Book Review - Fascism and Social Revolution by RP Dutt

This book was written in 1936 by veteran Communist theoretician, Rajani Palme Dutt.

Dutt tries to trace the roots of Fascism in the gradually 'decaying' branches of capitalism with the help of a wealth of anecdotal evidence. He emphasizes that fascism is just a variant of capitalism, and is the last resort of the big bourgeoisie to save the economy from passing into the hands of the proletariat.

Dutt expounds at length, how the so called Centre - Left movements, in the name of Social Democracy work hand-in-glove with the big bourgeoisie to quell working class insurrections and channelise all their resources at their disposal to betray the interests of the exploited.

The activities of the Social democratic parties in Italy, Germany and even Britain(Labour) are parallelized by Dutt to illustrate how they functioned in very similar ways during the Capitalist Crisis of the late 1920s. These parties are accused by Dutt of complicity in bringing about Fascist Revolutions in their respective countries, often refusing to join ranks with their local Communist parties to form strong political alliances. Dutt contends that there is nothing to be surprised about this, since both the Social Democratic parties and Fascist-Conservatives represent only the interests of the same class - the big bourgeoisie.

The reader can draw similar conclusions about the workings of the Congress party in India whose policies of crony capitalism and soft Hindutva have often fuelled the rise of the Fascist Hindu Right, represented by the Sangh Parivar. Both the supposedly opposite parties have involved themselves in clinching massive governmental deals for their big cronies (Reliance, Tata) thereby betraying the interests of millions of voters, most of whom belong to the working class.

Dutt, sounding like an eternal optimist, reposes so much faith in the potential of the International Proletariat whom he predicts will soon blow the Fascist offensive into smithereens and establish their own dictatorship, bringing the bloody battle to a very fine end.

The book written soon after the ascension of Hitler to power does not enjoy the comfort of looking into later events such as the German Holocaust, WWII and the much later dissolution of the Soviet Union.Also the cultural aspects informing the development of Fascism in each country are ignored altogether and hence the book fails to give a comprehensive analysis of Fascism, as it proclaims to do.

However, Dutt very much succeeds in establishing that no movement other than the Proletarian Left has a proper understanding of the Fascist danger and hence the only weapon to ward off these evil forces of reaction is the ever reliable weapon of Communism. Fascism, in Dutt's perspective is a practice, totally without the backing of a proper theory, a fact which even Hitler acknowledged. One may be reminded of the development of Eugenics, during the time of Hitler, which was nothing but a State funded research endeavour to develop a Nazi theory of evolution to counterbalance the well rounded Darwinian theory.

I would recommend the book certainly to those who want to know the economic origins of Fascism including those who are alert enough to spot similar signs in India.