The ideology of India’s corporate-financial oligarchy—A note

Abstract

Nationalism in India arose out of resistance to colonialism and thus had a different character than the bourgeois nationalism of European countries after the treaty of Westphalia. The inclusive nature of Indian nationalism has been eroded, however, as a big corporate sector has grown in the economy and the Hindutva ideology has grown alongside it. What has now happened is an alliance between the two forces, the ‘neo-liberal’ regime in the economy having its counterpart in a ruling semi-fascist ideology. The latter presents the Hindus as a homogenous whole, whose dominance, it aims at establishing. In reality, it serves the interests of the corporate-financial oligarchy, and so is adverse to the well-being of the vast majority of India’s population.