Daily Times

After Ukraine it is India’s turn to embrace the curse of fascism overtly. The only difference being that in Ukraine an elected president was removed through the gun while in India, fascism was imposed by an indoctrinated, manufactured ballot, hence proving Marcuse’s assertion that “free election of masters does not abolish the masters or slaves…it only testifies to the efficacy of control”. “The only way people will run towards the fox,” said Malcolm X “will be if you show them the wolf.” That’s why he considered democracy a “disguised hypocrisy’” and his people its victims. From Golden Dawn in Greece to Svoboda in Ukraine, and from the National Democratic Party of Germany to the National Front in France, with the reincarnation of neo-Nazi parties all through Europe, this is a phenomenon not restricted to the subcontinent. Both India and Pakistan for different reasons are susceptible to this malady. India is deeply entrenched in capitalism. It has a relatively large middle class, which was traumatised by last year’s free fall of the Indian Rupee (which in just months shed almost one-third of its value). This class of “mechanical people to whom life is a shrewd speculation depending on careful calculation of ways and means” (Oscar Wilde) becomes quickly frightened by impending uncertainty. Capitalism in India and elsewhere in recession tends to compromise its calculations and interests. Hence, with the connivance of big capital it opts for a ‘strong state’ to banish the inherent malady rife in the system. To counter any revolutionary upsurge, capitalism in the shape of fascism conjures up a bastard solution, a naked barbarism. Fascism is a consequence of a prolonged and protracted standoff between two belligerent classes, the capitalist and the proletariat, a balance of forces that ultimately leads to an apocalyptic outcome. To guard capitalism, a bolt from the blue, a charismatic ‘man of destiny’ emerges. This populist leader borrowing the slogans of the working class piles a comprehensive disaster on it. Gramsci, being a firsthand victim of this atrocious phenomenon, aptly analysed this pall of gloom and named it ‘Caesarism’. Fascism is certainly not designed to solve the problems inherent in capitalism, but it has the capacity to undermine revolutionary tendencies that are the consequence of recession and the crises created by the (capitalist) system.

This charismatic ‘man of destiny’ is not independent of the necessities surrounding him. Hence, he alone cannot be blamed for this curse that in his shape afflicts the people. Blaming the dog and hanging him is a favourite pastime of capitalism. However, the reality is always different. An individual, even an iconic leader, is actually just a pawn in the hands of objective conditions. He is neither a good nor a bad guy and is forced to perform what he has been mandated to do. Gramsci analysed the reality of being a hostage to necessity in these words: “Just as one does not become a ‘Kerensky’ voluntarily, so also one does not escape being a Kerensky just by wilfully refusing to be a Kerensky.” This brilliantly highlights the inability and helplessness of the ‘man of destiny’ who is expected to lead his nation. Gramsci further elaborates by stating: “Like any corrupt despot Mussolini and Hitler were the manifestations of the specific relations of immediate political, organisational and military forces which they did not create themselves and they failed to correct — if at all they attempted to do so or was there any room in the system — despite their desperate efforts.”

India comprises many pre-capitalist areas, inhabited by pauperised farmers, which are extremely rich in natural resources. Primitive accumulation is the integral law of capitalism, especially when the multinationals are lustily eyeing it. No area can escape from this unfortunate but historically necessary course of events. Hitler and Mussolini were chosen to fulfil an altogether different motive. They had the backing of international capitalism. In backward, peasant-dominated nations such as India and Russia, the likes of Modi are required to culminate the process of primitive accumulation. Modi will have to serve two ends: to follow in the footsteps of Hitler and Mussolini, which he and his party the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are already treading. Of course he is familiar with all the tricks of the trade that Indian capitalists are looking for. During the carnage of Gujarat he proved himself crafty enough to imitate a holocaust. Now he is required to unleash the forces at his command on places like Jharkhand where the most dispossessed of India’s population dwells. As global capitalism is finding itself in the pillory of recession, the mineral resources of these areas will not only infuse some blood in its clammy veins but also help Indian capitalism to regain its pedestal again. For its realisation, capitalism never hesitates to carry out bloodletting. When it appeared on the map of the world, it was drenched in the blood and tears of humanity. Fascism is its last refuge, which can appear in different guises. Indeed, religious and racial forms are the two hues the world is familiar with. It may be Modi as the murderer of Gujarat, Tikka (Khan) as the butcher of Bengal or Hitler as the overt inventor of the holocaust, all have one thing in common, that is, they are/were the leaders of the reserve army of decaying capitalism, known and baptised as fascism.

According to AJP Taylor, “Fascism is little more than a terrorist rule by corrupt gangsters.” If we take this definition seriously, one wonders which kind of fascism Blair, Bush, Obama and the like are associated with. They not only lynched humanity in general but did not spare the working classes of their respective countries either. The number of unemployed people surviving on food stamps alone provides a misleading account of the actual level of economic decadence, as many more people remain chronically underemployed and live in inhuman conditions while the stocks of Chevron, Exxon Mobil, BP, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs skyrocket. About religious fascism, in recent times no nation has more firsthand experience of it than Pakistan. Due to the malaise, the economy was only fractionally fractured by the recession, but religious terrorism led by civil-military fascists doomed it completely. About religious phenomena, let me borrow from Max Horkheimer. He says that the world has stood under the sign of that doctrine and betrayed it again and again. If the words of the founder of religion, his recorded will, his precepts, had been put into practice instead of being interpreted by scholars, neither the unified theologians of the Middle Ages nor the disunited followers of the modern period would have had their splendid careers. These careerist fascists are doing their job without fail. The long-drawn-out class war has entered yet another phase. Fascism cannot domesticate the big bourgeoisie. If the Maoists manage to keep the struggle alive, Modi ‘the cardboard lion’ will soon be faced by reality. He will be dumped for a better puppet. For the Maoists, instead of ‘war of position’ (attack), ‘war of manoeuvre’ (defence) seems the only possible strategy.

The writer is based in Australia and has authored books on socialism and history. He can be reached at saulatnagi@hotmail.com