Part 2 of 2
MissionGolwalkar describes the mission of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as the revitalisation of the Indian value system based on universalism and peace and prosperity to all.[141] Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the worldview that the whole world is one family, propounded by the ancient thinkers of India, is considered as one of the ideologies of the organisation.[142]
But the immediate focus, the leaders believe, is on the Hindu renaissance, which would build an egalitarian society and a strong India that could propound this philosophy. Hence, the focus is on social reform, economic upliftment of the downtrodden, and the protection of the cultural diversity of the natives in India.[142] The organisation says it aspires to unite all Hindus and build a strong India that can contribute to the welfare of the world. In the words of RSS ideologue and the second head of the RSS, Golwalkar, "in order to be able to contribute our unique knowledge to mankind, in order to be able to live and strive for the unity and welfare of the world, we stand before the world as a self-confident, resurgent and mighty nation".[141]
In Vichardhara (ideology), Golwalkar affirms the RSS mission of integration as:[141]
RSS has been making determined efforts to inculcate in our people the burning devotion for Bharat and its national ethos; kindle in them the spirit of dedication and sterling qualities and character; rouse social consciousness, mutual good-will, love and cooperation among them all; to make them realise that casts, creeds, and languages are secondary and that service to the nation is the supreme end and to mold their behaviour accordingly; instill in them a sense of true humility and discipline and train their bodies to be strong and robust so as to shoulder any social responsibility; and thus to create all-round Anushasana (Discipline) in all walks of life and build together all our people into a unified harmonious national whole, extending from Himalayas to Kanyakumari. — M. S. Golwalkar
Golwalkar and Balasaheb Deoras, the second and third supreme leaders of the RSS, spoke against the caste system, though they did not support its abolition.[143]
Golwalkar also explains that RSS does not intend to compete in electioneering politics or share power. The movement considers Hindus as inclusive of Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, tribals, untouchables, Veerashaivism, Arya Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission, and other groups as a community, a view similar to the inclusive referencing of the term Hindu in the Indian Constitution Article 25 (2)(b).[144][145][146]
When it came to non-Hindu religions, the view of Golwalkar (who once supported Hitler's creation of a supreme race by suppression of minorities)[147] on minorities was that of extreme intolerance. In a 1998 magazine article, some RSS and BJP members were been said to have distanced themselves from Golwalkar's views, though not entirely.[148]
The non-Hindu people of Hindustan must either adopt Hindu culture and languages, must learn and respect and hold in reverence the Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but of those of glorification of the Hindu race and culture ... in a word they must cease to be foreigners; or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment—not even citizens' rights. — M. S. Golwalkar[149]
Affiliated organisationsFurther information: Sangh Parivar
Organisations that are inspired by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's ideology refer to themselves as members of the Sangh Parivar.[120] In most cases, pracharaks (full-time volunteers of the RSS) were deputed to start up and manage these organisations in their initial years.
The affiliated organisations include:[150]
• Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), literally, Indian People's Party (23m)[151]
• Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, literally, Indian Farmers' Association (8m)[151]
• Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, literally, Indian Labour Association (10 million as of 2009)[151]
• Seva Bharti, Organisation for service of the needy.
• Rashtra Sevika Samiti, literally, National Volunteer Association for Women (1.8m)[151]
• Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, literally, All India Students' Forum (2.8m)[151]
• Shiksha Bharati (2.1m)[151]
• Vishwa Hindu Parishad, World Hindu Council (2.8m)[151]
• Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, literally, Hindu Volunteer Association – overseas wing
• Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, Nativist Awakening Front[152]
• Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Nursery
• Vidya Bharati, Educational Institutes
• Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram (Ashram for the Tribal Welfare), Organisations for the improvement of tribals; and Friends of Tribals Society
• Muslim Rashtriya Manch (Muslim National Forum), Organisation for the improvement of Muslims
• Bajrang Dal, Army of Hanuman (2m)
• Anusuchit Jati-Jamati Arakshan Bachao Parishad, Organisation for the improvement of Dalits
• Laghu Udyog Bharati, an extensive network of small industries.[153][154]
• Bharatiya Vichara Kendra, Think Tank
• Vishwa Samvad Kendra, Communication Wing, spread all over India for media related work, having a team of IT professionals (samvada.org)
• Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, National Sikh Association, a sociocultural organisation with the aim to spread the knowledge of Gurbani to the Indian society.[155]
• Vivekananda Kendra, promotion of Swami Vivekananda's ideas with Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi as a public policy think tank with six centres of study
Although RSS has never directly contested elections, it supports parties that are similar ideologically. Although RSS generally endorses the BJP, it has at times refused to do so due to the difference of opinion with the party.
Social service and reform
Participation in land reformsThe RSS volunteers participated in the Bhoodan movement organised by Gandhian leader Vinobha Bhave, who had met RSS leader Golwalkar in Meerut in November 1951. Golwalkar had been inspired by the movement that encouraged land reform through voluntary means. He pledged the support of the RSS for this movement.[156] Consequently, many RSS volunteers, led by Nanaji Deshmukh, participated in the movement.[2] But Golwalkar was also critical of the Bhoodan movement on other occasions for being reactionary and for working "merely with a view to counteracting Communism". He believed that the movement should inculcate a faith in the masses that would make them rise above the base appeal of Communism.[141]
Reform in 'caste'The RSS has advocated the training of Dalits and other backward classes as temple high priests (a position traditionally reserved for Caste Brahmins and denied to lower castes). They argue that the social divisiveness of the caste system is responsible for the lack of adherence to Hindu values and traditions, and that reaching out to the lower castes in this manner will be a remedy to the problem.[157] The RSS has also condemned upper-caste Hindus for preventing Dalits from worshipping at temples, saying that "even God will desert the temple in which Dalits cannot enter".[158]
Jaffrelot says that "there is insufficient data available to carry out a statistical analysis of social origins of the early RSS leaders" but goes on to conclude that, based on some known profiles, most of the RSS founders and its leading organisers, with a few exceptions, were Maharashtrian Brahmins from the middle or lower class[159] and argues that the pervasiveness of the Brahminical ethic in the organisation was probably the main reason why it failed to attract support from the low castes. He argues that the "RSS resorted to instrumentalist techniques of ethnoreligious mobilisation—in which its Brahminism was diluted—to overcome this handicap".[160] However, Anderson and Damle (1987) find that members of all castes have been welcomed into the organisation and are treated as equals.[2]
During a visit in 1934 to an RSS camp at Wardha accompanied by Mahadev Desai and Mirabehn, Mahatma Gandhi said, "When I visited the RSS Camp, I was very much surprised by your discipline and absence of untouchablity." He personally inquired about this to Swayamsevaks and found that volunteers were living and eating together in the camp without bothering to know each other's castes.[161]
Relief and rehabilitationThe RSS was instrumental in relief efforts after the 1971 Orissa Cyclone, 1977 Andhra Pradesh Cyclone[162] and in the 1984 Bhopal disaster.[163][164] It assisted in relief efforts during the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, and helped rebuild villages.[162][165] Approximately 35,000 RSS members in uniform were engaged in the relief efforts,[166] and many of their critics acknowledged their role.[167] An RSS-affiliated NGO, Seva Bharati, conducted relief operations in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Activities included building shelters for the victims and providing food, clothes, and medical necessities.[168] The RSS assisted relief efforts during the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and the subsequent tsunami.[169] Seva Bharati also adopted 57 children (38 Muslims and 19 Hindus) from militancy affected areas of Jammu and Kashmir to provide them education at least up to Higher Secondary level.[170][171] They also took care of victims of the Kargil War of 1999.[172]
In 2006 RSS participated in relief efforts to provide basic necessities such as food, milk, and potable water to the people of Surat, Gujarat, who were affected by floods in the region.[173][non-primary source needed] The RSS volunteers carried out relief and rehabilitation work after the floods affected North Karnataka and some districts of the state of Andhra Pradesh.[174] In 2013, following the Uttarakhand floods, RSS volunteers were involved in flood relief work through its offices set up at affected areas.[175][176]
ReceptionIndia's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had been vigilant towards RSS since he had taken charge. When Golwalkar wrote to Nehru asking for the lifting of the ban on RSS after Gandhi's assassination, Nehru replied that the government had proof that RSS activities were 'anti-national' by virtue of being 'communalist'. In his letter to the heads of provincial governments in December 1947, Nehru wrote that "we have a great deal of evidence to show that RSS is an organisation which is in the nature of a private army and which is definitely proceeding on the strictest Nazi lines, even following the techniques of the organisation".[177]
Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India, said in early January 1948 that the RSS activists were "patriots who love their country". He asked the Congressmen to 'win over' the RSS by love, instead of trying to 'crush' them. He also appealed to the RSS to join the Congress instead of opposing it. Jaffrelot says that this attitude of Patel can be partly explained by the assistance the RSS gave the Indian administration in maintaining public order in September 1947, and that his expression of 'qualified sympathy' towards RSS reflected the long-standing inclination of several Hindu traditionalists in Congress. However, after Gandhi's assassination on 30 January 1948, Patel began to view that the activities of RSS were a danger to public security.[178][179] In his reply letter to Golwalkar on 11 September 1948 regarding the lifting of ban on RSS, Patel stated that though RSS did service to the Hindu society by helping and protecting the Hindus when in need during partition violence, they also began attacking Muslims with revenge and went against "innocent men, women and children". He said that the speeches of RSS were "full of communal poison", and as a result of that 'poison', he remarked, India had to lose Gandhi, noting that the RSS men had celebrated Gandhi's death. Patel was also apprehensive of the secrecy in the working manner of RSS, and complained that all of its provincial heads were Maratha Brahmins. He criticised the RSS for having its own army inside India, which he said, cannot be permitted as "it was a potential danger to the State". He also remarked: "The members of RSS claimed to be the defenders of Hinduism. But they must understand that Hinduism would not be saved by rowdyism."[98]
Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India, did not approve of RSS. In 1948, he criticised RSS for carrying out 'loot, arson, rioting and killing of Muslims' in Delhi and other Hindu majority areas. In his letter to home minister Patel on 14 May 1948, he stated that RSS men had planned to dress up as Muslims in Hindu majority areas and attack Muslims in Muslim majority areas to create trouble. He asked Patel to take strict action against RSS for aiming to create enmity among Hindus and Muslims. He called RSS a Maharashtrian Brahmin movement, and viewed it as a secret organisation which used violence and promoted fascism, without any regard to truthful means and constitutional methods. He stated that RSS was "definitely a menace to public peace".[180]
Field Marshal K. M. Cariappa in his speech to RSS volunteers said "RSS is my heart's work. My dear young men, don't be disturbed by uncharitable comments of interested persons. Look ahead! Go ahead! The country is standing in need of your services."[181]
Zakir Hussain, former President of India, told Milad Mehfil in Monghyar on 20 November 1949, "The allegations against RSS of violence and hatred against Muslims are wholly false. Muslims should learn the lesson of mutual love, cooperation and organisation from RSS."[182][183]
Gandhian leader and the leader of Sarvodaya movement, Jayaprakash Narayan, who earlier had been a vocal opponent of RSS, had the following to say about it in 1977:
RSS is a revolutionary organisation. No other organisation in the country comes anywhere near it. It alone has the capacity to transform society, end casteism and wipe the tears from the eyes of the poor.
He further added, "I have great expectations from this revolutionary organisation which has taken up the challenge of creating a new India."[108]
Welcome from City of Milpitas California, USA to K SudarshanCriticisms and accusationsJaffrelot observes that although the RSS with its paramilitary style of functioning and its emphasis on discipline has sometimes been seen by some as "an Indian version of fascism",[184] he argues that "RSS's ideology treats society as an organism with a secular spirit, which is implanted not so much in the race as in a socio-cultural system and which will be regenerated over the course of time by patient work at the grassroots". He writes that "ideology of the RSS did not develop a theory of the state and the race, a crucial element in European nationalisms: Nazism and Fascism"[184] and that the RSS leaders were interested in culture as opposed to racial sameness.[185]
The likening of the Sangh Parivar to fascism by Western critics has also been countered by Jyotirmaya Sharma, who labelled it as an attempt by them to "make sense of the growth of extremist politics and intolerance within their society," and that such "simplistic transference" has done great injustice to our knowledge of Hindu nationalist politics.[186]
RSS has been criticised as an extremist organisation and as a paramilitary group.[3][4][7] It has also been criticised when its members have participated in anti-Muslim violence;[187] it has since formed in 1984, a militant wing called the Bajrang Dal.[21][188] Along with other extremist organisations, the RSS has been involved in riots, often inciting and organising violence against Christians[189] and Muslims.[6]
Involvement with riotsThe RSS has been censured for its involvement in communal riots.
After giving careful and serious consideration to all the materials that are on record, the Commission is of the view that the RSS with its extensive organisation in Jamshedpur and which had close links with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh had a positive hand in creating a climate which was most propitious for the outbreak of communal disturbances.
In the first instance, the speech of Shri Deoras (delivered just five days before the Ram Navami festival) tended to encourage the Hindu extremists to be unyielding in their demands regarding Road No. 14. Secondly, his speech amounted to communal propaganda. Thirdly, the shakhas and the camps that were held during the divisional conference presented a militant atmosphere to the Hindu public. In the circumstances, the commission cannot but hold the RSS responsible for creating a climate for the disturbances that took place on 11 April 1979.[190][191]
Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental organisation for human rights based in New York, has claimed that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council, VHP), the Bajrang Dal, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and the BJP have been party to the Gujarat violence that erupted after the Godhra train burning.[192] Local VHP, BJP, and BD leaders have been named in many police reports filed by eyewitnesses.[193] RSS and VHP claimed that they made appeals to put an end to the violence and that they asked their supporters and volunteer staff to prevent any activity that might disrupt peace.[194][195]
Religious violence in OdishaChristian groups accuse the RSS alongside its close affiliates, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal (BD), and the Hindu Jagaran Sammukhya (HJS), of participation in the 2008 religious violence in Odisha.[196]
Involvement in the Babri Masjid demolition
According to the 2009 report of the Liberhan Commission, the Sangh Parivar organised the destruction of the Babri Mosque.[187][197] The Commission said: "The blame or the credit for the entire temple construction movement at Ayodhya must necessarily be attributed to Sangh Parivar."[198] It also noted that the Sangh Parivar is an "extensive and widespread organic body" that encompasses organisations that address and bring together just about every type of social, professional, and other demographic groupings of individuals. The RSS has denied responsibility and questioned the objectivity of the report. Former RSS chief K. S. Sudarshan alleged that the mosque had been demolished by government men as opposed to the Karsevak volunteers.[199] On the other hand, a government of India white paper dismissed the idea that the demolition was pre-organised.[200] The RSS was banned after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, when the government of the time considered it a threat to the state. The ban was subsequently lifted in 1993 when no evidence of any unlawful activity was found by the tribunal constituted under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.[201]
SwayamsevaksMain article: RSS swayamsevak
Political leaders• Deendayal Upadhyaya
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee
• L. K. Advani
• Murli Manohar Joshi
• Narendra Modi
• Rajnath Singh
• Ram Nath Kovind
• Venkaiah Naidu
• Nitin Gadkari
• Manohar Parrikar
• Amit Shah
• Vijay Rupani
• Devendra Fadnavis
• Ram Madhav
• Shankersinh Vaghela
• Keshubhai Patel
• Pramod Mahajan
• Gopinath Munde
• Biplab Kumar Deb
• Manoharlal Khattar
• Dilip Ghosh
Pracharak• Eknath Ranade
• Dattopant Thengadi – Trade Union leader
• Ashok Singhal – VHP president
Atal Bihari Vajpayee, first swayamsevak to become the Prime Minister of IndiaNarendra Modi, second swayamsevak to become the Prime Minister of IndiaRam Nath Kovind, first swayamsevak to become the President of IndiaVenkaiah Naidu, first swayamsevak to become the Vice-President of IndiaSee also• Sangh Parivar
• Rashtra Sevika Samiti
• Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh
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Publications• "Panchajanya" (in Hindi). RSS weekly publication.
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External links• Official website