Author Archives: Anvil

The Rajsamand Killing and What It Tells About the Indian Fascism

The Rajsamand killing is not one off incident. It can neither be brushed aside as an act of lunacy. A recent report has pointed out that there has been an unprecedented spike in hate-crimes, incidence of violence and terror acts especially against Muslims, over the last three and a half years since Bharatiya Janta Party and Narendra Modi assumed power in May 2014. The incidents of lynchings and violence in the name of the “cow-protection”, beef-eating, “Love Jihad”, “Ghas Wapasi” that has been unleashed since the coming to power of Hindutva Fascism must be viewed in a continuity.  Even as the aftermath of Rajsamand barbarity was still unfolding, other scenes of Fascist violence were on full display in yet another laboratory of communal Fascism, Madhya Pradesh. In Satna district, Bajrang dal goons attacked Catholics who were out singing Christmas carols and even set blaze a Catholic priest’s car. The police, instead of taking action and slapping relevant charges against the attackers, booked cases against the carol singers themselves!

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Fascism •

Caste Question, Marxism and the Political Legacy of B. R. Ambedkar

To answer the question ‘what is caste’ we must answer the question ‘how did varna/caste system originate?’ In my opinion, to understand caste system in its contemporaneity, it is essential to comprehend it historically. One of the main weaknesses of sociological studies of caste is their disdain for a historical view. This positivistic fetish to record the myriad contemporary particularities of caste prevents most of the sociological studies to arrive at a balanced historical understanding of caste system. read more

Caste Question •

Naxalbari and Subsequent Four Decades:  A Retrospection (Part-2)

The root cause of stagnation-disintegration of the movement was not the state repression, but its own ideological line (Left adventurism) and wrong understanding of the Indian program (program of New Democratic Revolution following the path of the Chinese Revolution). The state repression can push back a country’s revolutionary struggle for some time, but it cannot be the fundamental reason for the stagnation-disintegration that continues for more than four decades. With hindsight, this point can be easily made with complete certainty. read more

Communist-movement • National •