No Wonder Modi is welcoming the Con - How Hindu supremacists are tearing India apart

[malaise]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/20/hindu-supremacists-nationalism-tearing-india-apart-modi-bjp-rss-jnu-attacks?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3FjNqUBOl_DZChGl6gDMLtRnhBODOk4bzFhJeWMXfGdUYiVcBkjGYWws0#Echobox=1582196920
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For seven decades, India has been held together by its constitution, which promises equality to all. But Narendra Modi’s BJP is remaking the nation into one where some people count as more Indian than others. By Samanth Subramanian

Thu 20 Feb 2020 06.00 GMTLast modified on Thu 20 Feb 2020 10.55 GMT
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Soon after the violence began, on 5 January, Aamir was standing outside a residence hall in Jawaharlal Nehru University in south Delhi. Aamir, a PhD student, is Muslim, and he asked to be identified only by his first name. He had come to return a book to a classmate when he saw 50 or 60 people approaching the building. They carried metal rods, cricket bats and rocks. One swung a sledgehammer. They were yelling slogans: “Shoot the traitors to the nation!” was a common one. Later, Aamir learned that they had spent the previous half-hour assaulting a gathering of teachers and students down the road. Their faces were masked, but some were still recognisable as members of a Hindu nationalist student group that has become increasingly powerful over the past few years.

The group, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidya Parishad (ABVP), is the youth wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Founded 94 years ago by men who were besotted with Mussolini’s fascists, the RSS is the holding company of Hindu supremacism: of Hindutva, as it’s called. Given its role and its size, it is difficult to find an analogue for the RSS anywhere in the world. In nearly every faith, the source of conservative theology is its hierarchical, centrally organised clergy; that theology is recast into a project of religious statecraft elsewhere, by other parties. Hinduism, though, has no principal church, no single pontiff, nobody to ordain or rule. The RSS has appointed itself as both the arbiter of theological meaning and the architect of a Hindu nation-state. It has at least 4 million volunteers, who swear oaths of allegiance and take part in quasi-military drills.

The word often used to describe the RSS is “paramilitary”. In its near-century of existence, it has been accused of plotting assassinations, stoking riots against minorities and acts of terrorism. (Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead in 1948 by an RSS man, although the RSS claims he had left the organisation by then.) The RSS doesn’t, by itself, engage in electoral politics. But among its affiliated groups is the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), the party that has governed India for the past six years, and that has, under the prime minister Narendra Modi, been remaking India into an authoritarian, Hindu nationalist state.

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What always amuses me is that the first place the Hindu separatists take their 'guests' is to the Muslim Taj Mahal.

[Wounded Bear]

1. Various forms of fascism are in resurgence world wide...nt

[saidsimplesimon]

2. Sikhs are also a minority and

practice a belief in one supreme Deity. They have a large community here in the Phoenix area.

[shanti]

20. The largest Sikh community

is up here in the Sacramento Valley region. They pretty much keep to themselves, but have been targeted in the past.

[saidsimplesimon]

21. A Sikh was gunned down

in Mesa, AZ in 2016 after the "Arab" backlash to 911. Their turbans made them easy targets for the bigots of the day. Those same ignorant bigots are flocking to rumpie.

[mopinko]

3. if we dont evolve soon, we will wipe ourselves out.

i went to india about 10 years ago, and was surprised by the open hatred toward muslims.
and the extra squalor where they lived, if you can imagine that.

so sad that people w so little waste their energy on shit like this.
i am heartened by the move away from "church" that seems to be expanding everywhere. imho, this is a healthy evolution that might, maybe, someday, save us.

[malaise]

5. The other species may celebrate

our self destruction

[marble falls]

7. Never ever thought about that. Sobering.

[malaise]

9. This

In nearly every faith, the source of conservative theology is its hierarchical, centrally organised clergy; that theology is recast into a project of religious statecraft elsewhere, by other parties. Hinduism, though, has no principal church, no single pontiff, nobody to ordain or rule. The RSS has appointed itself as both the arbiter of theological meaning and the architect of a Hindu nation-state. It has at least 4 million volunteers, who swear oaths of allegiance and take part in quasi-military drills.

[mopinko]

14. i have a personal, pet theory

based in my amateur understanding of evolutionary psychology, that religion is the vestige of our programming to follow the big silverback. (wrong ape, i know. but a better picture.)
many human civilizations still function in a similar mode, called head man states.
many hunter gatherer tribes were more social and communal. but a strong, violent force is often just off stage.

so when i say i hope this is an evolution, i mean that quite literally. a further disintegration of the head man model.

my thoughts on all this exploded w the recent story that physical changes in early humans mirrored the changes in domestic dogs. 'survival of the friendliest' they are calling it.
but imho, this is the incorrect conclusion. further on in the discourse, they talk about the other thing about dogs. it's not so much they are friendly, as they remain violent, but it can be controlled.
the same can be said about humans. when we stopped hating everyone but clan, we could still stomp them out if they turned out to be a drag on the clan. but in the meantime, if they were a positive addition, they were added to the gene pool.

i could go on and on here, but that's not the point of your thread.

the point is that religion either needs to die, or control it's violent adherents, or mr darwin will strangle their golden goose.

[malaise]

16. very interesting theory

You should start an OP.
You can't have religion and science - religion is a balm of madness

[mopinko]

24. and failure.

and personal responsibility.
all so useful.

[dalton99a]

4. Kick

[DBoon]

6. Openly admired fascism during WWII

During World War II, the RSS leaders openly admired Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.[19][71] Golwalkar took inspiration from Adolf Hitler's ideology of racial purity.[72]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashtriya_Swayamsevak_Sangh

[malaise]

8. We had a neighbor who decided to return to India

because their pre-school son was playing with all the other kids in the neighborhood. I asked them why they came given that the vast majority of Jamaicans have African ancestors.

More than a few use us on their way to Canada or the USA. The Con's coup upset their US ambitions.
As we say wah loss?

[smirkymonkey]

10. Kind of ironic, since these people would have been thrown into the camps and exterminated had

they lived in Nazi Germany at the time. Yet, they use Hitler's ideology of white "Aryan" supremacy to turn around and oppress others whom they consider to be inferior because of their religion.

[malaise]

11. True but racism is rampant in India

Their caste system is beyond despicable

[Initech]

12. It's generally hard to pick the worst country on earth.

I usually say Saudi Arabia because it's a pretty obvious choice. But then there's Russia, China and India all competing for that title. I sometimes wonder if World War 2 never actually ended, like it's still being fought.

[dalton99a]

19. They have the same attitude here toward blacks and poor people:

Dinesh D'Souza, Nikki Haley, Bobby Jindal, Neomi Rao, Seema Verma, Ajit Pai, etc.

[malaise]

23. Yep

Add Patel

[DBoon]

13. I read where a Modi supporter attended a Trump rally in the USA

He was interested as an fellow ethno-nationalist sympathizer.

He was surprised to find he was treated poorly by the MAGAts

[smirkymonkey]

17. Funny how that works.

[spanone]

15. K&R...

[Happy Hoosier]

18. I have an Indian friend involved in political activism...

... and the stuff happening in India is hair-raining. And it's exactly what Christian Dominionists want to do here.

[Initech]

22. It's all connected.

Trump is just another piece of the puzzle of this rising tide of far right fascism and wannabe dictators that are slowly taking over the world. WTF is going on?

[moondust]

25. Internet

~
“What we have occurring now is white supremacy integrated on a global scale,” said Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

The internet has helped “nationalist” extremists connect across borders and find common cause, advancing “the idea that if you act on and commit violence in one country, it’s for the good of the white race globally,” Donovan, the Harvard expert on online extremism, said.
~
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/21/hanau-attack-part-of-pattern-of-white-supremacist-violence-flowing-from-us

[malaise]

26. True

although they found one another ages ago. Now it's much easier to attract young people. Dylan Roof was one of them.
What the non-white separatists don't seem to understand is that the white supremacists also think they should be controlling non-white countries. Many young Indians apparently never read about British imperialism in India.

[moondust]

27. "tribal supremacy"

may be a more accurate description even though AFAIK historical precedents are pretty much all about "whites."

[malaise]

28. Not sure you know because they come from disparate regions

unless whiteness in and of itself is tribal

[moondust]

31. It is to some.

White tribalism.

Aryan tribalism.

Hindu tribalism.

No doubt others at various times and places.

When we think of tribalism, we tend to focus on the primal pull of race, religion, or ethnicity. But partisan political loyalties can become tribal too.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/the-threat-of-tribalism/568342/

[littlemissmartypants]

29. The expert on this is Kathleen Belew. Here her views here:

PUBLIC THINKER: KATHLEEN BELEW ON THE RISE OF “WHITE POWER”

Thinking in public demands knowledge, eloquence, and courage. In this interview series, we hear from public scholars about how they found their path and how they communicate to a wide audience.

4.19.2019


BY MONICA MUÑOZ MARTINEZ


Kathleen Belew is an assistant professor of history at the University of Chicago and an international authority on the white-power movement. Drawing on an expansive collection of archives, Belew wrote the field-defining book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America (2018). She developed research methods for tracking a network of anti-government extremists from a collection of disparate sources and a narrative practice that exemplifies an ethical approach to writing histories of violence. Since the publication of Bring the War Home, Belew has made public appearances on Fresh Air, Weekend Edition, and CBS, and has written for the New York Times. The book has received rave reviews in The Nation and the Los Angeles Review of Books and was named a 2018 Best Book of the Year by the Guardian.

Belew is an award-winning teacher who centers her courses on the broad themes of race, gender, violence, identity, and the meaning of war. Since the publication of her book, she has generously moved well beyond the classroom to share urgent historical lessons with public audiences. In her public writing and media appearances, Belew is shaping how the public understands the white-power movement. She simultaneously teaches the history she uncovered and helps journalists and the public interpret white-power terrorist acts today. In this interview, conducted last fall, Belew discusses the term white power and her research methods; she offers advice for future researchers; and shares some of the urgent lessons of history that we must heed for today. She is a pivotal and unwavering intellectual and public voice for our time.

Interview at the link.

https://www.publicbooks.org/public-thinker-kathleen-belew-on-the-rise-of-white-power/

Her website: https://www.kathleenbelew.com/

Her first book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America (Harvard University Press, Spring 2018), explores how white power activists wrought a cohesive social movement through a common story about warfare and its weapons, uniforms, and technologies. By uniting previously disparate Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi, skinhead, and other groups, the movement carried out escalating acts of violence that reached a crescendo in the 1995 bombing of Oklahoma City.
...snip...
Belew is at work on two new projects, one focusing on processes of militarization in the domestic United States and the other on ideas of the apocalypse in American history and culture. Her award-winning teaching centers on the broad themes of race, gender, violence, identity, and the meaning of war.

[Initech]

30. Cool, I will have to read that when I get some free time.

[Dennis Donovan]

32. Recommended!