Bringing the Armageddon Carl Schmitt and Surging Nationalism in South Asia (original) (raw)

With debates about the idea of nationalism raging in the country, Shamsul Islam’s book, Know the RSS, offers a look into that organisation's brand of nation-building, writes ZIYA US SALAM Certificates in nationalism are being distributed. Have you applied? To qualify, an aspirant must scream “Pakistan murdabad”. An additional qualification would be an ability to send anybody to Pakistan who does not adhere to “one language, one faith, one nation” ideology. An inability to conduct a civilised discourse shall not be a disqualification. Guess who is issuing certificates of nationalism? Lawyers who take pride in bashing up the accused on court premises. And a couple of BJP legislators: one of them having undertaken the mundane task of counting the number of used condoms, beer bottles, cigarettes, etc. in Jawaharlal Nehru University. The other is a Delhi legislator last seen manhandling an activist not matching his definition of nationalism or patriotism. He surely cannot make out one from the other. All these thoughts flitted through my mind over the past few days as, first the Rohit Vemula tragedy unfolded, then the JNU controversy erupted. Last week when I attended a march by authors, artists and academics in favour of the JNU students, I heard slogans that initially did not seem directly linked to the arrest of Kanhaiya or the disappearance of Umar Khalid. The students, asking for the release of Kanhaiya shouted, “Fasciwad murdabad” or “Fascism down, down”. Then the attention shifted to the police commissioner Bassi followed soon after by cries of “Sanghis, down, down”. Then there were noises of “Manuvad down down”. It seemed an all-encompassing cry. Besides expressing their angst at caste and class ridden society, the students seemed to be answering the charges of sedition, terrorism and anti-nationalism levelled against some of their college mates and friends. It was followed by a counter-march in which the right-wing activists agitated more vehemently, with a lawyer threatening to use a petrol bomb on Umar Khalid. It was sickening. And I wondered where do these guys draw their vitriol from? From where have they inherited that acute inability to see beyond prejudice? After all, be it the ABVP or the BJP, they all draw their ideological fuel from the RSS, the very body that for more than half a century refused to hoist the tricolour, the organisation that stood opposed to India being a “sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic”, and even now wants India to be a Hindu Rashtra. Around the same time I received Shamsul Islam’s thin but extremely well-researched book Know the RSS , published by Pharos Media. Based on RSS documents, the book — now into its seventh revised edition — cleared many a cobweb. My doubts about the “Fascism, down, down” slogans were answered at the beginning where Islam draws a neat parallel between Hitler and M.S. Golwalkar.