Student Struggle – July 23, 2019

edented defeat in its electoral history with mere
five seats across the country. Though the com-
munist’s parliamentary presence was marginal
since the last decade, it has mobilised peasants
and workers in huge numbers and effectively
played the role of real opposition to neoliberal
Hindutva. But BJP’s success in undermining the
discourse of material issues such as unemploy-
ment, poverty etc. and the left’s failure to con-
solidate the secular votes even in its strongholds
has led to the massive defeat of the Left front.

Hindu Right and the Global Shift to Right

As suggested by many scholars like Prabhat Pat-
naik, it is very important for us not to understand
the rise of Hindu right in India as an isolated or
exclusively Indian phenomenonii. It is very much
part of the global shift to right-wing politics that
is taking place in the context of the post-
global economic crisis. The growing alienation
due to neoliberal globalisation fuelled the right-

wing mobilisation as a movement against the in-

cumbent political establishment, and it leads to

the rise of more aggressive authoritarian populist

regimes across the globe. The rise of Erdogan in

Turkey, the re-election of Netanyahu in Israel,

Trump in the US, Scott Morrison in Australia, Jair

Bolsonaro in Brazil, the rise of far-right in Italy,

Hungary, Greece etc. are part of the same picture.

Hindutva’s success should then, be understood

and analysed in this broader global context of the

political shift to the right, largely as a reaction-

ary response to the structural crisis of our times.

However, the Hindu right in India has very no-

table unique features compared to the right-wing

formations elsewhere. What makes the Hindu-

right unique is the colossal multi-layered network

spearheaded by RSS that has outreached into all

spheres of Indian social life. Through an effec-

tive division of labour among its various fronts,

the Sangh Parivar could spread to all spheres

of society , a feature that is unavailable to

any other political formation in the country.

5

Image for representational use only.
Image courtesy : Truth Of Gujarat

Anil Ambani, Gautam Adani with Narendra Modi

Student Struggle | June - July 2019