The problem with “fascism” as a description of any modern political tendency is that the term is a weapon of mass destruction that flattens the landscapes that it wants to describe. Fascism is so freighted with historically specific meaning that using it for other times and places can seem sloppy and excessive. And yet, juxtaposing the politics of contemporary south Asia with fascism, in its Nazi variant, serves a double purpose: it connects modern Indian majoritarianism with one of its ideological ancestors and it helps us name and identify the ideological kernel of fascism that survived to fight another day. India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) is the political arm of a Hindu militia, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded in 1925, around the time Adolf Hitler began to find his political bearings in a routed, angry Germany. The RSS is a nationalist militia that defines India as a Hindu nation; only Hindus can be members. While there are many similarities between the RSS and the fascist paramilitary organisations of the prewar decades, from uniformed drills and distinctive salutes to a persistent anxiety about masculinity, at the core of both is a feral ethnic nationalism that aims to mobilise

Bengaluru: The first public consultation in Karnataka by the Justice K G Balakrishnan Commission received an overwhelming opinion on Tuesday that Scheduled Caste (SC) benefits should not be given to Dalits who convert to religions other than Indian-origin faiths of Buddhism and Sikhism. About 100 members took part in the public hearing, of which nearly 95 per cent raised their hands against reservation. Members of various Dalit associations, Banjara pontiffs, Basavamurthy Madara Chennaiah Swami of Madara Guru Peetha, Chitradurga and BJP leaders appeared before the Commission to express their views. Arguing in favour of reservation, writer and Dalit activist Cynthia Stephen said Dalit Christians must get reservation as they were seen as untouchables despite conversion. The Dalit Christian Federation, in its petition, argued that when religion was not the criteria to provide reservation, Dalit Christians should not be denied the benefit. Making his submission, Banjara Guru Peetha seer Sardar Sevalal Swami said that the Commission should not recommend in favour of those who converted to religions born outside India as these religions had no roots in Indian ethos or culture. BJP SC Morcha president and Sakleshpur MLA Cement Manjunath claimed that Christians had lured SC people to convert and they were still being ill-treated there. “This is

Indian government declared war on the Adivasi (Indigenous) people of Central and East India in the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha and the bordering regions for the past two decades first with the launching of Salwa Judum in 2005 followed by Operation Green Hunt (the most comprehensive offensive yet) in 2009 and its subsequent intensification with the operations Prahar and Samadhan and then Operation Kagar (‘Last War’) launched in 2024. Thousands of Maoist revolutionaries (most of them being Adivasis), unarmed civilian Adivasi youth, women and children have been killed, brutally tortured, women raped and thousands more imprisoned in these two decades. Hundreds of thousands of military, para-military and police personnel, and quasi-vigilante groups have been deployed in these areas to displace, dispossess the Adivasis and either drive them out of the forest or subjugate them. They have launched even air strikes with drones. The Indian government and the state governments are resorting to such brutal oppression to serve the interests of big comprador capitalists and the imperialist MNCs. These Adivasi areas are huge reservoirs of various kinds of minerals, coal etc. During this process, the governments are violating the Indian Constitution and the very laws that the Indian parliament has

A mob of far-right Hindu groups assaulted Christian community members and disrupted their prayer meeting in Nawada city of Bihar on Sunday, September 1 accusing attendees of engaging in religious conversions. According to reports, the incident took place when a group of Christians had gathered for a Sunday prayer at the residence. The agitated mob, donning saffron scarves and shirts, barged into the house and interrupted the prayer. During the disruption, the assailants confronted the Christian members and accused them of attempting to manipulate Hindus and convert them.In a viral video that has surfaced on social media, the mob is heard raising the slogan “Dharm Parivartan karna band karo ( stop religious conversion)”. This incident comes amid a series of allegations of religious conversion in the state with Hindu right-wing organisations claiming that thousands of Hindus have been lured and converted to Christianity through allurements and false promises. Such accusations have often been used to justify violence against minorities in India. The Hindu groups argue that the conversions are part of a larger conspiracy involving foreign funding and organisations.Earlier on July 5, a mob of Hindutva outfits, led by a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader, attacked Christians in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur during a prayer meeting