"We need to call Modi's India a modern Indian fascism": Alpa Shah, Professor of Social Anthropology, LSE to Karan Thapar for The Wire.
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One of British academias most highly regarded anthropologists has said “we need to call Modi’s India a modern Indian fascism”. Alpa Shah says: “Indian fascism may not be of the classic kind, whatever that is, but it’s fascism nevertheless.”
In a 40-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, to mark the launch of her book, ‘The Incarcerations: Bhima Koregaon and the Search for Democracy in India’, Alpa Shah, who is presently Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics but has just been announced as the new Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford University and a fellow of All Souls College, identified seven key characteristics of fascism each of which, it seems, applies almost fully to India under Narendra Modi. She, therefore, argues that terms like “majoritarianism or ethnic democracy or cultural nationalism” do not “convey the gravity of threat to democracy under way in India”.
The seven criteria of fascism that Prof. Shah identified are the creation of a mythic past; the belief in a super human race; the exclusion of certain people who are treated as “enemies”; mobs on the street; the curtailment of dissent; the nexus between government, business and corporations; and the control of institutions.
However, Prof. Shah was reluctant to say how much of the responsibility and blame for this lies with Narendra Modi himself or whether India would have reached this point if he had not become Prime Minister in 2014. Instead she maintained “we are all complicit” i.e. the people, the institutions, the organizations, the wider Sangh Parivar, etc.
I am only giving you what I believe is the headline in this interview. However, it begins with a lengthy discussion of the Bhima Koregaon case, which Prof. Shah believes “is a bellwether for the collapse of democracy in India”. The first 15 minutes of the interview are devoted to a discussion about the Bhima Koregaon case and how it reflects the deeper intricate reality of India and also how the judiciary and media failed to defend the BK-16.
This is followed by a discussion about what Prof. Shah calls “the crisis of Indian democracy” and what she considers the reality of India, including a discussion about the treatment of Muslims. The third part of the interview is about her belief that India under Narendra Modi is “a modern Indian fascism”.
Paradoxically, the interview ends on a note of hope. Prof. Shah believes “the seeds of democracy will be preserved within fascism” and one day we will have the right conditions for them to flourish. She argues that these seeds of hope will survive a third Modi victory, if that is the result of the elections that began this morning. She agrees no matter how deep and dark the night there will be sunlight eventually.
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18 апр 2024
