Fetishism of Hinduism and Its Secret Thereof

With the emergence of right-wing Hindutva forces backed by corporate monopoly capitalists and the media industry, and legitimised by the general culture of liberal democracy, a fresh understanding of fascism in India is necessary. This new understanding of fascism in India links the politics of Hindutva to Hinduism proper and claims that Hindutva, whilst being influenced by European fascism, also emerges from the general contradictions of Hinduism and uses caste-based, alienated social divisions to demonise Muslims and construct its authoritarian politics. The liberals imagine a secular opposition to Hindutva fascism from within the parliamentary system and the established left posits mere economism accompanied by parliamentary tactics. In opposition to them, this essay argues for an "Indian Fanonism" where the radical subaltern critique of Hinduism of B R Ambedkar, helped by Walter Benjamin's critique of culture in the era of late imperialism, takes the role of the Marxist weapons of critique.