How do you recognize a Hindutva fascist?

Release of the RSS book at World Hindu Congress in Chicago

If you are alarmed at the outcome of the Indian election 2019, you should be. This is the largest democracy (used to be) in the world that has now turned to full blown Hindutva fascism. You should also be alarmed with the knowledge that a large chunk of the money funding Hindutva fascist party, the BJP, and its sister fascist organizations, the RSS, Bajrang Dal etc. comes from the diaspora.

How do you recognize a Hindutva fascist?

From the surface you can’t.

Not especially in the diaspora. You see, Hundutva fascists use the sort of cultural tropes that fit perfectly the Western liberal ideas of multiculturalism. His/her performance of culture will serve the perfect recipe of multiculturalism to your claims of being diverse.

He/she won’t be the scary image of the lumpens shouting Ram chants with spear in his/her hand.

More likely, he will be suited booted. More likely, she will be decked up in the latest designer clothes. More likely, he/she will speak perfect English, with the hint of the Queen in his/her accent. More likely, he/she will throw potlucks and diversity conversations.

You might just think he/she is your ambassador of multiculturalism, with celebrations of Holi, Diwali, and other things Indian.

More likely, he/she will be your perfectly assimilated migrant, successful and hard working. More likely, he/she will be your neighbor, colleague, friend, who will regale you with Bollywood songs, tandoori chicken, and gifts of bangles and bindis. He/she will invite you home to have beer and desi food.

To recognize a Hindu fascist, you have to ask her/him, who she voted for, what organizations does she support, what cultural groups in the diaspora is he/she a part of.

Then you have to look at the money trails of these cultural groups and service organizations that supposedly do social work in india, funded by his/her money. You would have to look at the organizations in the diaspora that he/she is a part of. Do these organizations have the names Saraswati, Vivekananda in them? Do they cultivate children? Do they claim to teach HInduism, Vedas, the epics? What is the ideological pedagogy they offer?

You could also ask her/him to comment about the ongoing reports about atrocities on Muslims in India.

In other words, you would have dig much beneath your superficial multiculturalism. These would be your starting points to identifying a Hindutva fascist.

The whiteness of binaries that erase the Global South: On Communicative Inversions and the invitation to Vijay Prashad in Aotearoa

When I learned through my activist networks that the public intellectual Vijay Prashad was coming to Aotearoa, I was filled with joy. In my early years in the U.S., when learning the basics of the struggle against the fascist forces of Hindutva, I came in conversation with Vijay's work. Two of his critical interventions, the book, The Karma of Brown Folk , and the journal article " The protean forms of Yankee Hindutva " co-authored with Biju Matthew and published in Ethnic and Racial Studies shaped my early activism. These pieces of work are core readings in understanding the workings of Hindutva fascism and how it mobilizes cultural tropes to serve fascist agendas. Much later, I felt overjoyed learning about his West Bengal roots and his actual commitment to the politics of the Left, reflected in the organising of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a political register that shaped much of my earliest lessons around Global South resistance, collectivization, and orga...

Libertarianism, the Free Speech Union, and the Life of Disinformation

The rise of the far-right globally is intertwined with the globally networked power of libertarian think tanks, funded at the base by the global extractive industries . In this blog post, through an analysis of the disinformation-based campaign I have personally experienced since October 2023 mobilised by the communicative ecosystem of the Free Speech Union (FSU), I will attend to the lifecycle of disinformation in libertarian networks, arguing that the disinformation ecosystem is invested in upholding both white supremacy and extractive capital. The FSU’s investment in disinformation I argue that the FSU is invested in producing and circulating disinformation. In response to my analysis of the hypocrisy of the Free Speech Union (FSU) that positions itself as a champion of free speech in Aotearoa while one of its co-founders, council members and spokespersons David Cumin (who is also one of the key actors representing Israel Institute of New Zealand) actively targets the freedom of a...

Zionist hate mongering, the race/terror trope, and the Free Speech Union: Part 1

March 15, 2019. It was a day of terror. Unleashed by a white supremacist far-right terrorist. Driven by hate for brown people. Driven by Islamophobic hate. Earlier in the day, I had come across a hate-based hit piece targeting me, alongside other academics, the University of Auckland academic Professor Nicholas Rowe , Professor Richard Jackson at Otago University, Professor Kevin P Clements at Otago University, Dr. Rose Martin from University of Auckland and Dr. Nigel Parsons at Massey University. Titled, "More extremists in New Zealand Universities," the article threw in the labels "terror sympathisers" and "extremist views." Written by one David Cumin and hosted on the website of the Israel Institute of New Zealand, the article sought to create outrage that academics critical of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid are actually employed by universities in New Zealand. Figure 1: The web post written by David Cumin on the site of Israel Institute ...

Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

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