The Furies of Indian Communalism. Religion Modernity and Secularization, by Achin Vanaik, Verso, £14.00 Reviewed by Terry Conway THE TIMELY publication of "The Furies of Indian Communalism" coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of partition and Indian independence.
As the introduction explains, partition itself was "a communal holocaust... in which millions died" (p 3) but it was hoped that the official commitment of the Indian state to secularismn would prevent the repetition of similar nightmares.
While initially this seemed successful, over the last 25 years Hindu unalises bas grown in The queation as to how far dirics of Congress allomed this leeping monster to emerge anad deserves furtber at dea, but is nor the main subiect of this sadly.
Tho Parias of tondian Com marchione orabines rigorer in its analysis of che dangess of cocaraunaliam with thoughs-pronokise, at rimes hereti. cal, argument as to the tools and al.
that noed to be employed against it. The argument is somewhat weakened by rather patchy ed. iting, which leaves whole passages of repetition which derive from the fact that it was originally written as essays.
Readers of Vanaik's previous work The Painful Transition will be struck by the different tone in this work which engages with strategies for the future as well as analysing what is today.
Dominant
In the 1990s the threat posed by majority communalism has become one of the dominant questions in Indian politics. Vanaik concentrates on the need for the secularisation of civil society rather than on the Indian state.
The secularism on which this state was founded was different from that in the postenlightenment west. In preindependence India, "secularism was perceived as the unifying principle mediating between and collating different religious communities in order to forge a common struggle for national liberation" (p 67).
In the post-independence situation the new secular state was to interpret religious impartiality not as abstinence from religious affairs but "by its fair involvement on India's multi-religious terrain" (ibid).
The rise to prominence of the Hindu communalist BIP (the Bharatiya Janta Party) has rarely been analysed outside the subcontinent. If the BJP were to take control of the government this would represent, in Vanaik's words "the coming to power of a reactionary rightwing and authoritarian yet populist political party" (p 317).
Their project is a complete break with the principles of the Nehruvian consensus of post-independence India.
In the 1996 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) elections the BJP won 161| seats out of 545, becoming the largest single party in a significant leap forward from the 1991 national The BJP's support is concentrated in the north and west of the country. Its voters are 96 per cent Hindu (Hindus are 82-83 per cent of the population as a whole), with its strongest base of support among the and form a government. Still, the the need to find effective ways to Swayamsevak Sangh), heading a even less explored than that of the While the fortunes of the BIP banner under which these forces Vanaik outlines the circumof the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya in the consequent carnage. This was Muslims are only 12 per cent of ing of a slightly different but government was favouring MusTemple Ayodhya was the mythical birthplace of the Hindu God-King Rama and there was a local belief, not based on empirical evidence, that it was also the site of a temple to Lord Rama which was destroyed in the sixteenth century by the first Mogul emperor Barbar and replaced by a mosque.
The broad forces of Hindutva took up this issue from the early 1980s but the BJP itself made the running after the election of the weak Janata Dal government of V P Singh in 1989, which was reliant on BJP support to stay in power.
The BJP used extra -parliamentary mass mobilisations to call for the destruction of the mosque and the building of a new launched a rath yastra - literally a Singh refused to act but eventu(Janata) government of Bihar. The LICIL under Rao's winning the crucial state of Uttar Ayodhya. Both Janata Dal and Conmuch of the rhetoric of the BJP. point in Indian politics is accessible peak of extra-parliamentary activity mobilise around the destruction of Vanaik justifies his emphasis tion is needed by explaining: "India can certainly become a Hindu state"
The aspect of the book which has dia is the analysis of fascism. The argue that communalism and fas. which he makes in relation to the tion of a most dramatic rightwing The Promise of Socialisus A major publication racy (Ireland). The most extensive Marxist anaiysis of Ireland since the 1940s. Available from Socialist Outlook for just £5.50. Send cheque payable to Socialist Outlook Fund to PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU.
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