Indian History & Sangh Parivar (Was: Medieval India)

[Gary M Tartakov]

If the BJP has, as seems clear, developed its success through an
strident exaserbation of communal differences that leads to the
murderous and culturally disasterous results that we have seen, and if
they do indeed back this up with an ideology that makes this explicit,
it is clearly a communalist expression.  Is it fascist?  I suppose that
depends upon whether or not it also includes the authoritarian state and
state-capitalist economic nexus that is the other side of the fascist
definition.

Short of a clear definition, we are just calling it names.  I think Ms
Rosser is correct in saying we fail if that is all we are doing.

It is not just laying a Western term or definition upon them any more
than using the zero is applying Eastern mathematics.  The concept
applies or it does not.  And the term has been used in IndiaUs political
discourse as long as it has in the West.  Gandhi, Ambedkar, etc. used
the definition.

I donUt know enough of their economic politics to say whether or not
they qualify as fascist.  IUd like to hear from those who do.  

In the mean time we can certainly go on calling them *communalist* and
even *genocidal.*  

Gary Tartakov