Viewing Hinduism

ADDED 11/21/2020

India aims to dilute Muslim majority in Kashmir with Hindu settlers

FROM 11/21/2020 | Global Village Space

BY Hidayat Nasar

“Time really is on our side to expose the fascist and violent face and mindset of Modi and his party to the world. Muslims in India need to unite and start a non-violent movement against the barbarian and inhumane policies of Modi”, writes author. Hailing from a hardline Indian nationalist and conservative group (RSS), Narendra […]

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ADDED 04/21/2019

Democracy is decaying around the world, one law at a time

FROM 04/07/2019 | Scroll.IN

BY Chrystie Flournoy Swiney

From India to Poland to America, even historically strong democracies are passing legislation that makes it harder and riskier to engage in peaceful protests. Democracy seemed ascendant after the rivalry between communist and democratic states subsided in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. As elected governments replaced many toppled totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, the […]

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ADDED 03/30/2019

Hindutva And Fascist White Nationalism: A Match Made in Hell

FROM 03/19/2019 | Eurasia Future

BY Adam Garrie

In 2011, the fascist Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik detonated a bomb in central Oslo before travelling to Utøya island where he opened fire on children on a camping holiday. Overall, Breivik murdered 77 people whilst he injured over 300. While Breivik has been behind bars since committing the atrocities of 2011, his name has […]

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ADDED 03/30/2019

A Real-Life Game of Risk: Why Civilizationism Is Biggest Threat to Human Rights in the 21st Century

FROM 03/27/2019 | MInt Press

BY Dr. James M. Dorsey

Many have framed the battle lines in the geopolitics of the emerging new world order as the 21st century’s Great Game. It’s a game that aims to shape the creation of a new Eurasia-centred world, built on the likely fusion of Europe and Asia into what former Portuguese Europe minister Bruno Macaes calls a “supercontinent.” […]

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ADDED 02/04/2019

India’s Digital Path: Leaning Democratic or Authoritarian?

FROM 02/04/2019 | Just Security

BY Justin Sherman

Digital authoritarianism, defined broadly as wielding technology to enhance or enable authoritarian governance, is spreading around the world. While the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Democracy Index found that, on a global level, “democracy stopped declining in 2018” for the first time in three years, the researchers cautioned that it may be merely a “pause.” In 2019, the […]

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ADDED 01/10/2019

Secular democracy in peril

FROM 01/04/2019 | The Hindu

BY Mohammed Ayoob

India is literally at the crossroads with the very future of its secular democracy at stake. With five important State Assembly elections in various stages of completion and the general election around the corner, the political temperature is at boiling point. Competitive Hindutva has become the name of the game, with the ostensibly secular Congress party trying […]

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ADDED 12/29/2018

Rising populism threatens LGBTQ in West and around the world

FROM  | Globe and Mail

BY JOHN IBBITSON

In Poland two months ago, more than 200 schools planning to hold a “Rainbow Friday” to promote tolerance for sexual minorities had to cancel the event, under orders from the increasingly authoritarian government’s Minister of Education. In the United States, as part of the Trump administration’s attack on transgender rights, the Department of Health and […]

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ADDED 11/26/2018

This Is How We Radicalized The World

FROM  | BuzzFeed

BY Ryan Broderick

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — From the balcony of BuzzFeed’s São Paulo office right now, you can hear screams of “Ele Não” echoing through the city’s winding avenues. It’s the same phrase I’ve seen graffitied all over the city this month. The same one I heard chanted from restaurants and bars all afternoon. It means “not […]

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ADDED 10/29/2018

The Common Thread That Unites Brazil and Global Resurgence of the Radical Right

FROM 10/29/2018 | Mint Press

BY Rob Urie

With Jair Bolsonaro’s electoral victory in Sunday’s runoff election for president of Brazil, a global resurgence of the radical right is indisputable. Mr. Bolsonaro is a particularly ugly representative of this movement, both politically repressive and culturally intolerant. The question being asked in the bourgeois press is: what psychological malady is taking hold that could […]

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ADDED 10/09/2018

The Left and Opposition Unity: How Fascism Can Be Defeated in 2019

FROM 10/09/2018 | The Wire

BY Prabhat Patnaik

The real obstacle to understanding, or even recognising, contemporary fascism is alas, the memory of the 1930s. The fact that we have fascists in power in India, at the helm of a liberal bourgeois state, is indubitable: their organisation, the RSS, to which they belong and swear by, has made no secret of its admiration […]

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ADDED 10/04/2018

Kolkata’s Queer Walk ‘Down With Fascism’: Where Celebration Meets Dissent

FROM 10/04/2018 | Feminism in India

BY FII

“লড়াই, লড়াই, লড়াই চাই/ লড়াই করে বাঁচতে চাই” Let us fight for our rights and live our life. You do not get to hear such slogans on the streets of my city very often. You do not get to see the entire city street getting decked up to celebrate something which millions have longed for years. You do not get to […]

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Defining Fascist, Illiberal and Authoritarian

In our global slide toward despotic unaccountability, three words act as the primary signifiers of the changes in governing and political norms at work around the globe. The words are fascist, illiberal and authoritarian.

Let’s take a look at the dictionary definition of each.

Fascist: A political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

Illiberal: Opposed to liberal principles; restricting freedom of thought or behavior.

Authoritarian: Favouring or enforcing strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom. Showing a lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others; dictatorial.

Whether we’re talking about Donald Trump, Viktor Orban, Jair Bolsonaro, Benjamin Netanyahu, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin or Daniel Ortega you see aspects of each these dangerous modes of social control being normalized and, in many instances, enacted through executive or legislative means.

While it is natural to be most alarmed by the rise of neo-fascist political parties in Italy, Germany, Poland, Sweden, France, and the UK, perhaps a more dangerous trend is the emerging religious authoritarianism infecting Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Buddhism. In India, Modi’s BJP has actively encouraged ethnic cleansing campaigns by Hindus against Muslims in northern states. In Israel, Netanyahu successfully passed a new law elevating the citizenship rights of Jewish Israelis over those of Muslims. In Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi has given tacit approval to Buddhist death squads attacking Muslim Rohingya villages. Across the Middle East, leaders leverage the Sunni/Shia divide to redraw national boundaries resulting in the refugee crisis in Europe. In the United States, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are rushing the decisive Christianist candidate onto the nation’s Supreme Court. In Brazil, the leading candidate in October’s presidential election is an open supporter of military dictatorship is supported by 90% of white Catholic and Evangelical voters.

Any of these political-religious movements could result in illiberal, authoritarian or fascist governing regimes. Adding the accelerant of religious dogma any of these are much more likely to spread across national boundaries and endanger regional or even global peace.