TASKS OF WRITERS-ARTISTS-INTELLECTUALS
IN THE TIMES OF HINDUTVA FASCISM
[With the unleashing
of reign of terror by the RSS/BJP rulers against working class, peasant organizations,
women organizations, student movements, intellectuals, writers, poets and progressive
social/political activists, India also witnessed a series of resistance programmes
organized by the pro-people cultural organizations in different parts of the country.
My address in some of these programmes is reproduced here. ]
Before sharing
my views on the tasks of artists-writers-intellectuals in the times of Fascism,
let me; briefly define Fascism and how it is different from totalitarianism.
Totalitarianism is political concept, a dictatorship of an individual, family or
group which prohibits opposition in any form, and exercises an extremely high
degree of control over public and private life. It is also described as
authoritarianism. Whereas Fascism while retaining all these repressive
characteristics also believes in god-ordained superiority of Race, culture, religion
and language of the rulers. It is the rule of the Aryans over pagans or malechas, where the latter belonging to an
inferior Race (which Hitler described as "no-Race") should be
eliminated as these corrupt the superior Race, its culture, religion, and
language.
The capture of
the Indian state by the Fascist RSS/BJP rulers should not be confused with the rule of Nazi Party in Germany and the
Fascist Party in Italy after the World War I. The rise of Nazism and Fascism in
Europe was the outcome of a severe crisis of capitalism globally. Since Germany
and Italy had powerful working class movements, the capitalists, bureaucrats,
military elite and the Rightist political leaders decided to crush the Left and
impose totalitarian rules in the two countries.
India, on the
other hand, had always been a breeding ground for the totalitarian ideology
with Brahmanism or Hindutva Fascism as a favourite ideology of the Hindu high
Castes with the arrival of Aryans to Indian peninsula. The Brahmanism codified
into Vedas, Codes of Manu (Manu Smriti)
and Chanakya's Arthshastra. These are
the fundamental documents of Brahmanism which preach Hindutva brand of Fascism.
What this
Fascism amounts to can be understood by glancing over some of the dehumanized
elements contained in these documents of Brahmanism. According to VD Savarkar
who played important role in chalking out the modern Hindutva Fascism in India
only those could stay who belonged to a "common Race", "common
blood", and "common civilization" known as Aryan Race which
spoke holy language, Sanskrit.
The Hindutva
Fascism's other prominent ideologue, MS Golwalkar while fully supporting the
cleansing of the Jews by Hitler and Mussolini in their countries. He went on to
declare shamelessly that cleansing of Jews by Hitler and Mussolini was "a
good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by" for eliminating
non-Aryans.
We should not miss the fact that Hindutva Fascism in comparison
to the German/Italian Fascism is multi-dimensional, multi-faceted and
insidious. Whereas in Europe it was Aryans versus Jews, the Hindutva version
denigrates adversaries at two levels. On one level minorities, specially, Muslims
and Christians have to be cleansed, at the other level Sudras through
imposition of Varna system have to be enslaved. According to Hindutva
ideologues, Hinduism, Hindu nation and Casteism are synonymous. Manu Smriti blatantly decreed that
Brahma created the
Kshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra from his mouth, his arm, his thighs and
his feet. The lord prescribed for Sudras one occupation only that was to serve
meekly the other three Castes. If a Sudra criticizes a twice-born man his
tongue would be cut out; for he is of low origin. If Sudra arrogantly taught Brahmanas
their duty, the king would cause hot oil to be poured into his mouth and into
his ears. If a low-caste man tried to place himself on the same seat with a man
of a high caste, would be branded on his hip and be banished, or (the king)
shall cause his buttock to be gashed.
As per the Manu Code if Sudras are to be given most stringent
punishments for even petty violations/actions, the same Code of Manu is very
lenient towards Brahmins. Manu decreed:
“Let him never
slay a Brahmana, though he have committed all (possible) crimes; he should be
asked to leave, leaving all his property to him and his body unhurt.”
The fact is that Hindutva
ideology is the original Fascist system and with Modi's coming to power in 2014
India began its journey under the Hindutva Fascist rule. However, it would not
be correct that before Modi's becoming PM India was a peoples' democracy. It
was an anti-people rule under the garb of democracy. The rulers of all hues
despite running the country for the benefit of imperialists, capitalists and
feudal rule continued their public affirmation to the so called
democratic-secular polity of India. But with Modi's coming to power this facade
was abandoned. The RSS/BJP rulers declared Hindutva as their ideology under
which India would discard secularism and democracy and convert India into a
Hindu rashtra. This current vision of the Hindutva rule is direct borrowing
from Golwalkar who as early as 1940 Golwalkar while delivering a speech before
the 1350 top level cadres of the RSS had declared: "RSS inspired by one
flag, one leader and one ideology is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and
every corner of this great land." This slogan of one flag, one leader and
one ideology was directly borrowed from the programmes of Nazi and Fascist
parties of Europe.
GLORIOUS LEGACY
OF RESISTANCE AGAINST FASCISM BY WRITERS-ARTISTS-INTELLECTUALS
The world history is witness to this amazing fact
that whenever the Fascists tried to suppress peoples' aspirations, crush
humanity and impose silence of the graveyard on the society,
writers-artists-intellectual stood shoulder to shoulder with other sections of
the society in resisting the march of Fascists. Some of the glorious examples
are worth remembering.
OLYMPE DE GOUGES
Olympe de Gouges
(1748-93) was a French playwright, activist and feminist whose powerful
polemics against racial and sexual injustice won her a wide audience in the
years before and during the French Revolution. Her most vital 17 point, The
Declaration of the Rights of Women and of the Female Citizen (1791) was
written in response to the revolutionary Declaration of the Rights of Man
(1789), highlighting its inherent sex bias and addressing key issues of women's
rights that it had failed to cover. For this 'crime' she was beheaded in Paris
on November 3, 1793, at the age of 45. Before being slaughtered she roared: "Since women already have the right to
climb the scaffold, they must be given the right to mount the rostrum so that
they can speak their minds."
BRECHT
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known
professionally as Bertolt Brecht,
was a German theatre practitioner, playwright,
and poet. He was the main proponent of the genre named epic
theatre (which he preferred to call
"dialectical theatre"). During the Nazi
period and World
War II he lived in exile, first in
Scandinavia and then in the United States. During the Nazi rule, Brecht expressed his strong opposition to the
National Socialist and Fascist movements in his most famous plays: Life
of Galileo, Mother Courage and
Her Children, The Good Person of
Szechwan, The Resistible Rise
of Arturo Ui, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Fear and Misery of
the Third Reich, and many others.
Brecht even today remains the greatest dramatist and poet
against Fascism and his teaching can play great role in fighting the Hindutva
fascism. His advice to the artists that "Art is not a mirror held up to
show reality but a hammer with which to shape it". Thus he wanted the
artists to use art as a political tool to revolutionize the society. He wanted writers-artists-intellectuals
not to be cowed down by the Fascists repression, by telling: "In the dark
times will there be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark
times".
Fascism plays
havoc with the truth. Brecht gave five-point programme to uphold the truth and
confront lies. "Nowadays, anyone who wishes to combat lies and ignorance
and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties. He must have
the courage to write the truth when truth is everywhere opposed; the keenness
to recognize it, although it is everywhere concealed; the skill to manipulate
it as a weapon; the judgment to select those in whose hands it will be
effective; and the running to spread the truth among such persons."
Charlie
Chaplin
Charles Spencer ‘Charlie’ Chaplin was born on April 16, 1889
in London. His childhood was fraught with hardship and poverty. Chaplin was
sent to a workhouse at the tender age of seven. At the age of 13, Chaplin began
his slow and arduous climb in the world of entertainment and not only became
one of the greatest entertainers of the silent movie era but also a great
an artist who confronted directly through his satires Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini,
anti-Semitism, and the Nazis. One of his productions, The Great Dictator had this long speech, written in lyrics and
delivered to perfection by Chaplin, that has surprisingly gone down in history
as one of the most inspiring and evocative orations against Racism and Fascism.
I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an
emperor.
That's not my business.
I don't want to rule or conquer anyone.
I should like to help everyone if possible.
Jew-Gentile (non-Jew) - Black Man, White.
We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.
We want to live by each other's happiness.
Not by each other's misery.
We don't want to hate and despise one another.
And this world has room for everyone, and the good Earth is rich can provide
for everyone.
The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate…stepped us
into misery and bloodshed.
We think too much, and feel too little.
More than machinery, we need humanity.
More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.
Without these qualities, life will be violent, and all will be lost…
To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair.
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of
men who fear the way of human progress.
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the
people will return to the people.
And so long as men die, liberty will never perish. ....
You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make
this life a wonderful adventure.
Then - in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite.
Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to
work - that will give youth a future and old age a security.
By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power.
But they lie!
They do not fulfill that promise.
They never will!
Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people!
Now let us fight to fulfill that promise!
Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away
with greed, with hate and intolerance.
Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will
lead to all men's happiness.
Soldiers!
in the name of democracy, let us all unite
Martin
Niemöller
Martin
Niemöller was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian born in Lippstadt, Germany, in
1892. Niemöller was an anti-Communist and supported Adolf Hitler's rise to power
at first. But when Hitler started pogrom of cleansing Jews and working-class
turned against Nazism He became the leader of a group of German clergymen
opposed to Hitler. In 1937 he was arrested and eventually released only in 1945
by the Allies. An excerpt from
his long poem which remains one of the greatest anthems against Fascism.
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
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Gramsci is best known for his theory of cultural hegemony, which describes how the state and ruling capitalist class – the bourgeoisie
– use cultural institutions to maintain power in capitalist societies. The
bourgeoisie, in Gramsci's view, develops a hegemonic culture using ideology
rather than violence, economic force, or coercion. Hegemonic culture propagates
its own values and norms so that they become the "common sense"
values of all and thus maintain the status quo.
Hegemonic power is therefore used to maintain consent to the capitalist order,
rather than coercive power using force to maintain order. This cultural
hegemony is produced and reproduced by the dominant class through the
institutions that form the superstructure.
He argued that capitalist power needed to be
challenged by building a counter-hegemony. By the need to create a working-class
culture and a counter-hegemony
Gramsci meant for a kind of education that attempted to help students question
and challenge the beliefs and practices that were dominating. In other words, it
was a theory and practice of helping students achieve "critical
consciousness."
Those of us who are committed to challenging the
hegemony of the culture of the Fascism must learn from Gramsci. His message in
the note for the editorial staff of l'unita (The Unity, official Organ of the
Italian Communist Party which Gramsci was editing) at the time of the arrest
(November 8, 1928) is as relevant for us at it was for Italian comrades in
1928: "It is necessary to think and study even under the most difficult
conditions…to keep the risk of intellectual degradation at bay".
At the end, I would remind you of words of Comrade
Lenin who emphasized that cultural activists must have a grasp of politics of the
rulers as well as revolutionary politics. When asked to suggest, he
responded by saying:
"We must at all costs set out, first, to learn,
secondly, to learn, and thirdly, to learn, and then see to it that learning
shall not remain a dead letter or a fashionable catch-phrase (and we should
admit in all frankness that this happens very often with us), that learning
shall really become part of our very being, that it shall actually and fully
become a constituent element of our social life…In order that it may attain the
desired high level, we must follow the rule: 'Measure your cloth seven times
before you cut'"
Please learn from this magnificent heritage, do not
replicate it only, carry it forward with revolutionary creative innovations
added so that we are able to resist the current Hindutva fascist onslaught more
meaningfully. Let's hasten its demise, we can do it.
WE SHALL FIGHT, WE SHALL WIN!
Shamsul Islam
September 20, 2019
Link for some of S. Islam's writings in
English, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati
and video interviews/debates:
Facebook: shamsul
Twitter: @shamsforjustice
http://shamsforpeace.blogspot.com/
