The Gramsci-Mao debate on antifascism during India’s emergency (1975–1977) and beyond: Towards an anti-imperialist critique

This article reconsiders the Gramsci-Mao debate on antifascism through the lens of India’s Emergency (1975–1977), arguing that Gramsci’s theory of passive revolution and Subaltern Studies unique reformulation of passive revolution inadequately theorize fascism as implicated in structures of imperialism. In contrast, Mao’s theory of fascism, and how the Naxalite Movement seized upon it foregrounds the centrality of mass mobilization, anti-imperialism, and Third World revolutionary praxis, offering a vital corrective to Western Marxist limitations. This analysis examines how Indian intellectual movements inspired by Gramsci and by Mao alternately navigated the Emergency, revealing the importance of theories of fascism that see fascism and imperialism as inextricable. By centering anti-imperialist and Global South perspectives, the article advances a critical framework for antifascist praxis that links local struggles to global hierarchies of power, reclaiming antifascist theory for the revolutionary Global South.