Comparisons between the Sangh Parivar and interwar European fascisms are inescapable. The founders of the Sangh were inspired by, and emulated and adapted, those fascisms (Casolari 2000). The Parivar’s proliferating role in Indian politics also periodically suggested the comparison, whether to politicians such as Indira Gandhi in the 1970s or to intellectuals after the demolition of the Babri Mosque (Sarkar in the volume being reviewed; Ahmad 1993; Basu et al 1993). Other scholars have questioned the relevance of the comparison (Vanaik 1994; Jaffrelot1993), though not very successfully (Desai 2016). While political parties have often engaged in similar political tactics—let us confine ourselves to Sanjay Gandhi’s Youth Congress and the1984 massacre of Sikhs or the Shiv Sena’s long record of union and basti-busting—no party’s activities have so systematically elicited comparisons with fascism as those of the party of Hindutva.
