The hopes of defeating fascism through electoral maneuvering have been dashed; the fascist juggernaut continues to roll on spilling ever more blood and rupturing the social fabric of the country. There is a sense of hopelessness and dismay among the Left and progressive circles in the wake of the return of Narendra Modi led NDA government at the helm. The setback has sent such a fiery shock wave that many have started blaming the masses while some are putting the entire blame on the EVM scam. Those who blame the masses for such a sorry state of affairs can only be asked to follow Brecht’s advice to dissolve the electorates and choose a new one. As regards the EVM scam, while it could have been responsible for the increase in the margin of victory, it alone cannot explain this second coming of Modi government. The question arises: is fascism still resistible? On the face of it, the fascist rise in India looks invincible. But if we keep our faith in science and history intact even in this testing time, we would know that in order to cure a disease, it is very important to diagnose it properly. The strategy of defeating fascism through electoral means was based on the understanding that fascism comes into existence when a fascist party like BJP comes to power and gets defeated if it goes out of power. This understanding was fundamentally flawed in the first place because it failed to take account the reactionary social movement behind the rise of fascism and no wonder the strategy has backfired. If we really want to resist fascism at this dark hour in the history of our country, it is of utmost importance that we seek answer to the following questions: what lies at the root of fascism? What are the factors that are responsible for the rise of fascism in any society? What is the similarity and dissimilarity between the fascist rise of the decade of 1930s and the current fascist rise? What should be the correct strategy of resisting fascism and smashing it?

The speaker, Anand Singh, will try to answer these questions and will also provide the contours of the new round of struggle that needs to be waged to smash fascism from both long term and short term perspectives.