Tanmoy Ibrahim, Author at People's Review

Insight into West Bengal’s mysterious “left” vote transfer to the BJP

The ailing CPI(M)-led phoney left never had a captive vote bank. What’s hyped as a left’s swing to the BJP is the anti-TMC votes going to the BJP.

Tue, May 28 2019Tue, May 28 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics

Modi 2.0: The Hindu Rashtra and the scripted rise of the emperor

The rise of Modi isn’t just Modi’s or Amit Shah’s credit, rather this victory’s credit should go to the RSS, which is implementing its Hindu Rashtra scheme.

Mon, May 27 2019Mon, May 27 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Opinion

Vidyasagar’s statue demolition: The Naxal vs Hindutva fascist dichotomy

It’s imperative to do a comparative analysis of BJP’s smashing of Vidyasagar’s statue vis-a-vis the demolition of statues by the CPI(M-L) workers in 1970.

Sat, May 18 2019Sat, May 18 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Opinion

Amit Shah’s Kolkata riot instigation is Hindutva fascism’s naked aggression on Bengali identity and heritage

Amit Shah’s thugs didn’t just smash Vidyasagar’s statue, vandalised a college and rioted, they, the Hindutva fascists dared Bengal and Bengalis in Kolkata.

Wed, May 15 2019Wed, May 15 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics

Clouds, radar, digital camera and email: Modi’s lies are not ridiculous but perilous for India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lies on clouds, digital camera, email aren’t merely ridiculous, such a liar PM pose a threat to national security and society.

Wed, May 15 2019Wed, May 15 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics

Modi's silence on demonetisation during the 2019 Lok Sabha election is deafening.

Why Modi remained mum on demonetisation during 2019 Lok Sabha election?

As the Lok Sabha election reached its last stage, the vitriol spread by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his colleagues reached the peak. Apart from bashing the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and […]

Sun, May 12 2019Sun, May 12 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics

Sanjay Gandhi: The tyrant of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty whom Modi loves to forget

Despite attacking the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty on each occasion why does Modi remains quiet on Sanjay Gandhi, the tyrant who ruled India during emergency?

Mon, May 06 2019Mon, May 06 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Opinion

Tej Bahadur Yadav’s nomination rejection is a sign of insecure Modi’s soldier-phobia

By having Tej Bahadur Yadav’s nomination rejected by his servile Election Commission, Narendra Modi proved his soldier-phobia and insecure mentality.

Sun, May 05 2019Sun, May 05 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics

Why BJP’s Babul Supriyo has an edge on the TMC in Asansol?

Though the BJP’s strength is less than the ruling TMC’s in Asansol, Babul Supriyo is confident of retaining the seat thanks to the communal polarisation.

Fri, May 03 2019Fri, May 03 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics

Modi's #MainBhiChowkidar campaign is a farce

Why brand Modi enjoys the halo of invincibility?

What makes Modi confident of a victory? No, it’s none of his achievements rather a carefully designed perception-building exercise that’s yielding returns

Tue, Apr 30 2019Tue, Apr 30 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Opinion

What lies behind prime minister winning Russsia's highest shield.

Inside Russia’s highest civilian award to Modi lies corruption and cronyism

Since Russia officially declared that it’s bestowing upon Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi its highest civilian award — Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle the First-Called — for playing a […]

Sun, Apr 28 2019Sun, Apr 28 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics

Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka is an attempt to wreck communal harmony before elections

The Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka exposed the dirty plot to divide the people on the basis of religion before the forthcoming election in the country.

Wed, Apr 24 2019Wed, Apr 24 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Foreign Affairs

Sadhvi Pragya Thakur is BJP’s grotesque face behind the development veil

By selecting Sadhvi Pragya Thakur as its candidate, the BJP signalled that the development plank is past and only Hindutva will be its 2019 election weapon.

Sun, Apr 21 2019Sun, Apr 21 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics

Ramnavami celebration in West Bengal has become a political rallying point for the BJP

Time to resist the RSS and BJP’s effort to communally polarise West Bengal using Ram Navami as their vessel

Each year the RSS and BJP takes one step ahead in their heinous agenda of communally polarising West Bengal using armed rallies of Ram Navami as a vessel.

Sat, Apr 13 2019Sat, Apr 13 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics

Advani's jibe at Modi and Shah not worthy of sympathy

You reap what you sow: Advani’s jibe at Modi-Shah doesn’t worth an iota of sympathy

LK Advani’s recent jibe at Modi and Shah over BJP’s assault on democracy and democratic traditions doesn’t worth an iota of support from the opposition.

Tue, Apr 09 2019Tue, Apr 09 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics

Rahul Gandhi's decision to fight elections in Kerala's Wayanad a tight slap for the CPI(M)-led Left

Rahul Gandhi’s battle against CPI(M) in Wayanad mocks the phoney left’s Congress fetish

Rahul Gandhi’s decision to contest the Lok Sabha election from Kerala’s Wayanad mocks the CPI(M)-led phoney left’s Congress fetish & alliance aspiration.

Tue, Apr 09 2019Tue, Apr 09 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Opinion

BSNL crisis aggravated by Modi's patronage to Reliance Jio

BSNL can be saved only by employees’ uncompromising struggle against Modi’s corporate appeasement policy

By promoting Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, the Modi regime is signalling an end to BSNL and MTNL. Their employees to fight back and thwart this conspiracy.

Tue, Apr 09 2019Tue, Apr 09 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Economy

The world has been mourning the white-supremacist fascist terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand’s Christchurch on 15 March 2019, where 50 Muslims were killed when they were offering their Friday congregational prayer. However, unsurprisingly, the RSS-led Indian Hindutva fascist terrorist camp celebrated the incident with much fanfare, like the western white-supremacists and the Zionist terrorists. Many of the prominent Hindutva fascism supporters, rabble-rousers and social-media influencers, who support the incumbent Narendra Modi-led BJP government, shamelessly defended the terrorist attack on the Muslims by vilifying the community as a harbinger of terrorism and violence. Banned by the micro-blogging site Twitter for hate speech earlier, a certain advocate was found featuring in a video shared by Hindutva thugs, in which he tried to legitimise the Christchurch terror attack and build up support for the white-supremacist fascist terrorism that’s blistering at an epidemic proportion throughout Europe, North America and Australia. Many other Hindutva flag bearers were found lambasting the Muslim community for purportedly waging a “jihad” against the non-Muslim world by citing western propaganda and justified the terror strike as a method to resolve the problem. These type of propaganda became viral on social media platform Facebook as well. Though these platforms worked swiftly to delete the video of the terrorist attack, nothing was done to curb hate speech and profanity that was spewed by the Indian Hindutva fascist terrorists on social media. No action was taken by the Indian government’s security agency against these communal vitriol mongers and terrorism supporters, though it’s claimed that India has “zero tolerance policy against terrorism”. What stopped the government machinery from taking action against the culprits if not an open pact with them? This display of unapologetic hatred against Muslims isn’t an isolated incident or a deed of few fringe elements, rather, as an institution, the Indian government and the state machinery endorse the jaundiced views of these Hindutva fascist terrorists. As these narratives go quite well with the ruling party’s political line and its poll propaganda, therefore, the state machinery unapologetically stood behind those who openly expressed their support for a terrorist killing Muslims in New Zealand. Prime minister Modi wrote a letter of condolence to the New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, calling the attack an “act of terrorism” and expressed his grief. This was an official letter and was written following due protocols as the head of the government. However, as Modi has turned social media, especially Twitter, into his default press release publisher, it was expected that apart from a letter to his Kiwi counterpart, the prime minister would at least tweet a few lines condemning the terrorist act by using the same cliche that he reiterates whenever the menace of terrorism strikes anywhere in the world. Alas! Such a tweet became a lacuna in the prime minister’s daily communication, despite reports of seven to nine Indian citizens being killed in the terrorist attack. The prime minister disappointed those who expected such a condemnation of white-supremacist terrorism from someone like him when the elections are less than a month away and the support of the hardcore Hindutva fascist elements and ruling classes is quite essential for the BJP to retain its dominance over India. Not a single word of condemnation of the terrorist attack on Christchurch came from Modi; even his government didn’t take any action against those who have been justifying the barbaric crime on social media and internet. The BJP or the RSS didn’t say what actions it will take against those who have been celebrating the New Zealand terror attack. This nonchalant attitude isn’t quite surprising to any non-liberal sane mind that’s aware of the intricacies of Indian politics. What keeps Modi silent on the issue of such a terror attack that has killed people of his own country? Why Modi and the Hindutva fascist camp have not condemned the Christchurch terror attack? Why are the Hindutva fascists celebrating a white-supremacist terror attack, when the killer’s manifesto names Indians as one of the major threats to European civilisation apart from Chinese and Turks? How can someone celebrate the killing of their own by a foreign terrorist? The answer to these questions lies in the toxic political ideology of Hindutva fascism and its severe effect on the minds of the Hindutva indoctrinated terror-mongers. To understand the complicity between the white-supremacist fascism and Hindutva fascism, one needs to delve deep into the history of fascism globally and its influence on India. The Hindutva fascism isn’t a monolithic block that can be defined by citing the example of the Modi regime or its parental body — the RSS — which is called the fountainhead of Hindutva fascism. It’s a fascist ideology, that’s a collaborative project in which each has provided according to their own to put up a large canvas, saffron and grotesquely reactionary. The Hindu, Hindu Nationalism and Hindutva Fascism Like evolution of species, before the multitude of Hindutva fascist organisations following a rickety narrative came into existence, the religion named “Hindu” was formed by the British colonial rulers when they started enacting laws according to religious customs of all major sects and communities in India. The British colonial rulers’ categorisation of the Hindu religion, absolving all non-Abrahamic faiths in it, including different religions like Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism and the pagan tribes, was driven by the Brahminical upper-caste feudal landlords and comprador capitalists’ aspiration to remain in the “majority community” despite being numerically inferior vis-a-vis the Bahujans, ie the ostracised Dalits, the lower-caste shudras, the tribal people, Muslims, Christians and followers of other non-Brahminical religions. To hold the compartmentalised caste blocks together and promote the interests of the comprador upper-caste Hindu capitalists, it became necessary to carry out some reformation of the religion. Thus, from the Arya Samaj movement to Vivekananda’s Hindu arousal movement, all started under the aegis of British imperialism. A peculiar character of the Indian comprador bourgeoisie, who were born out of the colonial womb, has been their liberalism regarding economy while adhering to strict feudal conservatism in the spheres of politics, society, etc. Both Hindu and Muslim social-reformers of the 19th century, portrayed as the “pioneers of Indian renaissance” by the Indian rulers so far, have been socially conservative. Yet, those among them who opposed some social evils like sati system or advocated women’s education, like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, had to face strong vitriol from the conservative ruling blocs, despite having the patronage of the colonial rulers. It was at the beginning of the 20th century, when a popular movement started in the Bengal province against the evil design of the British imperialism to divide the province into two parts with a divisive communal agenda, that the need to distract and deviate any nationalist outrage was felt by the British rulers. The upper-caste Bengali Bhadralok community began a massive movement in the urban areas, burning British commodities, and many taking to militant revolutionary struggle by assassinating British government staffs to oppose the colonial hegemony. The frightened British imperialists first tried to suppress the movement by unleashing state violence, failing which they tried to ensure that the Muslims are segregated from the Hindus, who were at the forefront waging the struggle, by forming the Muslim League in 1906. With the formation of the Muslim League it became easy for the British colonial rulers to spew communal hatred among the people and incite riots. The Muslim League adopted the Two Nation Theory propounded by Sir Khan in the 19th century, which gave an opportunity to the British imperialism to vilify the Muslims as enemies of Hindus and thereby paved the way for the Hindu Mahasabha, founded in 1915 by turncoat revolutionary VD Savarkar, along with Hindu comprador bourgeoisie like Madan Mohan Malviya and Lala Lajpat Rai, a disgruntled Congress leader. The Hindu Mahasabha laid the foundation of the Hindutva fascism at least a decade before the formation of the RSS and had been a major political force in India until the 1960s, when it was finally cast into oblivion by the RSS’s rise. VD Savarkar coined the term — Hindutva — by mixing Hindu identity with the nationality of an Indian nation, which has been since depicted as a goddess. Bengali upper-caste bureaucrat-turned-author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay’s fictitious work Anandamath, which played a crucial part in arousing the anti-colonial nationalist fervour among petty-bourgeois revolutionaries, was used by Hindu Mahasabha to build up its version of nationalism. The Hindu nationalist idea, which earlier played a progressive role in arousing the Bhadralok community against foreign oppression, became a reactionary weapon under the Hindutva fanatics, who — as stooges of British imperialism — used the occasion to deprive it of any revolutionary and anti-colonial essence. The Hindu nationalism used fictitious claims from the Anandamath and other sources to depict the narrative of a glorious Hindu past of an Akhand Bharat, a land from where the Aryans, claimed to be the superior race, originated and spread all over the world. It was claimed that the real enemies of the Hindu nation was the Muslims and Christians, who have stolen the wealth and glory of the Hindus. It called for a revival of the Hindu culture and restoration of a Hindu state founded on Brahminical hegemony. A Hindu goddess Bharat Mata, narrated in Anandamath and earlier revered by revolutionary militants, was turned into a cult for Hindu nationalists and Vande Mataram, a song in the fiction, became the war cry, with even the Congress using it as its slogan. Following the international fascism’s trait in later years, the Bharat Mata, a vulnerable woman and mother, was shown under threat from the “other” — ie the Muslims, Christians and those who are secular. The threat quotient was intensified to spread the xenophobia, which is still continuing, and the Hindu “sons” of the vulnerable Bharat Mata are called upon, even now, to save her honour from the Muslims, Christians and other enemies. The concept of Bharat Mata, plagiarised from Chattopadhyay’s Anandamath, is used in a sheer patriarchal way to show women as weak, vulnerable and in need of masculine protection. This patriarchal and feudal masculinity, quintessential of the Hindutva’s Hindu, has been an aspiration for generations of Hindutva fanatics across different organisations to become feral and boisterous. However, though the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League were quite well splitting the Indian people on religious lines to weaken the anti-colonial struggle, the 1917 November Revolution in Russia and the growth of Bolshevik revolutionary theory, which started weaning a large number of youth, frightened the British imperialism, which took up the task of building a militant organisation to thwart the menace of communism and foment communal trouble. To serve this goal, the British colonial rule and its infamous Intelligence Bureau (IB) formed the RSS with turncoat nationalists from Brahminical castes at its helm in 1925. Since then, in the last 94 years, the organisation have been a crucial support system for colonial and neo-colonial rule in India. One of the major differences between the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, despite their similarities in many other things, has been the RSS’s strategy of building a movement from the grassroots calling for a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation) and the Hindu Mahasabha’s frantic attempt to replace the Congress and become the political alternative for the upper-caste Hindu feudal landlords and comprador capitalists of colonised India. Other differences were over leadership, strategy and tactics of the two organisations. While the Hindu Mahasabha unapologetically spilled the beans and shared its political vision of getting a share of state power from the British imperialism, the RSS wanted to work from the backstage and use different offshoot political outfits for ventriloquism in the political sphere.

Part III: Understanding Hindutva fascism’s support for white-supremacist fascism

The final part of the three-series long understanding of the dirty nexus between Hindutva fascism and white supremacist fascist terror of the west.

Mon, Mar 25 2019Mon, Mar 25 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics

Part II: Understanding Hindutva fascism’s support for white-supremacist fascism

Part 2 of the special series, we will delve into the historic growth of Indian fascism — the Hindutva fascism — and its ties with global fascist movement.

Fri, Mar 22 2019Sat, Mar 23 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics

Understanding Hindutva fascism’s support for white-supremacist fascism

In this special series, we will delve into the historic growth of Indian fascism — the Hindutva fascism — and its ties with global fascist movement with which it shares […]

Thu, Mar 21 2019Thu, Mar 21 2019 Tanmoy Ibrahim Politics