Fascism, Socialism and the Left

Paresh Chattopadhyay While Aijaz Ahmad (EPW, June 1) gives a brilliant blow-by-blow account of the high parliamentary drama preceding the United Front's accession to power in the context of the rise of the communal variant of fascism in India and its striving towards gaining a parliamentary majority, he has dealt unevenly with three issues: consensus and nationalism; fascism; and bolshevism, commune and socialism. This paper focuses on these issues.