BERNIESANDERS,adecentNewDealDemocratbut
hardlya socialist.
STEVEMARCUS/AP
JEREMY CORBYN.Hebelongsto the left
wingof theBritishLabourParty.PETERNICHOLLS/REUTERSdemocracy,andwhatever intensityit didhave is getting
eroded. And,bytheway,I despisetheword“totalitarian-
ism”.It wasinventedto denouncecommunist countries
andthentopositthatcommunismandfascismare
equallytotalitarian.
How do you tracethe emergenceof the RSS and
Hindutvapoliticsin the colonialcontextof the 20th
century?Earlieryou havewrittenthat similarcounter-
revolutionaryforces, the MuslimBrotherhood,for
example,emergedin differentpartsof the worldduring
the interwarperiod.Whatled to suchemergence?How
are they similarin character?
A satisfactoryanswerwould requirea lotof timeand
space.Threepointscanbemadebriefly. First, Europe
itselfhashada verylonghistoryofstrugglesbetween
revolutionandcounter-revolution,rationalismandirra-
tionality,seculardefinitions of nationhoodandracialor
religiousdefinitions of nationhood, varioussortsof lib-
eralinstitutionsas wellas various kinds of authoritarian-
isms,andso on.Colonialism brought allthisbaggageinto
thecolonies, andsuchcontestsbecamecommoninour
societiesas well.So,there is nothingparticularlyIndian
aboutHindunationalismorMuslimnationalism; they
arejusta colonialvariantof,letussay,theFrench
counter-revolutionary tradition which despised the
FrenchRevolutionforabolishingthemonarchyandthe
privilegesoftheCatholicChurch.Communalviolence
againstreligiousminorities is nothingbuta colonialcopy
of European anti-Semitism.
Second,organisationsliketheHinduMahasabha
andtheMuslimBrotherhoodwerequiteawareofthe
fascistmovements in Europeandpartially learnedfrom
them; [V.D.] Savarkar,forinstance, saidthatHindus
shouldsolve theirMuslimproblemthesamewaythat
Nazis hadsolvedGermany’sJewishproblem, thatis,
throughgenocide.Third,factorsfortheemergence, suc-
cessorfailureofsuchmovementsinonecountryor
another,at onetimeoranother, areusually veryspecific
toeachcountry. Toomuchgeneralisationcanbevery
misleadingin suchmatters.How importantis the idea of secularism?
Secularismis a goodideain allcontexts. Oneneedsto
holdonto it. ButthestruggleagainstHindutvamajorit-
arianismrequiresallsortsofotherideasaswell.Con-
gress-style secularismandBJP-stylemajoritarianismare
competingideologieswithina systemthatis basedonthe
mostruthlessforms ofrepressionandexploitation.In-
dianelectoralpoliticsis largelyorganisedaroundcaste,
religionandvariousforms of property.Theideaof secu-
larismis descendedfromtheEnlightenmentformulaeof
“Liberty,Fraternity, Equality”.Secularismfallsintothe
broadercategory of “Fraternity”.Cana caste-basedsoci-
etybe“fraternal”?If not,thencanit besecularinany
meaningful sense? Is “Fraternity” possible without
“Equality”—which is to say, is democracy possible
withoutsocialism?[Jean-Jacques]Rousseaugavean
answer wellbefore theFrenchRevolution, letalonethe
Bolshevikone:thosewhoareunequalin theiraccessto
materialgoodscanneverbeequalin theeyesof thelaw!
Communismas weknowit wasfirstglimpsedduringthe
FrenchRevolution,whichgave ussecularismasanop-
positiontothepowerofreligionaswellas[Francois-
Noel] Babeuf’s“Conspiracyof Equals”,a veritablecom-
munistorganisation. Thatcommunist tendencywas