Fascist chatter

The Hindu nationalists have brigades of internet activists who chatter constantly to each other. There are thousands of them and some tweet tens or hundreds of times a day. Who are they and what can be heard amidst the chatter? I scanned about on Twitter for some insight. First, some of the cast with their self-descriptions...

• @nimeshchandra: Hindu,Hindutva-vadi ,Proud Bharatiya ,Patriot, Invester & trader , nonpracticing Homeopath, aspiring Politician
• @DrShobha (Internet Hindoo): Mother,Edn Professional, Dreamer@TheArtOfLiving, Blessed wid a Master,Humble Nationalist;
• @truevirathindu: Love My Mother COW who feeds us with richness till she lives. Wanna Save her till my last drop of blood is there.
• @DabanggHindu: whole of Hindu community has to be united polarized consolidated to save Hinduism, sadhu saints,sadhvis from false cases jail liquidation of Hindutva RSS BJP
• @Meedana: journalist, writer, poet, artist, film director, philantrophist. My dream is an India headed by Narendra Modi and Swamy
• @DrPravinTogadia: Renowned Cancer Surgeon ; International Working President, VHP

_____

Now we've met a few, what do they do? They converse with each other:

@Meedana: "for votes con goons will burn, kill and rape hindus as they don't need them" 

@truevirathindu to @Meedana: "Now after voting, we hindus will literally rape & kill them in the results"

and with their enemies:

@faraznamah to @DrPravinTogadia: "y u divide hindu n muslim.Y cant u say its human beings who got killed.were u born communal.Atleast respect ur profession"

@DrPravinTogadia to @faraznamah: "You just shut up. The whole world now knows how YOU guys kill everyone else who are not like you. Hindus only self protect."

And they offer insights...

• On women's rights: @ShoneeKapoor: "#Women #rights have become the means of subordinating society to whims of the few misdirected #feminists." @yashna_chawla: "what about justice 2men whose life n families are destroyed coz of the misuse of women centric laws?"
• On the economy: @DrPravinTogadia: "Simple! Let us change the PM & the new PM will surely order piddly US to stop the US - Syria war Then the rupee will go up."
• On electoral strategy regarding caste: @Prabodh7Singh: "I working to unite Hindus irrespective of their caste's in patna.PEHLE DHARM PHIR JAAT."; @nimeshchandra: "@narendramodi u r wasting time and energy for votes of muslims-NRIs instead focus on st sc obc votes"
• On victimisation: @DrPravinTogadia: "Media busy targeting Muzaffarnagar Hindus!", "all blame on Hindus. Sick!", "All over Hindus are made targets. Gvt busy arresting Sants at Ayodhya!" @AdvRoopKaur: "this is pseudo secularism, majority suffering" @ranjeetnatu: "Grave danger to human rights of Hindus in UP.", @DrShobha: "We have become so accustomed to blaming Hindus that we could be missing something insidious and very dangerous."
• On the new (golden?) dawn that awaits: @DrShobha: "O son of Bhaarat,arise,awake and lead us till we achieve a India of our dreams..tis not merely d B'day of @narendramodi,tis dawn of New Era." @anilkohli54: "I hv jnd BJP,Iam available on d net n on d street,am a sepoy bldng nation's might,modi is my leader n a gr8 India is my future" @DabanggHindu: "When Hindu gets angry they starts a huge backlash no power on earth can control them its called majority retaliation strike"

So, is there something to learn from the hatred, the whining and the self-congratulation? Certainly the chatter is social grooming: the big family constructing and consolidating its bonds and its identity, keeping its energy and optimism high, waiting for the day... But we also see some tensions in the family, and the fragility of this identity constructed around victimhood and threatened masculinity. We see how crucial the external enemy is: I've omitted the endless references to Pakistan and Islamic terrrorism and so forth as I commented on this in a previous post - in these snippets the enemy is mainly the minority-appeasing state. But perhaps above all what we see is the centrality of violence, in metaphor and in reality, for binding the group together. It will not be a surprise if we see more before election day.

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