre was a stigma on civil society.’ we are horified by the casteist nature of the Indian judiciary which is yet to have a proper representation of dalit judges.  

 

The casteist mindset of the judiciary has been evident right from the transfer of power to the desi elites in 1947.

 

In the infamous Kilvemani massacre judgement in Tamilnadu, the trial judge had noted about the murderer landlord that “the person of his social status will not indulge in such acts”. In the Bhanwri Devi gang-rape judgement in Rajasthan, the judges had noted “how can upper-caste men rape lower caste women”. This clearly indicates the anti dalit, upper caste, brahminical mindset of the Indian judiciary.

 

In the Laxmanpur bathe acquittal judgement, the Patna High Court had noted that ‘we are of the view that the prosecution witnesses are not reliable and so all the convicted persons are entitled for benefit of doubt.’ So all accused were set free. This clearly indicates the insidious casteist nexus of upper caste landlords, police and bureaucracy and judiciary. This same casteist Patna high court last year had acquitted the Ranajir Sena butchers of Bathanitola in which 21 Dalits were killed. Apart from that, the casteist judiciary of Bihar have acquitted the upper caste private armies in Miyapur, narayanpur, Khagdibigha and nagribazar dalit masacres. Successive judgements in cases relating to massacres/killings of dalits/minorities/poorer sections of the people, acquitting the accused and conspirators and at the same time awarding stricter punishments to even unrelated people of dalits/minorities/poorer sections in cases involving powerful is a matter of grave concern.

 

One has to see the cycle of violence and counter violence in Central Bihar, the context of the class struggle which is being raged by the revolutionary peasant resistance movements against the upper caste feudal lords in central bihar. Decadent feudalism in its death bed becomes most obscene and perverse; so it perpetrates the most sadistic and brutal violence and masacres on the toiling  dalit men and women. The post-colonial India has seen more than 100 dalit massacres in Bihar itself. To counter the demand for land and dignity by the underdog who were organised by the communist revolutionaries. The violence that engulfed the flaming fields of central Bihar is the rusult of the sharpening contradictions between the archaic, medieval and extremely exploitative agrarian relations. Which results in carnages and sexual violence on dalit women. The most horrifying examples of these gruesome massacres and medieval barbarism are: Belchi, Pipra, Parasbigha, Tiskhora, Laxmanpur bathe, Bathanitola, Miyanpur, Nagri Bazar, and so on. The list is endless.

 

The above violence must be seen in the context of the struggle of dalits for land, dignity and against sexual violence on dalit women. This is a direct result of the complete failure of Indian state of implement radical land reforms and ensure the dignity of the dalits. The conflict in Laxmanpur bathe was about the dalits’ rightful ownership of the government land, i.e.,  50 bighas of gair mazaura land for which the dalits were entitled and the upper caste landlords wanted to forcibly usurp.

 

The upper caste landlords raised dreaded private armies like Ranveer Sena, lorik sena, bhumi sena, bramarshi sena, sunlight sena, diamond liberation front, savarn liberation front, brhamarshi sena etc. These decadent feudal vigilante armies have masacred more than 1 thousand dalit men, women and children. Thanks to the heroic revoultionary peasant resistance momement central bihar all these private armies were forced to surrender. Therefore, history has proved that only the underdog when it gets organised and hits back can only break its chains. recently there was a gang-rape and murder of a dalit girl student in jind, Haryana where the police in connaivance with the upper caste rapists proved it to be a suicide and the re was no rape. Around a month after that another dalit girl student in sirsa, haryana was gangraped by upper caste lumpen youths, her unconscious body was found in the next morning. the police refused to file the rape FIR under the pressure of the upper caste. we are firmly convinced that the dalits are not going to get any justice from the upper caste hindu indian state apparatus. therefore we appeal to our dalit brothers and sisters to get organised and hit back at the perpetrators.  we appeal to the radical left forces, the radical Ambedkarites, the democratic right movement, and the womens movement to form a principled joint forum against atrocities and masacres on dalits and sexual violence on dalit women.

 

We condemn the blatant anti dalit upper caste brahminical judgement of the Patna High Court. We urge the radicl left forces, the womens’ movement, the dalit movement  and the democratic right movement to join hands to fight a decisive street battle against the decadent feudal upper caste brahminical patriarchal and communal fascist forces in India.

 

Saheli – Delhi

Students for Resistance

Prof. Uma Chakrabarty – Women against State Repression and Sexual Violence (WSS)

Anand Teltumbde – CPDR, Membai

Subhash   gatade     convenor   new socialist initiative

Sharad Gaikward   President  Replubican Panthers   Marashtra

Amidyuti kumar  APDR   KOLKATA

B.Sreenivas rao   president pop   andhra pradesh

prof  Chaman lal ex professor jnu

 Vir bharat talwar professor jnu

Anita bharti dalit feminist activist and editor streekal a dalit feminist journal

Gail omvet   dalit movement theorist and activist

Bharat patankar dalit movement theorist and activist

 katyani   eminent marxist feminist poetess

 Gabriel   Detrich    feminist thinker  and member penura mayi iyakkam an autonomous progressive womens group   madurai

 Maya john   centre for struggling women delhi

Hargopal eminent political theorist hyderabad

prof Manoranjan mohanty   politcal thinker and democratic rights activist delhi

 prof  G.N Saibaba   professor english delhi university

Nivedita Menon   feminist thinker and professor jnu

 Aditya nigam   CSDS DELHI

Pothik Ghosh    radical notes   delhi

Alok     krantikari yuva sanghathan   KYS   delhi

Soma marik      Radical socialist kolkata

Kunal chatopadhyay   Radical socialist kolkata

Amar singh    gen secratary delhi university colleges staff union and president sc welfare association du

VS Roy david  natinal adivasi alliance

Subhrodeep chakraborty film maker delhi 

meera chakraborty   film maker delhi

Shamsul islam      NISHANT NATYA MANCH DELHI

Neelima Sharma   nishant natya manch delhi

Srirupa   REVOLUTIONARY CULTURAL FRONT JNU

Brahmprakash   JANRANG JNU

MARTAND     JAN SANSKRITI MANCH   JNU

Sumati pannkar  VIPLAV SANSKRITIK MANCH  DELHI

 Bharti  VIPLAV   SANSKRITK MANCH DELHI

Ish Narayan Mishra     JANHASTHKSHEP   DELHI

Vira Sathidar – Editor, Virodhi, Maharashtra

Kiran Shaheen – Women for Water Democracy, Delhi

Swati Birla – Sanhati, Mumbai

Anil Chamadia – Journalist, Delhi

Bhasha Singh – Journalist, Delhi

Satyam verma journalist delhi

Nayan Jyoti – Kranti Kari Navjawan Sabha (KNS)

 Piyushraj    AISA JNU

Siddhi    NOWROZ and student jnu

Snehil manohar singh   student jnu

 Ram Puniyani    all india secular forum

Shidharth Mitra     SANHATI

Akbar Choudhury – President, JNU Students Union (JNUSU)

Chinmaya – United Dalit Students Federation (UDSFJNU)

Anand Krishan Raj – The Newmaterialists JNU

Abhay Kumar, Concerned Students JNU

Kavery Rajaraman – Sanhati, Bangalore

Kamayanibali Mahabal – Lawyer Feminist Activist, Mumbai

Vivek Sundara – Human Rights Activist, Mumbai

P.K.Sundaram – Research Scholar, JNU

Asit Das – Contributing Editor, India Resists.com

Anshitan    KNS JNU

Subhasini     KNS DELHI

Meghna Arora   KNS DELHI

Omprasad  research sholar jnu

Badre alam research scholar delhi university

Meena Menon   activist mumbai

Ayushi      student tiss mumbai

Usman – Research Scholar, JNU

Nitin Kumar – Student , Indian Institute of Mass Communications, Delhi

Hadi Sarmadi  - BAHROOP, Progressive Theatre Group, JNU

Ramashankar Yadav Vidrohi – Radical Left Balladeer and Poet, JNU

Mayur Chettia – Research Scholar, JNU

Archana – Research Scholar, JNU

Dinesh Kumar – NSYOF, JNU

Anuradha Pandey – Research Scholar, JNU

Ashish Kumar – Research Scholar, JNU

Imran – Radical Left Activist, Delhi

Vikram – Student, Centre for Russian Studies, JNU

 

 

NOTE: Please send your endorsement to:   asit1917@gmail.com

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India: Lal Salam - Lal Salam

Lal Salam (Urdu: لال سلام‎, Hindi: लाल सलाम, Bengali: লাল সলাম, meaning 'Red Salute') is a salute, greeting or code word used by communists in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, which is used when both hello and goodbye would be used in English.

In Hindi and Urdu (as well as in several other South Asian languages). Lal means red, the color of communism, and Salam is an Arabic/Persian loanword in use in India and Pakistan.

In Arabic it literally means 'Peace', but this usage is in line with the Persian usage, with the meaning 'Salute'.

This greeting is common among all communists in India, and with Naxals who often use this phrase, e.g. on recruitment posters.^[1]'

In Pakistan, the equivalent phrase "Surkh Salam" (Urdu: سرخ سلام‎) is used interchangeably.

The tribute arranged by comrades after the death of a Naxalite is also called the "Lal Salam".^[2

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/raise-high-flag-of-proletarian.html

A MESSAGE FROM COMRADE GANAPATHY GENERAL SECRETARY
OF CPI MAOIST 


"Our party, which further carries on the legacy of Naxalbari, has always seen
the New Democratic revolution we carry out in India as an integral part of
the world socialist revolution, our Party, ie the Communist Party, as a
detachment of the world proletarian vanguard, the PLGA as a detachment of
the world proletarian army and the Revolutionary People's Committees
established here as a integral part of the global dictatorship of the
proletariat or global socialist state. The uncountable and invaluable
victims which the people and the comrades gave in our revolution, are also
an integral part of the countless beloved martyrs of the world socialist
revolution in each country. With this understanding, the different genuine
revolutionary currents in India, from Naxalbari onwards, realized solidarity
campaigns to support the revolutions and people's movements in other
countries, incuding the well-known solidarity campaigns with the revolutions
in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and the national liberation struggles in
Palestine, the Tamils in Sri Lanka , etc., as well as the resistance wars of
the Iraqi and Afghan peoples"

see also :
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/hindutva-fascism-what-it-is-and-how-to.html

Russia: Terror Trail: The Volgograd bus bombing route

See also:
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/russiavolgograd-terror-acttack.html

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/terror-in-central-asia-how-nato.html

Economic Colllapse and the Rise of Fascists and Racist Elements

Russia: Volgograd Terror Attack - A new Operation Cyclone under Gladio B ?

The suicide blast that devastated a bus in Volgograd was meant to take place in Moscow, a source in the Russian Investigative Committee told RT.

The investigation also revealed that the bomber had conspirers in the capital who are on the wanted list.

According to the source, the investigation shows that Naida Asiyalova - the 30-year-old native of the Republic of Dagestan who is believed to be the woman behind the Monday bus bomb blast in Volgograd - conspired with her partner, Dmitry Sokolov, and two other militants to carry out a terrorist attack in the Russian capital.

Two of the conspirers, Ruslan Kazanbiyev and Kurban Omarov, both 25, had already arrived to Moscow and were waiting for Asiyalova, RT’s source said. Both men are wanted in Russia for carrying out a twin terrorist bombing in Dagestan in May 2012, in which 14 people were killed and over 100 injured. Voice of Russia, RT

Read more:

 http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_10_21/Deadly-bus-explosion-in-Volgograd-was-planned-for-Moscow-6188/



Democracy and Class Struggle says Prince Bandar or Qatar are top of our list of suspects in view of his threat/warning to President Putin over Russian support for Syria for Sochi Olympics .

A female suicide bomber Naida Asiyalova blew herself up on a city bus in southern Russia on Monday, killing six people and injuring about 30 others, officials said.

The attack in Volgograd added to security fears ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The suspected bomber was from the North Caucasus, a region in southern Russia where an Islamic insurgency has been simmering for more than a decade following two separatist wars in Chechnya. Prince Bandar boasted that he controlled the Chechens in a meeting earlier this year in Russia..

Bombs on buses was a militant Islamic form of protest in China in the 1990's.

I lived in China in the 1990's when bombs were exploding on buses killing innocent people placed by Islamic Terrorists operating from an office in Washington DC in USA.

There was little reporting of these terror acts in Western media at the time.

Are we seeing a new Operation Cyclone against Russia ?

Vladimir Markin, of the Investigative Committee - Russia's equivalent of the FBI - told the RIA Novosti news agency:

 "A criminal case has been opened under articles outlining terrorism, murder and the illegal use of firearms."

Saudi Prince Bandar on Terrorism in Russia:


”As an example, I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the Syrian territory’s direction without coordinating with us. These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role or influence in Syria’s political future.”


Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_08_29/Bandar-Bush-threatens-President-Putin-with-Sochi-terrorist-attack-2596/

Essential Background on New Operation Cyclone under Gladio B

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/terror-in-central-asia-how-nato.html

http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_08_29/Bandar-Bush-threatens-President-Putin-with-Sochi-terrorist-attack-2596/

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/saudi-prince-bandar-behind-chemical.html

Previous Bomb in Volgograd here:

http://lite.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=16191722&PageNum=0

http://1tv.ge/news-view/25201?lang=en

At 9.15am on Friday October 21st 1966 - Aberfan - Remembering with Gwyn Thomas

At 9.15am on Friday October 21st 1966, after several days of heavy rain, a huge slag tip above the town of Aberfan in South Wales suddenly liquified and poured down the mountain. The black tidal wave demolished properties in its path and engulfed the Pantglas Junior School in seconds.

Of the 144 people who lost their lives that day, 116 were children. The tragedy was totally preventable.

The National Coal Board had been warned time and time again of the dangers of dumping slag in such a geologically unstable area above towns.

They chose to ignore the warnings claiming it wan't profitable for them to move the slag tips to safer locations.

After the disaster, donations from all over the world poured in for the shattered community. However, most of the money never reached Aberfan. Instead the Government gave it to the National Coal Boad so that they could move other slag tips overlooking other towns in South Wales.

The great Welsh writer and broadcaster Gwyn Thomas delivered his own moving tribute to the victims of the tragedy on the BBC the morning of the mass funeral. This is an excerpt from his eulogy

Yr Aflonyddwch Mawr / The Great Unrest says forty five years ago Aberfan impacted the political and social landscape of Wales and reminded many of us who had forgotten we were Welsh - to be reminded of the consequences of British Coalboard Rule in the Mining Valleys, just has Tryweryn some years earlier had shown who ruled Wales and it wasn't the Welsh.

Iraq Violence Climbs to Highest Level in Years

The Military Industrial Pundits: Conflicts of Interest Exposed for TV Guests Who Urged Syrian War

Pundits talking their own book in Mass Media for War.

New research shows many so-called experts who appeared on television making the case for U.S. strikes on Syria had undisclosed ties to military contractors.

A new report by the Public Accountability Initiative identifies 22 commentators with industry ties. While they appeared on television or were quoted as experts 111 times, their links to military firms were disclosed only 13 of those times.

The report focuses largely on Stephen Hadley who served as National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush. During the debate on Syria, he appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and Bloomberg TV.

None of these stations informed viewers that Hadley currently serves as a director of the weapons manufacturer Raytheon that makes Tomahawk cruise missiles widely touted as the weapon of choice for bombing Syria.

He also owns over 11,000 shares of Raytheon stock, which traded at all-time highs during the Syria debate.

Listen to Kevin Connor of the Public Accountability Initiative, a co-author of the report.

India: Hindutva Fascism: What It Is and How to Fight It by Analytical Monthly Review

The parliamentary elections of 2014 are now casting their shadow ahead.  The nationwide elections on a five-year schedule have become a festival, with the decorations manufactured by the media monopoly and the parliamentary parties.  The prospects are dismal for any sign of intelligent engagement with crucial issues.  Instead, we are to be subjected -- by the tacit agreement of our rulers -- to a mixture of social politics in the repulsive form of communalist agitation, and economic discussions in which "reform" and "development" mean abject subjection to the interests of U.S. capital and its domestic plutocratic satellites.

The recent anointment of Narendra Modi as BJP Prime Ministerial candidate has added momentum as we slide down this path.  The real issue of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 under the criminal supervision of Narendra Modi as Chief Minister now comes to the fore only to counter the "Vikash Purush" of Gujarat.  It looks as if there will not be much difference from previous experience -- either fear of Modi will push a slapdash majority behind another five years of Chidambaram & Co corruption and economic polarization, or a BJP-led government will follow the same "free market" policies accompanied by a small dose of its communal program.  One way or another, the electoral fraud of "choice" will be accomplished.  But looked at from a longer perspective, things may be moving toward more dramatic events.

For the great majority -- those to whom the price of onions is a very serious daily concern -- life has been increasingly difficult.  The Manmohan Singh-Chidambaram regime is worn out and mired in endless scams and corruption.  For reasons with which we are all too familiar, the real alternative from the Left will not be an available option in the Great Electoral Festival.  The RSS has realized that large sections of people desire change -- and would not bother to analyze what is the change that the RSS and its political affiliate BJP stand for.  One should not ignore the recent report of the meeting between BJP veteran LK Advani and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat.  It is most unusual for the RSS to come out with a statement on the meeting between two top leaders.  These relations are normally presented as unofficial.  The BJP is now openly under the control of the RSS.  On this occasion, the RSS forced all dissenting senior leaders of the BJP to acquiesce in declaring Modi as the PM candidate.  The RSS not just appoints the BJP's leadership but also controls the organisation even in micro matters.  What this means is that all those who expect a new BJP government to follow a centre-right path independent from RSS control are mistaken.  This is not a second version of the Vajpayee experience, when Hindutva initiatives were sidelined in the interest of pushing the "free market reforms" under which we have suffered now for more than two decades.  The lesson the RSS have drawn from the 2004 election is that a new BJP-led national government following the "free market reforms" path will in its turn be rejected; they believe that 2014 offers an opportunity for a long-lasting domination.

Param Vaibhav Ke Path Par (On the Road to Great Glory) written by Sadanand Damodar Sapre, and published in 1997 by Suruchi Prakashan, Jhandewalan, New Delhi, the central publication house of the RSS, lists the many dozens of organisations maintained by the RSS in India.  Many of these organisations have been put together in a true fascist and clandestine manner.  For instance while giving the details of Hindu Jagaran Manch (HJM), the book says, "From the point of view of Hindu awakening this kind of forums (HJM) at present are active in 17 states with different names like 'Hindu Manch' in Delhi, 'Hindu Munani' in Tamil nadu, 'Hinduekjut' in Maharashtra.  These are forums, not associations or organizations, that's why it is not required to have membership, registration and elections".  It is clear that these work together to avoid scrutiny by law and government.  Such an organisational mode provides an opportunity for the RSS to disown anybody, as convenient.  BJP, RSS, VHP and other Sangh outfits on 8th September held a meeting to discuss coordination strategy in preparation for Lok Sabha polls.  The conclave discussed the issues that need to be taken to the people from the block level upwards.  They also said that the meeting would "chalk out strategy" for better coordination between Sangh organisations.  The Sangh outfits, it is said, plan to carry out programmes to reach out to all sections -- minorities, SC, OBCs, tribals, women and the young -- in tandem.  This is a programme that dispenses with "allies" -- the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is preparing to take on the rest of the political parties.

One key to their confidence is belief that they now have the support of key centers of capital, even beyond what Vajpayee was able to achieve.  And there is reason to believe that is the case given the hype from the corporate media on the issue of "Gujarat Model" with the headlines "Modi moves centre-stage!", "Modi storms in as the BJP's PM candidate", "It's Narendra Modi vs Rahul Gandhi!", "Modi wants to serve the nation".   Looking forward, the corporate and financial masters might well prefer the efficiency with which Modi has implemented the neo-liberal policies in Gujarat.  As a review of Atul Sood's Poverty Amidst Prosperity: Essays on the Trajectory of Development of Gujarat sums up, the 'rule of law' in Gujarat has meant more of 'political culture of authoritarianism', which might explain the high incidence of labour unrest in Gujarat, but interestingly "it is this culture of authoritarianism, which gives faith and belief to the investor, to invest in Gujarat, even when this authoritarianism has manifested itself more recently in spectacular form in acts of violence against the religious minorities, scheduled tribes and lower castes."

As reported in the Indian Express earlier this year, Anil Ambani, head of India's third-largest telecommunications company, sitting beside Modi on the dais of Vibrant Gujarat-2013, said "Narendrabhai has Arjuna-like clarity of vision.  Narendrabhai literally is the lord of men, a leader among leaders and the king among kings."  Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, who flanked Modi on the other side, described the CM as "a leader with a grand vision".  Describing Gujarat's progress as "stunning", Ron Somers, the president of US-India Business Council, said Modi had set a new benchmark of "progress trumps politics".  Even the unofficial EU boycott of Modi has now been ended over a lunch in residence of Michael Steiner, Germany's envoy to India in January.  The boycott stemmed from the 2002 pogroms in Gujarat.  The U.S. State Department is yet to reconsider its 2005 decision to revoke Modi's visa, but when it does one should not be surprised.

In our mainstream media dissent in Modi's Gujarat is rarely mentioned.  It would appear that, unlike other states, farmers' protests or acts of violence by disadvantaged groups do not seem to occur.  As Praful Biswai writes, the reason is the "lionising of Mr. Modi by Indian businessmen and the corporate media.  They depict him as a Knight in Shining Armour who will rescue India from economic stagnation, poverty, and missed opportunities towards 'progress,' and promote the 'Gujarat Model' of development. . . .  Big Business loves the 'Gujarat Model' precisely because it likes imbalances biased towards private industry and because Modi lavishes favours upon capital through huge tax write-offs."

The RSS also counts on evidence of increasing religiosity.  According to the 2007 IBN-CNN-Hindustan Times State of the Nation poll (conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies), cited by Meera Nanda in her book The God Market: How Globalization Is Making India More Hindu, "[a]mong Indians, the level of religiosity has gone up considerably during the last five years.  While 30 per cent said they had become more religious during the last five years, only 5 per cent mentioned in negative."  The same survey, says Nanda, "also found that education and exposure to modern urban life seems to make Indians more, not less religious: 'urban educated Indians are more religious than their rural and illiterate counterparts . . . religiosity has increased more in small towns and cities than in villages.'"

Nanda perfectly assesses the present condition:

Popular Hinduism is undergoing a great resurgence. . . .  [T]he rich and the poor alike are turning to gods and gurus; pujaris, astrologers, vastu shastris, spiritual advisers are all doing a thriving business.  What may seem like a paradox, the resurgence of popular Hinduism is happening not against the grain of Indian secularism, but because of it.  The Indian brand of secularism has allowed the state to maintain an intimate and nurturing relationship with the majority religion.  As the neo-liberal state has entered into a partnership with the private sector, a cosy triangular relationship has emerged between the state, the corporate sector, and the Hindu establishment. . . .  The state-temple-corporate complex is creating new institutional spaces where Hinduism is renewing itself so as to remain relevant to the new social context created by the global political economy.  But in the process of renewing itself, it is also taking on nationalistic overtones by turning rituals into politicized assertions of Hindu identity.  This process of converting ritual spaces into politicized public spaces is so commonplace, so banal, and so much a part of our collective common sense that it passes unnoticed -- and unchecked. . . .  [O]rdinary Hindu rituals end up merging the worship of god with the worship of the nation.

To harvest political power on this fertile ground, RSS has now overtly taken control of its political wing BJP and dreams of a far deeper turnover than that achieved in 1998.  They are preparing to say and do whatever it takes to win power now in their own right, using different tactics for different regions, segments of the society -- if in some places they are using economic agenda then in other places the core issues of Ram Temple, abolition of Article 370 in Kashmir and Uniform Civil Code.  They are even changing their stand in some cases where the situation is going against their vote bank.  After the brutal murder of Dr Narendra Dabholkar, leading crusader in the anti-superstition movement, suddenly the BJP and Shiv Sena are no longer opposing the Maharashtra Eradication of Blind Faith Bill.  In short we can expect no lie too big, no position too inconsistent, if it brings the RSS closer to power.

Led by the blood-stained Modi, the RSS-BJP-Sangh Parivar is moving on to the next step in seizing power nationwide as a force properly described as fascist, that is "primarily a specific type of politics, involving radical authoritarianism, militarized activism, and the drive for a centralizing repressive state, with a radical-nationalist, communalist, and frequently racialist creed, and violent antipathy for both liberal democracy and socialism"¹   Neo-liberal policies and "legal" repression have pulverized the masses away from collective activities to change their life, the only decisive barrier to this development.  In the event of what the mass media would call a "stunning victory" -- even if it falls short of Parliamentary majorities -- it would be a mistake to expect successful resistance from the totally discredited Congress regime, yet less from regional "secular" corrupt politicians who have collaborated with the BJP in the past and will do so again.

We are describing a course of events that to us seems possible, but by no means certain.  Yet the danger is now clear, and is the result of over twenty years of neo-liberal "reforms".  What can decent political people do?  The parliamentary Left stumbles toward the futile mistake of unprincipled alliances with corrupt "secular" politicians -- but the only correct course is a turn to the left, a mass mobilisation based on opposition not only to the threat of Hindutva fascism but also to the breeding ground of that danger, neo-liberalism.  The RSS, on their own terms, are gearing up for an all-out assault; we must prepare to fight back on ours.

1  Radical Perspective on the Rise of Fascism in Germany, 1919-1945, edited by Michael N. Dobowski & Isidor Wallimann, Kharagpur: Cornerstone Publications, 2003.

Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review.  The text below is based on the editorial in its September 2013 issue. -- Ed.

See Also:

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/who-is-modi-by-arundhati-roy.html

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/india-narendra-modi-x-ray-of-fascist-by.html

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/stop-visit-of-narendra-modi-to-uk.html

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-gujarat-state-higher-secondary.html