Description
The rise of nationalist, populist, and right-wing movements has reignited discourse around fascism, from the Unite the Kingdom rally in London to the actions of the Trump administration and beyond. However, despite a wealth of scholarship that ties fascism to global systems of neoliberalism and racial capitalism, fascism travelling outside of its domestic context remains a relatively recent intervention. I therefore ask: how and why do fascist politics migrate via the diaspora? Specifically, what does contemporary fascism look like beyond the context of a single state? A notable example of this phenomenon has been the expansion of Hindu nationalist fascism – or Hindutva – past India’s border. Threads of Hindutva have spread across diasporic communities, visible in mob violence in Leicester, England and Brampton, Canada; rallies in the United States supporting Prime Minister Modi; and Hindu nationalist organizations influencing educational curricula. To explain these events, I argue there exists a grammar of a transnational, expansionist fascism, dependent on and shaped by desire and fantasy. This grammar in turn cultivates an attachment to a deterritorialized affective identity. Through examining stories, narratives, and myths, this project contributes to broader redefinitions of fascism and diasporas emerging from the Global South through literature and storytelling.
