File spoon-archives/sa-cyborgs.archive/sa-cyborgs_1997/97-02-22.183, message 15


Date: Fri, 6 Sep 1996 15:49:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: bhaatasari <gajjala+-AT-pitt.edu>
Subject: RSS article -- one more time (fwd)





The Saffron Supremacists of India:
BJP, RSS, and the Religious Right

By
Partha Banerjee


[The author: Partha Banerjee, now an immigrant in USA, was long associated
with RSS and its various wings.  Over the many years of his association, he
climbed the organizational ladder and became known to top leaders such as
Guru Golwalkar, the most well-known RSS chief and theorist.  Before
Banerjee quit RSS, he became the secretary of West Bengal state unit of
ABVP (RSS' education wing) and mobilized students.  In 1977, Partha
represented West Bengal unit of Jana Sangh (now BJP) at the all-India
conference in New Delhi where Janata Party -- a four-party centrist
conglomeration -- was formed to challenge the dictatorial regime of Indira
Gandhi.]


I.  Prologue

        A prominent leader and theorist of RSS and its offspring BJP and
VHP, in a discussion about Jesus Christ, recently said(1):

        "Jesus is junk.  It is high time for Hindus to learn that Jesus
Christ symbolizes no spiritual power, or moral uprightness.  He is no more
than an artifice for legitimizing wanton imperialist aggression.  The
aggressors have found him to be highly profitable so far.  By the same
token, Hindus should know that Jesus means nothing but mischief for their
country and culture."

        Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the parliamentary leader of the BJP
(Bharatiya Janata Party) is a lifelong member of RSS or Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, more commonly known as the Sangh.  Most leaders and
members of BJP are products of the Sangh and mentored by its Hindu
supremacist doctrine.  Vajpayee was a full-time RSS worker before he was
"released" for BJP (formerly Jana Sangh) activities.  In one of his Hindi
poems, Vajpayee utters:

        "Hindu Hindu mera parichay" -- my only name is Hindu.  This may
remind one of his campaign speeches during the just-concluded Indian
elections, "Is it a crime to be a Hindu in this country?"  One can perceive
the same Hindu Vajpayee -- only with a refined rhetoric and moderation --
very similar to the toned-down functioning style of BJP itself.

        The Bombay-based weekly Blitz(3) some years ago published a long
report showing that Mr. Vajpayee "had betrayed his revolutionary colleagues
in the 1942 freedom struggle by disclosing their names to the police and
apologized his way out of jail."  The report gave details of the whole case
and the court proceedings of the time.  Blitz was sued by RSS, but the case
was dismissed.  Vajpayee himself did not either try to defend himself or
file a case of defamation.

        The meteoric rise of BJP in Indian polity is now all but certain to
bring back an era of more social pressures for the traditionally oppressed
-- the "untouchables", the religious minorities, and women.  BJP's
political ally Shiv Sena (SS) and its anti-Semitic pro-Hitler leader Bal
Thackeray have been openly supportive of dowry-based male-domineering
marriage and other Hindu social evils.  Sangh leaders like Vijaya Raje
Scindia, the queen-mother of the royal family of Gwalior and a close
associate of Vajpayee, favored the infamous now outlawed "suttee" system
and the degenerate Hindu caste system where the Brahmins and other upper
castes remain the leaders of the society driving the lower castes and
"untouchables" to poverty, subservience, and death.

        In order to know about BJP, the rising star of Indian politics, one
must also know about RSS.  It would only be relevant to provide some
anecdotal references to these Hindu fundamentalist organizations and their
doctrines.

II.  Mahatma Gandhi was Murdered by an RSS Member.

        On the 30th of January 1948, in less than a year of the Indian
independence, Nathuram Godse, a Hindu zealot from the western Indian state
of Maharashtra, shot and killed Mahatma Gandhi at a prayer meeting.
Nathuram Godse was a prominent member of RSS, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (national self-service organization) and a close associate of its
founder, Dr. K. B. Hedgewar who began the organization on the Hindu holy
day of Vijaya Dashami (the triumphant tenth day of the moon).  Hindu epic
Ramayana tells the story of how in a holy war, Lord Rama, the God king
triumphed over Ravana "the demon" on this day.  The Sangh and its offspring
organizations such as BJP have successfully used the name of Rama as a ploy
to garner Hindu votes.  Other than the Gandhi assassination, RSS, Jana
Sangh (now BJP), and VHP or Vishwa Hindu Parishad (world Hindu council)
have been reportedly implicated in numerous communal riots all over India.

        RSS still mobilizes workers into its different fronts.  Other than
BJP, the Sangh mentors its cadres for its student front Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).  Industry-based cadres are sent to organize the
labor front, Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh (BJS), and the more gray-haired
workers move into the powerful well-financed religious wing, the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP).  Although very much in the fray of capturing unions
through electioneering (and Indian-style hooliganism), both ABVP and BJS
claim themselves to be apolitical.

III.  R.S.S: Regimentation, Sexism, Sanskrit -- and No Women.

        In addition to a Sanskrit prayer chanted every day at its
gatherings, all Sangh commands at the daily hour-long militant activities
are administered in Sanskrit, whether or not the members can understand the
intricacies of the commands.  Onlookers from the neighborhood are first
bemused, then alienated by the shadowy activities -- no "English" games
such as soccer or cricket that are immensely popular among Indian kids and
youth, the presence of a dress code: khaki shorts and white shirt (and
other mandatory accessories to be worn on special occasions like the annual
town parade), and a stringent military-like silence.  Discipline is first,
fun is secondary even for the ten year-olds.

        A strict regimentation is practiced.  At RSS rallies, private or
public, nobody is supposed to cheer or clap. Even at its public rallies
where the audience is carefully picked through personal invitations, the
audience is always instructed beforehand not to show any emotions.
Enthusiastic volunteers keep a strict vigil on the audience and forewarn
against any slightest "indiscipline".

        Women are not allowed, non-Hindus are not permitted, and Brahmins
and upper-caste Hindus are the universal commanding leaders in RSS.
National and state leaders are traditionally Brahmins.  A subordinate
namesake women's body runs separately (Rashtra Sevika Samiti or national
organization of female servers) that acts like a spouses' group without any
serious policy-making power.  The absence of women at daily meetings,
however, fits well in the fabric of societal undermining of Indian women
and does not raise too many questions.

        The Indian capital Delhi and adjoining areas are the epicenter of
the terrible problem of bride burning and other forms of dowry-related
violence on women and the problem has largely been concentrated among the
upper caste affluent Hindu communities(5).  These areas and people have
also been supporters of the BJP and Congress Party.  Although it is not to
say that all supporters and members of these two parties are woman-abusers,
the coincidence is noteworthy.

        Women seem to be indeed second-class citizens in the Sangh
vocabulary.  A BJP-produced textbook (1992) on social change and
development in the state of Uttar Pradesh says(6),

        "Legislation which has given rights to women is also responsible
for family disorganization.  All such acts have raised the status of women.
The total result of these progressive legislative measures by the
Government in favor of women is tension and strife in the family".

        Mridula Sinha, President of BJP's women's forum announced in 1993,

        "We in the Bharatiya Janata Party are opposed to women's liberation
because it is against men.  We tell women to be more adjusting, because
they will have nowhere to go if they leave their husbands".

IV.  RSS, Shiv Sena, and Their Admiration of Hitler.

        Dr. Hedgewar, the RSS founder, came up with the theory that
national unity would come about if it is declared that non-Hindus of India,
such as Muslims and Christians, do not form a part of the nation.  This is
because in his opinion, they deny Hindu tradition, Hindu ideals, and Hindu
culture.  Hedgewar indoctrinated this idea into his hand-picked protégé
Guru Golwalkar.

        The first most comprehensive statement of this novel idea was made
in Golwalkar's book "We or Our Nationhood Defined" published in 1938.  The
book has so many laudatory references to Hitler and his theories of racial
superiority that it had become embarrassing for the organization to
continue its publication and been withdrawn from circulation(4).  It would
be worthwhile to cite a few excerpts here:  "German race pride has now
become the topic of the day.  To keep up the purity of the race and its
culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the
Semitic races -- the Jews.  Race pride at its highest has been manifested
here.  Germany has also shown how well-nigh 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 Hindusthan (Hindu land or India) to
learn and profit by."

        This is the lesson Golwalkar wants Sangh volunteers to learn: "From
this standpoint sanctioned by the experience of shrewd old nations, the
non-Hindu peoples in Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu culture and
language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence the Hindu religion,
must entertain no idea but the glorification of the Hindu race and culture,
i.e. they must not only give up their attitude of intolerance and
ungratefulness towards this land and its age-old traditions, but must also
cultivate the positive attitude of love and devotion instead; in one 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 citizen's rights."

        Besides inconvenient references to Hitler, the crudity of the
presentation is also noteworthy.  "We or Our Nationhood Defined" was
replaced by Golwalkar's "Bunch of Thoughts"(2), now the Sangh "Bible", in
which an attempt has been made to clothe the concept of nationhood in a
religio-cultural garb (4).

        Golwalkar raised an objection when Abdul Hamid and Keelor brothers
were honored by the Indian government for their patriotism and gallantry
during the Indo-Pak conflict (7).   Golwalkar did not want any non-Hindu
soldiers to be honored how much ever patriotism they might have shown for
India.

        The fiercely anti-Muslim attitude of the RSS goes to the extent of
dubbing even Urdu as a foreign language.  "The import and significance of
the word 'Urdu' is so derogatory to national self-respect that it
suppresses all emotional upsurge in favor of the language.  How and why
should we own a language the very name of which constantly reminds us of
our political subjugation?  Hindu ancestors passed on Sanskrit and Hindi to
their descendants.  They had nothing to do with the transmission of Urdu"
(8).

        The Sangh family's political ally Shiv Sena even today hail Hitler
and Nazi Germany.  Shiv Sena's godman Bal Thackeray frequently praises
Hitler even at public gatherings.  The Sangh naturally does not want to be
a part of this nuisance any more.  However, it is yet to come out with a
censure of Thackeray.

V.  RSS First, Then BJP -- and a Turn of Luck.

        RSS floated Jana Sangh in 1951, its political wing now known as
BJP, to counter the public hatred toward it created as a fallout of Gandhi
assassination.  It also wanted to have its voice heard in the first Indian
elections of 1952.  Guru Golwalkar put S. P. Mukherjee, an ultra
nationalist and famous orator from Bengal who did not train in RSS, in
charge of Jana Sangh.  Mukherjee was allegedly murdered by the Congress
Party in a Kashmir jail, and Sangh activists Raghuvir and Deendayal
Upadhyay became successive heads of Jana Sangh.  Raghuvir and Upadhyay were
also assassinated, again, allegedly by Congress party thugs.  Vajpayee then
took over as the president and carried the mantle for a long and lonely
decade.  Jana Sangh came close to obliteration during the heydays of
Congress "secularist" and "socialist" regimes of Jawaharlal Nehru and his
daughter Indira Gandhi.  It was only the proclamation of the totalitarian
Emergency rule of Indira Gandhi in 1975-77 that gave rebirth of Jana Sangh
through its opportunistic alliance (under the newly-adopted name BJP) with
other national opposition parties.  Imprisonment of forgotten personalities
like Vajpayee and L. K. Advani by Indira Gandhi's militia elevated their
status to national stardom.  Indira Gandhi lost the next elections in 1977
because of a massive people's movement led by socialist leader Jaya Prakash
Narayan, and a hodgepodge government took over where Vajpayee and Advani
assumed important portfolios of the foreign affairs and information
ministers, respectively.  Until then, few could dream of such a turn of
luck for BJP and these two career politicians.

VI.  No Membership, No Internal Elections ... and Tons of Money?

        RSS was never directly indicted of the murder of Mahatma Gandhi
because Nathuram Godse could not be proven to be an RSS member.  This was
possible because RSS does not keep an official membership roster and there
are no internal documented proceedings of Sangh activities or meetings.

        It is virtually impossible to know the income and expenses of RSS
which its critics say amount to millions of dollars every year.  At an
annual ceremony on a full-moon day in August/September called the
Guru-Dakshina Day (a day of charity for the Guru), Sangh members leave
their annual quota of contribution at the base of its symbolic guru, the
saffron flag. The money is left in envelopes and donors mark the envelopes
with their names. The amount to be "donated" is pre-instructed to members
by their leaders.  Thus, the income is already anticipated and budgeted.
More than expected charity always draws high applause.  The affluent
self-servers are more liked by the inner circle.  RSS, BJP, and VHP leaders
have always been the spokespersons for the Indian royal families and the
abolition by the Indian government of the families' "privy purse" was once
fiercely opposed by Jana Sangh.

        Other than this enormous amount of money collected every year
(which is largely
untaxed), many say that RSS also generates huge sums of money from its
members and sympathizers abroad.  Other than contributing to election funds
of BJP, they say, immigrant Sangh sympathizers pay their "Guru-Dakshina" at
various branches of Bharatiya (Indian) Swayamsevak Sangh, the overseas
version of RSS.  Money is also reportedly pumped in and out by other
organizations such as BJP-USA, VHP of America, and the Hindu Students
Council.  Traditionally apolitical Hindu temples in USA and Europe are
currently targeted to mobilize the second- generation Indian-American youth
through organization of VHP Hindu summer camps and various religious
conventions, it is alleged.

        The Rama Movement of the Nineties  -- Vajpayee Still Wants the
Temple (He also Wants the N-Bomb)

        In the nineties, BJP has been able to forge a strong Hindu
revivalist Rama platform that dwells on the issue of the "historic"
birthplace of Lord Rama in Ayodhya in the state of Uttar Pradesh.  BJP's
contention is that the mosque, known as Babri Masjid (after the Islamic
ruler Babar) was built upon the forcible demolition by Muslim soldiers of a
Hindu temple on the same spot.  This temple, they say, was built on the
holy birthplace of Lord Rama.  BJP contends that a temple with pillars has
indeed been there since the eleventh century.

        However, even a pro-BJP western columnist Koenraad Elst, in his
book(9) argues,

        "When that building was destroyed, we do not know precisely, there
are no descriptions of the event extant anywhere.  Mohammed Ghori's armies
arrived there in 1194, and they may have destroyed it.  It may have been
rebuilt afterwards, or it may only have been destroyed by later Muslim
lieutenants.  So it is possible that when Mir Baqi, Babar's lieutenant,
arrived there in 1528, he found a heap of rubble, or an already aging
mosque, rather than a magnificent Hindu temple."

        Other archeologists plainly assert that there has not been a single
piece of evidence for the existence of a temple of either brick, stone or
both(10).

        Incidentally, Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) has also the largest number of
parliamentary seats, and just like California, is capable to sway the
outcome of the elections for one party or another.  This was evident in the
recent elections.  BJP, with help from VHP and other splinter allies, has
long concentrated to win the state.  The Rama movement of 1990-92
culminated with the forcible demolition by Sangh militants of the mosque
and a consequent massive communal riot claiming thousands of lives all over
India.  Repercussions followed in adjoining Islamic Pakistan and
Bangladesh, where reactionary Muslim fanatics gathered strength out of this
incident, destroyed Hindu temples, lives and property.

        A short-term lower caste-run coalition state government of U.P. was
broken into by BJP in 1995, paving way for a big win in the 1996 elections.

        Vajpayee still supports the long-promised temple on the demolition
site.  This has been and will be a centerpiece Sangh pledge to the affluent
upper caste Hindus.  Can Vajpayee ignore the RSS whip from its Nagpur
headquarters?  Not very likely, critics say.  In that event, another brutal
communal riot looms large in the horizon.

        Vajpayee also supports BJP's promise to make India an official
N-bomb nation.  Pakistan is already about to get the bomb, some say, and
BJP's coming to power will only expedite it.  Is another N-war brewing in
the Indian subcontinent?  It is not an impossible proposition any more.
Given this scenario, who is going to stop the mass destruction?

VII.  Epilogue: What Now?

        Congress Party's fortune plummeted in the recent elections.  The
party that many say brought Indian independence from the British and later
turned to be the party of corruption, inefficiency and anarchy is facing
near-extinction.  BJP now seems to be the party of choice of the upper
caste Hindus, the traditional kingmakers of India, and the political power
is shifted to them.  How much effort BJP makes to implement the supremacist
ideas of RSS and to what extent it resists them, remain to be seen.  To
many poor Indians, one dark chapter ruled by the morally depraved is now
replaced by another one by the bigot.

        To these Indians, who have been trampled upon by the Brahmins and
other upper castes for ages, the only hope is the true consolidation of a
third force -- a force of the untouchables, religious minorities, women.
From=20the election results, such a possibility shows promise.  Will it turn
into a reality?  Or will it be crushed before it crystallizes?  One can
only wait and see.


References Cited

(1).  Sita Ram Goel.  1994.  Jesus Christ -- An Artifice of Aggression.
Voice of India, New    Delhi.
(2).  M. S. Golwalkar.  1980.  Bunch of Thoughts.  Jagarana Prakashana,
Bangalore.
(3).  Blitz.  26 January, 1974.  Bombay (quoted in 4).
(4).  Des Raj Goyal.  1979.  Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.  New Delhi.
(5).  Partha Banerjee.  April 1996.  The Burning Bride.  Deolog, New York.
(6).  Source: Alt.India.Progressive (an Internet news group).
(7).  Swatantra Bharat.  December 24, 1965.  Lucknow.
(8).  The Organizer (RSS English weekly). February 2, 1962.  New Delhi.
(9).  Koenraad Elst.  1991.  Ayodhya and After -- Issues before the Hindu
Society.  Voice of    India, New Delhi.
(10). The Statesman Miscellany. September 12, 1993, Calcutta.

Partha Banerjee

Note: The above comments are mine and not necessarily my employer's.





   

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