Patria’s Right: Hindu nationalism and Patria first

 

Patria’s rightists and conservatives, unlike their counterparts in the US, steer clear of tired old social conservative shibboleths such as banning abortion, advocating abstinence and pre-marital chastity, and keeping women in the kitchen (if not barefoot and pregnant). Even old-school Reagan-style economic conservatism (aka trickle-down theory) goes over like a lead balloon in Patria. Patria’s right is a dissident, populist right, not unlike their dissident, populist counterparts on the left (see previous blog entry). The platform of the SRM, Patria’s leading rightist party, could best be described as a combination of Narendra Modi and Donald Trump.

 Drawing from the concept of Hindutva, as propounded by Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the SRM campaigns hard for Patria’s identity as a Hindu micronation. Virtually all SRM campaign posters (see above) and television ads feature Hindu gods and goddesses. From Donald Trump, the SRM borrows the slogan “Make Patria Great Again” as it pushes for Patria First economic policies, particularly discouraging imports by imposing tariffs on imported goods, and encouraging manufacture of all consumer goods in Patria – the Swadeshi movement advocated by Gandhi in the fight for Indian independence.

Note that SRM is almost never spelled out in full. The party’s official Sanskrit name is Swadeshi Ramrajya Mahasabha. Originally known as the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, the SRM has its origins in the 1960s hippie counterculture heyday, borrowing the name from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s transcendental meditation organization, but didn’t become a mainstream party until Patria’s 1989-90 Dharmic Revolution, at which time it was a left-leaning, liberal party. After the 2006 election, Amma’s devotees merged the SRM into the Amrita Party. But by 2010 the SRM-Amrita coalition fell apart as economic conservative remnants of the old SRM bolted from Amrita (in large measure as a result of the 2008-09 economic meltdown), took a sharp turn to the right and revived the SRM with the initials standing for something new. 

Throwing in its lot with the SRM in any rightist coalition is the “big dogs, tough men” National Union. “Obedience and respect for authority”, “where a man belongs”, “testosterone in your balls, NU on your ballot”, the macho, populist, blue lives matter (“there’s no such thing as a bad cop”), law and order National Union has its roots dating from the mid-19th century as a small-c conservative party. National Unionists once dominated Patria in the 1950s and 60s as a bland, centrist party like Ontario’s Bill Davis-era Tories. They should have died of irrelevance post-Dharmic Revolution, but since the 1990s the NU recast itself to become the leader in the men’s rights movement, thumbed its nose at soft-on-crime liberals, equated owning a big dog such as a pit bull or Rottweiler with being a real man (“cats are for pussies”) and has pushed every right wing law and order issue such as bringing back public executions, broken windows policing and even racial profiling for public safety (“when black males stop committing a disproportionate number of crimes, police will stop profiling them”). They may win only a small number of seats – their 21 seats in 2018 was considered a good showing – but National Unionists always seem to make the most noise on the campaign trail, even if violent crime is not a serious issue in Patria, bringing back the death penalty would be unconstitutional, and a lot of strong macho men are cat owners. The National Union may as well be called “Patria’s Proud Boys”. Note that the real US-based Proud Boys organization does not exist in Patria and would not be welcome should they attempt to launch a made-in-Patria chapter.

A typical National Union campaign poster.