Why did 75 mainly Indian, Hindu-origin academics in the UK readily sign a letter that expressed serious concerns about a Modi-led BJP government— a letter that joined another by Anish Kapoor, Salman Rushdie and other intellectuals? Writing in 1995 on ‘Ur-fascism’, the Italian philosopher Umberto Eco wrote of ‘a way of thinking and feeling, a group of cultural habits, of obscure instincts and unfathomable drives’ that animate different fascist movements. I suggest that Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh embody the same instincts.