
What's Up India?
Many observers recoil at the seeping of Hindutva (Hinduness) into the national consciousness. A provocatively titled piece in The New York Times by author Pankaj Mishra began thus, Brexit, Erdogan, Putin and now Trump. Something is rotten in the state of democracy The stink first became unmistakable in India in May 2014, when Narendra Modi, a member of an alt-right Hindu organisation inspired by fascists and Nazis, was elected prime minister.
Mishra was expectedly roasted for dubbing Modi as a disaster in the making for India. However, the Indian prime ministers lifelong association with Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) inevitably leaves him open to such charges. RSS, with its avowed goal of the Hindu rashtra, or Hindu nation, and of which Modis Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is an offshoot, has always had a fascination for the likes of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. And with the BJPs electoral triumphin 2014, it formed Indias first full majority government in decadesthe spectre of violent identity politics has once again raised its head.
So, is todays transforming India steadily shedding values such as tolerance and its famed ecumenical identity even as it gains material prosperity? After all, everyday conversations, online chatboards, and social media upheavals are coercing behavioral change in even the countrys well-off segments. Or is this merely a passing phase that will give way to a deeper cosmopolitanism? The answers may be difficult to find or it may be too early to look for them.
Meanwhile, are there any markers that one can use to gauge the state of affairs in the country? There may be.
Umberto Eco, the Italian novelist and philosopher, had come up with one such list of features that are typical of what I would like to call Ur-Fascism, or Eternal Fascism. Spelling them out in 1995, Eco, the author of such books as The Name of the Rose and Foucaults Pendulum, wrote: These features cannot be organised into a system; many of them contradict each other and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it.
We could gather some understanding of contemporary India using the list created by Eco who himself spent the early part of his life in Mussolinis Italy.
It must be made clear at the outset that this need not be about any one community or religion. Traces of these can be found in varying degrees in all Indian identity groups. However, with an overwhelming 78.35% of Indias 1.31 billion population being Hindu, it is inevitable that trends in this community become the national narrative.
The tradition cult
While deep and long-running undercurrents of tradition mark most aspects of Indian life, the recent past has witnessed a revivalist vibe. So we have conservative elements attempting to reinforce their worldview and impose it on the larger society. Everything importantgreat personalities, scientific advancement, and even monumentsare somehow sought to be connected to a glorious past, only to reinforce identities. Even the prime minister recently indulged in faux science to make a point: he cited mythology to claim that ancient Indians were well-versed in genetic science. Yet, paradoxically, some lesser traditions are also sought to be revisited if only to dilute sub-identities in favour of the larger majoritarian one. For instance, earlier this year, senior Hindutva leaders sought to shun the traditional narrative of the native festival of the south Indian state of Kerala, implanting in its place a legend more popular in northern India.
Modernity is depravity.
A rapidly modernizing and tech-savvy India has a fetish for industrial growth and economic well-being and its metrics, such as purchasing power and per capita income. However, one also finds a creeping rejection of the values that modernity may imply. Cosmopolitanism is sought to be overshadowed by a rigidly standardising and forced national identity, tolerance and accommodation are giving way to xenophobia, sexual liberation and choice are dubbed depravity, democracy makes way for majoritarianism.
Action for actions sake
This could easily be mistaken for one of Hinduisms most cited and profound tenets: Karmanye vadhikaraste, ma phaleshou kada chana,which translates to You have the right to act but do not expect the fruits of your action. What Eco implies is the lack of reflection before acting and a distrust of the intellectual world. So, like in India today, universities must be purged of opposing voices and nuances are to be brushed aside, particularly if they deter the national project. A similar phenomenon swept India in the late 1970s around the time prime minister Indira Gandhi suspended democracy and declared a state of emergency. Today it looks like the Emergency was, after all, an unnecessary albatross. Its much easier without it.

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