South Asia Citizens Web

If the Indian government thought it could politically isolate the growing nation-wide anti-nuclear struggle, it is manifestly mistaken. Three important developments have put the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) on the back foot.

Till yesterday many were saying that communal temperature has come down in the country and some even questioned wisdom of passing the Communal Violence and Targeted Violence Bill by the Parliament. People thought perhaps Gujarat riots have given enough shock to the country and now no major riots shall take place. And now we are not only witnessing series of riots in U.P. but also very major Gujarat like riot in Assam and now suddenly people from North East are being targeted in Southern states.

Perhaps the left can learn few things also from neighbouring Nepal which shares similar social composition like our Indian society and has been undergoing tremendous churning and where leftists of various hues find themselves in better appreciation of caste question

As news filtered in of extended life sentences for 31 persons for the brutal slaughter 10 years ago in Naroda Patiya, a working-class suburb of Ahmedabad, my eyes clouded over. I remembered my first meetings with the traumatised survivors of the massacre in the crowded relief camps in the city, a full decade earlier. I was heartsick and stunned by their stories of incredible cruelty. I wondered if they would ever heal and hope again, and how we would defend the idea of India from the assaults of hatred

Is the term fascism relevant to India? The answer lies in what we understand by the term. I use it generically, to refer to the emergence of right-wing dictatorships marked by ultra-nationalist ideologies, the abolition of the rule of law and the destruction of democratic institutions. Fascism invades the public sphere with controlled mobs, and possesses a genocidal instinct towards imaginary “internal enemies.” There were many ingredients to this exterminism, including Social-Darwinism and eugenics. But the articulation of national unity via the bestowal of an inferior status upon an entire community was a central feature.