Nazism and Hindunazism: a comparison

A few days ago I wrote a blog post in which I referred to the Hindu fascist right as “Hindunazis”; apparently some people have been, for some reason, confused by the term and want explanations. So here is the explanation.

I thought a great deal before I labelled them “Nazis”. Other terms describe them partially, but nothing so absolutely as Hindunazis, because of the many similarities between the two. Consider these:

The Nazis considered the Aryans to be a superior Master Race. The Hindunazis, who consider themselves Aryans, think themselves to be a superior Master Race.

The Nazis identified a national “enemy” – the Jews – and proceeded to block them from public life and confine them to ghettoes, imposed economic blockades on them and began anti-Jewish pogroms on the flimsiest excuses (until they began the mass deportations and the death camps). The Hindunazis identified a national enemy – the Muslims and secondarily the Christians – have imposed in at least one state (Gujarat) which they control completely, an economic blockade on the Muslims, pushed them into ghettoes after a pogrom, and are actively trying to marginalise Christians and Muslims in areas wherever they have a substantial presence.

Despite “socialist” rhetoric, the Nazis were extremely pro-business, crushed trade unions, and clamped down on all left-wing activity. The Hindunazis are openly the party of the business class, have crushed the trade unions wherever they were in a position of power, and oppose any form of even the mildest egalitarian activity.

The Nazis were militaristic, worshipped war as the first option, and tried to infiltrate the military services with their ideology, as well as setting up armed militias on the side. The Hindunazis are militaristic, worship war as the first option, and have their own armed militias as well as attempts at infiltration of the defence services.

The Nazis said the Germans should breed prolifically in order to produce soldiers for the nation and also to outbreed competing races. The Hindunazis say Hindus should breed in large numbers (the RSS declared a few years ago that each Hindu couple had a duty to produce not less than seven children) to outbreed other religions and to produce soldiers for the nation.

The Nazis perverted history, deliberately confused mythology with fact, and promoted astrology until they began to confuse fact with fiction and lost all touch with reality. The Hindunazis promote theological legends as historical fact, deliberately rewrite history, promote astrology (which they made into a university subject during their period in power), and have repeatedly demonstrated that they have almost no link with reality anymore.

The Nazis wanted Lebensraum – the idea of a Greater Germany – in the East at the cost of the Slavic nations, and followed policies that made war inevitable in the long run. The Hindunazis at least pretend to the people of India that they want to expand the nation’s borders to the West, up to, and beyond, the River Indus in Pakistan.

The Nazis tried to revive Nordic mysticism and tried to use it to explain away their crimes. The Hindunazis tried to revive Vedic mysticism and if they had succeeded (as they still might) would have used it as an excuse to explain away their crimes.

The Nazis loved the idea of Empire, were enamoured of the dominant imperialistic power of the time, Britain, and went to war against that country with extreme reluctance. The Hindunazis love the idea of Empire, and have been cravenly appeasing to the dominant imperialistic power of today, the United States of America, and the dominant imperialistic proxy of that power in Asia, the Zionazi pseudostate of “Israel”.

The Nazis were excellent rabble-rousers but highly incompetent rulers except when they kept rabble-rousing and used fear as a tool to perpetuate their rule. The Hindunazis are  excellent rabble-rousers, but proved extremely incompetent rulers and where they have managed to hang on to power they have used fear as a tool to do so.

The Nazi government wasn’t a government so much as a court with various ministries and bureaucracies competing for power and not afraid to sabotage the common effort to do so. The Hindunazis, as their very public meltdown demonstrates, are a court with competing factions busily stabbing each other in the back.

The Nazis said the Germans were a single people, a Volk (which really translates more accurately to “tribe” than “people”). The Hindunazis claim that Hindus are a single people and should therefore all eat the same food, dress the same way, worship the same gods, and speak the same language, despite the fact that India is probably the world’s most heterogenous nation.

The Nazis had their Bible, Hiter’s Mein Kampf. The Hindunazis have their Bible, the former RSS chief MS Golwalkar’s Bunch of Thoughts. In both cases what’s written there, however idiotic, is sacrosanct.

There are many other similarities, including the use of the swastika as a symbol, the notion of a nation with “eternal frontiers” that must be preserved at all costs, and the like; but these aren’t as important as those I’ve already listed.

Of course there are differences: the Hindunazis (with the single exception of the Hindunazi party from Bombay, the Shiv Sena), unlike the Nazis, don’t follow a single Führer, but prefer instead to follow a succession of venerable dodderers who lead the RSS and its affiliates, and have been nowhere near as successful as the Nazis at taking control – in part because India is such a diverse nation ethnically and religiously and because Hinduism is by nature an amorphous religion which means many different things to many different people. But the similarities outweigh the differences so thoroughly that I don’t see what other term can actually be applied to these people and still convey the full sense of what they are.

I hope that explains it.