Fascism & Resistance in India
Fascism in India? It’s a secular republic, according to its constitution but the country under its prime minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party, the BJP, has drifted sharply to the religious right. The BJP ideology is Hindutva, Hindu nationalism. Its mother ship and muscle is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the RSS. It’s a Hindu nationalist paramilitary organization, inspired by Mussolini and Hitler, and has millions of members. Not much is known about what’s actually going on in India beyond cliches such as the world’s largest democracy, yoga and ashrams, tandoori chicken and spicy samosas. The reality is in stark contrast with the carefully crafted image for export. The BJP/RSS axis has demonized and targeted India’s large Muslim minority. There have been pogroms and lynchings. Some people are pushing back and resisting.
Sissy Farenthold Lecture
Recorded at the University of Texas.
Speaker
Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is a world-renowned award-winning writer and global justice activist. Tariq Ali says of her she “is both loathed and feared by the Indian elite. Loathed because she speaks her mind. Feared because her voice reaches the world outside India and damages the myths perpetrated by New Delhi.” Among her many books are My Seditious Heart and Azadi. Her latest book is The Architecture of Modern Empire.
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