Name:Abhishek Paliwal

Affiliation: Ramjas College

Roll no. 386

Is Fascism a form of Cultural Nationalism

Scholarly interest in the ideologies of Nazism and Fascism has

increased particularly from the 21st century. However, the ideologies did
not emerge suddenly rather conducive circumstances were present within
the society for their birth and growth which were efficiently used by their
exponents. Thus Marx’s words “Men make their own history… but under
circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past” holds
as true for the rise of Fascism in Europe as it was for the accession of
Louis Bonaparte.

There is no generally agreed definition of fascism - indeed, prior to the

1960s, scholars were reluctant to recognise fascism as having any coherent
ideological content at all. Roger Griffin adopted a Weberian ideal-type
methodology to define the nature of Fascism. His approach is to define the
"mythic core" of fascism as palingenetic ultranationalism - "palingenetic"
being an archaic term meaning "concerned with rebirth" whose ultimate
aim is to bring about a revolution in the ethos and culture of society that
would impact every sphere of social life. In the various places where it
operated, fascism consistently promoted the idea that the nation had fallen
into decadence and stood in need of revolutionary regeneration.
The promised rebirth could be presented as the return of a golden past
which Fascist Regime of Mussolini tried to recreate as Ancient Roman
Legacy or “Myth of Romanita”. In his book “The Nature of Fascism”
Roger Griffin argued that as a generic concept ‘fascism’ could have no
empirical essence to serve as the basis of an objective definition: the
‘fascist minimum’ had to be invented not discovered through a process of
‘idealizing abstraction’. This ideal-typical characterization of Fascism has
significant implications for its cultural policies. It suggests that Mussolini's
movement and regime are to be considered a deliberate and serious project
to sweep away for good the liberal ideal of a civic society made up of
autonomous individuals loosely (`contractually') associated by the dictates
of enlightened self-interest. In particular, it meant forcing a radical break
with the grotesque travesty of the liberal ideal embodied in Giolittian Italy
whose inefficiency, corruption, and unrepresentativeness made a nonsense
of any talk of liberty, equality, or fraternity. What was to replace it was a
national community integrated organically through the binding effects of
charismatic forces and a strong, authoritarian state which would enable
Italians to feel for the first time a sense of pride in belonging to a nation
whose creative genius was expressed in every sphere of activity. French
Revolution and Industrial Revolution were the harbingers of modernity in
the 18th century Europe, it instilled national consciousness among different
sections of society throughout Europe. With Jacobins and Napoleon, the
idea of terror and dictatorship along with ultra-nationalism was also
visible. The influence of cultural and intellectual changes in 19th-20th C
Europe are clearly visible in fascist thinking. Charles Darwin’s idea of the
survival of the fittest gave birth to “Social Darwinism” which fostered the
ideas of imperialism and colonialism and Racial Superiority but one
frequent misconception is that fascism equated with racism. This was
undoubtedly true in the case of its German variant, which was morbidly
obsessed with racial doctrines, but fascists generally had only limited
interest in racial matters.. From the idea of Nietzsche they took a general,
anti-establishment and non-conformist stance, a willingness to question
and challenge all facets of the conventional bourgeois way of life. Gustav
Le Bon’s psychology of crowds showed that masses were driven by
emotions more than rationality. With George Sorel, the idea of violence
became prominent and Myth motivated people, myth of culture and
Identity which Griffin talks about in his account. Futurist in their rhetoric,
‘culture’ and ‘revolution’ became almost synonymous terms for an
important result claimed for the revolution was the liberation of Italian
intellectual and creative genius which had not found expression since the
Renaissance. The tendency towards Cultural Nationalism had already
become pronounced in Italy by 1919, causing what has been characterized
as an ‘Involution of Italian Culture.

The type fascism that Griffin is presenting is highly sceptical because

practically all type of nationalism takes form of Ultra-Nationalism after
some point of time. Culture being a part of it which every nationalism has
to deal with, Griffin’s theory somewhat become unable to understand
when he begin to compare post-1945 themes with pre-1945.The cultural
interpretation of fascism opens up a means to penetrate fascist self-
understanding and such empathy is crucial in order to grasp how the
people saw the movement.