Reclaiming the Congress ideology is essential to beat Fascist forces

Ideology is the locomotive of any political movement. It is an action-oriented system of thought. Ideology has both theoretical and practical dimensions. It has a prominent role in setting the short term and long term agenda of political discourse. Andrew Heywood, political scientist, explains the practical importance of political ideologies in his book Political Ideologies (2017) as follows:

‘’In effect, ideology gives people a reason to believe in something larger than themselves because people’s personal narratives only make sense when they are situated within a broader historical narrative. A post-ideological age would be therefore be an age without hope, without vision... For this, if for no other reason, political ideology is destined to be a continuing and unending process.’’

Daniel Bell, American sociologist and professor at Harvard University, prophesied the denouement of political ideologies as the grand narratives in his 1960 book The End of Ideology. He argued that political ideology had become irrelevant among "sensible" people, and that the polity of the future would be driven by piecemeal technological accustoming of the existing political system.

In The End of History and the Last Man (1992), Francis Fukuyama argued that, following the ascendency of liberal democracy and the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, humanity has reached the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government. But ideological development is a never-ending evolutionary process. New ideologies like the Third Way and Post-Islamism are rising in the ideological firmament of the World. All these developments underline the fact that ideologies are relevant in the contemporary political discourse too.

The predominant political ideology in contemporary India is arguably Hindutva. Hindutva is the milder Indian version of Fascism and Nazism. The Indian Constitution is based on the Leftist ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. Whereas Hindutva, as Right wing ideology, is based on the principles of order, authority and hierarchy. Hindutva is, in this context, positioned diametrically opposite to the ideological stance of Indian Constitution. The Fascist elements like anti-rationalism, militarism, racial supremacy, cultural nationalism, elitism, patriarchy, ultra-nationalism, Übermensch leadership and crony capitalism are palpable in Hindutva.

The Fascist ideology of Hindutva should be successfully resisted only through resuscitating the dormant ideals of the Indian National Movement and the Constitution of India. As Indian National Congress played a vital role in the National Movement and the framing of the Constitution, the ideological premises of the both are common with ideology of the Indian National Congress. The Enlightenment ideals of democracy, constitutionalism, sanctity of individual liberty, gender and social equality, secularism and fraternity transcending the social barriers inspired the Indian National Movement. These ideals gained culmination through the enactment of the Constitution.

The doyens of the early phase of the Indian National Movement were inspired by the ideals of classical liberal thinkers. But the young leaders of the later phase like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose were more inclined towards Socialism. This group eventually crystallised into the Congress Socialist Party. Thus the Congress gained a syncretic ideology of Liberal and Socialist ideals. Such a confluence of Liberal and Socialist ideals is palpable in in the ideology called Social Democracy. So we can conclude that the ideological premises of the Congress are akin to Social Democracy.

Social democracy is a political, social and economic ideology that promotes economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal democratic polity and a capitalist economy. Social democracy originated as a political ideology that advocated for an evolutionary and peaceful transition from capitalism to socialism employing established democratic political processes in contrast to the revolutionary approach for transition propounded by orthodox Communism.

‘’The theoretical basis for Social Democracy has been provided more by moral or religious beliefs than scientific analysis. Social democracy have not accepted the materialistic and highly systematic ideas of Marx and Engels, but rather advanced an essentially moral critique of capitalism. In short, socialism is portrayed as morally superior to capitalism because human beings are ethical creatures, bound to one another by ties of love, sympathy and compassion.’’-says Andrew Heywood. In this aspect, Social Democracy is very proximate to Gandhism.

The AICC session held at Avadi on 10 January 1955 declared that a socialistic pattern of society was the goal of the Congress. Nehruvian Socialism has been the Indian incarnation of Social Democracy. The Nehru-Mahalanobis Model of economic development was a social democratic agenda. Indira Gandhi furthered this social democratic agenda through the bank nationalisation and the abolition of Privy Purse.

The edge that the Sangh Parivar wielding in contemporary Indian politics is that it has a solid ideology- even though it is highly divisive and reactionary. It provides the rank and file a clear direction and emotional bonding among themselves. The Sangh have successfully injected the Fascist poison into the each and every cell of the body politic. It has been made possible through its systematic drive spread across decades. The Sangh aims to reorganise the polity and society according to Brahmanical outlook.

The Sangh is many-headed Hydra. Among its outfits, Vidya Bharati, Deen Dayal Shodh Sansthan, Akhil Bharatiya Sahitya Parishad, Ekal Vidyalaya, Vijnana Bharati, Hindu Vivek Kendra, Vivekanand Kendra, India Policy Foundation, Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal, Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana, Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, Samskrita Bharati, Kreeda Bharati, Samskar Bharati etc. are focusing on educational, cultural and ideological domains. These outfits have played a significant role in infusing the Hindutva ideology into Indian psyche. The daily Shakhas spread the Hindutva ideology in every nook and corner of India. Meanwhile the Congress totally neglected the cultural and educational domains and failed to build up the infrastructure for propagation of its ideology.

The anti-dote to Fascism is the ideals of the National Movement and the Constitution. The Seva Dal should be revived and revamped to counter the RSS upsurge. Established on January 1, 1924, Dr N S Hardikar and Jawaharlal Nehru were the guiding lights of Seva Dal. The Dal faced initial opposition from Congressmen, who were opposed to the idea of floating a militia like organisation in the Congress as it being inconsistent with the ideal of nonviolence. During the Civil Disobedience Movement, the Seva Dal contributed for enrolling new members in the Congress, organising activities like picketing and in arming the party with a peaceful militia.

In the pre-independence phase, the Congress simultaneously acted as a social reform movement too. Indian Social Conference, founded by M.G. Ranade was the social reform cell of the Indian National Congress.The Conference met annually as a subsidiary convention of the Indian National Congress, at the same venue, and focused attention on social reform. But after the independence, Congress jettisoned the social reform agenda and dwindled into power-politics. The Congress should reclaim its character as a social movement and should turn to the Nehruvian ideals of humanism, progress and scientific temper for inspiration.

The only remedy for exorcising the deep rooted Fascist spirit from India’s body politic is to reinfuse the ideals of the Indian National Movement and the Indian Constitution. The burden naturally falls on the shoulders of the Congress. The parliamentary politics and election victories sans the ideological reclamation would be utterly futile. If the Congress fails to perform this historic duty, it would lose its relevance in Indian political arena. And the idea of secular-democratic India based on liberty, equality and fraternity would also beat its sad retreat.