What kind of democracy makes fascism possible?
Liberty and equality are fuzzy words as is the case with so many sociological terms and phrases. If we want to have a realistic understanding of the society around us, we need to ask what kind of actions a society makes possible or not possible for its people? What are the things we do and do not do (some of which illustrate our privilege)? What is it that we cannot do (some of which represent actions that are illegal and in other cases, one’s lack of privilege)? What sorts of actions are possible for some communities that are not possible (or made difficult) for others? Like how Sumeet Samos puts it in the context of Swara Bhaskar getting on the stage with Chandra Shekar Azad: “Can any Dalit-Bahujan person suddenly go and stand on a stage alone made by Thakur or Bhumihar mobilization on streets, in small towns or in villages, being the hero?”
While the Rao-Singh economic policies created several white-collar jobs in the service sector from1991, they also made it possible for corporations to grab forest land and for corporate-funded media houses to slug it out on TV for TRPs. In other words, their policies made it legally possible for the existence of Republic TV while the Modi government made Arnab’s vindictive crap morally acceptable for the public.
What is morally acceptable for some (while being reprehensible for another in the same society) can be expressed freely in public only if the law of the land gives it respectability. Untouchability, for instance, was the law of the land in India. By the way, even today this law is not confined to what is written in the constitution or in legal tomes — it is what gets practised by those in power.
Words are open to interpretation while practice is the real deal. The law of the land, as you would have noticed, makes it possible for the police to burn a rape victim’s body without allowing the family to do the last rites. It empowers a special investigation team to demand a narco test on the victim’s family while making no such demand on the accused. In fact, the books make it illegal to discriminate anyone on the basis of caste while practice by those in charge of the books makes it legally possible. The books make it legal for people to protest while those in charge of the books make it illegal.
Put another way, India’s democratic system makes fascism possible. Congress makes BJP possible.