Understanding Fascism: Writings on Caste, Class and the State

The articles are responses at a point in time, but why the book is important is because they are relevant even now. They are about the arduous task of building democracy and charting the contours of the justice system, in its everyday guise as well as when it sets out to make and implement policies. Authoritarianism, Balagopal points out, lies immanent in the dominance of the ‘national’ project by the hegemonic classes and castes. The elites have deliberately sought to work this as well as regional contradictions to their advantage. They do this by building a repository of social contempt and negativity against shifting targets - religious minorities, workers, civil rights activists, political dissenters, dalits and adivasis movements, and protesting women.