It is heartening to see people all over the United States of America marching in millions as the “inauguration of resistance” movement to oppose “inauguration of Trump” as the president of the USA. Mr. Trump is a minority president. He lost in the popular vote counts and trailed by 3 million behind his main contestant for the post. There is a major flaw in the election process in the USA due to the history of federalism and subsequent expansion of USA after the constitution of America was enacted. The President of the USA is elected indirectly by the Electoral College and the outcome of an election depends upon how the candidates in different states voted. The bigger states such as California thus have a very little say in electing the President of the USA. The states called “the battleground states” matter a lot. This is one of the biggest faults in the constitution of the states. Unlike Rajya Sabha (State’s Assembly) in India, the Senate gets 2 senators from each state irrespective of their population. This is also one of the contradictions to the true democracy. Why did not Indian march when Modi became the PM and USA citizen did against Trump?

Coming to India, India is also having a minority Prime Minister, Modi, by a popular count of the votes. The ruling party in India only got over 30 percent of the popular votes in 2014 elections. However, due India’s first-past-the-post system, the true mandate is not reflected in the final count. India is not having the proportionate system of representation which would have given the true representative democracy. Both the electoral systems of USA and India are faulty. The result is both Modi and Trump is minority representatives.

The outcomes and trajectories of the elections of both Modi and Trump can be compared. Both came to power by the same process and the same set of tactics. Let us look at them briefly.

Cultural Nationalism (Supremacy of one particular class “supreme” as the essence of nationalism)

Modi is known as his anti-Muslim stand. He presided over the genocide in Gujrat. The right wing ideology that he is born in and colored in is Brahmin nationalism, ironically called Hindu Nationalism. The Brahmin-Banias in India has historically benefitted because of the caste system. They can hardly get elected with the identity of Brahmins and Banias, hence they created identity called “Hindu”, and in order to solidify that identity, they needed “the other”, and that other is “the Islam”. So the recipe is clear, if you want to become “Hindu Hriday Samrat”, you have to hate Muslims. India is having over 20 percent of Muslims in its population composition. Similarly, though the USA is not having a significant percent of the Islamic population. The “bible belt” states in the USA need to be lured in the name of Christianity, not by the revolutionary quest and fight of a low-class carpenter, Jesus Christ, for human welfare, but by creating the medieval rhetoric of crusades, the fight between the Christians and Muslims. This is not to say that Muslims have not added to this. They did and they do. But, judging by the social justice movement and uprising in the Islamic world, there are undercurrents in Islamic countries that strive for human rights and social justice.

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The point that can be drawn from this very brief analysis is this: Modi and Trump trumpeted hate for Muslims. They need this to further their political-cultural nationalism.

Endangering the gender

RSS is a regressive organization that preaches patriarchy and subjugation of women. RSS drew its inspiration from Nazis and Nazis drew their inspiration from India’s caste system and theory of pure race. Like Nazis, the RSS advocates hatred for the “impure race”. In their scheme of society, Jews, blacks, gypsies, women, and the list can be extended to all so-called “No Aryan” races have no subordinary space. RSS also believes in “Aryanism” in line with the Nazis. In fact, the linguist term “Arya” was given a racial spin by the combined team of white racists and India’s Brahmins. Trump is a known sexist. RSS is sexist as well, and Modi was caught stalking a young lady. The women in the USA came out with “Women’s march” to fight sexism of Trump. RSS is pushing for its own version of women’s place in the society which is completely against their rights. Barring a few occasions, the women’s movement in India never came out in large numbers to oppose RSS backed sexism. Swati Chaturvedi’s “I am Troll” is much a feeble voice against Hindu fundamentalists trolling the liberals.

Hatred for Minorities

RSS is always opposed to the SC/ST and OBCs and often that hatred surfaces when they demand the abolition of India’s progressive social policy to include everyone in governance. The Klu Klux Klan (KKK) openly supported Trump. A new term is in currency now “Alt-Right” and KKK is alive and kicking. Indian ex-untouchables are lynched today as well.

The comparison can go on, but we have to stop and ponder over why the USA marched and India did not.

The USA is a diverse country. It is a country created by the people who migrated from all over the places. They effectively destroyed the many hundreds of republics of “Native Americans”. America became the first democracy in the world after the American Revolution by fighting their colonial cousin. The USA is diverse in the true sense of the word. There is no inherent unity in the USA except the act of law and the constitution of the United States. They do not have the history of many thousand years before they became a nation state. I

India is a diverse country as well. It is as, or perhaps more, diverse as the USA. But there is a unity in India. There is something that underpins everything in India. That which underpins everything in India is CASTE. The caste is the only common phenomena in India. India is diverse in terms of language, culture, religions, and regions, but anywhere you go, you find this monster. This is the reason India did not march. India cannot march.

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When Martin Luther King marched on Washington, many Jews, Whites, and women marched with him. When India’s discriminated and disadvantaged march, they march alone. The recent women marches in the USA were represented in many counts by the African American women. Indian upper caste women march will have a big problem with Mayawati, who is a symbol of revolt against the caste system and patriarchy.

The American media is diverse. The Indian media is a monopoly of the Brahmins and Banias. There is no representation from the SCs, STs, OBCs, and minorities in Indian media. It is the section of American media that keeps on opposing what goes against the constitution of the USA. Indian media is not only silent but promote frenzy hero worship. You can kill more than 100 people, you can give hardship to millions, you can do whatever, and walk away saying that it was nationalism and media will not write a single word of dissent. India, therefore, did not see the march.

India till today has not seen any march against caste system of people coming from all castes. India’s disadvantaged citizens have been fighting to establish democracy and rule of law with their minimum resources. Their battle is truly democratic and for social justice and for the liberation of women. How many upper castes have ever sacrificed anything for breaking caste barriers? None.

The only genuine love of the country will be the genuine hate for the caste. So long as people love their caste, they cannot love their country. Therefore, Hindu nationalism is an act of treason against the country. And despite that treason, the traitors are walking freely as the greatest nationalists. The march is a must for the future of democracy. The march is led by India’s discriminated and that march must be joined by all from all over who loves humanity and human rights!

Author – Mangesh Dhaiwale, Human Rights Activist