India has been governed by many different states in its history and at the end of the 19th century, the whole country came under direct British colonial rule. This colonial government brought much misery and suffering to the Indian subcontinent for over a century. The English masters treated their subjects as second class citizens and the countries rich resources were ruthlessly exploited, leaving the native population to struggle in poverty. Colonial rule ended in 1947 with the declaration of Indian independence, but the country was gripped by a new wave of violence delivered by a fanatical Indian nationalism. This movement went back a considerable time, to the 1920’s to be precise. The fascist ideologies that swept across the world helped give rise to a number of fascist underground movements in India. They would sometimes target the colonial powers and at other times the greatest minority group in India, the Muslims. They made their mark with slogans like “India belongs to Indians” and they spread quickly around the country with their educational camps, their propaganda machine and military organizations.
European fascist movements played a major role in the structural development of ultranationalist Indian organizations. Like their European counterparts, Hindu ultranationalist organizations also based their ideology on racial supremacy, espousing the error that different cultural or racial origins could not form a cohesive society within one country. They defended the view that violence could be justified in order to create national unity and if assimilation failed, extermination was the only way forward for India’s future.
The fascist regimes that swept to power in many of Europe’s countries following the end of the First World War saw the solution to social and political problems in war, conflict and violence. They maintained that violence should be used if needed in order to establish unanimity in the country, that extermination of minority groups should be resorted to if assimilation failed, and that there was only one way to liberate India.
These fascist regimes terrorized whole nations with their underground armies, their secret police organizations and militaristic philosophies, and by the end of the Second World War, shared the responsibility for over 55 million dead people between them. The first fascist regime that came to power in Europe was the Benito Mussolini government in Italy, which ruled the country between 1922-1944. After Italy, Germany and Spain came under the rule of fascist parties. The joint aim of fascist Italy and Nazi Germany was to rule, exploit and enslave all other nations and they believed the only way to achieve their goal was by war, invasion, genocide and the spilling of much blood. After the Second World War, fascism was largely consigned to oblivion and even though some neo-fascist movements sprang up in Latin American countries, England, Germany and Spain, the fascist regimes’ era seemed to be over. However, the fascist ideology and it’s policies live on around the world.
India is one of the countries in which the fascist governance mentality, fascist social policies, and fascist organizations are on the rise again. The fanatical fascist organizations that were formed in the 1920’s never truly disappeared and they are still a force to be reckoned with. Even worse, they united under one name, secured the backing of the Indian people, and are currently governing India through their political parties. This movement is the Hindutwa which was styled after the Italian fascist regime. (Hindutva is a modern interpretation of Hinduism’s racist, chauvinistic and violent aspects, combined to form an extremist nationalist ideology. It stands for Hindu culture.)
Islam and Far Eastern Religions 