Arun R. Swamy

In February and March 2002, violence between Hindus and Muslims in India’s Gujarat state took hundreds of lives. In the following viewpoint, Arun R. Swamy argues that the tragic events in Gujarat (and the government’s feeble response to them) is the fault of Hindu nationalist extremists who blame Muslims for India’s problems and who have attained significant influence in Indian politics. Swamy, a research fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, argues that Hindu nationalism threatens to undermine or possibly even overturn India’s democracy much as fascism took power in Germany in the 1930s.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. What are the leading Hindu nationalist organizations, according to Swamy?
2. What similarities does the author see between contemporary...