Fascism in Asia

{{short description|none}} {{Lead too short|date=February 2022}} {{copyedit|date=February 2026}} {{fascism sidebar|continents}}

Fascist movements and ideologies gained varying degrees of popularity across Asia during the interwar period. These developments were often characterized by a synthesis of European fascist models such as Italian fascism and Nazism with indigenous ultranationalism, traditionalist conservatism, and anti-colonial sentiment. While some movements, such as those in Shōwa Japan, achieved state power, others remained fringe political entities or served as paramilitary adjuncts to broader nationalist fronts.<ref name="DuBois2011">{{citation|author=Thomas David DuBois|title=Religion and the Making of Modern East Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7NH4Jeh5QG4C&pg=PA176|date=25 April 2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-49946-0|pages=176–}}</ref>

==East Asia== ===China=== ====Kuomintang==== {{See also|Chiangism}} Under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang (KMT) incorporated elements of fascist ideology into its governance. The party aimed to establish a one-party state, or Dang Guo, to solidify ideological supremacy and political control, drawing inspiration from contemporary European authoritarian models.<ref>Schoppa, R. Keith. [https://books.google.com/books?id=M6_tAAAAMAAJ&q=New+Life+Movement The Revolution and Its Past] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403221205/https://books.google.com/books?id=M6_tAAAAMAAJ&q=New+Life+Movement |date=3 April 2023 }} (New York: Pearson Prentic Hall, 2nd ed. 2006, pp. 208–209 .</ref>

The Blue Shirts Society has been described as one of the most relevant fascist groups in China at the time. It began as a secret society in the KMT military before being reformed within the party.<ref name="UAB">{{cite web |title=Origins and Development of Chinese Fascism |url=https://www.uab.cat/web/news-detail/origins-and-development-of-chinese-fascism-1345680342044.html?articleId=1345680746079 |website=Divulga UAB - University research dissemination magazine |language=en |date=February 2015}}</ref> By the 1930s, it had influence upon China's economy and society.<ref>{{cite book |author=Hans J. Van de Ven |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dc7NOiTSgM0C&pg=PA165 |title=War and nationalism in China, 1925-1945 |publisher=Psychology Press |year=2003 |isbn=0-415-14571-6 |page=165 |access-date=2010-06-28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Zhao |first=Suisheng |author-link=Suisheng Zhao |title=Power by Design: Constitution-Making in Nationalist China |date=1996 |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press |isbn=978-0-8248-1721-3 |pages=62 |jstor=j.ctt6wr1hn}}</ref> Historian Jeffrey Crean notes, however, that the Blue Shirts impacted only elite politics, not the vast majority of China's population.<ref name="Crean" />{{Rp|pages=64–65}} The Blue Shirts held contempt for liberal democracy and stressed the political usefulness of violence.<ref name="Crean">{{Cite book |last=Crean |first=Jeffrey |title=The Fear of Chinese Power: an International History |date=2024 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-350-23394-2 |edition= |series=New Approaches to International History series |location=London, UK |pages=}}</ref>{{Rp|page=64}} They were influenced by KMT contact with Nazi advisors and inspired by the German Brownshirts and the Italian Blackshirts. Unlike those organizations, however, the Blue Shirts were composed of political elites, not the popular masses.<ref name="Crean" />{{Rp|page=64}}

Close Sino-German ties also promoted cooperation between the Nationalist Government and Nazi Germany in the early-to-mid 1930s. However, despite early diplomatic honeymoon between Nationalist China and Nazi Germany, the Sino-German relationship rapidly deteriorated as Germany failed to pursue a detente between China and Japan, which led to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War. China later declared war on fascist countries, including Germany, Italy, and Japan, as part of the Declarations of war during World War II and became the most powerful "anti-fascist" nation in Asia.<ref>{{cite book |editor=Guido Samarani |title=Shaping the Future of Asia: Chiang Kai-shek, Nehru and China-India Relations During the Second World War Period |date=2005 |publisher=Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University}}</ref>

The New Life Movement was a government-led civic movement in 1930s China initiated by Chiang Kai-shek to promote cultural reform and Neo-Confucian social morality, and to ultimately unite China under a centralised ideology following the emergence of ideological challenges to the status quo. The Movement attempted to counter threats of Western and Japanese imperialism through a resurrection of traditional Chinese morality, which it held to be superior to modern Western values. As such the Movement was based upon Confucianism, mixed with Christianity, nationalism and authoritarianism that had some similarities to fascism.<ref name="schok">Schoppa, R. Keith. [https://books.google.com/books?id=M6_tAAAAMAAJ&q=New+Life+Movement The Revolution and Its Past] (New York: Pearson Prentic Hall, 2nd ed. 2006, pp. 208–209 .</ref> It rejected individualism and liberalism, while also opposing socialism and communism. Some historians regard this movement as imitating Nazism and being a neo-nationalistic movement used to elevate Chiang's control of everyday lives. Frederic Wakeman suggested that the New Life Movement was "Confucian fascism".<ref>Wakeman, Frederic, Jr. (1997). "A Revisionist View of the Nanjing Decade: Confucian Fascism." ''The China Quarterly'' 150: 395–432.</ref> The New Life Movement drew inspirations from the Blue Shirts Society, although some historians debate to what extent it was fascist.<ref name="UAB" />

==== People's Republic of China ==== Some accounts of the People's Republic of China (PRC) have described it as fascist and drawn on analogies with Nazi Germany.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Dessein |first=Axel |date=2021-03-05 |title=National Socialism in China: Rejuvenating the Nation, Socialist Modernisation, and the Mistaken Comparison with Nazism |journal=Monde Chinois |volume=62 |issue=2 |pages=72–87 |doi=10.3917/mochi.062.0072 |issn=1767-3755}}</ref> Hu Deping, the son of Hu Yaobang, used the term in a discussion about PRC society in 2005.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Tatlow |first=Didi Kirsten |date=October 31, 2012 |title=Can China Be Described as 'Fascist'? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/world/asia/01iht-letter01.html |access-date=December 1, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> Contemporarily, an increasing number of scholars and journalists have drawn comparisons between fascism and the Chinese Communist Party under Xi Jinping;<ref>{{Cite news |last=Chan |first=Melissa |date=January 31, 2022 |title= China isn't just 'authoritarian' any more. It's scarier. |url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/31/china-authoritarian-fascism-totalitarian-uyghurs-surveillance/# |access-date=November 22, 2025 |work=Washington Post}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Beckley |first=Michael |date=December 6, 2024 |title= China's Turn to Fascist Rule |url= https://www.theglobalist.com/china-fascism-security-xi-jinping-autocracy/#:~:text=According%20to%20Michael%20Beckley%2C%20China's%20regime%20is,the%20lines%20between%20civilian%20and%20military%20life |access-date=November 22, 2025 |work=The Globalist}}</ref> similarities between the PRC in the 21st century and classical fascist regimes lie in their proximity to state capitalism (rather than orthodox communism), as well as their anti-democratic, anti-labor, and chauvinistic expansionism.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 June 2014 |title=Is China a fascist state? |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/is-china-fascist-state/ |access-date=9 December 2025 |work=openDemocracy}}</ref> However, some others have called such descriptions of the PRC "superficial".<ref name=":0" /> For example, John Delury criticized the use of the term to describe contemporary China,<ref name=":1" /> and Edward Luce called such analogies as "ahistorical".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Luce |first=Edward |author-link=Edward Luce |date=2019-09-20 |title=The fraught debate about the nature of China |url=https://www.ft.com/content/b67dfd2e-db1f-11e9-8f9b-77216ebe1f17 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2024-12-01 |work=Financial Times}}</ref> Generally, the Chinese Communist Party is often labeled as left-conservative,<ref>{{cite web |date=5 May 2015 |title=Left and Right in China |author = Boaz, David |url=https://www.cato.org/blog/left-right-china |publisher=Cato Institute}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Cai |first=Jane |date=12 June 2023 |title=How China's Xi Jinping promotes mix of Marxism and traditional culture to further Communist Party and 'Chinese dream' |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3223805/how-chinas-xi-jinping-promotes-mix-marxism-and-traditional-culture-further-communist-party-and |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230612111635/http://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3223805/how-chinas-xi-jinping-promotes-mix-marxism-and-traditional-culture-further-communist-party-and |archive-date=12 June 2023 |access-date=30 Nov 2025 |work=South China Morning Post}}</ref> social conservative,<ref>{{cite news |date=3 December 2021 |title=Xi Jinping's War on Popular Culture |url=https://lens.civicus.org/xi-jinpings-war-on-popular-culture/ |access-date=2025-11-30 |language=en|work=Civicus Lens}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=18 February 2018 |title=Xi Jinping Thought Explained: A New Ideology for a New Era? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/world/asia/xi-jinping-thought-explained-a-new-ideology-for-a-new-era.html |access-date=2025-11-30 |website=The New York Times |language=en|last=Buckley|first=Chris}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=15 May 2023 |title=Why the Communist Party fears gay rights |url=https://www.economist.com/china/2023/05/25/why-the-communist-party-fears-gay-rights |access-date= 5 Dec 2025 |work=The Economist}}</ref> and "smart authoritarian"<ref>{{cite web|date=27 November 2025|title=China's 'smart authoritarianism' has upended ideas about autocracies' limitations. The West must cooperate to respond|author=Lind|url=https://www.chathamhouse.org/2025/11/chinas-smart-authoritarianism-has-upended-ideas-about-autocracies-limitations-west-must|publisher=|website=Chatham House|first=Jennifer}}</ref> rather than fascist. Some scholars have defined the Chinese Communist Party as "para-fascist" (rather than "fascist" in the pure sense).<ref>{{cite book |last=Gregor |first=A. James |title=Marxism, China, and Development: Reflections on Theory and Reality |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=1995 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Stein Ringen |title=The Perfect Dictatorship: China in the 21st Century |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |year=2016 |page=135}}</ref>

===Japan=== {{See also|Ultranationalism (Japan)}}

==== Emperor-system fascism ==== {{main|Emperor-system fascism}}

{{nihongo|Emperor-system fascism|天皇制ファシズム|Tennōsei fashizumu}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Kasza |first=Gregory |editor-last1=Blamires |editor-first1=Cyprian |editor-last2=Jackson |editor-first2=Paul |title=World Fascism: A-K |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nvD2rZSVau4C&pg=PA353 |date=2006 |page=353 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781576079409 }}</ref><ref name="Tansman">{{cite book |last=Tansman |first=Alan |authorlink=Alan Tansman |year=2009 |title=The Culture of Japanese Fascism |publisher=Duke University Press |page=5 |isbn=9780822390701 }}</ref> is the view that ultranationalistic politics, society, and ideas based on the Empire of Japan's "Emperor system" were a kind of fascism until the end of World War II.

==== Statism in Shōwa Japan ==== {{Shōwa Statism}} {{main|Statism in Shōwa Japan}}

{{nihongo|Shōwa Statism|國家主義|Kokkashugi}} is the nationalist ideology associated with the Empire of Japan, particularly during the Shōwa era. Developed over time since the Meiji Restoration, it advocated for Japanese nationalism, traditionalist conservatism, militarist imperialism and a dirigisme-based economy.

==== Taisei Yokusankai ==== {{main|Imperial Rule Assistance Association}}

The {{nihongo|Imperial Rule Assistance Association|大政翼賛会|Taisei Yokusankai}} was created by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on 12 October 1940. It evolved into a "militaristic" political party, which aimed to remove sectionalism from the politics and economics of the Empire of Japan to create a totalitarian one-party state, to maximize the efficiency of Japan's total war effort in World War II.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

==== Tohokai ====

Tohokai was a Japanese Nazi party formed by Seigo Nakano.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

==== National Socialist Workers' Party ====

The National Socialist Japanese Workers' Party is a small neo-Nazi party which is now classified as an uyoku dantai, a small Japanese ultranationalist far-right group.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

===Korean Peninsula=== ====South Korea==== {{See also|Korean National Youth Association|Ilminism}} Lee Bum-seok, a Korean independence activist and national-conservative politician, opposed the regimes of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan while expressing support for their emphasis on patriotism and ethnic-based nationalism.Along with South Korea's right-wing nationalist {{ill|Ahn Ho-sang|ko|안호상}}, he embodied the One-People Principle, a major ideology of the Syngman Rhee regime.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pressian.com/pages/articles/68512 |title="100% 대한민국", 가능하다! 파시즘이라면 |work=프레시안 |date=25 January 2021 |author=김기협 역사학자|language=ko|access-date=8 September 2021}}</ref>

Some South Korean liberal-left media have defined Park Chung-hee administration as an anti-American, Pan-Asian fascist and ''Chinilpa'' regime influenced by Ikki Kita's "Pure Socialism" ({{nihongo2|純正社会主義}}, {{korean|hangul=순정 사회주의}}).<ref>{{cite news|url=http://legacy.h21.hani.co.kr/h21/data/L991108/1p7mb809.html |title=한국의 파시즘은 사라졌나: 일본 극우에 사상적 뿌리둔 박정희의 유산… 무의식에 깔린 잔재마저 청산해야 |trans-title=Has Korean fascism disappeared?: Park Jeong-hee's legacy is ideologically rooted in the far right of Japan... Even the remnants of unconsciousness must be cleared. |language=ko |work=The Hankyoreh |date=18 November 1999 |access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.edaily.co.kr/news/read?newsId=02125446616096200&mediaCodeNo=257 |title=홍종학, 박정희와 나치 "상당히 유사"…논문서 주장 |trans-title=Hong Jong-hak argued in his paper that Park Jung-hee and the Nazis are "very similar". |language=ko |work=이데일리 |date=24 October 2017 |access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.edaily.co.kr/news/read?newsId=02125446616096200&mediaCodeNo=257 |title=10월 17일 유신 선포... '천황파시즘' 흠모한 박정희: 10월 유신은 일본제국 파시즘 체제의 전면적 부활 |trans-title=Park Jung-hee, who declared a Yushin on October 17, admired the Tennō fascism: The October Yushin means the full revival of the Japanese imperial style fascism system. |language=ko |work=OhmyNews |date=16 October 2012 |access-date=9 October 2021}}</ref>

==South Asia==

===India=== {{Main|Hindutva}}

{{See also|Hindu nationalism|Political views of Subhas Chandra Bose}} [[File:Flag of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.svg|thumb|Once the flag of the historical Maratha Empire, the Bhagwa Dhwaj (Saffron flag) has since been appropriated as a symbol of Hindutva.]] Hindutva is a far-right Hindu nationalist ideology. Inspired by the rise of fascist movements in Interwar Europe, Hindutva was formulated by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1922.<ref name="Leidig">{{Cite journal |last=Leidig |first=Eviane |date=2020-07-17 |title=Hindutva as a variant of right-wing extremism |journal=Patterns of Prejudice |volume=54 |issue=3 |pages=215–237 |doi=10.1080/0031322X.2020.1759861 |issn=0031-322X |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free |hdl=10852/84144}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Ross |first=M.H. |title=Culture and Belonging in Divided Societies: Contestation and Symbolic Landscapes |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |series=Book collections on Project MUSE |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-8122-0350-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=osHNwPkLh30C&pg=PA34 |page=34}}</ref> It is championed by the Hindu nationalist paramilitary volunteer organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),<ref name="The Hindutva Road">[http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2125/stories/20041217006712900.htm The Hindutva Road], Frontline, 4 December 2004</ref>{{sfn|Krishna|2011|p=324}} and other organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar. Hindutva has been described as "almost fascist in the classical sense", adhering to a concept of homogenised majority and cultural hegemony.<ref name="j3517631">{{cite journal |title=Fascism of our times |jstor=3517631 |author=Prabhat Patnaik |journal=Social Scientist |volume=21 |issue=3/4|pages=69–77 |year=1993 |doi=10.2307/3517631}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Frykenberg|2008|pages=178–220}}: "This essay attempts to show how — from an analytical or a historical perspective — Hindutva is a melding of Hindu fascism and Hindu fundamentalism."</ref> Some analysts dispute the "fascist" label, and suggest Hindutva is an extreme form of conservatism or ethno-nationalism.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies |volume=23 |issue=3|pages=407–441 |date=May 2000 |author1=Chetan Bhatt |author2=Parita Mukta |title=Hindutva in the West: Mapping the Antinomies of Diaspora Nationalism |doi= 10.1080/014198700328935|s2cid=143287533}} Quote: "It is also argued that the distinctively Indian aspects of Hindu nationalism, and the RSS's disavowal of the seizure of state power in preference for long-term cultural labour in civil society, suggests a strong distance from both German Nazism and Italian Fascism. Part of the problem in attempting to classify Golwalkar's or Savarkar's Hindu nationalism within the typology of 'generic fascism', Nazism, racism and ethnic or cultural nationalism is the unavailability of an appropriate theoretical orientation and vocabulary for varieties of revolutionary conservatism and far-right-wing ethnic and religious absolutist movements in 'Third World' countries".</ref> Some Hindutva organisations advocate for the irredentist concept of Akhand Bharat (Undivided India).<ref name="Bhatt & Mukta">{{cite journal |journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies |volume=23 |issue=3|pages=407–441 |date=May 2000 |author1=Chetan Bhatt |author2=Parita Mukta |title=Hindutva in the West: Mapping the Antinomies of Diaspora Nationalism |doi= 10.1080/014198700328935|s2cid=143287533 }}</ref> Since the 2014 general election and the subsequent premiership of Narendra Modi, India has seen a significant mainstreaming of Hindutva within state discourse.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hansen |first1=Thomas Blom |title=Saffron Republic: Hindu Nationalism and State Power in India |last2=Roy |first2=Srirupa |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2022 |isbn=9781009100489}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Varshney |first1=Ashutosh |last2=Staggs |first2=Connor |date=2024 |title=Hindu Nationalism and the New Jim Crow |journal=Journal of Democracy |volume=35 |pages=5–18 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|doi=10.1353/jod.2024.a915345 }}</ref>

Indian independence activist and militant nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose insisted on the union of Nazism and communism, in what he termed 'Sāmyavāda.'<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Tumiotto |first=Maria |date=16 November 2023 |title=Strategy or Fascination? Subhas Chandra Bose's Relations with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, and the Making of Sāmyavāda (1930s–1940s) |journal=Global Intellectual History |doi=10.1080/23801883.2023.2278785}}</ref>

===Pakistan===

Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan is considered fascist by some analysts because of its engagement in Islamic extremism and militant terrorism.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/250105-seven-theses-on-the-rise-of-fascism-in-pakistan | title=Seven theses on the rise of fascism in Pakistan |date=November 29, 2017|website=The News International|last=Ammar Ali Jan}}</ref><ref>Radicalization in Pakistan: A Critical Perspective, Muhammad Shoaib Pervez, p.2, Routledge</ref>

==Southeast Asia==

===Indonesia===

In 1933, in the Dutch East Indies, the Javanese politician Notonindito created the short-lived Indonesian Fascist Party. He had previously participated in the political party of Sukarno, the Indonesian National Party.

There also existed a branch of the Dutch National Socialist Movement (NSB) in Indonesia, namely the Indo NSB. It mainly consisted of Indos, who were of mixed Dutch and Indonesian descent.

Notonindito, the party's founder, was already well acquainted with Europeans and European society in the Indies in his youth through his membership in the Theosophical Society. In the early 1920s he had traveled to Europe to complete his education, first in The Hague and then in Berlin, where he finished a doctorate in Economics and Commerce. After his return to the Indies, he became involved in the Indonesian nationalist movement, at first in the Sarekat Islam Party in 1927 and then Sukarno's Indonesian National Party in 1929, eventually becoming its chairman in Pekalongan.

In the early 1930s in the Indies, the influence of fascism was being increasingly felt, with organizations such as the Netherlands Indies Fascist Organization (Dutch: {{Lang|nl|Nederlandsch Indische Fascisten Organisatie|italic=no}}, NIFO) and Fascisten Unie. These organizations appealed to expatriate Germans living in the Indies, as well as some Dutch and Indo (mixed race) people.

In the summer of 1933, newspapers in Java reported that Notonindito has broken his ties with the Indonesian National Party and founded his own party which he called the Partai Fasis Indonesia (Indonesian Fascist Party). The party was said to have as its goal an independent Java with a descendant of Sutawijaya (founder of the Mataram Sultanate) as its constitutional monarch. The party also wished the Indies to become a federation of such independent kingdoms with a non-aggression pact with the Netherlands. Reaction to the new party was generally quite negative in the Indies press. For example, a newspaper associated with the Indonesian National Party, Menjala, stated that solutions to the Indies' problems should be found in the present, not in the Feudal past. Sikap, likewise, thought that such a project was against the interests of the common Indonesian and that a twisting of Javanese historical figures into Fascist mythology was poorly considered, whereas the editors of Djawa Barat thought the party was counterproductive and harmful. Notonindito quickly denied to newspapers that he had "accepted the offer" of this party to become its leader. An investigation by De Locomotief indicated that the party did indeed exist and comprised several dozen members. Its subsequent history remains undocumented.

===Thailand=== It is well known that the Thai Prime Minister during World War II, Plaek Phibunsongkhram, was inspired by Benito Mussolini.

On 29 September 1955, Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram established the Seri Manangkhasila Party. It was the first political entity registered following the enactment of the Political Parties Act, B.E. 1955.. The party secretary was Pol. Gen Phao Sriyanond, the Director of the Police Department. The deputy leaders of the party were Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat, Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army, and Air Marshal Fuen Ronnaphagrad Ritthakhanee, Commander of the Royal Thai Air Force, with the party head office located at Manangkhasila House.

===Malaysia=== {{POV|date=November 2024}} The political framework emphasizing Malay supremacy (Ketuanan Melayu) emerged from a series of congresses that led to the 1946 formation of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), a right-wing nationalist party. It was founded on 10 May 1946 at the Third Malay Congress in Johor Bahru, with Datuk Onn Jaafar as its founder with the slogan "Long Live Malays" and "Malaya For Malays". After that, UMNO joined together with two other right-wing parties from the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA), which represented the Chinese ethnic group and the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) which represented the Indian ethnic group who agreed in fighting for the ideology of nationalism to form a new alliance of three parties from UMNO, MCA and MIC jointly on 30 October 1957 which was named (Parti Perikatan) or Alliance Party and replaced and reformed the party on 1 January 1974 which was named as the BN Party (Barisan Nasional) or Front National to continue the ideology of Racial Supremacism according to their respective ethnic parties to bring a combination of right-wing ideology.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

==West Asia== ===Iran=== Fascism in Iran was adhered to by the SUMKA (''Hezb-e Sosialist-e Melli-ye Kargaran-e Iran'' or the Iran National-Socialist Workers Group), a neo-Nazi party founded by Davud Monshizadeh in 1952. SUMKA copied not only the ideology of the Nazi Party but also that group's style, adopting the swastika, the black shirt and the Hitler salute. At the same time, Monshizadeh even sought to cultivate an appearance similar to that of Adolf Hitler.<ref name="Fardust">Hussein Fardust, ''The Rise and Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty: Memoirs of Former General Hussein'', p. 62</ref> The group became associated with opposition to Mohammad Mosaddegh and the Tudeh Party while supporting the Shah over Mossadegh.<ref name="Fardust"/> The Azure Party and Aria Party were other fascist groups. The Pan-Iranist Party is a right-wing group that has also been accused of being fascist due to its adherence to chauvinism and irredentism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Azimi |first=Fakhreddin |title=Quest for Democracy in Iran: A Century of Struggle Against Authoritarian Rule |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2008|page=253|isbn=978-0674027787}}</ref> After the Iranian Revolution, right-wing populist politician and former ultraconservative ("Deviant current") Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is suspected of being "fascist".<ref>{{cite web |title=Iran: Mahmud Ahmadinejad -- Fascist, Or Man Of The People? |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/1059429.html |date=2006-06-22 |author=Golnaz Esfandiari |publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The End of Days |url=https://www.tpr.org/2008-05-13/writer-kasra-naji-on-ahmadinejads-secret-history |date=2006-04-30 |author=Victor Davis Hanson |publisher=Hoover Institute}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Next Generation |url=https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/next-generation |date=2005-06-30 |author=Patrick Clawson |access-date=24 March 2026 |archive-date=14 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240514225804/https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/next-generation |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Iraq===

The Al-Muthanna Club ({{Langx|ar|نادي المثنى|links=no}}) was an influential Pan-Arab fascist society established in Baghdad c. 1935 to 1937 which remained active until May 1941, when the coup d'état of Pro-Nazi Rashid Ali al-Gaylani failed. It was named after Al-Muthanna ibn Haritha, an Iraqi Muslim Arab general who led forces that helped to defeat the Persian Sassanids at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah. Later known as the National Democratic Party, Nadi al-Muthanna was influenced by European fascism and controlled by radical Arab nationalists who, according to 2005's Memories of State, "formed the core of new radicals" for a combined Pan-Arab civilian and military coalition.

In 1938, as fascism in Iraq grew, Saib Shawkat, a known fascist and pan-Arab nationalist, was appointed director-general of education.

With co-founder:Taha al-Hashimi, Shawkat founded the al-Muthanna club in 1939, and the club remained under his guidance.

Under German ambassador Fritz Grobba's influence, The al-Muthanna club developed a youth organization, the Al-Futuwwa, modeled on European fascist lines and on the Hitler Youth.

Yunis al-Sabawi ({{Lang|ar|يونس السبعاوي}}) (who translated Hitler's book ''Mein Kampf'' into Arabic in the early 1930s) was active in the al-Muthanna club and in the leadership of the al-Futuwwa. He was a deputy in the Iraqi government, minister of economics. Al-Sabawi had become anti-Semitic; on 1 and 2 June 1941, members of al-Muthanna and its youth organization led a mob that attacked Baghdad's Jewish community in a pogrom later named the Farhud. Two days before Farhud, Al-Sabawi, a government minister who proclaimed himself the governor of Baghdad, had summoned Rabbi Sasson Khaduri, the community leader, and recommended to him that Jews stay in their homes for the next three days as a protective measure. He had planned for a larger massacre, planning to broadcast a call for the Baghdad public to massacre Jews. However, the broadcast was never made since al-Sabawi was forced to flee the country.

After the British overthrew the coup government, Sabawi was court-martialed for the mutiny, sentenced to death, and hanged on 5 May 1942.

===Israel=== {{See also|Betar|Kahanism|Racism in Israel}}

====Revisionist Maximalism==== The Revisionist Maximalist short-term movement formed by Abba Achimeir in 1930 was the ideology of the right-wing fascist faction Brit HaBirionim within the Zionist Revisionist Movement (ZRM). Achimeir was a self-described fascist who wrote a series of articles in 1928 titled "From the Diary of a Fascist".<ref name=Kaplan15>{{cite book |last=Kaplan |first=Eran |title=The Jewish Radical Right |publisher=University of Wisconsin Press |date=2005 |isbn=978-0299203801 |page=[https://archive.org/details/jewishradicalrig00kapl/page/15 15] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/jewishradicalrig00kapl/page/15 }}</ref> Achimeir rejected humanism, liberalism, and socialism; condemned liberal Zionists for only working for middle-class Jews; and stated the need for an integralist, "pure nationalism" similar to that in Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini.<ref name=Kaplan15 /><ref>Larsen, Stein Ugelvik (ed.). ''Fascism Outside of Europe''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-88033-988-8}}. pp. 364–365.</ref> Achimeir refused to be part of reformist Zionist coalitions and insisted that he would only support revolutionary Zionists willing to utilize violence.<ref name="Larsen, p377">Larsen, p. 377.</ref> Anti-Jewish violence in 1929 in the British Mandate of Palestine resulted in a rise in support for Revisionist Maximalists and lead Achimeir to decry British rule, claiming that the English people were declining while the Jewish people were ready to flourish, saying: {{blockquote|We fought the Egyptian Pharaoh, the Roman emperors, the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian tsars. They 'defeated' us. But where are they today? Can we not cope with a few despicable muftis or sheiks?... For us, the forefathers, the prophets, the zealots were not mythological concepts....<ref>Larsen, p. 375.</ref>}}

In 1930, Achimeir and the Revisionist-Maximalists became the largest faction within the ZRM and they called for closer relations with Fascist Italy and the Italian people, based on Achimeir's claim that Italians were deemed the least anti-Semitic people in the world.<ref>Larsen, p. 376.</ref>

In 1932, the Revisionist Maximalists pressed the ZRM to adopt their policies, titled the "Ten Commandments of Maximalism", made "in the spirit of complete fascism".<ref name="Larsen, p377"/> Moderate ZRM members refused to accept this and moderate ZRM member Yaacov Kahan pressured the Revisionist Maximalists to take the democratic nature of the ZRM and not push for the party to adopt fascist dictatorial policies.<ref name="Larsen, p377"/>

Despite the Revisionist Maximalists' opposition to the antisemitism of the Nazi Party, Achimeir was initially controversially supportive of the Nazi Party in early 1933, believing that the Nazis' rise to power was positive because it recognized that previous attempts by Germany to assimilate Jews had finally been proven to be failures.<ref>Larsen, p. 379.</ref> In March 1933, Achimeir wrote about the Nazi party, stating, "The anti-Semitic wrapping should be discarded but not its anti-Marxist core...."<ref name="Larsen, p377"/> Achimeir personally believed that the Nazis' anti-Semitism was just a nationalist ploy that did not have substance.<ref>Larsen, p. 381.</ref>

After Achimeir supported the Nazis, other Zionists within the ZRM quickly condemned Achimeir and the Revisionist Maximalists for their support of Hitler.<ref name="Larsen, p380">Larsen, p. 380.</ref> Achimeir, in response to the outrage, in May 1933 reversed their position and opposed Nazi Germany and began to burn down German consulates and tear down Germany's flag.<ref name="Larsen, p380"/> However, in 1933, Revisionist Maximalist' support quickly deteriorated and fell apart; they would not be reorganized until 1938, after a new leader replaced Achimeir.<ref name="Larsen, p380"/>

===Lebanon=== Within Lebanon before World War II, two groups that drew inspiration from the fascist movements which were active in Europe at that time emerged:<ref> {{cite book |last1 = Larsen |first1 = Stein Ugelvik |year = 2001 |title = Fascism Outside Europe: The European Impulse Against Domestic Conditions in the Diffusion of Global Fascism |url = https://books.google.com/books?&id=yNeCAAAAMAAJ |series = EEM Social Science Monographs |publisher = Social Science Monographs |page = 411 |isbn = 9780880339889 |access-date = 22 June 2025 |quote = In November, 1936, the Phalanges (''Al-Kata'ib'') of the Christian Maronites were established by two athletes who returned much impressed from the Berlin Olympic Games. The Muslims in Lebanon soon responded in 1937 by establishing ''Al-Najada''. }} </ref><ref> {{cite book |year = 1962 |title = Mideast Mirror |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=m5pMAQAAIAAJ |page = 2 |access-date = 15 June 2025 |quote = The dissolved PPS was one of three political parties with paramilitary formations. The others are the Najada with its para-military youth movement, which, led by Adnan Hakim, is Moslem and works for Arab Unity; and the Phalange, which is Christian and led by Pierre Gemayel and advocates Lebanese nationalism as distinct from pan-Arabism. [...] All three were founded in the thirties and their youth movements were based on European Fascist models. }} </ref>

* In 1936 Pierre Gemayel founded the Kataeb Party (also known as the Phalange Party); this group took its inspiration from the European fascists, using the Nazi salute and a brown-shirted uniform.<ref>{{cite web |first=Robert |last=Fisk |author-link =Robert Fisk |title=Lebanese strike a blow at US-backed government |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-lebanese-strike-a-blow-at-usbacked-government-460547.html |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20100213103037/http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-lebanese-strike-a-blow-at-usbacked-government-460547.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 13, 2010 |work=The Independent |date=2007-08-07 |access-date=2009-04-10 | quote = [...] Pierre [Gemayel] - grandfather of the MP murdered last November -[...] founded the Phalange in 1936 after being inspired by the Nazi Berlin Olympics. "I thought Lebanon needed some of this order," he admitted to me shortly before his death; the original Phalange dressed in brown shirts and gave the Hitler salute. But they had turned themselves into a neo-respectable right-wing party by 1982 [...].}}</ref> The Kataeb Party also espoused a strong sense of Lebanese nationalism and a leadership cult. However, it did not support totalitarianism and as a result, it cannot be characterised as fully fascist.<ref name="BR">{{Cite book | publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | isbn = 9780313262135 | pages = 203–204 / 557 | last = Reich | first = Bernard | title = Political leaders of the contemporary Middle East and North Africa: a biographical dictionary | year = 1990 }}</ref><ref name= "JPE">{{Cite book | publisher = Brill | isbn = 9789004039117 | volume = 10 | pages = 45 / 227 | last = Entelis | first = John Pierre | title = Pluralism and party transformation in Lebanon: Al-Kataʼib, 1936-1970 | series = Social, economic, and political studies of the Middle East | year = 1974 }}</ref> * Al-Najada (An-Najada)<ref> {{cite book |author1 = Rabah Makram Rabah |date = 18 August 2020 |title = Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronites and Collective Memory |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RHkxEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT130 |series = Alternative Histories |publisher = Edinburgh University Press |isbn = 9781474474207 |access-date = 15 June 2025 |quote = In 1943, the Kataeb [...] was one of the main factions that, along with its Muslim equivalent, the al-Najada Party, took to the streets for what is popularly referred to as the 'battle of Lebanese independence'. }} </ref><ref> [https://books.google.com/books?id=1NVJEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT292 The Lebanon Sample: A Microcosm of the Arab World?] :"[...] in 1947 [...] two prominent sectarian movements [...] paraded themselves as social movements: the Falange (1935), a Maronite gathering, and An-Najada (1937), which was Sunni. In 1947 , the secular parties were banned; the sectarians were not. Subsequently, sectarianism had the field for itself." </ref>

Both groups are still active, although neither of them demonstrates the characteristics of fascism now.

The Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP; {{langx | fr | Parti populaire syrien (PPS)}}), founded in Beirut in 1932 as a Greater Syrian enterprise, has been influential in Lebanon and beyond; it has faced accusations of fascist-like ideology.<ref> {{cite book |last1 = Zisser |first1 = Eyal |editor-last1 = Gershoni |editor-first1 = Israel |date = 15 July 2014 |chapter = Memoirs Do Not Deceive: Syrians Confront Fascism and Nazism -- as Reflected in the Memoirs of Syrian Political leaders and Intellectuals |title = Arab Responses to Fascism and Nazism: Attraction and Repulsion |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=OS3TAwAAQBAJ |series = Middle Eastern studies / history |publication-place = Austin |publisher = University of Texas Press |page = 78 |isbn = 9780292757455 |access-date = 22 June 2025 |quote = [...] the character of the PPS has been the focus of scholarly debate ever since its founding at the beginning of the 1930s, and certainly since the 1940s, when it became a significant political power in Syria and Lebanon. The PPS is discussed more than any other political party active in the Syrian lands in those days, with the main question being whether the PPS was a Fascist party that drew its inspiration from Nazi Germany or if it perhaps had other roots [...]. }} </ref>

===Syria=== {{See also|Syrian Social Nationalist Party}} The Syrian Social Nationalist Party was founded in 1932 by Antun Saadeh to restore independence to Syria from France and take its lead from Nazism and fascism.<ref name="Simon1996">{{cite book | last=Simon | first=Reeva S. |title=Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East |year= 1996 |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofmo24simo | url-access=registration | publisher=Macmillan Reference USA | isbn=0028960114 |quote=The Syrian Social Nationalist party (SSNP) was the brainchild of Antun Sa'ada, a Greek Orthodox Lebanese who was inspired by Nazi and fascist ideologies. }}</ref> This group also used the Roman salute and a symbol similar to the swastika<ref name=am1987>{{cite news | last=Ya’ari | first=Ehud |title=Behind the Terror |work=Atlantic Monthly |date=June 1987 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/issues/87jun/yaari.htm |quote=[The SSNP] greet their leaders with a Hitlerian salute; sing their Arabic anthem, "Greetings to You, Syria", to the strains of "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles"; and throng to the symbol of the red hurricane, a swastika in circular motion. }}</ref><ref name=pipes1992>{{cite book | last=Pipes | first=Daniel | author-link=Daniel Pipes |title=Greater Syria |year= 1992 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J3PsAb1uV94C | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=0195060229 |quote=The SSNP flag, which features a curved swastika called the red hurricane (''zawba'a''), points to the party's fascistic origins. }}</ref><ref name=rolland2003>{{cite book | last= Rolland | first=John C. |title=Lebanon |year= 2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-JVOKeNkllgC |publisher=Nova Publishers | isbn=1590338715 |quote=[The SSNP's] red hurricane symbol was modeled after the Nazi swastika. }}</ref> while Saadeh borrowed elements of Nazi ideology, notably the cult of personality and the yearning for a mythical, racially pure golden age.<ref name=johnson2001>{{cite book | last=Johnson | first=Michael |title=All Honourable Men |year= 2001 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zydtz0dDntQC |publisher=I.B.Tauris | isbn=1860647154 |quote=Saadeh, the party's 'leader for life', was an admirer of Adolf Hitler and influenced by Nazi and fascist ideology. This went beyond adopting a reversed swastika as the party's symbol and singing the party's anthem to ''Deutschland über alles'', and included developing the cult of a leader, advocating totalitarian government, and glorifying an ancient pre-Christian past and the organic whole of the Syrian Volk or nation. }}</ref> A youth group, based on the Hitler Youth template, was also organised.<ref name=becker1984>{{cite book | last=Becker | first=Jillian |title=The PLO: The Rise and Fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization |year= 1984 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sgu7AAAAIAAJ&q=SSNP+swastika |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson | isbn=0297785478 |quote=[The SSNP] had been founded in 1932 as a youth movement, deliberately modeled on Hitler's Nazi Party. For its symbol it invented a curved swastika, called the Zawbah. }}</ref>

In 1952, the Syrian dictator and military officer Adib Shishakli founded the Arab Liberation Movement, based on the ideas of "Greater Syria" (similar to the SSNP, Shishakli's former party) and Arab nationalism, but also with fascist-type elements.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} After the 1963 Syrian coup d'état the party was banned.

===Turkey=== In Turkey, the group known as the Grey Wolves is widely regarded as neofascist; they are understood to operate as a paramilitary group and are famous for their salute known as the Wolf salute. They are regarded as a terrorist group variously in Austria, Kazakhstan, and France.<ref>{{cite news |title=Diese 13 extremistischen Symbole werden verboten |url=https://www.heute.at/s/diese-13-extremistischen-symbole-werden-verboten-55522543 |work=Heute |date=12 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728193817/https://www.heute.at/s/diese-13-extremistischen-symbole-werden-verboten-55522543 |archive-date=28 July 2020 |language=de}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|2}}

===Works cited=== * {{cite book |first=Robert |last=Frykenberg |chapter=Hindutva as a Political Religion: An Historical Perspective |editor1=R. Griffin |editor2=R. Mallett |editor3=J. Tortorice |title=The Sacred in Twentieth-Century Politics: Essays in Honour of Professor Stanley G. Payne |year=2008 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGOHDAAAQBAJ |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-0-230-24163-3 |pages=178–200 }} * {{cite book |last=Krishna |first=Ananth V. |title=India since Independence: Making Sense of Indian Politics |publisher=Pearson Education India |year=2011 |isbn=978-8131734650 }}

{{Fascism}} {{Continent topic| prefix= Fascism in | title= Fascism by continent |state=expanded}} {{World topic| prefix = Fascism in | title= List of fascist movements by country |noredlinks=yes}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fascism In Asia}} Category:Fascism in Asia Category:Politics of Asia