By Dr. Satish C. Aikant
It can only be seen as an ironic coincidence that this year Gandhi ji’s birth anniversary fell on the same day, the day of Vijaya Dashami, when Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS) was founded a hundred years ago, turning it into an occasion for contrary observances since the Mahatma was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a prominent member of the RSS. That the Gandhian worldview comprising a harmonious blending of communities in a plural society is not shared by the current political dispensation in the Centre supported by the RSS ideology can also be shown by a couple of minor but telling examples. The traditional Christian hymn ‘Abide with me’ (composed by the Scottish poet Henry Francis Lyte), a favourite of Mahatma Gandhi, was dropped in 2022 from the list of tunes for the Beating Retreat ceremony played every year since 1950. Gandhi’s favourite Bhajan ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’ is now played on official functions by omitting the line ‘Ishwar Allah tero naam’ from it. The line is apparently abhorred by those who oppose the very idea of syncretism.
The RSS was founded by Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a Maharashtrian Brahmin from Nagpur, on Vijaya Dashami in 1925, four decades after the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885. The idea behind it was to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra on the assumption that India’s national identity was defined by Hinduism, the dominant creed practised by its people. It echoed the European form of nationalism based on religious identity, or common language or racial category.
Hedgewar was formerly active in the Congress. But he kept the RSS away from the freedom movement, prompted by the belief that the utmost priority of Hindu society ought to be self-strengthening through the organised might of highly dedicated and ascetically disciplined swayamsevaks (volunteers) steeped in the ideology of Hindu nationalism. Indeed, the organization was inspired by fascist ideology. Dr. B.S. Moonje, a Hindu Mahasabha leader and close aide of Savarkar met with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1930. While in Italy he visited Military Schools and was struck by the idea of igniting the marital instinct in the Hindus, whose valour, according to him had been compromised because of the practice of non-violence. The schools offered a template for the future RSS shakhas.
- S. Golwalkar, Hegdewar’s successor, sought to draw parallels to Nazi Germany, stating that ‘Germany has shown how impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.’
Golwalkar, together with Savarkar, is mainly responsible for developing the concept of Hindu nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s as an instrument to promote the interests of Hindu society, religion and culture. Golwalkar’s political and religious philosophy is centred around the concept of India as a Hindu rashtra (nation). It is the cornerstone of his ideology and is founded on the principle of One nation (Hindu), One Culture (Sanskriti) and One religion (Hinduism). This necessarily implies a negation of cultural and religious pluralism and any form of secularism. In fact, Golwalkar openly declared that the Muslims, Christians and Communists of India are internal threats to the nation. In his book We or Our Nationhood Defined he says: ‘all those, who fall outside the five-fold limits of that idea (Hindu rashtra, Aryan race, Hindu religion, Hindu culture and Sanskrit language), can have no place in the national life, unless they abandon their differences, adopt the religion, culture and language of the Nation and completely merge themselves in the National Race.’
The RSS has a chequered history and has been banned at least thrice in independent India. Today, it wields considerable influence ideologically, politically, and socially across the nation.
Howsoever much its leaders may claim that the RSS is a ‘cultural organisation’ that has nothing to do with politics, it is quintessentially a political body, though not a political party. The RSS identifies itself as a cultural organisation, with a stated goal of promoting discipline, character building, and national pride. However, its critics argue that the Sangh’s vision of cultural nationalism has time and again led to polarisation.
It does not have to work like any other political party, fighting elections and aiming to run governments at the Centre and in the states. For this purpose it has devised a novel strategy, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and subsequently the Bharatiya Janata Party that have served as the political arm of the RSS. The BJP’s political strength comes not from a history of party politics, as did that of the Indian National Congress, but from a long tradition of cultural politics practised through creating a large public sphere for its organizations and their ideological consolidation.
In recent times, especially under the leadership of its incumbent chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS has made efforts to reach out to the Muslim community in a bid to promote social harmony and strengthen national unity. But his efforts lack conviction since it is difficult to ignore that the RSS views Islam and Christianity as a potential threat to the cultural pre-eminence of Hinduism in India and, by extension, a threat to national unity.
Hinduism is a melange of diverse religious traditions. It does not affirm a single God, prophet, founder, church or one holy book. Its idea of God ranges from monism to dualism to polytheism. Hinduism of today is an umbrella term for many religions and sects that are loosely related to each other. Above all it is a way of life assimilated within what is known as the Sanatana Dharma, distinct from Hindutva which is a political ideology of militant Hinduism. The term Hindutva was popularised by Savarkar through his book Essentials of Hindutva, though the word was coined by Chandranath Basu, a key figure of Brahmo Movement, in his book Hindutva, the Auhentic History of the Hindus in 1892.
Golwalkar perceived the presence of Muslims and Christians as an internal threat to the nation. In the construction of a Hindu nation, Golwalkar offers two options to Indian minorities, namely Muslims and Christians: they ‘must cease to be foreigners (embrace Hinduness), or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment – not even full citizen’s rights.’ In contrast to Golwalkar’ rhetoric which had parochial and xenophobic underpinnings Vivekananda believed in an inclusive construction of Hinduism. Vivekananda shared up to a point the19th century Bengali Hindu intelligentsia’s ambivalence in relation to India’s Islamic past but this ambivalence did not lead him to completely reject the Muslim contribution which would be an important ingredient of a self-conscious nationalism which necessarily integrated various communities. He would often advance the notion of ‘an Islamic body, and a Vedantic heart’ something that would be an anathema to hardcore Hindutva proponents for whom the ‘Hindu body’ was sacrosanct and powerful in its own right and could not be contaminated by an alien element. Savarkar’s narrow definition of Hindutva in terms of ‘rastra’ (nation), race and culture is diametrically opposed to Vivekananda’s much broader conception of Hinduism as a distinctive worldview that transcends ties of nationality, race and culture. Far from being a Hindu supremist his outlook was characterized by an openness to other cultures. He understood Hinduism in doctrinal rather than in ethnic terms. Like him Gandhi, an avowed Hindu, had among his closest associates Christians and Muslims. When S. Radhakrishnan posed the question: ‘What is your religion?’ in 1936, Mahatma Gandhi replied: ‘My religion is Hinduism which, for me, is Religion of Humanity and includes the best of all the religions known to me.’
As the RSS steps into its second century, questions remain about its evolving role. Supporters see it as an organization dedicated to instilling national pride, cultural nationalism, discipline, and social service. Yet the critics caution that the theoretical framework of the RSS’s nationalist narrative built around ancient cultural roots and tradition comes off at the seams when it interacts with India’s composite social structure. It has been trying hard to co-opt the Dalits into its fold to forge social unity of sorts to project a unified Hindu Rashtra. The task, however, is not easy given the multiple fissures within the contemporary society.
So long as the Gandhi-Nehru thought dominated political and social life in India, moderate Hindus kept distance from the RSS. But with the steady decline of the countervailing political forces the Sangh correspondingly gained in strength. The dilemma of the RSS is that bereft of a self-definition it can only see itself in terms of a real or imagined ‘other.’
If one may use a colonial trope, the RSS is on its own ‘civilizing mission.’ We will have to watch its course with bated breath.
(The writer is former Professor and Head of the Department of English, H.N.B.Garhwal University and former Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla)
