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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