Is fascism emerging in India?

It is just one year since the Gujarat massacres began, in which an estimated 2,500 Muslims were killed and 100,000 driven from their homes, in several weeks of appalling violence. Women and girls were raped, foetuses cut out, men hacked to death and dozens burnt alive. So far the police have laid no charges in what some commentators are calling religious genocide.

The violence was in response to an attack on a train in which Hindu militants were travelling to the site of the Babri Masjid mosque, pulled down by extremists in 1993 because it was said to be built on the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram. 58 were killed, but the pogrom which followed was clearly planned and awaiting a spark.

A new book by two Jesuits, Paul Mike and Aloysius Irudayam, details how lists of Muslim homes and businesses were drawn up from voter registration lists, municipal corporation records and police reports. Eye-witnesses saw people carrying lists of names and addresses and directing rioters as to which dwellings to target. Frantic calls to the police were ignored, or brought the response 'We have no orders to save you'. In some cases the police participated in the attacks. It made Kristallnacht look tame.

The Indian Supreme Court has just given notice to the Government of a petition to prosecute the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi and the President of the VHP (World Hindu Council) Ashok Singhal for making alleged inflammatory speeches. Alongside the BJP electoral victory which returned Modi to power after the massacres they threatened that the 'Gujerat Hindutva experiment' will be repeated throughout the country.

The VHP is one of a family of organisations of which the ruling party in India, the BJP, is a member. The most shadowy of the family is the RSS, the National Volunteer Force, which was formed in the 1920s when Indian political leaders such as Hedgwar and Golwalkar developed a growing admiration for Mussolini's Italy. It was Golwalkar, according to Mike and Irudayam, who evolved the 'Hindutva' (Hinduness) ideology, with its fascist undertones.

The churches in India have become particularly sensitive to the developing programme of the BJP, RSS and VHP. The Bishop of Madras, Dr V. Devasagayam, said in his January Diocesan address, 'The following are some of the common tendencies between Naziism and Hindutva… firstly, division of the people as majority and minority and directing anger and hatred against minorities using religion in the exercise. Secondly Nazis used nationalism as a cover for their majority communalism, thirdly…. fascism is against plurality with such slogans as 'one nation, one culture', 'one religion', 'one language'. The National Council of Churches of India has organised a consultation on 'Communalism and Fascism' and the new General Secretary of the Church of South India, Dr Pauline Satyamurthi, says 'It is time for the Churches to speak out about what is happening. We cannot be cowards'.

Social historian Gail Omvedt in a recent Indian newspaper article on 'Hindutva and ethnicity' spoke of how those promoting Hindutva are giving Hinduism an ethnic identity, with overtones of blood, heritage and fatherland. 'Those who don't share that heritage can never truly be a part of that (Hindu) faith'. Although not on the scale of Muslims in Gujarat Christians have been targeted in other parts of the country, missionaries injured and killed and churches burned down. German visitors to the city of Mangalore reported that a BJP rally in mid-February closed down the city and created a sense of intimidation reminiscent of 1930s Germany. An observer in Gujarat in December reported how, when passing the house where a former Muslim MP was murdered in the pogrom, instead of showing respect BJP marchers chanted even more loudly and triumphantly than usual.

The BJP and its cohorts appear to be using a range of mechanisms depending on the context. Minorities are made targets, whether Christian or Muslim, and Hindu militancy is fuelled by campaigns such as the Babri Masjid mosque, where Supreme Court judgement is awaited in relation to the building of a Hindu temple over the site. State governments are bringing in 'anti-conversion' laws, which are frightening the minority faiths, and there is agitation for a ban on cow slaughter, which would hit those Dalits who depend on beef and leather for their livelihoods. Buddhists are also feeling the threats in their base in the state of Maharashtra.

The Hindutva organisations are totally committed to retaining the caste system, in the teeth of rising Dalit militancy. They see their control of the former 'untouchables' being lost and supplies of cheap labour vanishing. Dalit groups who brought the caste system to prominence at the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban in 2001 are being targeted by the Central Bureau of Intelligence. Many have been raided and have faced detailed questioning about their activities and accounts.

India is becoming an unpleasant place for those who value its tolerant, pluralist and secular traditions. Forces are at work which have disturbing parallels with the growth of fascism in Europe in the 20s and 30s. Mike and Irudayam end their book with the quote from German pastor Martin Niemoller about not protesting when they came for the Jews, communists and trades unionists, then no-one was left to protest when they came for him. A key test by which those in power in today's India must be judged is whether the people responsible for the mass murders in Gujarat a year ago are brought to justice, and soon.

David Haslam is Chair of the Dalit Solidarity Network (UK)

Racial Hegemony: Gujarat Genocide, Paul Mike and Aloysius Irudayam, All-India Catholic University Federation, Chennai, 2003.

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