Hindutva Zionism Bhai Bhai

Beware the 'new order' Israel is imposing

2006-08-04T02:15:00.000-07:00

By Siddharth Varadarajan

July 31, 2006, The Hindu

ON JULY 28, 1989, a detachment of heavily armed Israeli commandos descended upon the southern Lebanese village of Jibchit. The time was 2 a.m. They burst into the home of Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid, leader of the Hizbollah militia, beat up his wife, and shot dead a neighbour before bundling the Sheikh and two other men into a helicopter. One of those seized was a young man named Hashem Fahaf who had no connection to Hizbollah, the other was the Sheikh's bodyguard.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which carries a helpful if damning account of the kidnapping on its website, "Israel had hoped to use the sheikh as a card to affect an exchange of prisoners and hostages [held by Hizbollah] in return for all Shiites held by it."

So brazen was Israel's action that the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution (No. 638) calling for the "immediate safe release of all hostages and abducted persons, wherever and by whomever they are being held." Needless to say, Tel Aviv ignored the resolution. After all, kidnapping non-combatants, including minors, and holding them hostage, was an integral part of Israel's military strategy. In May 1994, Israeli soldiers abducted a prominent Lebanese businessman and former commander of the Shia Amal militia, Mustafa al-Dirani, and brought him into Israel. The aim of that kidnapping was to try and get information about the location of Ron Arad, an air force navigator who had been shot down over Sidon in 1986 during Israel's ongoing aggression against Lebanon.

Mr. Fahaf, whose presence Israel refused to recognise for years, spent 11 years in jail before the Supreme Court finally ordered his release. He was allowed to return home along with 18 other Lebanese nationals who — the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported in August 2003 — had been held "according to the official version ... as `bargaining chips' for Ron Arad". Two of those released had been kidnapped as boys and had grown into adulthood in captivity.

Sheikh Obeid and Mr. Dirani were finally released in 2004, after being held hostage by the Israeli government for 15 and 10 years respectively. Both men spent extended periods of time at Camp 1391, dubbed Israel's Guantanamo, a prison whose existence the Israeli authorities do not freely admit to. There, Mr. Dirani was raped, sexually abused, and tortured by Israeli soldiers. A lawsuit filed by him against the State of Israel is currently pending before a judge in Tel Aviv. He is claiming NIS 6 million ($1.5 million) in damages.

The 2004 release was part of a general prisoner swap brokered by the German government in which Hizbollah released an Israeli businessman and reserve colonel seized in 2000 in order to force Tel Aviv to free Sheikh Obeid. Hizbollah also returned the bodies of three Israeli soldiers killed in action. In exchange, Israel set free the Sheikh, Mr. Dirani, and 33 other Lebanese and Arab hostages, as well as 400 Palestinian prisoners. It also returned the bodies of 59 Lebanese nationals killed by its security forces over the years.

It is necessary to recall this entire sordid episode in order to put in perspective Hizbollah's foolish action of seizing two Israeli soldiers across the blue line dividing Lebanon from Israel. Thanks to Israel, kidnapping and hostage-taking — as well as the targeting of non-combatants and even children — have become "acceptable" military tactics in the region though one would be hard pressed to come across any reference to Sheikh Obeid or Mr. Dirani in the international news coverage that followed Hizbollah's action. The Shia militia wants Tel Aviv to free the handful of Lebanese prisoners still in Israeli jails who were promised freedom in 2004 but never released. Most prominent among them is Samir Kuntar, captured in 1978 during a guerrilla raid on an Israeli settlement near the Lebanese border. Kuntar was found guilty of killing a civilian man and his young daughter and sentenced to more than 500 years in prison by an Israeli court. The Israeli authorities may baulk at releasing a "convicted child killer." But in rejecting the possibility of a negotiated settlement and indiscriminately bombarding Lebanon, Tel Aviv has turned its own soldiers into the executioners of children. When a well-marked United Nations post takes a direct hit and ambulances are struck — according to a recent dispatch by Robert Fisk — with missiles that pierce the Red Cross and Crescent symbol right at the centre, it is hard to accept the Israeli claim that all civilian deaths were unintended.

Real war aims

Recalling the recent history of kidnappings is also necessary for another reason: To puncture the myth that the disproportionate and utterly criminal Israeli military response that is pulverising Lebanon and its people today is somehow driven by an urge to free its two kidnapped soldiers.

Read what Zbigniew Brzezinski, the former U.S. National Security Advisor, told a small gathering in Washington last week about this. "I hate to say this but I will say it. I think what the Israelis are doing today for example in Lebanon is in effect — maybe not in intent — the killing of hostages. The killing of hostages ... Because when you kill 300 people, 400 people, who have nothing to do with the provocations Hizbollah staged, but you do it in effect deliberately by being indifferent to the scale of collateral damage, you're killing hostages in the hope of intimidating those that you want to intimidate. And more likely than not you will not intimidate them. You'll simply outrage them and make them into permanent enemies with the number of such enemies increasing."

On a par with the fantasy that the latest Israeli aggression against Lebanon is about protecting the legitimate security interests of Israel is the demand being raised in various quarters for a NATO peacekeeping force to be deployed on the Lebanese side of the border in order to disarm Hizbollah. Frequent reference is made to Security Council resolution 1559 of 2004, which called on the Lebanese government to assert its sovereignty over the whole of its territory and disarm the Shiite militia. When it suits Israel and the United States, United Nations resolutions such as 242 and 338 on Palestine or 638 on releasing hostages can be ignored for years on end. But other resolutions acquire a Biblical patina and instant compliance is required of them. By grossly interfering in Lebanon's internal affairs, Resolution 1559 was clearly ultra vires of the U.N. Charter. That is why it passed with the barest possible majority. Russia and China chose to abstain rather than exercise their veto because the resolution envisaged no enforcement mechanism. In any case, it is absurd for Israel — which is bombing Lebanon at will and sending in its troops — to speak in favour of a resolution that calls for the Lebanese government to assert its sovereignty.

As the Israeli peace bloc, Gush Shalom, has said, the current offensive against Lebanon — like the 1982 invasion which led to two decades of occupation — was prepared in advance in anticipation of a suitable provocation. Hizbollah's kidnap raid provided the Olmert regime the excuse it needed to launch a war for the physical elimination of the militia and the eventual installation of a pliant regime in Lebanon that would do Israel's — and the U.S.' — bidding. In many ways, the script is not that different from the manner in which the abduction of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian guerrillas gave Tel Aviv the pretext to do something it was itching to do ever since Hamas won the elections.

In both cases, Israel and its principal international backer, the U.S., have proved how bogus is their vision of a "New Middle East" centred around respect for democracy and human rights. By attacking Gaza and Lebanon, that too with such overwhelming and disproportionate military force, Israel has decisively turned its back on the possibility of a negotiated peace settlement with the Palestinians and Syrians. The Olmert regime has no intention of relinquishing its illegal control over land and aquifers that belong to others. The U.S. does not want democracy to flourish in the region. Nor does Israel. What it wants are partners who are too weak, isolated or pliant to insist on their rights. What it has in mind are unilateral outcomes, imposed through gunboat negotiations if possible or through war if necessary. In both cases, the active support of the Bush administration and the silence of the rest of the world are essential.

The refusal of the U.N. to condemn the Israeli aggression against Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority, its failure to bring about an immediate ceasefire despite the mounting civilian toll, and its inability to get Israel to lift its inhuman blockade of Gaza and release the Hamas Ministers and MPs it kidnapped last month are paving the way for a human tragedy of monumental proportions. As long as the world continues to appease Israel in this manner, the people of the region — and especially the Israelis — will never know peace.

Brahminism & Zionism

2004-12-17T23:02:00.000-08:00

Dr. R.P. Harsh, Harsh Clinic, Barnala Road, Sirsa - 125 055

December 1st - 15th 2004

"Cultural nationalism" is a zionist concept. What relationship the Brahmins have with "cultural nationalism?" The motive is clear. DNA report has confirmed that the Vaidik Brahmins are also Jews. They are the children of Israel. Brahminism and zionism are the two faces of the same coin. At the World Conference Against Racism at Durban (South Africa) both Brahmins and Jews had joined hands when the matter to equate Brahminism (casteism) and zionism with racism came up (DV Sept.16, 2002 p.17: "Dalits defeat Hindu rulers: UN equates casteism with racism").

Race hatred: In the book, The Hindu Nationalist Movement & Indian Politics, Christophe Jaffrelot, (Penguin), the distinguished French scholar, profusely quotes from Hindu nazi philosopher Golwalkar who was the author of the "cultural nationalism", the essential criterion of which is race, which gets the pride of place. In other words, anybody opposed to "cultural nationalism" must be physically annihilated. "Cultural nationalism" means upper caste racism. Muslims and Christians have to pledge they will remain subservient to the Brahmin and Brahminism.

Israeli connection: The Hindu nazi RSS is the mother organisation of Vaidiks. It was founded by Chitpavan Brahmins. Tilak, Golwalkar, Deoras and Godse were all Chitpavans. The DNA report has finally settled the issue that Chitpavan Brahmins are the Jews. RSS is fully guided by the Jews of India. Viswa Hindu Parishad is nothing but an extension of the world zionist organisation. They call Rama as Ram Lala. Ramallah of Palestine is a distorted version of Ram Lala.

Anti-Muslim conspiracy: The incident of 1857 was not a "freedom movement". It was a Brahminical conspiracy to overthrow the Muslim and British rule and to replace it with their Brahminical imperialism. The conspiracy of 1857 was hatched by the Vaidiks at Poona. Nana Sahib, the adopted son of Peshwa Baji Rao-II, had fixed May 31, 1857 as the date of this plot. Because of unavoidable reasons it was executed earlier on May 10, 1857 by instigating the religious protests in the name of cow and pork fat-made cartridges. Nanasaheb later fled to Nepal. What happened later is history. The poor Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah Zaffar, became the victim of a Brahminical conspiracy. He was arrested and put into the prison where he died as an ordinary criminal.

The final onslaught of this zionist conspiracy came in 1905 when Brahminical-zionist forces launched their political revolution in the name of "cultural nationalism". Tilak took the lead in India, Lenin in Russia and David Ben Gurion in Palestine.

Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur dubbed the "cultural nationalism" of Tilak as Brahminical terrorism.
"Chosen people": Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is part of international zionism. DNA report has finally confirmed that the Chitpavans are the Jews. Brahmins believe that they are super humans and they are gods on earth. Jews also think, they are superhuman — chosen people on earth.

Hinduism" is the mask to hide their Brahminism. They dub all those who opposes Brahmins as anti-national/terrorists. The zionists dub every critic of Israel as anti-Semetic. Genocide of Budhists, Christians, Sikh, Muslims and Dalits is a common feature of Brahminical forces. They do not recognise the identities of any other nation. To deceive the non-Brahmins in the name of "cultural nationalism" they use the term of Hindu nationalism. They are also the fathers of racism.

Both Brahminism and zionism are two sides of the same coin. VHP is getting huge funds from their international gang for their subversive activities in the name of Ram Temple, Hindu, Hindutva and cultural nationalism. Genocide of Muslims in Gujarat is the continuity of Brahminical terrorism which was started in 185 BC when Budhist emperor Brahadrath was killed by Brahmin commander Pushyamitra Sung. In every respect Brahminism and zionists are the same.

For details read Editor V.T. Rajshekar's book, Brahminism (DSA-2003), particularly its Chapter-4, "Jews & the Jews of India" and the annexure: "Brahminical origin of zionist thoughts" (p.139).

Brahmanizing the Diaspora

2004-07-30T10:43:00.000-07:00

Ra Ravishakar and Shafali Chandra

Gadar, July 2004

Why has the United States provided the most nurturing space for the spread of Hindu fundamentalist activities? Geographically far from its Indian 'home', the policies and actions of the US Hindutva brigade take on a particularly warped personality, creating new networks, disseminating new ideological programmes, and simultaneously compounding the intolerance and bigotry of political and cultural Hindu fundamentalism in India.

Because of the particular history of the diasporic community in the United States, and the quality of mainstream media and political opinion, the networks and ideological forces by which Hindu fundamentalism has crept into and multiplied itself in the United States remains beyond the usual reprisal that can be levied against fascist sentiments. Connecting to the vastly influential Zionist lobby, spreading across college campuses, and conducting various fundraising activities in the name of development, Hindutva agencies have built on existing networks of right- wing sentiment, but also strengthened their presence in seemingly innocent spaces like youth culture and charitable organizations. Together these networks work to manufacture consent even as they continuously reach out and incorporate new constituencies in their production.

One of the most vicious of the symbiotic relationships that US Hindutva has forged in the past year has been with influential Zionists. For instance in this very issue, the articles USINPAC: Buying Zionist Influence, Selling Indian Interests and Zionism and Hindutva in the U.S. reveal how the global consensus building machinery on the 'war on terror' has contributed to cementing these ties. Just recently, this past May 2004, the Hindu American Foundation featured prominently in the Annual Policy Conference of the AIPAC [http://www.aipac.org/], alongside George W Bush and other luminaries. [1]. In their press statement, the HAF 'discussed the scourge of terror faced by the United States, India and Israel and conveyed the security issues facing Hindus globally to AIPAC leaders. HAF emphasized the many values shared by Hindu Americans and Jewish Americans: a determined work ethic, family values, a non proselytizing tolerant religion, and a respect for life and religious freedom.'

Establishing the historic roots for the common impetus behind global Islamophobia and a capitalist work ethic is a particularly innovative strategy. Other than such corporate activities, US Hindutva has worked its way into more 'liberal' spaces by deploying the rhetoric of 'fun' and youth outreach. At the University of Illinois for instance, the Hindu Students council organized a seemingly innocuous celebration of 'holi' this past April. Described as an enjoyable 'festival of colours', the home page of the UIUC Council then went on to explain that the larger purpose of the organsation is to raise awareness about Hindu religious and cultural activities for the youth on college campuses in a fun way. Hence the celebration of activities like Holi and Diwali.

But a slightly deeper investigation of the 'Hindu Students' Council' leaves a noxious trail. The US home page [2]presents (among other things) a detailed refutation of the 'Aryan Invasion theory', thereby arguing that 'Hinduism' - defined as the beliefs contained in the Vedas - was indigenous to the geographical territory now named India. Another section virulently lambasts the work of US academics Jeffrey Kirpal, Wendy Doniger and Paul Courtwright, thus establishing that free speech, even in the name of intellectual pursuits remains antithetical to the dogma of Hindu fundamentalism. The 'Hindu Women Project' emphasizes the power of Hindu women lies in their ability to embrace tradition, itself conceived of as a brahmanical, heternormative and unquestioning ethos.

Who are the donors to the HSC? The home page lists the activities of the Global Dharma Conference of 2003, where 'most of the main Hindu and Indian organizations like Arya Samaj of Greater Houston, Meenakshi Temple Society, VHP of America, India Cultural Centre etc pledged generous donations'[3]. This Global Dharma conference brought together the youth and college kids on campuses through the HSC and thus served as an interface between the seemingly fun and cultural activities of the council and the venomous face of a corporate American Hindutva.

Indeed the Hindutva brigade has successfully manipulated fundraising channels towards its own ends. As brilliantly demonstrated by the 'Campaign to Stop Funding Hate [CSFH]', website seemingly well meaning donations to aid development and welfare activities in India, made by wealthy Indians in American locations was cleverly siphoned off towards the political activities of the Sangh Parivar in India. This is certainly not limited to the United States, for similar activities have now been identified in the United Kingdom as well. The basic point is that without necessarily being aware of the eventual end point for their funds, unsuspecting people of Indian origin have regularly donated small and large sums of money to 'charitable' and development oriented activities.

When this conduit was discovered and disputed by CSFH in November 2002, the Sangh Parivar denied it had any connection to the IDRF [India Development Relief Fund] which was the conduit through which these donations were channeled towards Indian Sangh activities. This February however, the RSS finally conceded that the IDRF was a 'Hindu Organisation' closely related to the Sangh Parivar. As reiterated in CSFH's latest press release [4], the IDRF has spent considerable amounts of its finances in proselytizing especially amongst tribals and adivasis and in supporting other violent activities in India.

If US Hindu fundamentalist groups rely on existing networks amongst Zionist, youth college, and NRI communities, then the ideologies supported by these activities bear equally close scrutiny. The basic assumptions embedded in the rhetoric of the Hindu right actually finds close resemblance to some liberal and even left of center sentiments. This makes it difficult, but for that very reason especially urgent, to separate out and forge a sustained campaign of vigilance. The examples listed above demonstrate that the various wings of the Hindu right have been promoting a narrow, brahminical version of Hinduism, one that erases any mention - and often condones - the revolting history of Hindu casteism. These views reinforce the view that this form of Hinduism is the only authentic cultural and religious force in the subcontinent. For example the Hindu American Foundation http://hinduamericanfoundation.com/campaigns_denverpost_letter.htm, itself headed by a renowned Sanghi, Mihir Meghani regularly disputes questions on the rights of other minorities in India and seamlessly refers to a bounded, static, regressive 'Hinduism' in making its arguments. Compounding this unitary and static version of brahmanical Hinduism is the intolerance of other religions, and the furtherance of the belief that Islam and Christianity are both antithetical to the tolerant, secular fabric of India (by which Hindutva ideologues mean the entire subcontinent) as well as continuing remnants of brutal foreign invasions. This is how the perceived threat of a heightened globalisation can be deployed to condone violence against minorities within India.

If the intolerance bred of a chauvinistic and unitary notion of Hinduism can be exacerbated in diasporic communities, so too can be the sense of a 'diasporic guilt'. The conviction that non resident Indians are somehow 'cut off' from their roots, and need to teach their children the 'fundamentals' of Hindu civilisation supports this rigid view of Hinduism and makes the cultural activities of organizations like the HSC seem necessary. The sense of a beleaguered, isolated middle class is often stoked by abstractly referring to the threat posed by other South Asian communities, rather than against dominant forms of imperialism.

So the networks - both physical as well as ideological that support the march of Hindutva in the United States -- must be seriously documented. Because of the absence of a live critical press, they are not being interrogated on a day to day basis, and critiques such as this one will not find themselves into the normative homes of suburban Chicago and San Francisco. Secondly, like all effective ideologies, Hindutva has formed links with and amidst other indigenous networks - Zionism, corporate culture, college campuses. The networks are both varied as well as deeply entrenched, existing in some of the most powerful and easily reproducible sites of US society and culture. These ideologies and networks are difficult to identify, often appearing to do one thing (development work, or introducing kids to Hindu culture in a fun way) while actually fomenting religious fundamentalism. Finally, the decentralized nature of the Hindutva leadership in the United States (as opposed to in India, where ultimate connections to political parties can be easily unearthed) also makes it difficult to identify the purpose of these activities.

This is how the United States provides a fertile space for the dissemination of fundamentalist ideas and processes. The local and mainstream media in the US disinterested in and unable to dispel these myths, and the insular nature of the South Asian community in the US also encourages these ideas to remain largely uninterrogated. For many reasons then, and in so many myriad ways, immigrant spaces provide generous support for the widening reach of volatile hatred.

And it is precisely for that reason that the insidious forces of Hindutva have seeped into the nooks and crevices of everyday life in the United States. The roots are strong, and have made up for a historical absence of support by spreading through the widest and most powerful channels of culture and communication. The Campaign to Stop Consenting to Hate has to start with the ability to demystify the structural, ideological and covert operations of Hindutva. We must be completely vigilant and in the process, reach an understanding of how to enter into those very spaces and change both minds as well as structures.

References

http://www.hinduamericanfoundation.org/media_press_release_jewish-groups.htm
http://www.hscnet.org/index.php
http://www.hscnet.org/articles.php?filename-pr-houstonfundraiser-2003
http://stopfundinghate.org/resources/news/030104SFHPressRelease.htm

USINPAC : Buying Zionist Influence, Selling Indian Interests

2004-07-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

By Zeeshan Farees

Gadar, 7 July 2004

The United States India Political Action Committee (USINPAC [www.usinpac.com]) was formally formed as an Indian American lobby group in September 2002. Since then it has managed to attract a surprising amount of attention. In a short span of time it has made its presence felt on Capitol Hill. It has acquired political access by buying power breakfasts with Senators like Richard Lugar and Orrin Hatch. It also throws 'power luncheons' for Senate and House Committee staffers. But it wasn't just the money that bought it the US politician's attention. USINPAC has been hoisted to its success by two very influential Jewish lobbies, the American-Jewish Committee (AJC) and the American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC).

USINPAC has closely modeled AJC and the American Israel Political Action Committee's political schema and has been working in concert with them in pushing various issues. While the two powerful Zionist organizations have been helping USINPAC navigate the US political scene, it has responded to this nurturing by wholly supporting their agendas, even when those agendas are contrary to Indian political ideology or detrimental to the Indian American Diaspora.

AJC and AIPAC had organized the first-ever joint Capitol Hill forum on July 16 2003 along with the US Indian Political Action Committee. The event featured nearly a dozen Congress members from across the US, diplomats from the Indian and Israeli embassies, and political activists from both communities speaking about the mutually beneficial nature of Israeli-Indian relations. The congress members included Republican Tom Lantos (D-CA) and Republican Gary Ackerman (D-NY). Congressman Tom Lantos summarized the binding issue of the evening and of the alliance, when he said, "We are drawn together by mindless, vicious, fanatic, Islamic terrorism." Congressman Ackerman then underlined the concerns bringing together the Zionist and Indian lobbies. He said that Israel was "surrounded by 120 million Muslims" while " India has 120 millions Muslims [within]". The conference continued in this tenor with numerous speakers using the words "Muslim" and "terrorist" interchangeably.

Mr. Sanjay Puri, Executive Director of USINPAC, had defined its mission as strengthening US-India bilateral relations in defence, trade, and business. But, as the joint forum with the Jewish lobbies indicated, USINPAC has made Israel the gateway to the US administration. The common ground between Israel and India is being built by defining Muslims as the shared problem.

Human Events, a conservative opinion magazine, had recently highlighted USINPAC under its 'Conservative Watch'. It hailed the Indian American lobbying group as part of 'another new world order' comprising of Neo-Con America and Israel, standing in opposition to the ' New World Order of the United Nations, European Union, and other such organizations'. The American Right-Wing media has good reason to believe that USINPAC is with them in opposition to the rest of the world. Sue Ghosh Stricklett, an attorney and member of USINPAC's Defense and Strategic Affairs Committee, stated, "The terrorism directed against India is the same as that directed against the United States and Israel." USINPAC has helped strengthen the Zionist efforts to equate the Palestinian struggle with 9/11 by adding various Indian conflicts to the mélange. This despite the fact that India has traditionally favored the Palestinian right to sovereignty and the Israeli occupation is becoming increasingly unpopular in most parts of the world. The pro-Zionist stance adopted by USINPAC is a reflection of its sympathy with the Indian communalists who have been brandishing Zionism as an inspiration for an Indian identity based on a mythical (Vedic) history and singular in character.

This political action committee which claims to be 'pro-India' has adopted the Neo-Conservative definition of 'terrorism' as its cause celebre, and has declared the latter to be its primary legislative concern this year. Sunjay Puri finds no distinction between terrorism in India, Israel and/or the United States of America. "I would argue that the people who bombed the World Trade Center are terrorists and the people who attacked the parliament in Delhi are terrorists and the people who make those attacks in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel are terrorists," he stated. The US India Political Action Committee's sympathy for and solidarity with the Neo-Con agenda is quite apparent in its support of AJC's backing of the USA Patriot Act. This political stand has cost AJC some of its allies among civil rights groups who have been condemning the Patriot Act as an assault on civil liberties. USINPAC, on the other hand, has consistently failed to condemn the Patriot Act despite the fact that immigrants, including those in the Indian immigrant community, have proven extremely vulnerable to its excesses. USINPAC's support at such a time has prompted AJC to call it one of the most important relationships for American Jewish lobbying groups.

Thus, USINPAC has been displaying unequivocal support to its political mentors. One of the latest in that series is its controversial support for the HR3077 bill, titled The International Higher Education Act of 2003 [http://www.theorator.com/bills108/hr3077.html]. The bill proposes amendments to Title VI funding for international studies programs at U.S. universities. It is a measure to convince the House of Representatives to create a monitoring committee for controlling the work of university professors focussing on world affairs. The bill is being promoted by groups whose main goal is to efffectively police academic work and impose an ideological agenda on university teaching, research and writing about issues affecting the US policy on foreign affairs. Section 6 of HR 3077 establishes an International Higher Education Advisory Board, which "shall provide advice, counsel and recommendations to the Secretary and the Congress on international education issues for higher education." The apparent intent of this 'advisory board' is to provide a limitation of programs that teach the accepted ruling party doctrine. The seven members of such an 'advisory board' will have investigative and monitoring powers. The 'advisory board' envisioned by the Bill would be independent from the Department of Education, which has thus far been responsible for overseeing the federal funding of educational programs. This creates a potential for skewing academic study in particular ideological directions and making it very difficult for independent and critical voices to be heard. These powers are meant to intimidate US academics and administrators. Some institutions are already talking of turning down Federal money, preferring to cut back on their programs instead of putting up with such potentially intimidatory tactics. The Subcommittee on Select Education, which presented the bill to the Congress, used the testimony of people like Stanley Kurtz [http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/108th/sed/titlevi61903/kurtz.htm] to convince the Representatives of the need for such a monitoring body. In addition to Kurtz, this legislation is being pushed by a number of other neo- conservative personalities, including Martin Kramer and Daniel Pipes [www.danielpipes.org]. While the direct target of these testimonies are the Middle East centers of international studies, centres of South Asia Studies will also be equally vulnerable. [1] The Federal funding provided by Title VI has helped the benefiting centers in playing a central role in developing public understanding of economic, defense and foreign policy issues. These studies programs help in preparing diplomats and other experts in foreign affairs and in providing critical analysis for US national decision-making. University programs that provide training in the less commonly taught languages and world areas, including those of strategic interest, would not exist without Title VI funding. These programs train 78% of the graduate students in the least commonly taught languages, such as those for which national security agencies have identified shortfalls (Hindi and Urdu are two such languages). The already under-funded South Asia Studies programs will suffer immensely if federal funding for them is controlled by a select group's narrow world view; the increased political control will adversely affect teaching and research by scholars of South Asia at US universities. USINPAC's support of such a measure which is of no benefit to India-US relations; in fact, by undermining the objective and critical study of South Asia (and particularly India) it is actually a potential threat to the interests of the Indian Diaspora.

The US Indian Political Action Committee 's website carries the slogan, "Let Indian American voices be heard". So far it has pumped the Zionist shill, accepted the Neo-Conservative propaganda as its speaking point, made India a big market for US-Israeli weapons and trampled over the concerns of the secular Indians. If anything, the voice that it has consistently ignored in this orchestra of power is the Indian voice - the voice of the millions of Indians and Indian Americans who do not subscribe to the narrow, chauvinistic politics of USINPAC and its Zionist and Neo-Conservative allies.

Editorial note: South Asia Studies in the American academy has recently, and not coincidentally, been the target of severe criticism by other 'soft-Hindutva' forces/individuals of the American Diaspora such as Rajiv Malhotra of the Infinity Foundation [http://infinityfoundation.com/index.shtml] for being too critical of Hinduism and India. The forces of hard and soft Hindutva have in fact been marshalling their forces against 'Left' (which they read as communist, anti-Hindu and anti-Indian) academics and intellectuals and coordinating their efforts in India and abroad. The organised reaction to the appointment of Romilla Thapar as the first holder of the prestigious Kluge Chair at the Library of Congress earlier this year was one example of this attack; the razing of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune by Shiv Sena goons in retaliation for a book on Shivaji which was based on sources preserved at the Institute, and the reaction to Paul Courtwright's recently-published book on Ganesh yet another].

Zionism and Hindutva in the US

2004-06-12T19:04:00.000-07:00

n 1994, Shekhar Tiwari, congressional relations point-man for FISI (Friends of India Society International), gushed: "The Jewish lobby has a great understanding of the political process in the U.S. " [1]Sure enough, in 2001, the AIPAC (America-Israel Political Action Committee) and the AJC (American Jewish Committee), two titans of the 'Jewish lobby' that had Tiwari in thrall almost a decade ago, played midwife to the infant USINPAC (United States India Political Action Committee) in the immediate aftermath of the September 2001 events [2]. While USINPAC differs from FISI in terms of specific institutional ties with Hindutva, both share a common passion for Israel's perceived military, and political power, and a desire to utilize the Israeli lobby's experience and power, real and perceived, to further the ends of India's ruling classes in alliance with the neoliberal Indian American big bourgeoisie. These ends include gaining the favors of U.S. imperial power, while welcoming predatory capitalism, and its institutional tentacles in India.

While FISI may be more Hindutva than neoliberal, USINPAC is more neoliberal than Hindutva. Both FISI and USINPAC share a vision of a militaristic India, antagonistic to Pakistan, and to different degrees, i.e. between outright hatred and blatant indifference, share contempt towards the rights of Indian Muslims. USINPAC made no statement about the Gujarat genocide in 2002. Both are tied to a vision of India as a partner in the neoliberal imperialist project, alongside Israel and the U.S.

As far as commitment to neoliberalism goes, Arun Shourie has enacted with a passion bordering on the obscene, what Sanjay Puri [Executive Director of USINPAC] articulates as his fervent desire - the destruction of the public sector in favor of privatization for the benefit of multinational capital [3]. Hindutva and Indian nationalisms of the sort imagined to exist among folks in USINPAC, are tied therefore to capitalism's neoliberal avatar, and reflect the interests and dreams of the propertied, trans-national, wealthy economic and social elites of India and among elite Indian Americans. In sum the distinctions between Hindutvadi pro-Zionism and the pro-Zionism of its so-called "Indian nationalist" counterparts are trivial, and misleading. While they both perceive the "Jewish lobby" as the gateway to the U.S. political establishment, it is also equally likely that they may both be tied to imperialism's agenda through a Zionist leash given the real imbalance in power.

United In Terror?

Three years ago, it was noted that several Hindutva groups in the U.S. had begun to cooperate closely with extremist pro-Israel Zionist organizations. At that time, the most significant instance of this cooperation was the warm ties developing between New York based Rohit Vyasmaan's HinduUnity.org, a front for Bajrang Dal in the U.S., and Kahane.org. [4]Apparently, when Vyasmaan's HinduUnity.org website was taken down after complaints to the service provider, he contacted the Kahane group's director Michael Guzofsky who was then in Israel. Guzofsky introduced Vyasmaan to his friend Gary Wardell [5], a businessman in Annandale Virginia, who now hosts both websites [6]. Wardell works closely with a Christian Zionist organization affiliated to David Wilkerson's Times Square Church. Wilkerson in a recent interview on a Christian Zionist website wordofmessiah.org:

"The Bible tells us very clearly in Zechariah 12 that God will destroy those who come against Jerusalem," Wilkerson said. "If George W. Bush pressures Israel to give even one inch of Jerusalem to the Arabs, God will punish him for it." [7]

Further research on these ties reveal some interesting details. The server with I.P. address 67.153.104.163, [8] which hosts HinduUnity.org, HinduUnity.com, and HinduUnity.net, also hosts BajrangDal.org, BajrangDal.com, and BajrangDal.net!

Among the extremist Zionist websites hosted on this IP address are Kahane.org, www.jdl-ny.org, New York chapter of the Kahane'ist 'Jewish Defense League.' Meir Kahane, who was killed in 1990, is described even by the Zionist Anti Defamation League as an extremist who "consistently preached a radical form of Jewish nationalism which reflected racism, violence and political extremism" [9]In December 2001, the chairman and a top official of the JDL were charged with " plotting to blow up a Los Angeles area mosque and an office of United States Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)." [10]The domain name that the above IP address refers to ends with .il which is the domain suffix for Israel; however this does not mean the physical machine is in Israel; it is thought to be in the U.S [11].

Other websites hosted on the same IP address include www.Joinidf.org (recruiting for the Israeli Defense forces), www.Jewishlegion.net, which redirects to defendisrael.net, a site that shows an image of a subdued Arab man being bitten by a police dog, and prides itself in utilizing trained police dogs to "join in the struggle to defend Jews in Israel against Terror attacks." [12] The website 'nahalharedi.org' boasts on its frontpage: "Orthodox Jews around the world can now join the IDF for different spans of time and help defend Israel. Various programs are availbale.(sic)" There are several other websites on this IP address that reflect the extremist Zionism of Kahane's group, and a majority of the websites hosted have to do with Israel, Zionism, Kabbalah and the IDF. However, the glaring exception is the presence of HinduUnity and BajrangDal's websites. Zionist Hindutva collaboration is brought to fruition with the blessings of a Christian Zionist web service provider!

Why does the Bajrang Dal's website exist on this server? With all the expertise available to the Hindu right, especially within the Desi community in the U.S., what draws them to the arms of their Kahane friends in such a tight embrace? Bajrang Dal activists in India were reported to have made known their admiration for Israel and the Mossad in 2000. 13 Yet, it does come as a surprise that there is such closeness between two organizations considered even by their 'moderate' cousins in the Hindutva and Zionist movements, to be way off the edge. 14 The ties with the Christian Right add another ominous dimension to this relationship.

A stone and a mountain.

In August 2000, the Maccabean, mouthpiece of the extremist Freeman Center, a collection of Likud-oriented Zionists, whose 'frequent contributors' include Ariel Sharon, Daniel Pipes, and other notable Zionist hacks with ties to think tanks and U.S. and Israeli government agencies, claimed:

"The Freeman Center was instrumental in the initiation of military relations between India and Israel. This was done pre-Oslo via Shimon Peres, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of the alcoholic Jew murderer (The Altalena) Prime Misiter Yitzhak Rabin 1992. Sales of Israeli military projects to India as risen rapidly to over #2 billion per annum." [15]

Freeman Center's maintains two links to India-related websites: one a website of the Kashmiri Pandit group 'Kashmir Overseas Association' (http://www.kashmir-information.com) and the second, the 'Sword of Truth' website (http://www.swordoftruth.com/), described as "the pro-Hindu site of Freeman Center Research Associate Arvind Ghosh." [16] The latter website has a reputation for being one of the most rabid Hindutva outlets on the web. [17] Mr. Ghosh has been in the forefront of promoting Hindutva for quite some time; his diatribe called "Islam and the Infidel" was reviewed by Sita Ram Goel, and his writings have appeared on Organiser, the RSS mouthpiece. [18] In 1999, a message claiming that 50,000 Muslims wanted to "convert" to Hinduism appeared on the newsgroup soc.culture.Indian, posted by a prominent poster, one Jai Maharaj. [19] Monetary contributions supposedly for the purposes of enabling this "conversion," were to be directed to Arvind Ghosh, "(address: P.O. Box 631048, Houston TX 77263 USA) who is the Honorary Forwarding agent for the amount.""

Mr. Ghosh's views on "Jew-Hindu relations" are summed up in an article with the same title:

"However, it must be said that intellectually, education-wise and in many other ways, the Jews today stand at a very high level of competence and effectiveness. But their numbers are small. The Hindus, on the other hand, still have the superiority of numbers but nothing more. Under such circumstances, the only way the Jews and the Hindus can come to a meaningful cooperation is to lend Jewish technical know-how to the Hindus while the Hindus should provide the right kind of man power to the Jews along with raw materials." [20]

The bulk of the above-mentioned article is an outright denunciation and denigration of all Muslims who have existed since the 7 th century, so its basic thrust is not only to establish a 'positive' basis for "Jew-Hindu relations" but also reinforce the negative basis, which is founded on an intense hatred of Muslims, and the subcontinent's Islamic heritage. Interestingly, Ghosh's delirious rants are echoed in a statement found on the discussion board israelforum.com's Israeli-World relations section titled ' India and Israel increase trade:'

India must be more aggressive in her rightful and just war against the Islamists and Arabs. India has the power and the resources to squash the Islamists in one gersture of your fingers.

In whole Israel there are less people then in one city of India. If israel is a rock, then India is a mountain. Time the mountain start falling on our mutual enemies heads. I am sure, Israel will bring what ever special powers it has, includeing highly trained "volentears". [21]

The same forum includes an announcement:

Israeli Ambassador will be hosting members of USINPAC and the Indian Ambassador, and their Trade and Commerce Colleagues to discuss trade, commerce and other strategic opportunities between US, Israel and India at a luncheon on March 25, 2004 at 12:00 P.M. [22]

Democrazies against Terror?

Two recently organized efforts that use a slightly different approach to establishing Zionist-Hindutva collaboration focus on the supposed opposition between 'democracy' and 'terror,' with the bland suggestion that Israel and India alongside the U.S. represent 'democracy,' while Palestinians, Pakistanis, Arabs, Muslims, the world over, represent 'terror.' Let us not waste time trashing this product of self-induced delirium, since we know it emerges from the trash-heap of deception, lies, and outright racism. Those envisioning such an alliance on behalf of democracy, would have to render themselves blind, deaf and dumb in the face of the mega-terrorism waged by Israel against the Palestinians, the U.S. the world over; and with the Hindutva hijacked state, India's credentials as a state sponsoring terrorism against its own population reached dizzying heights in Gujarat March 2002, not to speak of the Indian state's legacy of brutality in Kashmir, Assam and Punjab. Yet, the website democraciesagainstterror.org proclaims:

" In particular, we emphasize the common problems facing Israel, India, and the United States. We promote all forms of cooperation between these countries that represent inclusion, equality, and the highest ideals of humanity. " [23]

Who are these self-proclaimed knights of democracy? Based in Fremont, California, this group includes such 'democratic' minded individuals as Gaurang Desai, president of the Bay Area chapter of FISI, Mihir Meghani, a member of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, the RSS's overseas avatar, President of the recently formed Hindu American Foundation, and a founding member of the Hindu Students Coucil, an organization created by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, Yatindra Bhatnagar, a well known defender of Hindutva who recently lashed out at a recent Indian Muslim Council event in which the growing intolerance and violence of organized Hindutva was being addressed [24], Scott Abramson, a hard-core Zionist physician from San Mateo, CA, who sets out boxes of cookies to attract passers to a table promoting AIPAC and Israel [25], and who also was a signatory to the pathetic letindiadevelop rag cobbled together in the wake of the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate 's devastating exposure of the IDRF's nefarious diversion of funds towards Hindutva activities in India [26], and other similarly endowed exemplary practitioners of 'democracy.'

4Democracy.org is another venture linking California based Hindutvadis and their Zionist counterparts, under the leadership of Bob Zeidman, an 'entrepreuner' who has made it a point to develop relations between Zionist activists and their Hindutvadi counterparts. Yatindra Bhatnagar, mentioned above, is an advisor to this group, and his articles are featured on their website; Zeidman's own piece titled ' India and Israel ' claims:

Both gained independence from England around the same time. Both are surrounded by enemies that wish to destroy it. Both must deal with terrorist attacks on a regular basis. Both are democracies that recognize individual human rights. Both have successfully turned to high technology as a means of reinvigorating their economies. Both cultures value education and hard work. [27]

Compare this to the statements made at a gathering held on October 20, 2002 in New Jersey, called "Hindu Jewish Friendship Celebration." Ved Nanda, a prominent figure at Hindutva events including the so-called "Dharma Conference" held annually, represented the "Hindu community" at this event. His summary of 'Hindu-Jewish friendship' asserted that " both have suffered extraordinarily long periods of persecution but have still kept our strong identities intact," "both are tolerant religions with no proselytization and no aggressive designs," "both have roots in vibrant democracies -- India and Israel -- with an irreverent press and passionate participation by civil society," "both are combating heinous acts of terrorism," and so on.

4democracy.org's Bob Zeidman is actively involved in promoting Israel-India relations with speaking engagements and media interventions in California. He spoke at a Jewish Business Persons Lunch Group in Walnut Creek, California on 23 rd February, 2004. His talk titled " Israel and India : From Ancient Culture to Modern Democracy," focused on " the fact that both countries are surrounded by dictatorships and subjected to frequent attacks by Islamist terrorists." Zeidman also "emphasized the need to support both countries as free democratic nations and strong allies of the United States. " In March, Zeidman's Speaking for Democracy(4democracy.org) was also " asked to talk to Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu group in Orange County." In his note to supporters, Zeidman asks: "Is there a member of our group that lives in the area or is willing to go there to give a talk on a Sunday morning? Please let me know. You don't need to be an expert on Israeli history, Indian history, or U.S. history. We can send you information and work with you before the talk. Please let me know." [28]

Incidentally the democraciesagainstterrorism.org rag has a resources section in which under the 'Information on Israel ' header, there are not less than 30 websites listed. The 'Information on India ' section has a measly two: a link to the Indian Embassy, and one to USINPAC. Mihir Meghani, of Hindu Students Council and Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh fame, meanwhile has set up a new venture, called the Hindu American Foundation (hinduamericanfoundation.org). This outfit claims to have " created a report of Internet websites dedicated to propagating hatred and violence against Hindus and Hinduism." This list was supposedly shared with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which included a selection "of these anti-Hindu websites in a compilation entitled, "Digital Terrorism and Hate 2004." [29] Obviously, the intent is, to use the skill and experience of Zionist organizations like the SWC, whose website now sports an image and a headline that perhaps exemplifies the Orwellian nightmare that the early 21 st century has been relegated to:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Helps Launch New $200 Million Complex To Rise In Heart Of Jerusalem

Accompanied by an image of the racist 'Terminator' waving to a crowd in front of a giant banner that reads: "Center for Human Dignity, Museum of Tolerance, Jerusalem. [30]" The irony of this hideous negation of reality cannot be overemphasized: The Palestinian people are being targeted by Sharon, Bush and the Zionist neo-cons of Israel and the U.S., for 'unilateral separation,' a plan of ethnic cleansing, and genocide in slow-motion, which the self-ordained saints of tolerance at the SWC neither recognize, nor care about, as they raise slogans about human dignity in the midst of a settler colonial war of occupation and plunder. There is little doubt that Hindutva activist fronts like the "Hindu American Foundation" will use these ties to try and silence critics of Hindutva's excesses in the name of defending Hinduism. Criticism of Hindu practices such as caste are already being attacked by the Hindu American Foundation as " prejudice against Indians, Hindus and Hinduism." [31]

References

Hindu Extremists Seek Ties With Israel and Its U.S. Lobby, Faisal Kutty, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January 1994
Namaste Sharon, Vijay Prashad, LeftWord, 2003
'Indo-US economic cooperation very positive; military cooperation very high' January 13, 2004 (http://www.indiaonestop.com/face2face/sanjaypuri.htm).
"Two Unlikely Allies Come Together in Hatred of Muslims" New York Times, June 2, 2001
Wardell is a member of a Christian Zionist movement The Times Square Church, of David Wilkerson, a : http://www.gesher.co.il/eng/index.php?pg=gd-5.inc Also: "Please notify Gary Wardell immediately, if you feel a guestbook entry does not glorify God and needs to be deleted. He's online almost all day and can usually quickly jump in to do editing." http://www.tscpulpitseries.org/teamlead.html Guidelines for Foreign Teams - Times Square Church Pulpit Series.
United in Hatred, Aseem Chhabra, Rediff US Special, July 24, 2001 http://www.rediff.com/us/2001/jul/24usspec.htm
American Pastor David Wilkerson speaks out in interview with Israel Today magazine, Word of Messiah Ministries http://wordofmessiah.org/david_wilkerson.htm
An IP Address refers to a unique number of the form x.x.x.x which identifies a computer on the internet. Two machines cannot have the same IP address, and web servers have IP addresses that do not change dynamically, as computers that dial-up to access the web do.
http://www.adl.org/extremism/jdl_chron.asp
http://www.aaiusa.org/jdl.htm quoting Los Angeles Times, 12/13/01
Whois query on networksolutions.com
http://www.defendisrael.net/about.shtml
Desi Mossad is getting ready at Bajrang Dal's Ayodhya camp, The Indian Express, June 30, 2000
A very interesting piece of writing titled 'Bajarangis - Do not become Hindu Jihadis' appears on the Hindutva website http://hindutva.org/bajrang.html. The Hindutvadi authors of this message ask their Bajrang Dal friends: "Bajarangis - Decide now if you want to become like the beasts that you want to fight or to become hunters against those beasts." Similarly, denunciations of the JDL and Kahane movement can be found on the website of the Zionist ADL (noted above). The hindutva.org website promotes a 'Savarkar' brand of Hindutva which asserts atheistic, militaristic Hindu chauvinism, as opposed to the VHP-Bajrang Dal version which pursues the same with Brahmanic symbolism and ritualism.
http://freeman.io.com/m_online/aug00/arens.htm
In its brief bio of Arvind Ghosh (http://www.freeman.org/ghosh.htm), the Freeman Center notes: "It is his expertize (sic) on Moslem behavior and attrocities (sic) in the Indian sub-continent that makes him a valuable contributor to the Freeman Center."
swordoftruth.org is registered to Arvind Ghosh, Sword Of Truth, HOUSTON, TX 77263-1048, US, (713)778-0960 source: Whois query from networksolutions.com
Hindu Vivek Kendra, Book Review - http://groups.google.com/groups?q=arvind+ghosh&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=5hnfj5%24kt8%40usenet.srv.cis.pitt.edu&rnum=3
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=arvind+ghosh&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=Hindu-0146.990322%40news.mantra.com&rnum=6
Jew-Hindu Relations, Arvind Ghosh, The Maccabean, http://www.freeman.org/m_online/sep97/ghosh.htm
http://www.israelforum.com/board/showthread.php3?pagenumber=8&threadid=3400 message posted by Gilgamesh 'senior member.' 4-21-2004
http://www.israelforum.com/board/showthread.php3?pagenumber=8&threadid=3400
http://democraciesagainstterror.org/
Hours of Anti-India, Anti-Hindutva Rhetoric at "Indian" Muslim Meet, Yatindra Bhatnagar, July 8, 2003, http://democraciesagainstterror.org/articles/Bhatnagar2003-07-08.htm
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/18502/edition_id/371/format/html/displaystory.html
See also: http://www.pakistan-facts.com/article.php/20040210121949427 where Abramson claims that Musharraf is 'not to be trusted' because "his army supports terrorists there against Hindus. No wonder India remains skeptical of his overtures. America, like its fellow democracy, India, is now learning the unfortunate lessons of the Pakistani double-cross."
http://www.letindiadevelop.org/ViewSignatures.asp?idstart=3779
India and Israel, Bob Zeidman, Auguist 2003, http://4democracy.org/articles/Zeidman2003-08.htm
4democracy.org, March 1, 2004
http://www.hinduamericanfoundation.com/achievements.htm
http://www.wiesenthal.com/
http://www.hinduamericanfoundation.org/campaigns_denverpost_letter.htm

Indian government courts alliance with Israel and US

2003-09-08T13:58:00.000-07:00

Sharon given red carpet welcome in New Delhi

By Kranti Kumara and Keith Jones

World Socialist Web Site

25 September 2003

India’s coalition government, which is dominated by the Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), rolled out the red carpet for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during a three-day official visit to India earlier this month, thus further solidarizing itself with Sharon’s ever-widening repression of the Palestinian people.

In pursuit of closer ties with both the Zionist state and the Bush administration, India’s BJP government has repeatedly drawn a parallel between the US, Israel and India, claiming that the three are “frontline” states in the battle against “Islamic” and state-sponsored “terror.” Sharon’s visit concluded with the issuing of a joint Indo-Israeli statement that claimed the two countries share common goals of “advancing peace, security and stability” in Asia and defeating the “global [terrorist] threat.” “[A]s victims of terrorism,” declared the statement, “Israel and India are partners in the battle against this scourge ... call upon the international community to take decisive action against this global menace, and condemn states and individuals who aid and abet terrorism...”

The ink was hardly dry on this statement than Sharon’s government was signalling that the next stage in its “anti-terrorism” campaign could include the assassination of PLO Chairman and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

In addition to his Indian counterpart, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Sharon met with Indian Home Minister L.K. Advani, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, External Affairs Minister Yeshwant Sinha, Defence Minister George Fernandes and India’s National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra. Sharon also conferred with key figures in India’s business elite at a meeting organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Confederation of Indian Industry. Sonia Gandhi, the widow of former Prime Minster Rajiv Gandhi, daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi and current leader of the Congress party, requested and was granted a half-hour audience with the Israeli prime minister.

Thousands of people across India took to the streets to protest Sharon’s visit—the first ever by a sitting Israeli prime minister. Many held placards such as “Butcher Sharon, Go Back, Go Back,” a reference to Sharon’s role in the 1982 massacre of several thousand Palestinians at Lebanon’s Sabra and Shatila refugee camps and his government’s ongoing campaign of violence and intimidation against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The protests extended from Kashmir in the north to Madras (Chennai) in the south. Bombay police arrested a hundred people during a peaceful protest. Most of the non-Congress opposition parties issued a joint statement denouncing the visit and urging support for the protests.

The size of Sharon’s entourage is indicative of the breadth of the political, military and economic ties that India and Israel have forged over the past decade. Sharon was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minster Yosef Lapid and some 150 other aides, government officials and business leaders, including the chief executives of Israeli government- and privately owned arms and military technology manufacturers. Last year alone, India spent between $500 million and $2 billion on Israeli military technology and equipment. If the latter figure, which the New York Times cites, is true, Israel may well have surpassed Russia as India’s biggest foreign source of military equipment.

For decades a pillar of the non-aligned movement and a Cold War ally of the Soviet Union, India has long professed its staunch support for the Palestinian people. But since establishing full diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992, India has become ever more closely allied with the Zionist state. In 1999, when fighting in the Kargil region of Kashmir almost led to all-out war between India and Pakistan, Israel supplied India with unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles (UAVs) and sent military specialists to Kashmir to instruct Indian troops in counterinsurgency tactics. In the name of fighting international terrorism, India and Israel have developed even more extensive military and intelligence cooperation over the past two years.

India has also become a major market for Israeli goods. In 2002, non-military trade reached $1.2 billion, a more than six-fold increase from 1992. But it is arms sales that have cemented the growing commercial and political ties. According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, weapons sales to India and Turkey in the 1990s were instrumental in rescuing Israel’s military manufacturers from the crisis that they faced after the collapse of South Africa’s apartheid regime.

In August, the US government gave Israel the go-ahead to sell three Phalcon airborne early-warning radar, command and control systems to India for an estimated $1 billion. India’s plans to purchase antiballistic Arrow missiles from Israel were a major topic in Sharon’s discussions with ministers of the BJP-dominated National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Like the Phalcon purchase, the proposed $2.5 billion Arrow missile sale would require Washington’s blessing, as it would involve the transfer of US technology.

The NDA government’s pursuit of an alliance with Israel is rooted in the drive by the Indian ruling class to win India the status of South Asia’s pre-eminent power and an emerging world power by currying US favor and channelling an ever greater share of India’s scant resources into the military. Between 1998 and 2002, the annual increases in India’s military budget were respectively: 14 percent; 21 percent; 14 percent; 21 percent; and 17 percent.

However, it also bears note that the Hindu nationalist right, which forms the backbone of the BJP, and hence the NDA, has a longstanding affinity for Zionism, stretching back to colonial times. In short, the Hindu supremacists perceive the Zionists to be fighting a common Muslim enemy.

Destabilizing South Asia

For Pakistan, the prospect of advanced Israeli weaponry falling into Indian hands is deeply disturbing. Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf has called India’s purchase of Phalcon technology a “matter of serious concern,” for it will give the Indian military the ability to closely monitor Pakistan’s entire air space. Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri warned that Sharon’s visit, “the primary purpose” of which “seems to be the sale of ultramodern and strategic weaponry,” could undermine the balance of power between South Asia’s two nuclear arms states. This warning was subsequently amplified by Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan. Commenting on India’s plans to obtain Arrow missiles, Khan declared: “India’s buying antiballistic weaponry will disrupt the strategic balance in the region. We do not know what India will do with these weapons. Where will it unleash them?”

So alarmed is the Pakistani establishment, there have been calls from within the government for Islamabad to consider pursuing its own alliance with Israel. A first step in this direction would be for Pakistan to formally recognise the Zionist state. The Musharraf regime is also said to be considering seeking airborne early warning systems from the US, thus drawing South Asia still further into a costly and ruinous race for military advantage.

Pakistan’s fears are not without foundation. Sections of the Indian military—to say nothing of the Hindu chauvinist right—have urged their government to call Pakistan’s nuclear “bluff,” by staging cross-border raids into Pakistan-held Kashmir or even mounting a “limited,” conventional war against Pakistan aimed at demonstrating once and for all Indian superiority. The Indian militarists believe that airborne early warning systems and antiballistic missiles would be pivotal to preventing or withstanding a Pakistani nuclear attack.

Furthermore, Indian officials have repeatedly spoken of a US-Indian-Israeli axis in terms that make clear that for New Delhi such an alliance would be directed, in the first instance, at maximizing India’s geopolitical and military pressure on Pakistan.

India’s National Security Advisor Brajesh Misra all but openly appealed for such a triple alliance in a May 2003 address to the American Jewish Committee’s annual dinner. Mishra claimed that India, Israel and the US “have all been prime targets of terrorism” because they are democracies sharing “fundamental similarities,” then called for “a core, consisting of democratic societies” to spearhead the “global campaign against terrorism” so as to ensure it “is pursued to its logical conclusion, and does not run out of steam, because of other preoccupations.”

Making an argument that both encapsulates the Indian elite’s attitude toward the grievances of the Kashmiri people and the Zionists’ attitude toward the Palestinians, Mishra derided all discussion of the “root causes” of terrorism as “nonsense.” An “anti-terrorist” alliance, he affirmed, should “not get bogged down in definitional and causal arguments about terrorism.”

Indian-American lobby groups, long-known for their pro-BJP sympathies, subsequently joined forces with the American Jewish Committee and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to press for US government approval of the Phalcon sale. Now they are promoting the Arrow antiballistic missile sale.

There are definite limits, however, to the convergence of US, Indian and Israeli interests. To the dismay of the BJP regime, the Bush administration took the Musharraf regime under its wing in September 2001 in exchange for Pakistan’s support for the invasion and occupation Afghanistan. While Washington has subsequently pressed Pakistan into curtailing its logistical and diplomatic support for the insurgency in Kashmir, it has not supported Indian government attempts to label Pakistan a “terrorist” state or allowed India to apply President Bush’s “pre-emptive” war doctrine in South Asia.

India, for its part, balked at endorsing the US’s illegal invasion of Iraq and has thus far spurned Washington’s appeals to send troops to assist the US-British occupation force. Just as significantly, India has resisted pressure from both the Bush administration and Israel that it curtail its ties with Iran. Russia, India and Iran have collaborated in seeking to limit US influence in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

That said, the BJP regime’s touting of an “anti-terrorist” alliance with the Bush administration and the Sharon regime speaks volumes about the predatory ambitions of the Indian ruling class. Moreover, whatever the future of the burgeoning military and intelligence ties between India and Israel they have already added a new, incendiary element to the geopolitics of South Asia, while sending a chilling message to India’s 130 million-strong Muslim minority.

Gandhi: Zionism and anti-Semitism

2003-06-19T00:23:00.000-07:00

Courtesy: The Gandhi Reader: A Source Book of His Life and Writings
Edited by Homer A. Jack
AMS Press, New York, 1956; pp. 317-322

Gandhi had some close Jewish friends, especiaIly in South Africa. There three of his closest Western co-workers were of Jewish ancestry: Henry S. L. Polak, Herman Kallenbach, and his secretary, Sonya Schlesin. Later, in 1939, Kallenbach paid a visit to Gandhi 'and lived with him at the Sevagram ashram. With the rise of Hitler and anti-Semitism in Germany, Gandhi felt compeIled to denounce this aspect of racism, which he felt was akin to the kind of religious and racial discrimination he had fought all his life. He did not, however, regard Zionism as the right answer to the Jewish problem.

Several letters have been received by me asking me to declare my views about the Arab-Jew question in Palestine and the persecution of the Jews in Germany. It is not without hesitation that I venture to offer my views on this very difficult question. My sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately in South Africa. Some of them became lifelong companions. Through these friends I came to learn much of their age-long persecution. They have been the untouchables of Christianity .The parallel between their treatment by Christians and the treatment of untouchables by Hindus is very close.

Religious sanction has been invoked in both cases for the justification of the inhuman treatment meted out to them. Apart from the friendships, therefore, there is the more common universal reason for my sympathy for the Jews.

But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?

Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct. The mandates have no sanction but that of the last war. Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home.

The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred. The Jews born in France are French in precisely the same sense that Christians born in France are French. If the Jews have no home but Palestine, will they relish the idea of being forced to leave the other parts of the world in which they are settled? Or do they want a double home where they can remain at will? This cry for the national home affords a colorable justification for the German expulsion of the Jews.

But the German persecution of the Jews seems to have no parallel in history. The tyrants of old never went so mad as Hitler seems to have gone. And he is doing it with religious zeal. For, he is propounding a new religion of exclusive and militant nationalism in the name of which any inhumanity becomes an act of humanity to be rewarded here and hereafter. The crime of an obviously mad but intrepid youth is being visited upon his whole race with unbelievable ferocity .If there ever could be a justifiable war in the name of and for humanity, a war against Germany, to prevent the wanton persecution of a whole race, would be completely justified. But I do not believe in any war. A discussion of the pros and cons of such a war is, therefore, outside my horizon or province.

But if there can be no war against Germany, even for such a crime as is being committed against the Jews, surely there can be no alliance with Germany. How can there be alliance between a nation which claims to stand for justice and democracy and one which is the declared enemy of both? Or is England drifting towards armed dictatorship and all it means?

Germany is showing to the world how efficiently violence can be worked when it is not hampered by any hypocrisy or weakness masquerading as humanitarianism. It is also showing how hideous, terrible and terrifying it looks in its nakedness.

Can the Jews resist this organized and shameless persecution? Is there a way to preserve their self-respect, and not to feel helpless, neglected and forlorn? I submit there is. No person who has faith in a living God need feel helpless or forlorn. Jehovah of the Jews is a God more personal than the God of the Christians, the Mussalmans or the Hindus, though as a matter of fact, in essence, He is common to all and one without a second and beyond description. But as the Jews attribute personality to God and believe that He rules every action of theirs, they ought not to feel helpless. If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest gentile German might, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment. And for doing this I should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance, but would have confidence that in the end the rest were bound to follow my example. If one Jew or all the Jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now. And suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy which no number of resolutions of sympathy passed in the world outside Germany can. Indeed, even if Britain, France and America were to declare hostilities against Germany, they can bring no inner joy, no inner strength. The calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imaged could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant. For to the God-fearing, death has no terror. It is a joyful sleep to be followed by a waking that would be all the more refreshing for the long sleep.

It is hardly necessary for me to point out that it is easier for the Jews than for the Czechs to follow my prescription. And they have in the Indian Satyagraha campaign in South Africa an exact parallel. There the Indians occupied precisely the same place that the Jews occupy in Germany. The persecutions had also a religious tinge. President Kruger used to say that the white Christians were the chosen of God and Indians were inferior beings created to serve the whites. A fundamental clause in the Transvaal constitution was that there should be no equality between the whites and colored races including Asiatics. There too the Indians were consigned to ghettos described as locations. The other disabilities were almost of the same type as those of the Jews in Germany. The Indians, a mere handful, resorted to Satyagraha without any backing from the world outside or the Indian Government. Indeed the British officials tried to dissuade the satyagrahis from their contemplated step. World opinion and the Indian Government came to their aid after eight years of fighting. And that too was by way of diplomatic pressure, not of a threat of war.

But the Jews of Germany can offer Satyagraha under infinitely better auspices than the Indians of South Africa. The Jews are a compact, homogeneous community in Germany. They are far more gifted than the Indians of South Africa. And they have organized world opinion behind them. I am convinced that, if someone with courage and vision can arise among them to lead them in non-violent action, the winter of their despair can in the twinkling of an eye be turned into the summer of hope. And what has today become a degrading man-hunt can be turned into a calm and determined stand offered by unarmed men and women possessing the strength of suffering given to them by Jehovah. It win be then a truly religious resistance offered against the godless fury of a dehumanized man. The German Jews will score a lasting victory over the German gentiles in the sense that they will have converted the latter to an appreciation of human dignity .They will have rendered service to fellow-Germans and proved their title to be the real Germans as against those who are today dragging, however unknowingly, the German name into the mire.

And now a word to the Jews in Palestine. I have no doubt that they are going about in the wrong way. The Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract. It is in their hearts. But if they must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs. They should seek to convert the Arab heart. The same God roles the Arab heart who rules the Jewish heart. They can offer Satyagraha in front of the Arabs and offer themselves to be shot or thrown into the Dead Sea without raising a little finger against them. They will find the world opinion in their favor in their religious aspiration. There are hundreds of ways of reasoning with the Arabs, if they will only discard the help of the British bayonet. As it is, they are co-sharers with the British in despoiling a people who have done no wrong to them.

I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regard as an unwarrantable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.

Let the Jews who claim to be the chosen race prove their title by choosing the way of non-violence for vindicating their position on earth. Every country is their home including Palestine not by aggression but by loving service. A Jewish friend has sent me a book called The Jewish Contribution to Civilization by Cecil Roth. It gives a record of what the Jews have done to enrich the world's literature, art, music, drama, science, medicine, agriculture, etc. Given the will, the Jew can refuse to be treated as the outcaste of the West, to be despised or patronized. He can command the attention and respect of the world by being man, the chosen creation of God, instead of being man who is fast sinking to the brute and forsaken by God. They can add to their many contributions the surpassing contribution of non-violent action.

*Reprinted with permission from Hariian, November 26, 1938. Also in M. K. Gandhi, Non-Violence in Peace and War (Ahmedabad: Navaji'lan, 1942), VoI. I, pp. 183-88.

Zionism, Hindutva, and Mickey Mouse Imperialism

2002-07-23T07:10:00.000-07:00

by Raja Harish Swamy, Ghadar, Volume 5: Number 2, July 21 2002

With events careening in an ominous direction two major regions in the world today are flashpoints for the reactionary impulses of imperialism. A right-wing administration in the United States packed with oil and defense industry interests is engaged in an unlimited world war allying itself with two virulently fascistic regimes: Zionist Israel and India under Hindutva rule. Geography reveals what the mythologies of righteous war attempt to conceal: West and Central Asia’s vast oil reserves cannot be tapped with ease and gluttony if the countries of these regions had accountable forms of governance. Allied to this fact are also the immense resources of South Asia, marked for looting: structural “adjustment” enables the loot and strangulation of the population creating conditions for the growth of resistance. This resistance has manifested in massive strikes throughout the subcontinent as well as mass peoples’ movements articulating a powerful critique of capitalist globalization and the policies of its agents, and also the growing political strength of the extremely exploited sections of the population, particularly Dalits throughout India. To subvert and destroy this trend, the United States has found a useful ally: the Hindutva movement.

The much desired oil pipeline from Central Asia to Pakistan can only be possible by installing obedient regimes in the region. This is possible through maintaining leaders under constant threat: Pakistan’s leadership needs an Indian threat, while India’s leaders need the Pakistani threat; the same imperialists who organized the training of thousands of Afghan refugees in Jihadi warfare two decades ago, turn the other way while Hindutva’s fascist program unfolds with the organized genocide in Gujarat. By mid-April 2002, as the anti Muslim pogrom continued in Gujarat, the US sold radar equipment worth $140 million to India. The UK, junior ally of the US, made new arms deals with India, while Israel, that other running dog of imperialism, sold missiles to India, after its chief sponsor and boss scolded Israel for trying to sell the same to China. The Hindutvadis are ecstatic, now that the Indian armed forces are being showered with weapons while the ruling party engages in wholesale slaughter of Muslims, seeing the work of the VHP as a part of the “global struggle against terrorism.” Simultaneously an accelerated assault on the resources and livelihoods of the vast majority of working people on behalf of the IMF bosses in Washington continues. Arms dealing in the face of genocide offers the clearest indication of how the US government sees Hindutva: as an acceptable tool to keep the natives in line, and ensure profits for the arms industry, which not coincidentally is the only sector reporting profits.

Hindutvadis in India and their counterparts in Pakistan, with full encouragement from their imperialist masters, use the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people to serve their own agendas, primarily to stay in power by playing with the sentiments of ignorant, and endemically illiterate populations. To this end they are even willing to threaten nuclear annihilation in the name of nationalism; after all we the natives don’t know that a nuclear bomb is something other than a humongous grenade. Such criminal contempt for the lives of millions, which extends beyond the Hindutvadi brigade to their sycophants in the so-called opposition, reveals what the ruling classes in South Asia are made of. The fascist Home Minister Advani was most recently quoted as saying that India needs defense more than social and economic welfare.

Israel’s reputation as a guard dog of US imperialism in West Asia is legendary. Zionism, a racist ideology marked by extremely hateful views towards Palestinians and Arabs, claims biblical sanction for colonizing and usurping the lands of indigenous Palestinians. Outside of the “spiritual” realm Israel ensures the compliance of Saudi Arabia’s corrupt monarchs while allowing the latter to redirect their peoples’ frustration against Israel. For its troubles the Zionist cause is ensured absolute loyalty from the US leadership and media: the growth of settler colonialist occupation and destruction of Palestinian national aspirations are bankrolled by the US taxpayer to the tune of billions of dollars every year. Israel, with its measly four million, population receives more aid from the US than the entire continent of Africa. Most of this “aid” translates into American weapons that are used with impunity against Palestinian civilians. For instance F16 fighter-bombers are used against civilian residential areas without so much as a whisper of criticism from the “civilized” west. It seems little has changed since the days of that murderous imperialist Winston Churchill who relished using chemical weapons against Arabs and scoffed at the notion of an independent India.

Zionism and Hindutva’s nexus in India and the US

Israel has long been a supporter of the worst fascists and criminals in the world. From openly supporting the Botha apartheid regime in South Africa and Zaire’s Mobutu, arming and training Salvadoran death squads, Lebanese Phalangists, and UNITA in southern Africa, to the recent military support for Colombia’s right wing paramilitaries, Israel’s despicable track record confirms its function in the American empire. As Hindutva strengthens its hold on India, Israel’s role in South Asia is beginning to become clearer. Just last week in the midst of irresponsible warmongering by the decrepit leaders of India and Pakistan, Israel sent a delegation to India to express “support against terrorism.” Such open interference in support of the Hindutvadi agenda makes Israel a dangerous enemy of the Indian people. However this trend has a history and several disturbing aspects reveal deeper connections between the purveyors of Hindutvadi ideology and their Zionist friends.

Israel has been suspected of involvement in the incitement of virulent anti-Muslim activities in India, as has been pointed out by Faisal Kutty, a writer from Kerala state who noted that a meeting took place, shrouded in secrecy, between BJP high officials and Israeli officials preceding a completely uncharacteristic violent communal anti-Muslim riot in the normally peaceful and harmonious state of Kerala in 1992. Incidentally, when the top leaders of the BJP came to the US a few years before coming to power, secret meetings were held with leaders of Zionist organizations such as AIPAC. Why did the Hindutvadis insist on secret meetings with the Zionists in America? What were they trying to keep secret?

Kerala’s Muslims are the oldest Muslim community in India, tracing their roots to the early Arab Muslim traders who plied the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea trade routes. They make up 20 percent of the population in Kerala while Hindus are 60 percent and Christians 20 percent. Kerala has the highest rate of literacy in the country, in no small part due to the work of the ruling Communist Party over the last several decades to build a literate and thriving, secular state. In comparison, the other South Indian states under the heel of chauvinistic ethnocentric parties have no comparable achievements. Faisal Kutty also notes that the first serious communal clash between Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus and Muslims occurred shortly after the opening of an Israeli interest section in the U.S. Embassy in Colombo. The section was later closed by the Sri Lankan government.

These suspicions are not isolated as similar reports about Israeli agents wandering in Kashmir as well as the BJP government’s fascination with “security cooperation,” and overt statements made by Hindutva ideologues about "Hindu-Yahudi" unity attest to wider involvement. On June 30, 2000 an Indian Express article offered a revealing glimpse into the Bajrang Dal, since implicated in the Gujarat genocide. The article, entitled "Desi Mossad is getting ready at Bajrang Dal's Ayodhya camp" described a training camp at which 150 male cadres, between 15 and 21 years of age, recited the following pledge in unison: "I, as a member of Bajrang Dal, swear in the name of Lord Hanuman to always remain prepared to protect my country, religion and culture."

On several occasions, the cadres and their leaders mention Israel and the Mossad as their inspiration: “Asked what he did at the camp, an activist whispers, ``I am from the secret service of Bajrang Dal. Israel's Mossad is my inspiration. I can't tell you more.''’ When pressed: “Dal leaders in their defence, cite example of Israel where all citizens have to undergo a mandatory training in physical fitness and arms handling. But, isn't Israel's geographical situation peculiar? ‘India's even worse. Israel has threat only from outsiders while India faces threat from even those inhabiting it,' Sharma replies.”

It seems strange that the trainees would mention Israel repeatedly and also venture to describe what they perceived as Israel’s example, unless this formed some part of their ideological training. Secondly, given the horrendous acts of violence committed by this organization, at times using sophisticated explosives in a highly organized manner, and also committing horrible acts of savagery against women and children, their admiration for Israel should set off alarm bells. Given Israel’s long history of supporting, arming, and training unsavory “pupils” throughout the world, are the monkey brigades another feather in this cap of infamy?

Israeli "counter-terrorism" assistance is also being mobilized, most evidently in (though not restricted to) Jammu and Kashmir, where the government of India sees a political issue as a “security” issue, in the age-old imperialistic tradition of ignoring the human, civil and political rights of the Kashmiri people while making every effort to suppress the voice of Kashmiris.

The Times of India, citing “high level government sources,” reported on September 22, 2000 that “a high-level team of Israeli counter-terrorism experts is now touring Jammu and Kashmir and several other states in India at the invitation of Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani to make an assessment of New Delhi's security needs,” [italics mine]. According to the article, “the Israeli team, headed by Eli Katzir of the Counter-Terrorism Combat Unit of the Prime Minister's Office, includes a senior Israel Police commander and Israeli military intelligence officials. The team will prepare a ‘feasibility study’ of Indian security needs and assess the areas in which Israel can offer assistance to New Delhi in tackling the activities of insurgent and terrorist groups.”

Using the pretext of fighting “terrorism,” the Hindutvadi government of India now uses Israeli expertise in quashing popular discontent, whether it is in Kashmir or elsewhere; if this same government and its extra-governmental paramilitary allies are implicated in the Gujarat genocide, then it is not unlikely that their support for, assistance from, and admiration of Israel plays some role.

Hindutva and Zionism in the US

One Hindutvadi closely tied to Zionism is Aravind Ghosh, a "Research Associate" with the U.S. based Zionist organization the Freeman Center. This organization has a magazine called The Maccabean in which Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel are "frequent contributors." Ghosh is described as a ‘Hindu Historian & Publisher.’ In the center’s own words, "It is his expertise on Moslem behavior and atrocities in the Indian sub-continent that makes him a valuable contributor to the Freeman Center." Ghosh writes favorably of Israel and calls on India to learn from Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. He calls on “Jawans to carry the saffron to Lahore,” as a way of reasserting “Hindu” ownership which he claims was usurped by “Islamic fascists,” who according to this foul-mouthed charlatan, “see Bharat as the soft spot to propagate their irrational creed and foment violence. India tries to placate them. Israel expels them, This is what Bharat should do. If they hate Hindu Rashtra so much they are free to leave for dar'ul Islam.”

Meanwhile even mainstream campuses help continue to equate Hinduism with India. The Asian Studies Center at Michigan State University held an India 2002 Week in which four out of five items on the agenda had to do with Brahmanic Hindu religious traditions and concerns, one seminar suspiciously titled “Hinduism, non-violence and terrorism.” That this seminar was conducted while the Gujarat genocide was taking place did not appear to have bothered the organizers despite phone calls and complaints.

Hinduunity.org, a hateful website which espouses violence against Muslims and secular activists who speak up against Hindutva fascism was recently shut down for their offensive material. They were rescued by Zionist organizations tied to the Kahane group, extremists who openly profess racist views against Arabs. Their website features links to the Kahane group which reciprocates by listing Hinduunity as a “friendly site.” Both sites contain vitriolic materials against Muslims and the Kahane group is linked to acts of terrorism in the US and in Israel. Today Hinduunity.org and kahane.org share the same server, located in Israel.

Inventing ancient Israel and ancient Hindu India, projects in futility.

Both Hindutva and Zionism thrive on grossly falsified histories--racist narratives with strong similarities. In “The Invention of Ancient Israel and the silencing of Palestinian History,” Keith Whitelam describes how the discourse of biblical studies relates to the political project of Israel. Whitelam notes that most universities in the US, Europe and Israel offer “numerous courses on the history and archaeology of ancient Israel conducted in the context of the study of the Hebrew Bible from Jewish and Christian perspectives. At the same time there are few courses on the subject of ‘ancient Israel’ in departments of history or ancient history. While the western theological concern with ancient Israel has to do with interpreting the bible, the biblical narrative has been established as the only way to approach the issue of ancient Israel or the land of ancient Palestine for that matter. Thus for example archaeological sites are interpreted using names from the Bible; once this is done, the claim is made that the Biblical narrative is true because it is corroborated by material evidence. In this process, Palestinian history and its own body of narratives are silenced and a discourse that is uniquely western in location and orientation, straddles the boundaries of myth and ideology in legitimizing the Zionist claim on Palestine.

A similar process has gripped the Indian subcontinent as well, particularly in the last decade when the Sangh Parivar has attempted to poison history textbooks with a fallacious and utterly decrepit substitute for history. Again the myth of ancient glory is cast in exclusivist terms, but with an explicit agenda: to vilify and demonize India’s Muslims. Claiming and colonizing the past is very much part of the Hindutva agenda, so much so that they even stoop to outrageous assertions such as the claim that the Indus Valley civilization is really an indigenous Vedic civilization. While this claim has been thoroughly debunked by the historical and archaeological record, it is significant in that it belies a deep concern with the racialist/culturalist idea of claiming roots. Nobody in India can easily claim such “roots” to the subcontinent without at some point referring to migration, as is evident in the recent study of India’s peoples conducted by the Anthropological Survey of India. Even many Gujarati Hindus among whom are a large number of Hindutvadis, are themselves descended from the Gurjaras, a central Asian people who came to India as invaders on the heels of the Huns. Many Rajputs are descended from Huns who invaded and pillaged the ruins of the Gupta empire in the fourth century, eventually turning to Shaivism under Mihirakula, whose name is synonymous with ruthless mass murder of Buddhists in Tibetan records. Going even further, the Vedic peoples were themselves tribes from Khwarizm who migrated and invaded their way into the subcontinent three and a half millennia ago. How then may we deal with the descendents of all these ancient invaders? The Helmand river in Afghanistan is the most likely source of the “Sarasvati” myth, known as “Harkavati” in ancient Persian texts. This makes the ancient Vedic people as foreign to the land their descendents claim today as any other population that migrated to the subcontinent. It also throws open the humorous possibility that Mullah Omar and Pujari Advani are perhaps descended from the same ancestor. Indigenism is not only a stupid substitute for history, because it cannot account for anything that falls outside the simplistic categories and the circular logical fallacies it thrives on, but also serves to harbor fascistic idiocy in the guise of building cultural or religious self-confidence.

Ancient Israel and ancient Hindu India are only possible when everything else is excised: for ancient Israel, Palestinian history is not permissible because the Bible chooses Israelites as the chosen people. All material evidence that cannot be quickly interpreted as proof of the Bible’s veracity is not relevant. For Hindutva’s ancient Hindu past, everything great must either be Hindu or not; everything meager, bad, undesirable is foreign; therefore all that is labeled foreign is evil, negative, undesirable. The quest for Ram’s temple continues in the same vein as the fantasy of King Solomon’s temple, both fantasies necessitating the destruction of mosques, in the latter case the third holiest shrine in Islam. Why are Hindutva and Zionism so hellbent on temple building when their primary goal is using the secular state to carry out genocidal social engineering? Both assert that the symbolism of temple building is supposed to represent a resurgence, a return to an ancient lost glory, one that in reality never existed. Recently, a newsreader on T.V. Asia, a pro-Hindutva news channel in the United States spoke of Rama having been born in Ayodhya 900,000 years ago as if he were stating a fact. Mythology is being used as an ideological bludgeon in the fascist program in either case. Even if these alleged temples existed in the distant past, which in the Hindutvadi calendar could extend beyond 8 billion years ago, their symbolic or divine relevance cannot and must not be allowed to override the human, cultural and political rights of existing human beings.

The temple movements in both cases are carefully used devices of provocation: Advani used the temple movement to bolster the BJP in the so-called Rath Yatra and again in 1992 led the mobs’ demolition of the Babri Masjid; Sharon sparked the Al Aqsa Intifada by deliberately provoking a confrontation by storming the Haram Al Sharif with armed soldiers in September 2000. Some of his close supporters favor destruction of the Al Aqsa mosque as a symbolic reassertion of Zionist identity. These movements are not merely efforts to appease religious sentiments in either case, but to bolster a physical assault with an assault on the religious sentiments of Muslims, in Palestine, India, and the world. It is also significant that the stepping up of the VHP’s Ram temple campaign provided the context for the Hindutvadi-engineered carnage in Gujarat. The increased temple fervor came on the heels of a series of resounding defeats for the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh and Punjab Assembly polls.

The Hindutva-Zionist nexus is an ongoing project of collaboration between fascist movements broadly following an agenda that serves the interests of US imperialism. It is an axis of evil in that it derives from and promotes genocidal racism while carefully serving the economic interests of imperialist capital. It enables and facilitates the US imperialists to pursue their geopolitical agenda of cornering the vast oil reserves of West and Central Asia. It also draws strength from, and strengthens the Bush administration’s “war without end,” as it is founded on a virulent hatred of Muslims, most notably because Muslims make up the majority populations in the areas where the oilfields lie. Taken together, the Bush axis of evil in reality is a nefarious alliance between US capitalism, Zionist Israel, and Hindutva, whose ideological camaraderie derives from the fascistic worldview of the Huntingtonian “clash of civilizations.” In the light of this axis of evil, Israel’s siding with Hindutva constitutes a threat to India and demands a response from the left and progressive forces in India. The struggle for a free Palestine is inevitably tied to the struggle for a free India, neither of which can be achieved without a powerful internationalist left that struggles against the fascistic agents of imperialism. Billion-dollar arms deals have no bearings on the will of a people to be free, as can be seen in the incredibly brave struggle of the Palestinian people. Ultimately Zionism and Hindutva, like their imperialist sponsors, will end up on the dung heap of history. The left must ensure that they reach there sooner rather than later.

[Raja Harish Swamy works for Wesleyan University, and plays the guitar while waiting for the revolution.]

Hindutva, Zionism, India and Palestine

2001-12-08T19:20:00.000-08:00

In this paper, I look at some features of Hindutva and compare it to Zionism. As ideological currents that are both powerfully placed with respect to U.S. imperialism’s global ambitions, this comparison is meant to sound a warning to all peace-loving and democratic minded people; fascism is on the rise again, and with alliances developing like those between Hindutva and Zionism, lack of knowledge about either could lead to catastrophic consequences. The struggle of Palestine for freedom and self-determination is tied to the struggle of India for freedom from the neo-colonial order being imposed at the behest of the IMF-WTO regime and its U.S. sponsors and domestic lackeys. Zionism and Hindutva are global movements with a history that is both fascistic and pro-imperialist. Here are some reflections. I use lengthy quotes for the simple reason that it is better to allow authors to speak for themselves rather than paraphrase them; hopefully this curtails monologue and allows for a richer representation of the issues. The sources at the end of the document are to be treated as resources, many of them available over the internet for more in-depth study.

For Palestinians and Arabs interested in why India’s solidarity with the Palestinian cause is under threat, I have gone into some detail about the historic affinities of Hindutva with European fascism, and most importantly, the anti-national, pro-imperialist past and present of Hindutva. For Indians and South Asians, I draw upon the similarities of Hindutva and Zionism because we are caught in wave after wave of imperialist nurtured and sponsored chauvinism, and are yet unable to grasp at the global dimensions of our histories. The longer we are left to the mercies of lunatics like the Hindutvadis (and their counterparts), the more distant any hope for real freedom, and revolutionary change will be. This is precisely what the Yankee imperialists want, and this is why they have always excelled in supporting all sides of fascism simultaneously. Let us meditate on the issues and develop global vision, so that we can more effectively work towards a decent future for South Asia.

What takes place in South Asia is crucial to the Arab world. For decades now, the Arab world is dominated by pro-imperialist regimes standing shakily between their people and their imperialist allegiances. Strangely enough, Saudi Arabia, which is a major U.S. ally, draws no condemnation for its medieval practices against its domestic and migrant population. Israel, which practices apartheid, and commits atrocities on a daily basis with no restraints on barbarity, is called a ‘democratic friend,’ by its U.S. puppeteers. The ability of the great numbers of dispossessed, and marginalized from South Asia and the Arab world to establish effective means to build on their solidarity and confront their common enemies is being targeted day and night by endless attempts by imperialism and its domestic lackeys. One of the means they have often used is by taking advantage of the incredible illiteracy and poverty endemic to great sections of these regions: fundamentalism has been a useful tool for the imperialists, from Talibanism, to Hindutva. Whether people have started growing beards, or whether they have started singing praise to Rama, theirs is a lot that is at the mercies of the global capitalists; and this is what the so-called fundamentalists have to show for their achievements: delivering their peoples to the slaughterhouse of yankee capitalism while torturing their capacity to resist out of them, by directing their suffering towards concocted enemies, almost always, people within our own societies. It is the people who suffer, and sacrifice endlessly. Global capitalists and the prison guards of the new world order (our so called ‘leaders’), make grand proclamations about globalization, but in the same breath, use every means to disempower, dispossess, and disarm their victims.

This paper is part of a continuing effort to demolish the tower of lies and fallacies being built up by hateful and cowardly people and their disgusting institutions, practices and ideologies. I name three of them relevant to this paper: U.S. imperialism, the godfather, Zionism and Hindutva, the running bloodhounds of the former. This paper is copyLefted; meaning, you may freely spread it far and wide to like minded people who are interested in fighting against this monstrosity. Giving credit has the most important function of enabling someone to research by themselves, rather than taking your word for it. So in that spirit, let us embark on this brief, and hopefully fruitful meditation.

"A massive survey project by the Anthropological Survey of India published in the form of a series called People of India proves a number of points which give lie to the lies of the Sangh Parivar. It shows that approximately more than 4000-odd communities inhabit this country and their cultural profile is rooted and shaped by their relationship with their environment their occupational status their language, etc., primarily and that religion falls way down in the construction of their identities. This survey also shows that Hindus and Muslims share more than 95% characteristics of various kinds that are common and that it is shared lives that have given shape the diverse cultural expressions. Among other things the studies also show that nobody today can be characterised as an original inhabitant or a foreigner. (BJP’s assault on Education and Educational Institutions. Nalini Taneja, Delhi University)"¹

Note: Sangh Parivar: The coalition of Hindu extremist organizations who subscribe to the ideology of Hindutva

Brahmanism: pertaining to the culture, ideology and practices of Brahmanism, associated with Brahmins and upper caste Hindus. It is often related to the veneration of the Vedas, the sacred hymns (mytho-poetry) of the Brahmin priests; specifically I use it to denote the chauvinistic, elitist, and racist aspects of the ideology and practice of Brahmanism, or caste Hinduism.

"Hindutva is not embodied only by the most visible aspect - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP - Indian people Party) but by an entire set of institutional arrangements and structures which all function together, in a reasonably coherent fashion to produce the ideological and material structures of the fascist complex."²

India, hostage to Hindutva’s and its new friends

In recent years Israel’s role in the colonization and military occupation of Palestine has been increasingly overlooked and ignored by leaders in several countries of the world. For half a century countries of the global south by and large expressed solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, seeing it as another anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggle, something familiar to most of the former colonies of the European imperialist powers, and easy to identify with. However in the last decade some countries have seen momentous changes both in their societies as well as in the roles played by their governments in the realm of international issues. India is one such country.

Going back to the very foundation of the independent Indian state and the ideas of Gandhi, there was a clear and principled basis for condemning the dispossession and oppression of Palestine by the newly instituted state of Israel, as practices abhorrent to the idea of secular, democratic and free humanity; these were ideals deeply instilled at least in the minds of the masses of Indians who gave their lives to the struggle and forced the British imperialists to surrender their claims on India. Gandhi’s views on Palestine are well known. In a paper titled "Mahatma Gandhi's Approach to Zionism and the Palestine Question" Professor A.K. Ramakrishnan brings to light some of Gandhi’s views on Palestine and the claims made by the Zionist movement for a separate state. Under pressure by Zionists to make a statement, Gandhi, while expressing his deepest sympathies for the Jewish victims of Nazism went on to say:

"My sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and in the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after their return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood?"3

Gandhi did not like the idea of a national state founded on a religious chauvinistic basis. He was also firmly supportive of the Palestinian people’s struggle for national liberation against the British colonialists and their Zionists allies.

He also added, "Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract," a statement coming from a person who had considerable knowledge of the world’s religions. In other words, he dismissed the religious basis for the claims of Zionism.

Seeing the Palestinian struggle against Zionist claims in the light of the anti-imperialist struggle being waged in India and the colonies, Gandhi stated that,

"Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs... Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home."

According to Professor A.K. Ramakrishnan,

‘Gandhi, in his role as leader of the national struggle and the Indian National Congress (the organization embodying that struggle), had been actively engaged during the 1930s and 1940s in molding the perception of the people of India to the nationalist and anti-imperialist struggles in the Arab world. The 1937 Calcutta meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) "emphatically protested against the reign of terror as well as the partition proposals relating to Palestine" and expressed the solidarity of the Indian people with the Arab peoples' struggle for national freedom. The Delhi AICC of September 1938 said in its resolution that Britain should leave the Jews and the Arabs to amicably settle the issues between the two parties, and it urged the Jews "not to take shelter behind British Imperialism." Gandhi wanted the Jews in Palestine to seek the goodwill of the Arabs by discarding "the help of the British bayonet."

The BJP’s effort is to erase India’s anti-colonial history, and tie India to the shoelaces of the American imperialists.

Indian foreign policy over the last fifty years maintained a consistent stand in support of Palestine, and opposed to settler colonial Zionism. According to Aijaz Ahmed, one of India’s foremost political thinkers,

‘This aspect of Indian foreign policy was noted and admired, I might add, by Arab diplomats and intellectuals. I remember visiting a number of the Arab countries and regularly meeting a broad cross-section of the intellectuals there, in the 1960s and 1970 s. I was very young then and it was always very striking to me that Pakistan's support for Palestine was usually seen as shallow and Islamicist, whereas the Indian solidarity with the Palestinian cause was regarded as a natural and secular, non-religious response from a country that had played so seminal a role in the making of the non-aligned movement.’4

However since the rise of the BJP (Bharatitya Janata Party) a political wing of a movement known as Hindutva, whose ideological mother organization is called the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or ‘National Volunteers Organization’), things have taken an about turn both in terms of India’s progressive heritage of secular and principled foreign policy, as well as the role played by government in the welfare of the people. Since the 1990’s the growth of the Hindu extremist movement has brought tyranny and oppression for India’s Muslims, India’s Christians, as well as India’s oppressed castes and Dalits. The latter make up the vast majority of the Indian people but are victims of centuries of social oppression under the tyrannical caste system. Additionally, women’s rights, the access of tribal people to land and resources, the rights of workers, agricultural workers, peasants, all under threat, while with much nuclear fanfare, the BJP works hard to recast India from the anti-colonial pro-third world nation, to a Hindu Rashtra (nation), under U.S. and Israeli Zionist tutelage. ‘Human rights’ is a term looked at with derision and contempt by triumphant Hindutvadis. And in this process India’s progressive position of solidarity with Palestine has come under attack by these self-proclaimed "nationalists." So we have a two pronged effort: one, against the toiling masses of India, the vast majority of the Indian people: workers, peasants, traditionally oppressed sections such as the Dalits, Adivasis ("tribals"), etc.: at the behest of the U.S. imperialist multinational brigades. Secondly, the ideological enemy, specifically members of India’s religious minorities, specifically Muslims, and Christians, but also Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Nastikas (atheists, often called "pseudo-secularists" by the rabid sections of the Hindutva movement). In the context of the second, Hindutva’s pro-imperialist stand takes on an international dimension: all Muslims are seen as enemies, therefore, the enemy of the enemy (ie. U.S. Imperialism/Zionist Israel) is taken as the friend! This is the staggering depth of Hindutva’s worldview, the cesspool of chicanery and spineless capitulation!

Ahmed continues,

‘I was therefore very surprised when I read the statement of Jaswant Singh, during the course of his recent visit to Israel, that India's foreign policy in the past decades was held hostage by the Muslim vote bank and that the government was now going to correct that error. India's anti-colonialist past was simply being erased, and what even Arab intellectuals, from their great distance, could see as an expression of India's secular solidarity with anti-Zionist forces in Palestine was now being presented , by a suave and insufferable Foreign Minister, as an error forced by the Muslim minority in the country upon those whom the Bharatiya Janata Party is fond of calling "pseudo-secularists". Hindutva was now going to undo all that and make a strategic alliance with its natural counterpart: Zionism.’

More money is being spent today on bombs and weapons, rockets and tanks than on education, health, and the well-being of the growing number of people who live in extreme poverty. While sections of the middle classes have become rich, promoting their worldview and upper caste elite cultural affinities as "Indian" culture to the world, every day we hear of farmers committing suicide, workers losing jobs as factories are sold off to local privateers and multinationals; extreme hardships brought on by the anti-people policies of the Hindu fundamentalist government, which will spare no effort to roll in the dirt for the benefit of U.S. economic and geopolitical interests. When the junior Bush recently announced plans to initiate the so called "son of star wars" plan, the world unanimously rejected it, while India’s pathetic Hindu fundamentalist leaders bowed low and cheered the American president’s plan, a response I am sure his gigantic lack of intellect would have been baffled by, as much as the world was baffled and irritated by the sheer servility shown by the Hindu right leadership. Servility towards imperialism and chauvinistic violence against minorities, qualities that bode ill for the people of India and South Asia.

What happened to the anti-imperialist anti-Zionist pro-Palestinian heritage of India? First, we might want to start with Gandhi. Towards the end of 1947, Gandhi made his statement, in response to a question by Doon Campbell of Reuters.

"It has become a problem which seems almost insoluble. If I were a Jew, I would tell them: 'Do not be so silly as to resort to terrorism...' The Jews should meet the Arabs, make friends with them and not depend on British aid or American aid, save what descends from Jehovah."

It is interesting to note that Gandhi recognized the actions of the Zionists in the 1940s as "terrorism." On January 31, 1948 barely months later, a man by the name Nathuram Godse shot Gandhi and committed one of the centuries most heinous political assassinations. Nathuram Godse was a committed member of the RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the mother organization of the present day BJP, Bharatiya Janata Party. The organization though banned after the assassination of Gandhi, continued to grow in strength partly due to the lukewarm opposition to its activities by the upper caste dominated leadership of the Congress rulers, which used communal and religious strife to attack popular dissent in regions such as Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Assam and Kashmir during its fifty odd dynastic years in power.

During the 1920s and 30s, while nationalist revolutionaries of such stature as Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekhar Azad, Ashfaqullah, Rajguru, Sukhdev, Jatin Das, and thousands of others gave their lives fighting against the British imperialists, the RSS ‘volunteers’ were consistently instructed by their leaders to be ‘apolitical.’ Bhagat Singh’s organization forbade membership to any individuals working with religious fundamentalist groups like the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha. This was clearly an action intended to convey that these Hindu fundamentalist groups were lackeys of British imperialism and were not to be trusted. Yet today proponents of Hindutva shamelessly lay claim to the revolutionary heritage of these great sons and daughters of India, conveniently forgetting that their own organizations were on the wrong side of the struggle during the critical years of the 1920s and 30s.

During the 1942 Quit India movement, one of greatest anti-colonial mobilizations of humanity, when millions of Indians, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians from every corner if the country, boldly challenged the arrogant might of the British occupiers, the RSS leadership instructed its cadres not to participate, ridiculing the efforts of the oppressed masses and also having the audacity to support the British war effort, when Indians were being crushed under the heels of colonial repression. Yet when the opportunity arose for creating communal, religious disturbances, the ‘volunteers’ were always ready. RSS ideology even during the time of Gandhi was fascist in its leanings.

The following are the words of Vallabhai Patel, a senior Congressman, close to Gandhi and Nehru,

"Organizing the Hindus and helping them is one thing but going in for revenge for its sufferings on innocent people and helpless men, women and children is quite another thing... All their speeches were full of poison. It was not at all necessary to spread poison in order to enthuse the Hindus and organize for their protection. As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji... Opposition turned even more severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji's death. Under these conditions it became inevitable for the government to take action against the RSS."5

Reply to Golwalkar's letter seeking to lift the ban imposed on the RSS after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, September 11, 1948.

Patel himself was not altogether unfriendly to Hindutva and the RSS. Yet, even such support diminished after the assassination of Gandhi. The RSS plan to whip up religious hysteria backfired and they were confined to "cultural" work for a few years. Yet, one might wonder, without the help and sympathies of leaders and cadres in the Congress, the RSS could not have survived after their trashing in 1948? This is why, the Hindutva movement has to be seen as not merely a fringe fanatic ideological movement, but an important element in a wider betrayal of India's independence. The culpability of the Congressites in placing themselves at the helm of affairs and then rewriting the country's anti-colonial history as one long lesson in 'cheek-turning' ethics, completely diminishing the role played by the masses of India allowed for the enemies of the Indian people to gather strength over the years. Hindutvadis could always condemn the Congressites, since the latter had little or no defences against charges of corruption, nepotism, tyranny, and overall cynicism and paternalism towards the Indian people. The gradual crumbling of the Congress behemoth coincides with the resurgence of the Hindutvadis, as the false democratic pretences of the Congress give way to the blunt and megalomaniacal assertions of the Hindutvadis. It seems India's elites never intended to free India, but only intended and conspired to share power against the people of India.

Hindutva, Fascism and Zionism: alliances of convenience?

The RSS leader Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar openly admired Hitler and the idea of the ‘separation of the races.’ He saw an affinity to Nazism in the Brahmanical concept of caste purity, now applied in a religious sense to ‘Hindus’ and ‘Muslims.’ It is rather surprising that the Zionists of today see an ‘ally’ in the Hindutva movement, given the fascist roots of this movement. Marzia Casolari, an Italian scholar has documented archival evidence proving without doubt that Hindu extremist groups like the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha had direct links with the Italian fascist state. I quote Casolari’s conclusions at length:6

a) The main historical organizations and leaders of Hindu nationalism had a distinctive and sustained interest in fascism and nazism;

b) Fascist ideological influences on Hindu nationalism were present and relevant;

c) To a certain extent, these influences were channelled through direct contacts between Hindu nationalists and members of the Italian fascist State. No doubt, beginning with the early 1920s, and up to the second world war, Hindu nationalists looked at the political reality of fascist Italy, and subsequently of nazi Germany, as a source of inspiration.

The following quote is from a statement issued by the Hindu Mahasabha in 1939:

‘Germany's solemn idea of the revival of the Aryan culture, the glorification of the Swastika, her patronage of Vedic learning and the ardent championship of the tradition of Indo-Germanic civilization are welcomed by the religious and sensible Hindus of India with a jubilant hope. Only a few socialists headed by Pandit J. Nehru have created a bubble of resentment against the present Government of Germany, but their activities are far from having any significance in India. The vain imprecations of Mahatma Gandhi against Germany's indispensable vigour in matters of internal policy obtain but little regard in so far as they are uttered by a man who has always betrayed and confused the country with an affected mysticism. I think that Germany's crusade against the enemies of Aryan culture will bring all the Aryan nations of the World to their senses and awaken the Indian Hindus for the restoration of their lost glory.’

In a book titled "We, or our nationhood defined," Golwalkar, who became general secretary of the RSS, stated:

‘German national pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up the purity of the nation and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the semitic races - the Jews. National pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the mot [?], to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.’

Who were the equivalents of the Jews in the estimation of the author of these words? India’s Muslims without a doubt. By extrapolating German racial ideas to Indian society, Golwalkar and Savarkar recast a complex religious-cultural historical identity into blunt European racial terms. Accordingly in their eyes, ‘Hindus’ and ‘Muslims’ became, ‘Germans and ‘Jews.’

The fact that even fifty odd years after the end of Nazism and Italian fascism, the RSS and its various Hindutva offspring like the BJP have neither denied nor repudiated these ties, or the valorization and glorification of Nazism by their founding leaders, speaks volumes about their real character. V.D. Savarkar, a militant anti-colonialist turned proto-fascist leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, regarding the goals of his organization: (quoted by Casolari)

‘But now that our interests were so closely bound together the essential thing was for Hinduism and Great Britain to be friends; and the old antagonism was no longer necessary. The Hindu Mahasabha, he went on to say, favoured an unambiguous undertaking of Dominion Status at the end of the war.’

These words from the leader of an organization that refused to participate in the Quit India movement, and which offered its services to the British War Office in support of the colonial occupier in the inter-imperialist war. In a revealing twist of irony, Savarkar in the 1950s was also full of praise for the settler colonialism of the Israeli Zionist state, and saw an affinity between Hindutva ideology and Zionism.

More recently, one Aravind Ghosh, a "Research Associate" with the U.S. based Zionist organization "The Freeman Center." This organization has a magazine called "The Maccabean" in which Ariel Sharon (who currently has cases pending against him in Belgium and Lebanon for war crimes committed in Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps during Israel’s invasion of Lebanon) of Israel is a "frequent contributor." Aravind Ghosh’s title is "Hindu Historian & Publisher." In the center’s own words, "It is his expertize on Moslem behavior and atrocities in the Indian sub-continent that makes him a valuable contributor to the Freeman Center."7

Here is a sample of this self-proclaimed "leading historian:"

‘Hindus should thus recognise that Israel can be one of its few reliable allies. From Israel Bharat has much to learn. Instead of peace treaties it should have followed the Jewish state'' example in annexing the lands of the aggressor. Pakistan is eager for war again. This time it will be different if Hindus follow the Israeli example. The jawans should carry the saffron into Lahore, which is the natural capital of East Punjab and the city of Lav. How could Lahore become a city of Islam any more than Jerusalem? These are just two of the examples of Islam's theft of the cultural icons of others…Islamic fascists see Bharat as the soft spot to propagate their irrational creed and foment violence. India tries to placate them. Israel expels them, This is what Bharat should do. If they hate Hindu Rashtra so much they are free to leave for dar'ul Islam.’

As foul and hateful as this lunatic sounds, it is curious that he also hails Savarkar as a pro-zionist in his article. It was Savarkar who praised Hitler’s policies towards Germany’s Jews and saw in it an analogy to his own fantasies. If we were to go with the understanding that Zionism is opposed to Nazism and the holocaust, then one would wonder how come, a pro-Israel Zionist organization like the Freeman Center calls a follower of the Hindutva creed, a valuable contributor to its cause? Would Jewish people not be offended by this alliance? Or is it possible that the legacy of the Jewish people is perhaps secondary to the interests of Zionism?

In that case, Zionism rhymes and sounds like Hindutva: an ideology that makes use of a particular set of symbols and cultural ideas towards ends that not only political and territorial, but also racist and chauvinist. In other words, fascist. The enemy is clearly expressed by this alliance: the Indian Muslims and the largely Muslim Palestinians, and Arabs. If Savarkar’s two views, 1) that Hitler’s policy towards the Jews was commendable and applicable to Muslims in India, and 2) that Zionism’s policy towards the Palestinians is commendable and worthy of emulation, are not logically contradictory views, but part of the same single logic, then the Zionist alliance with Hindutva is one that will certainly offend any Jewish person. Is this an issue being raised by non-Zionist Jewish people? How can the people who suffered so greatly under the tyrannical evil of Hitler allow such an insult to their heritage by those who claim to speak for all Jewish people, the Zionists? As Hindus and Muslims who are opposed to Hindutva mobilize their opposition to this 21^st century fascism, which claims to speak for all Hindus, it will be heartening to see that Jewish people also mobilize to fight the evil of Hindutva’s ally, Zionism. Nevertheless, this alliance ties Zionism with a heritage its victims have easily seen, but which Zionists unfailingly deny: that Zionism, is fascism. It is more akin to Nazism, than say to the ideology of liberal democracy. In the latter, pretences notwithstanding, there is at least no explicit assertion that one group of people have their rights enshrined under divine, man-made and whatever other laws, while another group is to be targeted and exterminated as their rights to exist are not only completely absent, but considered inimical to the favored group. There are striking parallels between the assertions made by Zionists and those made by the Nazis. Consider for example the following statements made by Cal Thomas, a Zionist spokesperson masquerading as a journalist/columnist in a 21st century American news outlet and Joseph Goebbels, the unsavoury and bloodthirsty megalomaniac who was Propaganda Minister in the Nazi regime:

Cal Thomas, 2001: "Israel should declare its intention to transfer large numbers of its Palestinian residents to Arab nations... Eviction is a better avenue to stability. Will it happen? Probably not. Should it? Yes."

Joseph Goebbels, 1942: "The Jewish question will have to be written up in a plan on a pan-European scale. There remain more than eleven million Jews in Europe. In the first place it is necessary to concentrate them all in the east. After the war we will be able eventually to assign them an island, perhaps Madagascar. In any case, there will be no peace in Europe as
long as the Jews on the Continent are not totally excluded."

(excerpted from an essay "Meeting of Minds," by this author)

To advocate the 'ethnic cleansing' of Palestinians, Cal Thomas resorts to the usual fascistic routine: declare the Palestinians as a problem that only Israeli, and American military brutishness can solve, through murder, and mayhem, in other words, a 'final solution.' This mentality unites all fascists no matter which hole they crawl out of; Hindutvadis claim a false 'victim' status as the excuse to launch a genocide against their enemies, the Muslims and minorities of India, while their buddies in crime, the Zionists dutifully proclaim that theirs is the only humanity worth worrying about since after all, they can always point to the horrors of the second world war and Nazism, even when they continue to terrorize and massacre Palestinians every day. Zionists who claim to represent all Jews should check the history of Zionism and wonder about why for a long time, the Zionists were more interested in taking Palestinian land than in fighting for the survival of Jews in Germany. Why for instance did Zionist leaders acquiese with Hitler's goal of turning a religious minority (the Jewish Germans) into a 'race,' and hence a 'nation within a nation,' the core argument propounded by the Nazis? By putting their stamp of approval on this change of discourse, did the Zionists in effect betray the Jewish people in Germany? Questions like this need to be asked when tyrants and mass murderers rampage and blabber on about their 'Jewish' cause. People of the Jewish faith opposed to the criminal racism of Zionism, must assert the fact that Zionism's reading of Jewish identity as an essentially racist one, is part of the Nazi heritage and completely at odds with the history of the Jewish people. When the idea that Jews are a race goes to hell, then the raison d'etre of Zionism, with respect to the Palestinian people, will crumble. The same goes with the Hindutvadi claim that Muslims are a separate people and that Hindus have always been victims,' arguments that are merely the routine fascistic assertions of ill-intentioned mysognists.

The rampage of the Hindutvadis; BJP and India’s current plight.

With the coming to power of the BJP in 1999, India’s last vestiges of independence have been deliberately handed over lock stock and barrel to western multinationals and the tutelage of a new colonial master, the United States. The BJP has literally sold the country down the river, having little shame in denying basic emergency food distribution to starving poverty stricken people, while government food surplus stocks stored in hygienically challenged storage containers, get eaten by rats at the rate of 10 percent per year. Privatizing at the drop of a hat as per the colonial master’s dictates, thousands of workers are losing their jobs, and the average real income of the Indian worker has been reduced to half of what it was a decade ago.

The only possible explanation for this total subservience to the dictates of the U.S. imperialists is that Hindutva ideology from its early days as a supposedly ‘apolitical’ fringe fanatic group, to its present day triumphant charade, is at the service of and most comfortable with imperialism. It is an anti-people alien ideology having no place in Indian society. What has enabled such a movement to become so powerful? The relentless pursuit of the U.S. imperialists and their lackeys in the service of global capital working hand in glove with sections of India’s capitalist classes. The BJP is the most neo-liberal of all of India’s governments to date. It is also the most U.S. friendly, and Zionist friendly of all governments so far. Its subservience to the U.S. is embarrassing to all self-respecting Indians. Yet, it is bent on both strangulating the population with the imposition of U.S. IMF neoliberal "market medicine," always willing to jump higher than the masters demand, and simultaneously communalizing the whole country in a crusade to divide the working classes who they fear, as do their masters, and creating an atmosphere of paranoia and fear, ideal conditions for fascism.

Meanwhile, politically the BJP has embraced Israel and turned a cold shoulder to the Palestinians, betraying the bonds of friendship shared by the Palestinian and Indian people in this process. Hindutva ideologues are talking about Hindu-Yahudi unity and the need to fight against ‘terrorism,’ a euphemism for Palestine’s and India’s Muslims. Hindu extremist websites gloat about the need to work together with Israel to target Muslims in South Asia. Recently a virulent organization calling itself "hinduunity.org" had its website shut down. It came back without a problem when the virulent Jewish extremist Kahane organization (Haktiva) came to the rescue. Rabid extremists working together for a common cause: Muslims are the targets, but also most importantly, the entire peoples of the Arab and Iranian nations, and the great masses of people in South Asia are targets for these two running dogs of American imperialism. Hindutvadis are happy to see such cooperation, while Israel murders Palestinians with impunity, and India reels under the Hindutva onslaught.

Israel has also been suspected of involvement in the incitement of virulent anti-Muslim activities in India, as has been pointed out by Faisal Kutty, a writer from Kerala state who noted that a meeting took place, shrouded in secrecy between BJP high officials and Israeli officials preceding a completely uncharacteristic violent communal anti-Muslim riot in the normally peaceful and harmonious state of Kerala in 1992. 8

Kerala’s Muslims are the oldest Muslim community in India, tracing their roots to the early Arab Muslim traders who plied the Indian Ocean Arabian Sea trade route. They make up 20 percent of the population in Kerala while Hindus are 60 percent and Christians 20 percent. Kerala has the highest rate of literacy in the country, in no small part due to the work of the ruling Communist Party over the last several decades to build a literate and thriving, secular state. Comparatively, the other South Indian states under the heel of chauvinistic ethnocentric parties have no comparable achievements. Faisal Kutty also notes that the first serious communal clash between Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus and Muslims occurred shortly after the opening of an Israeli interests section in the U.S. Embassy in Colombo. The section was later closed by the Sri Lankan government.

These suspicions cannot be unfounded because of similar reports about Israeli agents wandering in Kashmir as well as the BJP government’s fascination with ‘security cooperation,’ a code word for ‘how to keep the natives in line,’ and the overt statements made by Hindutva ideologues about "Hindu-Yahudi" unity. Recently the BJP has built close security ties with the U.S. and Israel under the guise of "fighting terrorism." It is certain that this is a step towards turning India into a "security" state as both the U.S. and Israel will provide technological support in terms of arms, intelligence and who knows what else. This will most definitely be used in the BJP’s attack on India’s people, especially Muslims, Christians, Dalits, and anyone opposed to Hindutva, those they call with contempt, "pseudo-secularists." The people of Kashmir will no doubt also be targeted by these new alliances, as well as Andhra, Punjab, Assam and the North East where militant struggles for human rights and freedom have continued for most of the half century following the British exit.

Organizations like the Bajrang Dal, a Hindutva version of the Storm Troopers, the same group who last year burned to death an elderly Australian missionary and his children, also find inspiration and who knows what else in Zionist Israel. The Indian Express, June 30, 2000 had an article titled "Desi Mossad is getting ready at Bajrang Dal's Ayodhya camp." In begins: "I, as a member of Bajrang Dal, swear in the name of Lord Hanuman to always remain prepared to protect my country, religion and culture," 150 young men, between 15 and 21 years of age, recite in unison. On several occasions, the cadres and their leaders mention Israel and the Mossad as their inspiration.9

‘Asked what he did at the camp, an activist whispers, ``I am from the secret service of Bajrang Dal. Israel's Mossad is my inspiration. I can't tell you more.''’

‘Dal leaders in their defence, cite example of Israel where all citizens have to undergo a mandatory training in physical fitness and arms handling. But, isn't Israel's geographical situation peculiar? "`India's even worse. Israel has threat only from outsiders while India faces threat from even those inhabiting it,'' Sharma replies.

These are words from people who frequently terrorize India’s Muslims and Christians. They are the paramilitary mobs of Hindutva, not boy scouts or martial artists.

In recent years Israeli "counter-terrorism" assistance is also being mobilized, most evidently in (though not restricted to) Jammu and Kashmir, where the government of India sees a political issue as a ‘security’ issue, in the age-old imperialistic tradition of ignoring the human, civil and political rights of the Kashmiri people while making every effort to suppress the voice of Kashmiris.10

The Times of India, Friday 22 September 2000 reports that

‘A high-level team of Israeli counter-terrorism experts is now touring Jammu and Kashmir and several other states in India at the invitation of Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani to make an assessment of New Delhi's security needs, high-level government sources said.’

‘The Israeli team, headed by Eli Katzir of the Counter-Terrorism Combat Unit of the Prime Minister's Office, includes a senior Israel Police commander and Israeli military intelligence officials. The team will prepare a "feasibility study" of Indian security needs and assess the areas in which Israel can offer assistance to New Delhi in tackling the activities of insurgent and terrorist groups.’

So this is the invitation of the Home Minister L.K. Advani, Home Minister, and an important member of the RSS. India is now open to Zionist intelligence intrusion and the various struggles in the country for human, civil and political rights among the millions of oppressed and dispossessed people in India will now be translatable to "terrorism," or the like. Zionist Israel is playing with fire by running alongside Hindutva in its war against the people of India. It is only a matter of time before secular forces mobilize under various fronts and launch an all out struggle against the anti-national and anti-people usurpers.

Uncle Sam wants Hindu fascism as long as it does his bidding, so no problem says the BJP!

Since the 1980’s the United States has encouraged and fanned the flames of Hindu upper caste revivalism. In the U.S. organizations like the "Overseas Friends of the BJP," and others have been working hard to shape the direction of South Asian studies, lending it a chauvinistic, Hindu upper caste, orientalist direction, and mobilizing the opinion and funds of Indian Americans towards what the latter, far removed from their land, often innocently see as their "culture." U.S. officials have been hand in glove with the Hindu right wing as has been evident in the high level meetings afforded to people like Jaswanth Singh, and Murli Manohar Joshi, Hindutva’s leaders, when they came to the United States even before the BJP came to power.

Additionally, Hindu right wingers have also embarked upon a campaign of warmongering that suspiciously falls within the lap of the United States’ imperialist interests in South and Central Asia. As the Times of India reported a few years ago, it is a practice that whenever the BJP’s senior leaders visit the United States, they hold meetings, often secretive, with Zionist groups, ‘experts’ from think tanks such as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and State Department officials. Conspiracy is the main method of fascism since they cannot obtain the support of the people of India through honest means!

More recently, the BJP has gone so far as to invite the US armed forces to visit the Indian army’s training facilities, particularly focusing on "jungle warfare," and also holding joint training exercises in "infiltration of enemy territory." What this holds for the future well being of Indians, Pakistanis and South Asians in general is horrific to envision. The United States military is a global imperialist force; by inviting them into India is nothing short of surrendering the sovereignty of India. This is the aim of Hindutva, to crawl at the feet of imperialism so that there may arise a chance to march with jackboots, as after all Uncle Sam loves anyone who marches with jackboots as long as he marches for him. The BJP will open the markets, while the Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena and VHP will frighten the people into compliance with both violence and the threats of more violence. This is the significance of the nuclear explosions, and not the self-righteous "why should the west stop a third world country from possessing nuclear power?" posture adopted by the anti-third world and pro-imperialist BJP.11

BJP’s corruption: money for nothing, and a few lousy Barak missiles, Hindutva Zionism in action.

In the short span of time that the BJP has been in power in Delhi, its claims of being patriotic and honest have been thrown in the dustbin. Earlier this year, a team of investigative journalists videotaped a series of bribe taking and bribe negotiating episodes involving people in the highest levels of government including the armed forces. Using a fictitious arms deal the team easily bribed its way into the offices of high-ranking Indian officials in the armed forces and the government. The ease with which it was possible to bribe these officials shocked the country. Imagine what levels of corruption might be possible when very efficient efforts at the same are carried out by international professional arms dealers, mercenaries and other organizations?12

The most damaging episode in this was a videotaped recording of the leader of the BJP, yes, the party leader, taking a wad of money and also mentioning that he prefers dollars! Overnight, the BJP’s never ending charade of patriotism and honesty turned into outright guilt and defensive noises about ‘foreign conspiracy!’ As if the taking of bribes by the highest officials of the land especially for defense related deals, itself does not constitute treason and conspiracy of the highest order! These so-called ‘patriots’ of the BJP are willing to send Indian soldiers as cannon fodder to their stupid warmongering disasters, with equipment that is sub standard, and available only because the officials procuring them were bribed into doing so. Thus the so-called Barak missile found its way from Israel to India, while India’s own Trishul missile, which outperforms the Barak, got pushed out, perhaps because the Indian defense industries couldn’t match the Mossadis in bribery and intrigue!?

The internationally renowned scientist Abdul Kalam, the founding architect of India’s missile and rocket program, got a cold shoulder from these very same ‘patriots’ when he criticized the government decision to favor the Barak. So much for the BJP’s alleged ‘patriotism’ and ‘honesty.’ It proves what most progressives and leftists have been pointing out for years: that the BJP and the Hindutva movement of which it is part, is neither patriotic, nor religious, but really an alien ideology planted and nurtured by imperialism for the destruction and subjugation of the subcontinent. Its open ties to U.S. imperialism and Israeli Zionism confirms this conclusion.

Such developments pose a challenge to freedom loving and progressive Indians, Palestinians and people of all of Asia, to redouble their efforts to thwart the criminal conspiracies of imperialism, in what is now a common struggle against Zionism and Hindutva, the twin agents of American imperialism. Rather than run to a corner and hide behind like minded ideologies of hatred and ignorance, we should strive to increase the common bridges of resistance and renewal between us in this effort and expose the lies and myths of those who intend to destroy our peoples because of their ignorant self-deluding fantasies.

Unfortunately for Hindutva, the Indian people are a very resilient lot. Historically, Indian societies have always exhibited resistance to homogenizing tendencies; while the oppressive system of caste persisted for millennia, growing in strength after the Brahmanic usurpation of Buddhist India, Indian societies have strongly resisted attempts to homogenize their cultural and religious practices. More importantly, India’s masses are overwhelmingly from the oppressed, lower castes and Dalits; the greater involvement and militancy from these true owners of India will eventually turn the tables on the Brahmanists who have foisted an alien and dangerously suicidal course upon India’s people. Secular forces are not going to take the rampages of Hindutva lying down; the 1920s and 30s was a renaissance era in the Indian peoples’ efforts to bring the rulers of India to account. The 2000s should be no different as is already evident from the rumblings from within.13

Hindutva’s ideological basis and claims:

P.R. Ram succinctly sums up the Hindutva movement:

‘The core of a fascist movement is to suppress and suspend the rights of the oppressed. It is a social agenda of shaken, threatened middle class in the service of big bourgeisie. It is a mass movement, Hindutva is the political agenda of petty industrialists, sections of middle classes and rich peasantry blessed by capital. Hindutva aims to create the new ghettoized untouchables, the poor muslims, a la the shudra of the olden times and keeping this goal in mind it wants to suppress/sidetrack the social and political aspirations of dalits, workers and women.’14

Drawing inspiration from the Brahmanical religion, Hindutva has no problem dealing with the idea of an openly unequal order in society; thus it is quite well attuned to the notion of a enforcing a second-class citizenry.

413. But a Sudra, whether bought or unbought, he may compel to do servile work; for he was created by the Self-existent (Svayambhu) to be the slave of a Brahmana.

416. A wife, a son, and a slave, these three are declared to have no property; the wealth which they earn is (acquired) for him to whom they belong.

417. A Brahmana may confidently seize the goods of (his) Sudra (slave); for, as that (slave) can have no property, his master may take his possessions.

Manusmriti, the ‘Laws of Manu,’ an ancient text, which formed the bedrock of Brahmanical caste society.15

The tyrannical Brahmanical caste system has from its earliest days been an inhibiting force in Indian civilization. While most of India’s greatest achievements in the ancient past had their roots in non-Brahmanical movements like Buddhism, this ideology of caste became strengthened after the usurpation of Buddhist influenced India in the latter half of the first millennium C.E , has sanctified a life of immeasurable oppression for great numbers of Indians. Much of what became popular ‘Hinduism’ is the cultural traditions of the oppressed peoples of India, appropriated by Brahmanical movements at various stages, coinciding with the strengthening of rigid caste ideology.

In religious terms, Hindutva neither represents nor contributes positively to the religious heritage of popular Hinduism, the religious practices of the vast majority of those people classified as ‘Hindus.’ It is a concerted attempt to Semitize the religious traditions of the subcontinent under one hegemonic construction which P.R. Ram calls ‘syndicated Hinduism.’ Thus it is their aim to suppress all divergent views, which in India’s case would mean nothing short of chaos since Hindus in almost all parts of the country exhibit incredible variations and emphases in their religious practices. There is no single book of authority in Hinduism like in Islam or Judaism; but there is the Vedas of the Brahmans and Hindutva is an attempt to foist the Vedas and related texts onto the altar of respectability reserved for ‘people of the book.’

Additionally they have targeted historical monuments from the Mughal, and Sultanate era by making preposterous claims that all these monuments were built upon demolished temples. The recent barbaric destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 at Ayodhya, took place with the active encouragement and connivance of the BJP, though the persons doing the actual destroying came from a host of fanatical groups linked to the BJP’s mother organization, the RSS. The historical claims made by the BJP on the Babri Masjid have been more than adequately demolished by archaeologists, historians and scholars in India; there is absolutely no evidence of a Ram Temple (alleged to be a temple dedicated to the God-king Rama who in Hindu mythology lived in a place called Ayodhya tens of thousands of years ago). To date there is no evidence to prove anything claimed by the Hindutvadis, as their efforts are clearly an attempt to mythologize history and obscure the past with wild claims, an unsurprising approach given their desire to obscure their own history to begin with!16

Historians of international repute who have pointed to the total lack of any archaeological evidence to suggest any truth to the claims made by the Hindutvadis have been targeted and forced out of national organizations like the Indian Council for Historical Research, and important research programs aiming to develop India’s historical databases and also develop criteria for the analysis of solid, physical data, have been scrapped, as the BJP’s fears that its Hindutva claims, made largely on unfounded assertions and fallacious myths, will definitely be relegated to the dustbin once solid, scientific reason were applied to Indian history. They seek to pull the wool over the eyes of the Indian people!

Hindutva 'Ramrajya' and Zionist 'ancient Israel': contrived myths to legitimate fascist atrocities

In defiance of the total lack of evidence, the fanatics spare no effort to claim that a Ram Temple will be built on the site of the now destroyed 16^th century Mughal monument. The temple building business is suspiciously similar to the Zionist claims on the Haram Al Sharif, and needs to be seen in the general context of the semitization of Hinduism that Hindutvadis desire to engineer. While Zionist claims draw from the western intellectual tradition of biblical studies, Hindutva rests on Orientalism, the insulting western myth that India is an essentially spiritual, Hindu country. Zionism cannot expect much help from the discipline of history to support its claims to Palestine, since there is little evidence of an ‘ancient Israel’; however, as Keith Whitelam points out, they rely on Biblical studies, a field that allows for loose religious dogmatic interpretations, especially when evidence is seriously lacking! One important way this Biblical Studies approach can establish the myth of ancient Israel is by arbitrarily using the Jewish biblical tradition as the main source of interpretation; all other sources are welcome only if they confirm what is already in the biblical body of claims! Additionally, the biblical scholars, have arbitrarily excised any historical concerns with the actual ethnography, or archaeology of historical Palestine. They are not interested in investigating the culture and achievements of the people of Canaan for example. In other words, their scholarly focus is merely on legitimating the Zionist claims of the 1948 established state of Israel and its western Christian sympathies.17 On the other hand, their new friends the Hindutvadis are more or less locked within the British imperialist narrative of Indian history. They would rather believe the myths propagated by the colonizers of India than the ample evidence provided by Indian and world historians, archaeologists and anthropologists.

It was British imperialism that constructed an ideological counterpart to their military and political ambitions: the alleged fundamental distinction between Muslims and Hindus, cast as homogenous, monolithic and irreconcilable peoples. Divide and rule, a statement used so much but rarely appreciated for its historical implications. This imperialist, orientalist view of reality is what inspires and sustains Hindutva. In 1857, following the failed revolt, the British embarked on a major effort to snuff out any resistance from the remnants of the Mughal empire. Muslims were banned from the armed forces. The building up of a pliant Hindu elite was seen as a necessary colonial policy. This is the context for the emergence of the nationalists. It was also the period when British policies imposed differences with violence where there was mutual commonality and interaction among peoples. The partition of Bengal is a case in point. European scholars like Max Muller inadvertently gave a veneer of credibility to Brahmanical tradition by translating and making available to western readers the ‘sacred texts,’ of what he erroneously called, ‘the Hindus.’ Most of these Brahmanical texts were traditionally ‘forbidden’ to large sections of those categorized as ‘the Hindus.’

Hindutva is eager to establish a single central ‘holy site,’ a la Zionism’s "Temple Mount," in the city of Ayodhya. A single central ‘holy site,’ is rather silly in Hindu culture because there are literally thousands of ‘holy sites’ everywhere from monuments, to ancient Banyan trees, from sacred snake pits to small animistic shrines, from tombs of great saints to shrines containing relics. What is a holy site to one group within Hindu society might be completely irrelevant to another. Yet what the Hindutvadis want to do is to establish a semitic equivalent to the Jewish temple: a center from which their claims on the subcontinent can emanate and to which these claims can center on. Doubtless, they would equally love to create a new priesthood, a ‘church’ like organization and perhaps even an inquisition to force-march India into the abyss of medieval chauvinism.

It is of course terribly inconvenient for them to mention that Brahmanical Hindu temples were historically restricted areas, where the soul of Hindu caste segregation came alive: Dalits, and lower castes were never allowed near the magnificent temples of the Brahmans, except when they had to build them for the priests and warriors who supervised and punished as per their own scriptural obligations. So if there were any temples in India that were destroyed in the course of a rampage by Turkish, Afghan or Mughal rulers, one needs to ask, how much did the Dalits, and lower caste people, the vast majority of Indians suffer? On the contrary, once Masjids came up (if it were the case) in the place of these temples, many Dalits and lower caste people found immensely greater human dignity accorded to them within the walls of these monuments than in the forbidden shadows of the Hindu temples.

Romila Thapar points out that in Mughal, Turkish or Afghan temple-demolishing episodes, religion was a marginal factor compared to more important factors such as temples being centers of immense accumulated wealth, and also being symbols of state power and authority of kings and kingdoms. These factors were more important than religion or religious conflict; to support this argument, there is evidence of firmans issued by Mughal emperors including the much reviled, Aurangzeb, in support of temple construction and maintenance, and also evidence of temple demolition activities going back in Indian history; Hindu kings destroyed other Hindu kings’ temples, Buddhist, Jain and later Muslim religious and cultural monuments for a period of a thousand years before the Turkish and Afghan sultanates.

"Besides, when a temple is built by royalty, it is also the declaration of a political statement, it is a declaration of power. What is being said is, that I am so powerful, I’m so well established, I can now built this magnificent temple or, I can build this magnificent mosque or I can build a marvelous church, as the case may be. Thus, these religious monuments are not just religious monuments they are also symbols of economic power, political power, social status. I am not only referring to religious monuments of the past, it is the same for the religious monuments of today. Every time a new temple goes up, you must go and ask who has built it? With who’s money? How much money is it going to collect? Which caste or sect controls the management of the temple? All of this is relevant to the building of a temple, a mosque, or a church."18

Iconoclasm, bigotry and oppression were not the privileged domain of even the most tyrannical Turkish, Afghan or Mughal Sultan, as the ample evidence of widespread destruction and oppression of Buddhist and Jain India at the hands of the Brahmanical Hindu revival movement shows.

The desire to semitize Hinduism also belies a deep-seated inferiority complex with regard to the more animistic, multi-dimensional character of religious practices in India. Hindutvadis do not want to bear the shame of being associated with the notion of ahimsa (nonviolence) or the universality of humanity. On the other hand they want Hinduism to be a militaristic, aggressive, mean and chauvinistic neo-capitalist ideology, subordinate to the idea of national purity and aggression against anything that represents a challenge to the grotesque homogenization implicit in their vision. It is an ideology that runs counter to the best traditions in India’s manifold religions.

Buddhism the original force behind Indian civilization.

Buddhism was the most prominent and popular mass based religion in India for more than a thousand years; it made India’s culture traverse the world and influenced a great many nations in Asia. With its simple moral message and its criticism of the caste system, Buddhism quickly became a mass religion with the greatest proportion of its adherents drawn from the lower castes. Brahmanism never had this universalist appeal simply because with its foundations in the caste system, it was not interested in a universal emancipatory ideology. Brahmanism used Sanskrit, the priestly scriptural language, and had explicit laws forbidding Sudras and lower caste people from access to the sacred texts, particularly the Vedas.

There is one ancient Brahmanical document called the ‘Apasthamba Sutra,’ which recommends the pouring of molten metal into the ears of a Sudra (lower caste person) who willingly or unwillingly hears the recitation of the Vedas! In contrast to this, Buddhism was a peoples’ religion, it used Pali the common language of the people of the Indo-Gangetic plains and established learning centers where people from all ranks in society could learn together. While Brahmanism developed a notion of ‘Karma’ along lines of caste duties and predestined caste-fate, Buddhism developed a rich conception of ‘Karma’ as action that begets fruits, a universalistic moral basis for the evaluation of actions, opposed to predestined caste formulae as propagated by Brahmanism. These were only some of the major differences, which highlight that Buddhism was an oppositional force to Brahmanism and that the people of the subcontinent easily identified with its universalism, while rejecting Brahmanism simultaneously. From the 5^th century B.C.E. to about the 6^th century C.E. Buddhism established the fundamental contours of Indian civilization that today exists often unknown or grossly distorted to Indians caught in a haze of historic forgetfulness.

Brahmanism was opposed to universalistic trends in Indian history ever since the first conflicts between the invading Aryans and indigenous Indians took place about three thousand years ago. In the first millennium C.E., Brahman priests and upper caste warriors worked hard to usurp and overthrow the influence of Buddhism in India. They wanted to reconstitute societies under the rubric of a more orthodox and severely repressive caste ideology, something that had been greatly undermined during the Buddhist era.19

Thus the reversal of the universalization of Indian culture coincided with the return of Brahmin hegemony and the subsequent de-Buddhistification of India. It is also no small coincidence that when the first Turkish and Afghan invaders came to India, there were only weak, inconsequential Hindu kingdoms fighting with each other over stagnating war torn societies reeling under the resurgence of an oppressive caste order. This fact the Hindutva propagandists lament as the disunity of India; it no doubt was true that India’s northern kingdoms were weak and ineffective against the militarily efficient and zealous invaders from Central Asia. In many cases Hindu kings attempted to win favor with the Turkish or Afghan invaders by aligning themselves against a cousin or a neighboring kingdom; this was duly made use of and soon most of Northern India was under the rule of a Turkish Sultanate in Delhi. For instance, Jaichand of Kannauj, allied with Muhammad Ghori against his own cousin Prithviraj Chauhan.

While wars of conquest, plunder, and pillage were the norm of the day, especially given the fact that thousands of Buddhists and Jains were violently persecuted and numerous Buddhist and Jain monuments were destroyed to make way for Brahmanist Hindu temples, Hindutva ideologues only like to point out the excesses of the Sultanate and the Mughal empire which followed.20 This myopia is convenient for them because it is only an excuse to target Muslims in India, and establish Islam as a threat to India in the consciousness of Hindutvadis. The history of Islam in India is being recast by these ideologues as one of total oppression and destruction, a patently false and historical nonsensical idea. While Turkish, Afghan and Mongol rulers in various times committed excesses against the subject populations often in religious terms, this does not represent the totality of India’s thousand year Islamic history. Besides, Brahmanical Hindu kings in those times were neither known for their religious universalism nor were they interested in the emancipation or justice for their own subjects particularly the Dalits (‘untouchables’) or and the toiling lower caste population in general. Abhorrent practices like Sati (forcibly burning the wife after the husband’s death), and child marriage were common and commented upon by various travelers through the centuries.

Sidi Ali Reis, a Turkish Admiral who traveled to India after being shipwrecked, wrote in Mirat ul Memalik (The Mirror of Countries), 1557 CE:21

"If the deceased leaves a wife past child-bearing she is not burned; if, however, she is not past that age she is unconditionally burned. If a wife of her own free will offers herself to be burned, the relations celebrate the occasion with great rejoicings. Should the Mohammedans interfere and forcibly prevent the self-sacrifice, fate decrees that their king must die, and no other be raised. For this reason, officers of the Padishah are always present on such occasions, to prevent any act of violence."

Thus, Hindu society was under the heel of such cruel practices even under the rule of the Mughal Padishah. The need to paint Hindus as victims of ‘Islam’ as if Hindu society itself was not cruel and oppressive drives Hindutwadis to concoct facetious myths. In actuality, Hindu society greatly benefited from Islam, in many ways. First, Islam came to India initially not through Arab or Turkish invaders but through trade in South India. Arab, Turkish and African traders for centuries had shuttled their goods with their Indian and Malay counterparts along the great Indian Ocean/ Arabian Sea Trade routes. Along with their goods and wares, came their ideas, and aspirations. This was as much a cultural and intellectual trade route as it was one serving the transport of goods. Here were the origins of the transfer of the religious ideas of Arabian Islam into India. Those who converted did so under their own free will, largely in an act of defiance against the cruel and oppressive caste system; the initial converts to Islam came overwhelmingly from the poorest, most oppressed sections of society, just as had been the case with Buddhism a thousand five hundred years earlier.

As a religion Islam provided a new way of approaching the age-old problems of life facing Hindus; to the oppressed lower castes, Islam provided a break with the caste prison that crushed their lives relentlessly, while for the liberal minded upper castes, it provided new ways of thinking about the universality of humanity in the language of the spirit. Islam also brought monotheism to India, an idea that greatly influenced the development of the Sufi/Bhakti movement and the Sikh religion.

Thus Indians from marginalized and oppressed sections continued to innovate and created a renaissance culture that is commonly known as ‘popular’ Hinduism. The most striking aspect of ‘popular’ Hinduism was its explicitly reformist and universalistic outlook. Saints and poets of this tradition emphasized the unity of humanity, opposed oppressive social practices and spoke against the caste system, engendering a creative blending of Hindu and Muslim religious ideas. This took place at the popular level, and there were many great mystic saints and poets who developed powerful new universalistic and humane philosophies. Sant Kabir Das, a mystic teacher who was a Hindu orphan raised by a Muslim weaver became one of the greatest exponents of the Sufi/Bhakti tradition in the 15^th century. His followers were largely poor Hindus and Muslims; his teachings went on to inspire the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak Dev, as well as the great Mughal Emperor Jalal-ud-din Akbar, a monarch who sought to truly understand the religious and cultural traditions of his Hindu subjects.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the great leader of the Dalits was also the framer of the Indian constitution. His works on the historical experience of India’s Dalits sheds light on some of the worst aspects of Brahmanical chauvinism and oppression. While the Congress and Gandhi feared the resurgence of the Dalits, Ambedkar was steadfast in his demands for full equality and rights for the Dalits. Importantly he condemned efforts that did not first and foremost question the foundations of Hinduism as the oppressive bedrock of millennia of tyrannical overlordship by the Brahmins and upper castes. Inspired by him, Dalits adopted Buddhism as their religion of choice in large numbers as a symbol of their opposition to Brahmanical Hinduism.22

"The conception of secular state is derived from the liberal democratic tradition of west. No institution which is maintained wholly out of state funds shall be used for the purpose of religious instruction irrespective of the question whether the religious instruction is given by the state or any other body."

Ambedkar’s views on caste Hinduism point out that the idea that Hinduism is essentially tolerant, or universal, in its outlook, is patently false. The change referred to here is to Buddhism.

"Hinduism does not appeal to my conscience. My self-respect cannot assimilate Hinduism. In your case change of religion is imperative for worldly as well as spiritual ends. Do not care for the opinion of those who foolishly ridicule the idea of conversion for material ends. Why should you live under the fold of that religion which has deprived you of honor, money, food and shelter?"

The framer of India’s Constitution had this to say about the contradiction between India’s modern constitution and its heritage of caste Hinduism.

"Indians today are governed by two different ideologies. Their political ideal set in the preamble of the Constitution affirms a life of liberty, equality and fraternity. Their social ideal embodied in their religion denies them."

Indian history therefore is replete with evidence that challenges the dogmas being propagated by the Hindutva movement with regard to the nature of the so-called ‘Hindu Nation,’ as well as the alleged exclusive victim status of Hindus. Therefore we can only conclude that ideologically Hindutva is a movement thriving on mass hysteria for ends that are other than religious. It is not a religious movement, but a movement that aims to create a particular Semitized version of Brahmanical Hinduism to institute a totalitarian, neo-capitalist, pro-imperialist reactionary state in India. Here it is very similar to Zionism. An ideology that is built on fabricated myths, which uses the cultural symbols and idioms of an elitist religious tradition, fusing it with a modernist, totalitarian nationalist ideology.

Imperialism’s running dogs need ‘an enemy’.

Israeli Zionism requires the creation of an enemy and the enemy is first the Palestinian native people whose land is usurped and colonized, and the Arab nation, and Muslims in general. The ‘Muslim’ as a ‘bogeyman’ used by Zionism, American imperialism and Hindutva brings the three together into a common cause, an ideologically common cause that accompanies the common cause of imperialism which is to subjugate and plunder the lands of the peoples of the Arab and Iranian nations, the targets of Zionism, and the Muslims and marginalized lower caste Hindus of South Asia, the targets of Hindutva. To this end Zionism and Hindutva seeks to enslave and serve up on imperialism’s table the spoils of treachery, colonization and war, while claiming to be defending the interests of Judaism and Hinduism. Imperialism’s dogs need ‘an enemy’ to seal their unholy alliance in the eyes of their bewildered and confused populations, while the loot flows unhindered, perhaps even accelerated, to the masters’ coffers.

The use of the ‘bogeyman’ is as old as colonialism at least. In the late 18^th century, the British fought three terrible wars in Southern India, to subdue the charismatic and courageous Tippu Sultan. Tippu’s father Hyder Ali was a legendary general who fought several successful battles against the British. Tippu’s struggle with the British was one of the earliest sustained efforts of resistance against the British invaders. Eventually in 1799, Tippu fought to death within his fortress of Srirangapatnam. His famous words were remembered by Indian patriots even during the independence struggle: "It is better to live for a day as a lion, than for a lifetime as a sheep." The British popular culture of the day had references to ‘Tippu’ as an evil character in their books and plays; the name Tippu was reviled and the memory was turned into a ‘bogeyman.’ Nevertheless, in 1830 when an insurrection was hatched in Bangalore, one of the leaders of the revolt took the honorary name "Sayid Tippu!"23

Hindutva: the antithesis of Indian culture

The Hindutva ideal is to convert the multiplicity of religious and cultural practices of India into a semitized homogenous neo-capitalist ideology. Since this ideology is averse to the emancipation of the masses of people, the struggles of the various sections of the Indian population are viewed with suspicion and hatred by the proponents of Hindutva. Thus Hindutva lends itself easily to collaboration with imperialists and fascists from outside India. In this regard the United States, well known on the world for its support of despicable and fascist regimes, as well as racist Zionist Israel have emerged as close accomplices of the Hindutva movement.

By establishing an unprecedented closeness with the BJP government and elements of the armed forces, the U.S. and Israel are undermining the sovereignty, and freedom of the Indian people. Israeli arms have been sold to the Indian armed forces through corrupt defence deals that saw the marginalization of even local Indian defence productive industries in favor of the Zionist state’s products. Israeli agents are in India helping the Hindutva leadership to quash rebellious regions where the people are gradually taking matters into their own hands as it is becoming apparent that the state is now a tyrannical accomplice of the imperialists. This has been the case in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Kashmir, the North East, as well as Punjab, where popular militancy has been relentlessly opposed to the dictates of the corrupt elitist Indian state since 1947.

In short, the Indian people have a dual task at hand: to overthrow the fascist local hegemony of the upper caste Hindutva movement, and at the same time, fight to defeat the imperialist and Zionist masters who pull the strings from behind the shadows while India’s massive army of poor people suffer endlessly one tragedy after another. India’s Intifada is the only way out of this situation, as electoral rituals cannot address the entrenched power of elites who have turned traitors. There are historical precedents for the revolutionary impulse in Indian society. In fact the 1920s saw some of the most intense efforts to raise intensified armed struggle to a level of organized political struggle, a phenomenon that caused the British much anxiety, leading them to the arms of the non-violent liberal minded Gandhi. British intelligence expended tremendous resources to quash rebellious factory workers, farmers, students, and soldiers all over the subcontinent, while nurturing a ‘democratic’ alternative, the Congress movement of Gandhi.

Gandhian liberalism’s role in the non-liberation of India.

In order to keep any radical tendencies among the more militant junior cadres of the Congress in check, the British also courted and encouraged religious fundamentalists among Hindus and played them against the Muslim League, with the effect that by the 1930’s the discourse of liberation had become dominated by the new religious identity based divisive politics, which the nascent Hindutva movement took to like fish to water. Meanwhile Gandhi’s liberalism went into headlong conflict with the radical socialism of Bhagat Singh and the Socialist Republican movement which was fast becoming more popular than the Congress. In order to avert the possibilities of violent revolution in the 1920s and 30s, Gandhi’s Congress did little to press for open confrontation with the British, and in fact silently and often actively helped fan flames of religious tensions as the upper caste leadership of the Congress saw a threat in the nascent revolutionary tendencies in the Indian people.24

The movement that Bhagat Singh’s organization (The Hindustan Socialist Republican Association/Army) was explicitly non-religious, and had a proud heritage of being militant, committed to armed struggle against the British, as well as against the local agents of British power, and the internal oppression of Indian society too. Bhagat Singh expressed a clear-cut revolutionary ideology at a time when Indians were reeling under the British heel and were being stifled by decades of unfruitful negotiations with the British for demands that were timid compared to what the revolutionaries demanded. Part of the reason why India never fully freed itself from the British yoke was precisely the debilitating effects of the Gandhian Congress movement. While there is no doubt that Gandhi’s own personal views were deeply secular and universalistic, his leadership angered the Brahmins within the Congress as well as the fringe elements in the right wing.

Hindutvadis who neither participated in mobilizations against the British nor were interested in fighting for the rights of the masses of India, hated Gandhi because he was a member of a lower caste, whose philosophy drew more from Jainism (a contemporary of Buddhism, which was popular among the lower castes of India), than from the priestly religion of Brahmanical Hinduism. Non-violence (Ahimsa) is not a Hindu innovation, but an idea that formed a very important part of the Jain and Buddhist view of the world, which was historically popular among the poorer and oppressed sections of India. The fear that India’s masses, a vast majority of whom are historically oppressed lower castes and Dalits (‘untouchables’), would inevitably lead an Indian revolution, drew these elitists to condemn Gandhi, and also adopt a lukewarm attitude towards the British.

The British of course had plenty of uses for the Hindutvadis as they did for the Muslim League; religious conflicts were always useful since at the end of the day the British could always claim to be keeping the ‘communities’ in peace. Extremist organizations that had little to do with the general struggles of the masses were often unleashed on any forces that appeared to be turning the tide against the order. This pattern developed and grew into the virulent tragedies of the partition, with no small help from the ruling elites of British India, both Hindus and Muslims, working in conjunction with British imperialism to maintain and retain privileges for Hindu and Muslim elites through the two-nation concept.

Partition and the geographic dictates of imperialism

The geography of the partition is an important fact to reflect on. Punjab and Bengal were the primary sites of the partition. Both Punjab and Bengal in the 19^th century were two of the largest nations in India (Nations as in a culturally distinct group of people with a political history of state formation and distinct social institutions). The populations of Punjab and Bengal were multi religious (Punjab: mostly Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu, Bengal: mostly Muslim and Hindu) and multi-cultural (for example, Muslim Punjabis use the Urdu-Arabic based script while Sikh and Hindu Punjabis use the Gurmukhi script, and Bengali Hindus use a Saka (Hindu) calendar that was adjusted to the Islamic Hijra over five hundred years ago).25

These two regions during the end of the 19^th century became the centers for large-scale anti-British nationalist activities. In Bengal the British educated Indians who served in the British administration or in British institutions, became increasingly radicalized, while in Punjab, militant opposition to the British continued the resistance of the Punjabi people since the British annexation of Punjab by the British in the mid 19^th century. In both cases what worried the British greatly was the unity of Hindus and Muslims in the nationalist struggle. This fear was the basis for the development by the British of a class of upper caste elites who with British education and tutelage became the core of the nationalist movement in the latter part of the 19^th century. The actual historical events that lay at the core of this was the massive British-engineered famines in which tens of millions of Indians perished by starvation, while mammoth stockpiles of grains were sent to Europe. Sensing the potential for a mass uprising, the viceroy Lytton’s Secretary of Agriculture, one Alan Octavian Hume established the Indian National Congress for British liberals, and Hindu and Muslim elites, in 1885 with himself as the first president. I quote Mike Davis from his landmark exposition of British barbarism during the time of Victoria, an era the west likes to glorify as the ‘Victorian era.’ The work is titled "Late Victorian Holocausts, El Nino Famines and the making of the third world." It is a must read for anybody interested in learning about the basis for the present political geography of the world.

"Convinced, however that such famines were not only inevitable but would bring revolution on the tide, Hume again took up agitation for a political safety-valve for Indian discontent. Fearing the rise of Maratha or Bengali counterparts to Ireland’s violent republican brotherhoods, he proposed the pre-emptive organization of a moderate home-rule movement that could act as a unified interlocutor to a British Liberal government."26

This was the beginning of the Indian National Congress, which later fashioned itself as the leader of the independence movement. Practices such as singing "God Save the Queen," were common in the activities of the "Indian" National Congress, whose upper caste and elite members were neither in touch with the masses of suffering Indians, nor posed a credible threat to British imperialist interests. In order to stifle the growing nationalist militancy in Bengal, the British initiated a partition at the turn of the century. Bengal was dissected into a Hindu and a Muslim Bengal. This was the beginning of the British policy of imposing religion as a dividing line upon their subjects in order to smash their subjects’ capacity to resist. Unfortunately for the British, Bengal became even more militant, with many courageous attempts to strike at the British from within India as well as with help from Indians living overseas in the other colonies. Punjab was also leading the nationalist struggle with militant organizations such as the Ghaddar party, formed by Indian immigrant laborers toiling in the United State and Canada, and in the colonies, and also the Babbar Akalis and other groups. The greatest names among the list of Indian revolutionary martyrs include overwhelming numbers of Punjabis and Bengalis. In Punjab, the British made great efforts to stifle the Sikhs and mobilized the help of Muslim landed elites and Hindu upper castes to isolate and alienate the Sikhs.

What resulted in 1947 then, was the forced trisection of the subcontinent, specifically the dismemberment of Punjab and Bengal. The British destroyed the main centers of popular militancy and handed the keys to the landed Hindu elites of the Congress who no doubt swore by secularism and the unity of India’s Hindus and Muslims, and to the descendents of the ruling elites of the Mughal empire, who established Pakistan as a home for India’s Muslims. The partition and destruction of mainly Bengal and Punjab resulted in millions of lives being thrown into the cauldron of this macabre ‘nation-building’ exercise, and the formation of two states that never succeeded in fulfilling the wishes of their peoples even after fifty years of ‘independence,’ but on the contrary ended up chaining our peoples to the heels of imperialism and neo-colonialism.27

Historic blindspot, Gandhi and the revolutionaries

Hindutva was from its beginnings opposed to any generalized mass struggle of a revolutionary character. The British fanned the flames and then when the pogroms shook the country, they claimed to keep the peace. To this day Hindutvadis name "communists" as one of their most hated enemies, an unsurprising fact since after all anybody who resisted the divisive fascist politics of Hindutva was immediately labeled a "pseudo-secularist" or "communist." Another common term with similar connotations is "terrorist." It goes without saying that such a mindset is common to fascism from Nazism, American McCarthyism and Boer apartheid racism and Israeli Zionism. All opponents are labeled as implacable and dangerous enemies, with the object that once political power comes into their grasp, Hindutvadis are determined to physically eliminate those cast as ‘enemies.'

While the Gandhian movement did much damage to the revolutionary impulse gripping India in the 1920s and 30s, it at least openly swore allegiance to the secular ideals implicit in the struggle of the Indian people; this was a minimum they had to concede in order to maintain some legitimacy among the masses. Yet Gandhian liberalism was patronizing and out of touch with the workers and peasants of India, as the words of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association’s document "Philosophy of the Bomb" make clear in 1930:

"He (Gandhi) thinks that on the basis of his experience during his latest tour in the country, he is right in believing that the large masses of Indian humanity are yet untouched by the spirit of violence and that non-violence has come to stay as a political weapon. Let him not delude himself on the experiences of his latest tour in the country. Though it is true that the average leader confines his tours to places where only the mail train can conveniently land him while Gandhi has extended his tour limit to where a motorcar can take him, the practice of staying only with the richest people in the places visited, of spending most of his time on being complimented by his devotees in private and public, and of granting Darshan(spiritual audience) now and then to the illiterate masses whom he claims to understand so well, disqualifies him from claiming to know the mind of the masses. No man can claim to know a people’s mind by seeing them from the public platform and giving them Darshan and Updesh. He can at the most claim to have told the masses what he thinks about things. Has Gandhi, during recent years, mixed in the social life of the masses? Has he sat with the peasant round the evening fire and tried to know what he thinks? Has he passed a single evening in the company of a factory labourer and shared with him his woes? We have, and therefore we claim to know what the masses think. We assure Gandhi that the average Indian, like the average human being, understands little of the fine theological niceties about Ahimsa and Loving one’s enemy…

We affirm that the masses of India are solidly with us because we know it from personal experience. The day is not far off when they will flock in their thousands to work the will of the Revolution."28

These were words written by committed revolutionaries who were infuriated when Gandhi launched a tirade against them and condemned their activities in an article titled "Cult of the Bomb," hence the title of the response from the revolutionaries, "Philosophy of the Bomb." The self-righteous repudiation of violence when it came to actions taken by Indians against the British when thousands were being executed, tortured, and incarcerated, incensed revolutionaries and the ordinary people of India. Ghosh even points out that one of Gandhi's admitted nightmare scenarios was the unity of Hindus and Muslims for a violent overthrow of the British. He feared the rabble! Over endless cups of tea with British officials and reporters, Gandhi could engage in deep discussions about non-violence and the victory of truth, and even the emancipation of the British from British imperialism, and yet when it came to the emancipation of the ordinary Indian, his patronizing call to disarm, and walk towards the British as sheeps to the slaughter insulted most Indians, except perhaps those enraptured by the spiritual charms and saintly aura of the 'Mahatma.' Following the execitions of Bhagat Singh and comrades, Gandhi was met at the Karachi session of Congress, by a massive demonstration. Amazing facts suppressed by unending valorization that even continues today. Interestingly enough, following the executions, Nehru adopted terms like 'socialism' as part of his verbiage, no doubt an indication of reverence and perhaps fear of the revolutionaries and their mass base. Appropriation of the revolutionaries' discourse enabled Nehru to later portray himself as a radical, while towing the Gandhian Congress elitist line without much sweat. Nehru was in effect competing with Bhagat Singh for the hearts of the Indian masses.

Gandhi’s commitment to the emancipation of India’s Dalits and lower castes from the brutal tyranny of the Brahmanic social order was also ambiguous if not patronizing. E.V. Ramaswami Naicker-Periyar, the great civil rights leader from Tamil Nadu, put this aspect of Gandhi’s social activism in the spotlight in a speech in 1958.29

‘As a matter of fact Gandhi’s plans were different. He was not for allowing all the Sudras and the untouchables to bale our water from wells and tanks, along with the high caste brahmins. He was not for permitting the untouchables to enter the temples along with the high caste people. Originally he insisted on the continuance of the rights exclusively enjoyed by the high castes. He upheld the Manu code. He was for separate temples, tanks, wells and dwellings for the high caste Brahmins and the low caste Sudras. That was the original plan of Gandhi. I know it. Let anyone deny it. Today, misrepresented propaganda is carried on about Gandhi. Much is said about Gandhian way and Gandhian path.’

The point I am trying to make here is that India’s people were denied a truly liberating independence movement by the interplay of British colonialism with the elite upper caste liberals of the Congress, and also the role played by the communalist organizations like the RSS in inciting religious conflict as the linchpin that destroyed the progressive character of the independence struggle. India passed on from British hands to the Congress leadership, which through its ties to the landed elites and big business interests in India, established a system that remarkably maintained British colonial institutions without embarking upon a genuinely social revolutionary program. Little wonder then that popular movements opposed to the hegemony of the Indian colonial state never died out, as the peoples of India still await true independence and the rule by the people.

The Congress approach at best was to leave the social structures of India’s exploitative caste system intact, as challenges to this interfered with their strong supporters among the landed elites, the business classes and castes, as well as the right wing. Periyar recalls that the AICC (All India Congress Committee) provided funds for ‘social work’ while explicitly stating that the oppressed Dalits and lower castes were not to interfere with the social order in any way.

‘I was the Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee. A sum of Rs. 48,000 was sent to Tamilnadu as grant from the AICC to construct separate schools and temples for the low caste Sudras as the ‘Pariahs’, Chakkilis, and Pallars. It was strictly ordered that these untouchables should not go and create trouble at the places used exclusively by the high caste Hindus.’

Nevertheless, internationally Nehru and his heirs salvaged the best of India’s Congress-Gandhi heritage and spoke openly about the rights of all oppressed colonized peoples. In this context, India always supported Palestine in all international forums. Hindutva on the other hand, has effectively launched a virulent attack on both India’s people, institutions, and the legacy of the anti-colonialist heritage. Therefore it is antithetical to any conception of a free and internationally anti-imperialist India; it is the Yankee sponsored face of reaction, drawn from the same forces that collaborated with British imperialism to shake off the perceived threat of a peoples’ Indian state. Hindutvadis are eager to rewrite the constitution, and march the country into a supposedly ‘presidential’ form of government; a national security state with a constitution that will no doubt enshrine fascism and chauvinism, and extricate all the secular, democratic principles on which the at least marginally progressive Indian republic was established in 1950.

Conclusion

Hindutva is the most dangerous threat to the Indian subcontinent, even more dangerous than the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, especially since it is also blatantly pro-imperialistic and a willing accomplice to the imperialist plunder of India. It is not a religious movement but a political usurpation of the last vestiges of the independent Indian state, which the BJP would like to see converted into a ‘security’ state, in which democracy and freedom of thought will not hinder their objectives of establishing the supremacy of their specific version of semitized Hinduism, the Hindutva state, in which Muslims, Dalits, Christians, secularists, human rights activists, women, tribal communities, will be relegated to a new lower caste status, while a Brahmin minority in allegiance with other members of the upper castes will manage the state on behalf of American global imperialism. To this end, they will seek to use the services of Zionism, and further push India into the abyss of global war and the destruction of the entire subcontinent.

In order to avert this catastrophe, the peoples of the subcontinent, Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, and Nepalis as well as all progressive forces among the peoples of Afghanistan, Iran, China, Palestine, and the Arab world and South East Asia must use every means necessary to challenge and defeat these pro-imperialist usurpers and thugs. Struggles all over India are erupting among diverse sections of society. The need of the hour is gradually becoming more apparent and will eventually lead to a decisive national struggle to reassert the peoples’ rights over the nation; in this struggle to come, Hindutva, Zionism and U.S. imperialism will be on one side. It remains for the victims of these three bloodhounds to work towards developing an internationalist front that effectively combats them and smashes the power of tyranny on the altar of the people’s will. The struggles of the Arab world are tied to the struggles of the Indian subcontinent; by smashing the myths and lies that form the basis for imperialism’s advances, the peoples of these regions must strive to establish a new solidarity building upon the best traditions and currents of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism, social, and economic emancipation. Collective feelings of disempowerment can serve the basis for a fresh look at our predicaments, and explore possible means to fight against the forces of imperialism, and its running dogs, Zionism and Hindutva.

I close with a brief note about the execution of Bhagat Singh, who is representative of the best of India’s anti-colonial legacy, and whose popularity, contrary to the muffled historical memory resulting from the loud valorization of Congress and Gandhi, threatened to upstage Gandhi, in the admission of the British colonialists themselves. In 1931, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were hanged by the British for their role in the killing of a British officer. They had initially courted arrest by carrying out a protest bombing in parliament, in which no one was hurt as they intended it to be a warning ‘to make the deaf hear.’ The cause of this action was impending legislation that sought to impose severe draconian laws under the pretext of ‘security,’ to crush growing rebellion among the Indian masses, particularly worker and peasant organizations. Bhagat Singh and the HSRA were definitely on the same beat as the Indian masses, while Gandhi and the Congress timidly towed the British line with little significant opposition, while being opposed to any form of militancy outside their restricting ‘non-violent’ purview.

Irwin’s minutes indicate that Gandhi played a more than significant role in the viceroy’s decision to carry out the executions of the revolutionaries. Fearing a backlash from the Indian masses and to divert the revolutionary fervor that was heightened in support of the revolutionaries, Gandhi worked out a deal with Irwin called the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. Suniti Kumar Ghosh points out that Gandhi negotiated with Irwin a preponement of the execution of the revolutionaries while claiming to the public that he pleaded with the viceroy to save the revolutionaries’ lives. This preponement was granted by Irwin and the three revolutionaries were hanged at 7:33 pm, March 23, 1931. Ghosh quotes the official History of the Indian National Congress:

"..The Karachi session was to meet in the last week of March, but Gandhi himself stated to the Viceroy that if the boys should be hanged, they had better be hanged before the Congress, than after. The position of affairs in the country would be clear."30

This betrayal of India’s struggle was the clear course being alluded to above. This betrayal has a long history, going back to the colonial roots of the Congress and the ties between India’s ruling castes and classes with British colonialism; the common fear of a peoples’ uprising was the uniting factor while reformist calls for ‘Home rule,’ ‘dominion status,’ were dangled at the people as substitutes for full independence of the kind which fired the inspiration of the revolutionaries. When outright collaboration failed to achieve ends, these ruling classes resorted, as the British did, to divide the people along religious lines and incite communalism. The spiritualism being offered by Gandhi was sufficient to offer a sense of false validation to colonized Indians, as westerners saw and promoted in Gandhi the mystical aura of eastern spirituality, one who appeased the natives and at the same time appealed to the troubled conscience of the west. This Gandhian spiritualism is quite overblown by Indian and western scholars, as the evidence of India’s struggles in the 1920s and 30s suggests. It alienated Muslims and lower caste Hindus as it validated the ideologies and interests of the upper caste Hindus, and the British colonialists.

Inspiration for the struggle from a true Indian Patriot

It was Bhagat Singh and not Gandhi who most closely represented the popular sentiment of the time. It was he who called on the Indian people to rise up against all predators foreign and domestic. It is his legacy that provides inspiration to the struggle ahead for the peoples of India, and the internationalist struggle against imperialism. His words apply to the universal struggle against exploitation, and in these times the linked struggle against Zionism and Hindutva, towards the liberation of South Asia and Palestine. Let us draw inspiration from this great son of India.

"...revolution does not necessarily mean sanguinary strife, nor is there any place in it for individual vendetta. It is not the cult of the bomb or the pistol. By `revolution' we mean that the present order of things, which is based on manifest injustice, must change. Producers or labourers, in spite of being the most necessary elements of society, are robbed by their exploiters of the fruits of their labour and are denied of their elementary rights.... On the other hand, capitalists, exploiters, parasites of society squander millions on mere whims.... Radical change is, therefore, necessary and it is the duty of those who realise this to reorganise society on a socialist basis. Unless this is done, and the exploitation of man by man and nation by nation, which goes masquerading as a civilising force, but in reality is imperialism, is brought to an end, the suffering and carnage with which humanity is threatened today cannot be prevented and all talk of ending wars and ushering an era of universal peace, is undisguised hypocrisy. By revolution we mean the ultimate establishment of an order of society, in which the sovereignty of the proletariat should be recognised and as a result of which the world federation should redeem humanity from the bondage of capitalism and the misery and the peril of wars.

"...revolution is the inalienable right of all men. Freedom is the improscribable birthright of all. The toiler is the real sustainer of society. The sovereignty of the people is the ultimate destiny of workers. For these ideals and for this faith we shall welcome any suffering to which we shall be condemned. To this altar of revolution we bring our youth as incense, for no sacrifice is too great for so magnificent a cause. We are content to await the advent of the revolution. "LONG LIVE REVOLUTION.""31

Bhagat Singh was 23 when he was executed by the British.

References and Sources:

¹BJP’s assault on Education and Educational Institutions. Nalini Taneja, Delhi University

² The Institutional Composition of Hindutva, The Progressive South Asian Exchange Net, source: http://www.foil.org/politics/hindutva/hindorg.html

³ Mahatma Gandhi's Approach to Zionism and the Palestine Question, Professor A.K. Ramakrishnan. Dr. Ramakrishnan is a senior lecturer, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala of India. He presented this paper to a seminar on Jerusalem and Palestine held in New Delhi on 13 June by the Institute of Islamic and Arab Studies, India. Source: http://www.ptimes.com/issue86/articles.html#11 (The Palestine Times)

⁴ Israel's killing fields, Aijaz Ahmed, Frontline Magazine, Volume 17 - Issue 23, Nov. 11 - 24, 2000

⁵ RSS Politics: Vajpayee Takes The Mask Off, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, General Secretary, Communist Party of India Marxist, source: http://www.ganashakti.com/old/2000/000214/feature.htm

⁶ Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the 1930s: archival evidence, Marzola Casolari, from South Asia Documents, section Secularism and Communalism. Source: http://www.ercwilcom.net/~indowindow/sad/godown/secular/fascirss.htm

⁷ An extremist Zionist ‘think-tank’ with contributors including Ariel Sharon and BenjaminNetanyahu. http://www.freeman.org/ Among the nonsense being manufactured here is a piece comparing Native Americans with the Zionists!

⁸ Hindu Extremists Seek Ties With Israel and Its U.S. Lobby, Faisal Kutty, source: http://www15.brinkster.com/indiatoday/contents.htm

⁹ Desi Mossad is getting ready at Bajrang Dal's Ayodhya camp, The Indian Express, June 30, 2000

¹⁰ Israeli experts in Kashmir to assess security needs, Yehonathan Tommer, Times of India, Friday 22 September 2000

¹¹ India to allow US army access to counterinsurgency school, June 27, 2001, www.tehelka.com

¹² The Tehelka Expose, in which senior officials in the ruling BJP government and individuals in the armed forces were caught on camera taking bribes by Tehelka investigative journalists. The webcast of this episode as well as details about the scam are available at: http://tehelka.zeenext.com/webcast.html

¹³ To learn more about the Dalit struggle and its centrality to the struggle against the Hindutva movement, please visit, www.dalitstan.org

¹⁴ Hindutva Offensive: Social Roots & Characterisation, R.R. Puniyani, source: http://www.foil.org/politics/hindutva/rampun1.html

¹⁵ Manusmriti, from www.hindubooks.org, source: http://www.hindubooks.org/scriptures/manusmriti/ch8/ch8_411_420.htm

¹⁶ Communalism and History, Romila Thapar, from Indian National Social Action Forum, source: http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/ch2.html

¹⁷ The Invention of Ancient Israel, The Silencing of Palestinian History, Keith W. Whitelam, 1997, Description from Amazon.com, "A controversial and provocative work, The Invention of Ancient Israel chronicles how the true history of ancient Palestine has been obscured. Keith W. Whitelam reveals how ancient Israel has been invented by scholars in the image of a European nation state; one that resembles the state of Israel created in 1948. This book explores the prospects for developing the study of Palestinian history as a subject in its own right, divorced from the history of the Bible, and argues that Biblical scholars, through their traditional view of this area, have contributed to dispossession both of a Palestinian land and aPalestinian past."

¹⁸ Communalism and History, Romila Thapar, from Indian National Social Action Forum, source: http://www.mnet.fr/aiindex/ch2.html

¹⁹ Hindu Violence against Buddhism in India has no parallel, Dr. M.S.Jayaprakash, The Dalit Voice April 16-30.The author is the Professor of History, Guru Vihar, Punnathala, Kollam District, Kerala, India.

²⁰ Tirupati Balaji was a Buddhist Shrine, Dr. K. Jamanadas, Dalitstan.org, source: http://dalitstan.org/books/tirupati

²¹ Mirat ul Memalik (The Mirror of Countries), 1557 CE, Sidi Ali Reis (16th Century CE), Internet Medieval Source Book, source: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/16CSidi1.html

²² Thus spoke Ambedkar, the Quotations of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, source: http://www.ambedkar.org/Babasaheb/quotations.htm

²³ History of the H.M. 13th Light Dragoons, source: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~clday/13light.htm#mutiny

²⁴ Freedom Struggle Betrayed, India 1885-1947, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, 1997Available on the web at: http://www.maoism.org/misc/india/rupe/fsb/toc_fsb.htm

²⁵ Islamic Star Over India, Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate, Economics, This article is excerpted from a UNESCO lecture titled "An Assessment of the Millennium" delivered by Amartya Sen in New Delhi recently. Source: www.littleindia.com

²⁶ Late Victorian Holocausts, El nino Famines and the making of the Third World, Mike Davis

²⁷ India and the Raj, 1919 –1947, Glory, Shame and Bondage, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, available on the web at: http://www.maoism.org/misc/india/india_raj_v2/india_raj_2.htm

²⁸ Philosophy of the Bomb, signed, Kartar Singh, President, Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. In December 1929, HSRA revolutionaries made a failed attempt to assassinate the viceroy, Lord Irwin. Gandhi reportedly "thanked God" for the viceroy’s narrow escape, and condemned the revolutionaries in an article called "Cult of the Bomb." In response, the HSRA issued this statement, the Philosophy of the Bomb. Full text at: http://www.parwhaz.com/shaheed-bhagatsingh/bomb.htm

²⁹ Speech by E.V. Ramasami Naicker-Periyar in Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu, 25th and 26th December 1958, source: http://www.periyar.org/mr/20002m8.htm

³⁰ Freedom Struggle Betrayed, India 1885-1947, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, 1997 Available on the web at: http://www.maoism.org/misc/india/rupe/fsb/toc_fsb.htm

³¹ Freedom Struggle Betrayed, India 1885-1947, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, 1997 Available on the web at: http://www.maoism.org/misc/india/rupe/fsb/chap7.htm

White, Zionist and Hindu Racism; the Durban question

2001-09-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

White supremacy, Zionism and Hindu racism are part of the same project to deny hundreds of millions of people the right to be free, and ought to be fought vigorously and defeated by their victims … Palestinians, Black Americans and India’s Dalits and oppressed masses have to see that their struggle is one struggle against the forces of global fascism, three of whose stellar representatives excel in the grotesque practice of human subjugation and racist tyranny. It is necessary to expose these three villains and build solidarity among the victims. Solidarity is not wishful thinking but a much need survival strategy, and the only road to defeating the oppressors of the global fascist axis.

Blacks Split on Zionism

The pro-Israeli lobby in the U.S. has been vociferous in its efforts to line up mainstream civil rights groups or their representatives to accept without criticism all Israeli policies concerning the Palestinians. And this has been successful, even when these policies constitute horrific acts of violence in defiance of UN resolutions condemning Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. It was shameful to see, for example, NAACP Board Member Julian Bond’s name on a full-page N.Y. Times ad condemning the Palestinian response last year to Ariel Sharon’s provocative visit to a Palestinian holy site, Temple Mount, and total silence on the slaughter of Palestinian men, women and children that has since ensued.

Remnants of Empire

Bad things should obviously not happen to white people. How else to explain the indignation? The knowledge of unspeakable horrors inflicted on black Africans is seldom allowed to interfere with our peace of mind, as if they were in the natural order of things. Over there it is hot, zebras live in the wild, and bad things happen to blacks. But when white families are dispossessed, it is another matter altogether.

Dennis Brutus: racism and gobalization are linked

And for [veteran South African activist and poet Dennis Brutus], the issue of linking poverty to racism is what is centrally lacking at the racism conference. “The central point is being missed at the conference and that is the link with privatisation and joblessness, homelessness, lack of social services, poor medical services and poor education. All this also stems from the broad policy flow from the decision to spend money on arms - which are unnecessary - rather than on social services.”

Is Zimbabwe’s present the future of South Africa?

Although official apartheid is gone, its legacy has been privatized. Blacks occupy the high political offices, but whites dominate industry, the professions, the bureaucracy, the best educational institutions, and the judiciary. Most significant, whites own most of the land - including virtually all arable land - in South Africa.

Linking Racism to Power and Self-Interest

A new approach is needed: one that locates racism within the broader context of social and economic exploitation. This approach links racism with power and the politics of self-interest. It explores the connection between white privilege and black oppression by arguing that oppression is necessary to sustain privilege.

This interdependence - the privilege of whiteness with the oppression of racism - provides a lens through which we can understand the persistence of racism in society. A different lens can make the same point: conditions of male privilege are dependent on the oppression of women. Both concede the existence of unearned privilege.

Hindutva and Zionism: Comprador States of Pentagon, Inc.

2001-08-13T22:46:00.000-07:00

By Vijay Prashad, ZMag.ORG, Aug 8 2001

George W. Bush has a cat named India. In New Delhi, about thirty activists of the Hindu Right's political formation, the BJP, stood before the US Embassy outraged with this news. "We are not cats," said one man, "we are lions."

And lions don't lie with the lamb, or with the goat.

Which is why the Hindu Right government does not want to make nice with Pakistan, and much prefers the other lions in the region, such as Israel, and the big lion of the planet, the USA.

Bear in mind, however, that this outburst against Bush the Second has little to do with anti-imperialism. While one section of the Hindu Right government demolishes the economic sovereignty of India on behalf of transnational corporations and the Dollar (under the auspices of the Ministry of Disinvestment), another section of the same government offers the nation's children a chauvinistic version of history in which the great Hindu Nation comes off as the next great Universal Empire (under the auspices of what might as well be called the Ministry of Disinformation). The Hindu Right is the Trojan Horse of capitalist globalization, even as it portrays itself as the conquering lion of the new century.

On missile defense, on globalization, on so many of the contentious issues of the day, the government of India has come out slavishly on the side of the US (even as there is dissension among the generally compliant G-8). This is diametrically opposed to what one expects from the government of India, which had a reputation as a stanch defender of the international Third Way, of peaceful coexistence, of anti-nuclearism, of genuine anti-poverty, etc. Nehru was not Castro, but he was certainly not the Hindu Right.

The fantasy entertained by the Hindu Right government is that an alliance with the world's lions (USA-Israel) will allow India to sup at High Table, to eat high on the hog. Certainly the expectation is that trade will follow the military tie-up.

For that reason, we see a wholesale sell-out by the Hindu Right to US-Israeli foreign/military policy objectives. Hardt and Negri in their new book come to the conclusion that imperialism is perhaps an out of date formulation, that there is no real center to the current political economic formation. To get to this position, they must, and do, neglect the world of the military (and to a certain extent the role of the Dollar -- for which, see Peter Gowan's The Global Gambit, from Verso). And they mistake the contentiousness of past imperialisms. Imperialisms of the past (English, French, German, Japanese), for example, remained confined to certain zones, and these nation-based formations came into conflict with each other. If the English dominated the rest for a period, it did not mean that they ceased to feel pressure from the other European pretenders. The model, with some variations, works today. The US is paramount not in a total way, but through alliances with sub-imperial powers (Israel in west Asia, Japan-South Korea in east Asia, etc) and with military pacts with lesser powers (the US Navy conducts joint exercises, for example in Asia, with Singapore, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and many others). To neglect the role of the official forces (the military) and the unofficial forces (the paramilitary units) is to miss the way imperialism functions.

The Hindu Right, unlike Hardt and Negri, recognize the persistence of US imperialism, and Israeli sub-imperialism -- and they want a piece of the action in South Asia. It appears that the Hindu Right seeks the franchise for US lackey against what it sees as Islamic fundamentalism and Chinese Communism. In exchange for trade arrangements and a seat with the big boys (in the UN Security Council), the Hindu Right government will allow the US to create the biggest aircraft carrier in the Asian region (and render Diego Garcia, and maybe Okinawa, obsolete). After Rajiv Gandhi allowed Gulf War planes to refuel in Mumbai in 1991, the door to this lay open. The Hindu Right stepped right in.

But the entire thing seems odd: the Hindu Right and the Israelis? In the 1930s, the Hindu Right was ecstatic about the advent of Hitler, and one of its founders, V. D. Savarkar was feted in the Nazi press for his enthusiasm at the Blitzkrieg (I've written about this in my forthcoming book from Beacon Press, Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity; a very cogent analysis is available on the web from Raja Harish Swamy at http://www.geocities.com/virodhi2001
/IndiaResistance2001.htm). Another important Hindu Right figure, M. S. Golwalkar, reflected on the Holocaust, and concluded: "Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has shown how wellnigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by." Indeed, this philosophy remains at the heart of the Hindu Right's ideology, what is known as Hindutva.

But the alliance with Israel is not so strange after all, because at the ideological level, Hindutva is much like Zionism, for both extol the importance of the Race-State, and both cast aspersions at the presence of a Muslim minority. An India-born analyst at the Zionist Freeman Center in Houston, Texas, makes just this connection: "Islamic fascists see Bharat [India] as the soft spot to propagate their irrational creed and foment violence. India tries to placate them. Israel expels them. This is what Bharat should do. If they hate Hindu Rashtra so much they are free to leave for dar-ul Islam." [I'm puzzled by the claim that India "placates" anyone, given the rather ruthless actions of the army and police against, for example, the residents of the Kashmir valley].

At the unofficial level, the links seem to be growing. The leading Indian-American newspaper, India Abroad, hired a veteran Jewish lobbyist who worked on Israel and on Jewish causes. Ralph Nuremberger's job was to do to the Indian Americans and India what the newspaper felt he had done for Israel and for Jewish Americans. There is a general sentiment that Indian Americans should follow the Jewish path to whiteness and not dwell in the world of color that tries to undo racism.

Among semi-fascists the links are deep. I recently found that I was on the "hit-list" of the US-branch of the notorious Bajrang Dal (who are the shock troops of the Hindu Right), and are here known as Hindu Unity. None other than the Kahane group (Haktiva), well known for its Iron Fist Zionism, sponsors the website of the group.

But the real dangers lie on the official level. Both India and Israel came to life due to the mendacity of a waning English imperialism that conjured up the idea of partition to hastily dispatch its problems in west and south Asia. India was averse to a relationship with Israel mainly because of the injustice done to the Palestinians. From the late 1940s to 1992 there was no substantial relationship (indeed my Indian passport did not allow me to visit South Africa or Israel -- both seen as racist states).

This was at the political level. At the military level, something else was at work.

In January 1963, a few months after India's border war with China, the government of India reached out to the Israeli military establishment and opened a dialogue (the story broke in the Hindustan Times on 15 May 1980). Two years later, Israeli cabinet minister Yigal Alon visited India. Mossad and India's Research Analysis Wing (RAW) shared information and analysis from the late 1970s onwards.

In 1992, India openly embraced Israel's military establishment. There are several reasons for this shift. First, the Indian military was eager to find a supplier for military hardware to replace the by then defunct Soviet pipeline. Second, the Indian government's enthusiastic 1991 entry into IMFundamentalism enabled the heresy of a rapid pro-Americanism, and on its back, a pro-Zionism. 1992 also signaled the emergence of the Hindu Right as a leading contender for national office, and its ideology remains far more compatible with that of the US-Israel than that of the Left and the Center-Left.

A few months after the establishment of full diplomatic relations, a six member Israeli Defense contingent came to India to discuss arms issues with the Indian Ministry of Defense. Military preceded the political bureau.

India's first shopping list was loaded with aircraft demands, mainly to replace the ailing MIG-21 and MIG-29 fleet. But by the time the Hindu Right took power in 1998, the list grew much longer and far more complex. It also reveals the sub-imperial ambitions of the Hindu Right over southern Asia. In May 1998, a few days after the nuclear tests, a delegation from Israeli Aircraft Industries toured India to sell their pilotless aircraft anti-ship missiles. Components of a missile defense shield, then, have been in the works for India for at least three years. A set of deals have been signed between the arms merchants in India and Israel to buy goods for the airforce (MIGs, Light Combat Aircraft, AWACs), navy (aircraft carrier, maritime radar, attack craft), army (Main Battle Tank, Advanced Light Helicopters), and for the missile branch of the military (the Indian defense contractors want to buy Israeli guidance and launch systems for the Prithvi surface to surface missile, and for the sea to surface Sagarika system, but there is also evidence that India wants Israeli help with the Akash, a missile system akin to the M-11). These weapons would put India into contention as the main power not only in south Asia, but perhaps, as the second front against the Chinese (a move that enabled the US to revise its military doctrine to fight only one full-scale war; its proxy powers would take care of the other one, in the new scenario). Furthermore, the missile defense parts of the deals would enable India to fantastically suggest that Pakistan's nuclear option had been neutralized, and that the parity of 1998 had been negated. India's eagerness for the missile defense, then, is part of the desire of the Hindu Right to will away the Pakistani tests on the Chagai range.

As the India-Pakistan summit fizzled away on July 17th, the Indian and Israeli defense contractors met in Israel and concluded a US$ 2 billion deal that will upgrade Indian fighter jets, provide India with Barak-type surface to surface missiles, and with parts of a missile defense package (unmanned aerial vehicles and radar systems). The boys and their toys had already undermined the political pieties in Agra.

The restless lions of west and south Asia join the tigers of east Asia to encircle China and the predominantly Muslim states of west and central Asia. The big cats are at Genoa, but they significantly meet in military headquarters and in the secure offices of arms merchants around the world, eager to undermine the political process with the sorts of hardware that ensures that our world remain undemocratic. Empire is alive and well.