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Narendra Modi’s fascism will complicate India’s place and power in a larger BRICS formation

Imraan Buccus
By Imraan Buccus
21 Aug 2023
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BRICS would certainly be strengthened if countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia joined — but it’s hard to see how this wouldn’t destabilise the project given the inevitable tensions with the Hindu fascist regime in Delhi.

BRICS is a complicated beast. On one hand, it offers the first real possibility for building a multipolar world since the Bandung Conference of 1955. Breaking the Western stranglehold on the global economy, the reliance on the US dollar for global trade and the capacity of the US and its Western allies to bomb, invade and sanction countries at will would be a major step forward for the Global South.

Read more in Daly Maverick: The BRICS Summit in Johannesburg — everything you need to know

But, at the same time, a good number of the current BRICS members, along with potential new members such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, are authoritarian states.

The BRICS summit has seen oodles of controversy. Many white commentators in South Africa are hostile to the project, and such sentiment exploded when it seemed that Vladimir Putin might attend, despite the International Criminal Court warrant for his arrest. We were treated to the ridiculous spectacle of the DA threatening to arrest the head of a foreign state.

But the deeper issue at play is that the US is losing its global power and sees Russia and China as its key rivals. There is also potential rivalry from Brazil as Lula da Silva works to rebuild Latin American solidarity and autonomy. But while the US has a long history of backing coups against left-wing governments in Latin America, its current geopolitical strategy sees Russia and China as its key enemies.

Oppression in India


India is a very different kettle of fish. It has long been an ally of the West, so the fact that it is now an authoritarian country is seldom raised by pro-Western media and commentators. While India is a close ally of the US, and Israel, it also has ambitions for its own global power. It does not wish to be a client state of the US like Rwanda or Kenya.

India’s ambitions mean that it is attracted to the idea of asserting its power within BRICS and the rising Global South. It is going to be interesting to see how India balances its competition with China and relations with Russia and the US while being part of the BRICS project.

Read more in Daily Maverick: India not opposed to BRICS expansion — if the criteria for membership are ‘clearly defined’

Once referred to as “the world’s largest democracy”, India is a growing economic and political power. However, under Narendra Modi and the wider Hindu fascist project, it has rapidly transitioned from a secular state to a Hindu extremist state.

Today’s India is highly Islamophobic and openly bent on erasing its Muslim heritage. Muslims are now de jure rather than de facto citizens, and Christians, Sikhs and other religious minorities also face rising discrimination. In the words of internationally acclaimed Indian author Arundhati Roy, “you are seeing … a sort of fragile flawed democracy transitioning pretty openly, pretty brazenly, into a criminal Hindu fascist enterprise”.

Recent events in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, where India is forcibly injecting Hindus into Muslims’ lands, and in the state of Manipur, where Christians are being killed and churches burnt by Hindu extremists, have escalated the already very dangerous situation for minorities in India.

On the eve of Modi’s visit to France last month, the European Parliament passed a strongly worded resolution against fascism in India. MEP Pierre Larrouturou said: “In Manipur, for the past two months, we have seen monstrous violence. Over 120 people died, 1,700 homes have been devastated. 250 churches have been destroyed, 40,000 people have fled for their lives.

“Manipur is no exception. In Kashmir, the situation is even worse: torture, disappearances, arbitrary detentions.”

He added that, in the West, “Modi presents himself as the heir to Mahatma Gandhi, the great soul. But in reality, in India, there are millions of Christians and millions of Muslims who suffer every day. The government doesn’t respect fundamental rights and puts forward a Hindu nationalist discourse that is absolutely scandalous, alongside an unbearable use of law enforcement.”

A good number of the countries that are keen to join BRICS are Muslim-majority countries. While the West relentlessly drums up opposition to Russia and China for these countries the real antagonist within the Global South will be India. How this will play out is not clear, but it’s difficult to imagine any Muslim-majority country ceding any sort of leadership to India.

BRICS would certainly be strengthened if countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia joined, but it’s hard to see how this wouldn’t destabilise the project given the inevitable tensions with the Hindu fascist regime in Delhi.

India will not abandon its commitment to Hindu supremacism for as long as Modi and the BJP are in power. An expanded BRICS will be fraught terrain for India. Will the country try to navigate that complexity? Or will it realise that it will have to stay allied to the US and Israel, and give up its aspirations for leadership in the Global South? DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R29. DM168 is available for sale at all retail stores from Saturday, 19 August.

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