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ndia has been governed by many different states
in its history and at the end of the 19th century,
the whole country came under direct British
colonial rule. This colonial government brought
much misery and suffering to the Indian sub-
continent for over a century. The English mas-
ters treated their subjects as second class citizens
and the countries rich resources were ruthlessly exploited, leaving the
native population to struggle in poverty. Colonial rule ended in 1947
with the declaration of Indian independence, but the country was
gripped by a new wave of violence delivered by a fanatical Indian na-
tionalism. This movement went back a considerable time, to the 1920’s
to be precise. The fascist ideologies that swept across the world helped
give rise to a number of fascist underground movements in India.

They would sometimes target the colonial powers and at other times
the greatest minority group in India, the Muslims. They made their
mark with slogans like “India belongs to Indians” and they spread
quickly around the country with their educational camps, their pro-
paganda machine and military organizations.
European fascist movements played a major role in the structur-
al development of ultranationalist Indian organizations. Like their
European counterparts, Hindu ultranationalist organizations also
based their ideology on racial supremacy, espousing the error that dif-
ferent cultural or racial origins could not form a cohesive society with-
in one country. They defended the view that violence could be justi-
fied in order to create national unity and if assimilation failed, exter-
mination was the only way forward for India’s future.
The fascist regimes that swept to power in many of Europe’s
countries following the end of the First World War saw the solution to