The Sangh Octopussy

Two Christian missionaries, sixty-year-old Father Samuel and Sister Mercy, 35, were found dead on September 22, 2008, in separate rooms at their ashram 'Samarpanalaya' at Chhota Rampur near Dehradoon, Uttaranchal. On September 14, at least six churches and prayer halls were destroyed in Mangalore in Karnataka. In Kandhmal , Orissa, following communal violence, several hundred Christians are in refugee camps and have been threatened with death if they return to their homes without “reconverting� to Hindu religion. In Madhya Pradesh, too, there have been reports of attacks on Christian churches.

What is common to all these incidents is that they have all occurred in States ruled by the Bhartiya Janata Party, except Orissa where, too, it is part of the ruling coalition. In all these states, gangs of Bajrang Dal activists have been involved in violent attacks and the Central government had to issue warnings to the State governments to take action to protect minorities. In Karnataka, Mahendra Kumar, a leader of the Bajrang Dal has been arrested. There have even been reports of some Bajrang Dal activists killed or injured while making bombs. All these activities and reports have resulted in political leaders, especially Mulayam Singh Yadav and Left politicians demanding, a ban on the Bajrang Dal and the parent body that the Dal draws its inspiration from, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS or the Sangh).


This is not the first time that demands have been made for a ban on the RSS. The Sangh has indeed faced bans three times during its life; first, in the aftermath of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi whose assassin was a former member of the organization, second, during the Emergency and third, after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. It is the first duty of the state, any state, to protect the life and property of all its citizens, especially its minorities. The states of Orissa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttranchal have failed to fulfill this duty and the central government in India needs to do what it must, including banning the Bajrang Dal if necessary, to stop the persecution of the minorities at their hands. But it is also necessary to understand the philosophy underlying the acts of the Bajrang Dal. That philosophy is best understood by studying the parent organization from which the Bajrang Dal draws its inspiration. The purpose of this article, therefore, is to take a dispassionate look at the RSS, its origins, its modus operandus and the various organizations that it has spawned. In addition to the various sources available on the Internet, the article also draws on my personal memories when I went to an RSS shakha for a year or so as a young boy.

Origin
The origin of the formation of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (National Volunteers Union) is to be found in the same event that led to Mohammad Ali Jinnah breaking away from the Congress Party, namely, the Party’s sponsorship and support of the Khilafat movement in India. Jinnah left the Party as he opposed the injection of religion into politics. A Chitapavan Brahmin from Maharashtra, Dr. Keshavrao Baliram Hedgewar, on the other hand, left the Party as he thought it had become too pro-muslim; he was also greatly influenced by the Mopla rebellion in the Malabar district in which many Hindus were killed or forced to become Muslim. He founded the organization on the Hindu auspicious day of Vijaya Dashmi (Dussehra) in 1925, with the proclaimed objective of “serving the nation and its people in the form of - Bharata Mata (Mother India) and protecting the interests of the People who treat India as their motherland". Thus, while the RSS does not exclude people of any particular faith, it does, in effect, exclude Muslims and Christians who, it believes, do not consider India as their motherland. The Sangh wanted to bring about a national renaissance because it felt that “centuries of foreign rule has led to self-oblivion overtaking the society�. The RSS believes in a "burning devotion to the Motherland (India), a feeling of fraternity among all citizens, intense awareness of a common national life derived from a common (hindu) culture and shared history and heritage", as well as to "activise the dormant Hindu society (of India), realise its past mistakes, to instill in it a firm determination to set them right, and finally to make it bestir itself to reassert its honour and self-respect". In this purpose, it was not much different from other leaders of Hindu renaissance, such as Swami Vivekananda and Aurobindo though it adopted a much more aggressive and militant approach; it would be fair to say that it wanted to bring about a semitisation of the Hindu society and bring the concept of ummaood to it.

Structure
The Sangh follows the hierarchical structure of a fascist organization. At its head is The Chief, known as Sarsanghchalak. He appoints a Working Committee, known as Karyakarini Samiti, to assist him. Each state has its chief known as Pradesh Pramukh. The Sarsanghchalak appoints his own successor; Hedgewar nominated Golwalkar, popularly known as Guruji, as his successor who has been followed by Deoras, Rajinder Singh and Sudarshan respectively.


Shakha
The critical operating unit of the Sangh is the Shakha (shaakh or branch). There are more than 60,000 shakhas in all parts of India which are run either in the morning or evening; the morning shakhas cater to businessmen while the evening shakhas cater to students and office workers. These shakhas are conducted in public places and are open to anyone without distinction of caste, creed or language and are, in theory, open to even Muslims. Depending upon the size of the shakha, it may be divided into sub-groups based on age. All members of the shakha are called swayamsewak (volunteer) and are headed by one of them, called Mukhya Shikshak (Head Teacher).

The shakha session starts with the flag hoisting ceremony; the Sangh flag is of saffron colour and is adopted from the banner of Shivaji, the Maratha Hindu warrior who successfully fought against the Mughal rulers; this is followed by physical exercises and games, as the founder laid great emphasis on physical fitness. Following the games, the swayamsewaks huddle together to discuss current and historical events and this is where most of the indoctrination takes place; impressionable young minds are filled with stories of Muslim oppression and forcible conversions to Islam; Hindus (and Sikhs) who opposed Muslim rulers, such as Prithviraj Chauhan, Maharanas Sangram and Pratap Singh, Shivaji, Guru Gobind Singh and Banda Bahadur Singh, are eulogised. No mention is made of any good deed by any Muslim rulers, who are all portrayed as ruthless, treacherous, rapists and rapacious. The Shakha ends with a prayer to the motherland, "Namaste Sadaa Vatsale Matrubhoome" (which means "My salutation to you forever, loving motherland"). The Sangh makes full use of Hindu rituals and symbols but does not indulge in any religious worship.

Swayamsewaks who show some promise are invited to attend Officers Training Camp from which future leaders are selected. Those who show a high degree of motivation and commitment are groomed to be pracharaks (preachers). The concept of pracharak is akin to that of Christian missionaries; they are committed to lifetime service for the organization and to remain celibate (Atal Behari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi were both pracharaks). Just like Christian missionaries, they are asked to sever ties with their families and are generally sent outside their state for the purpose of propagation and expansion of the Sangh.

Growth
Dr. Hedgewar started started the Sangh with a small group of 6-7 volunteers in Nagpur, which became and has remained the headquarters of the organization. The aim was to have a shakha in every town/village, where swayamsevaks were to perform drills, exercise and chant slogans on an open ground everyday for an hour. The organization grew steadily until its stewardship was passed on to M.S. Golwalkar, who proved to be a very efficient organizer and inspirational leader. When the Congress was busy with its Quit India movement against the British, Golwalkar made a tacit agreement with the British, his reasoning being that not doing so would only help Jinnah and fill the Indian army with Muslim soldiers.

The Sangh gained a good deal of support during the Partition by providing relief operations for Hindu and Sikh refugees on both sides of the border [my earliest memories of the Sangh workers is their coming to our house to collect donations for the relief camp set up near Lyalpur]. They also sided with the Hindus and Sikhs in the riots that took place during those tumultuous days. However, the Sangh was not able to take advantage of this popularity. On 30 January, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was killed by a Mahrashtrian Brahmin, Nathuram Godse, who was a former member of the RSS. The government banned the organization following the assassination. The ban was lifted after a year or two but it took a long time for the organization to overcome the notoriety gained in the process.

Political Participation
The Sangh leadership, especially, M.S. Golwalkar, was quite averse to taking part in electoral politics which, he believed, distracted from the task of nation building. Golwalkar was indeed proved right later when the BJP had to give up its hindutva agenda when it formed a government as part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). He was said to be in favour of supporting the Congress so as to bolster the pro-hindu elements in it, but Gandhi’s assassination and the secular Nehru’s ascendancy as the leader of the Congress Party made it impossible to support the Congress. Thereafter, Golwalkar was persuaded to sponsor a new political party in the shape of Bhartiya Jana Sangh, popularly known as Jana Sangh. An outsider was found to head the new party; he was the respected Bengali politician, Shyama Prasad Mukerjee. Several RSS pracharaks were deputed to help launch the new party, among them a young charismatic orator, Atal Behari Vajpayee who was assigned the task of becoming secretary to Shyama Prasad Mukerjee. The Jana Sangh grew as a political party slowly and steadily and became a force to be reckoned with by the time of The Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi when most of its prominent leaders were imprisoned. In prison, the Jana Sangh leaders developed personal relationships with the leaders of other parties and shook-off the pariah status with which it had been stuck since its inception. When the Emergency was lifted, it merged itself in the new Janata Party and became part of the coalition government headed by Morarji Desai. The Janata Party developed a crisis when some of its constituents demanded that none of its members could be a member of the RSS as well. The Jana Sangh members broke away from the Janata Party and formed a new party, the Bhartiya Janata Party, which is a reincarnation of the old Jana Sangh.


More Tentacles
It is a time-honoured tradition of Indian political parties to have student and trade union wings. Following this tradition, the RSS/BJP launched a student wing, Akhil Bhartiya Vidya Parishad and a trade union wing, Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh. To cater to the widespread Hindu diaspora and to encourage a sense of the “Hindu Ummah�, it started the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. For expanding its reach among women, it started a Durga Vahini. The Sangh also recognized the need for starting its own educational institutions; this was done through the launch of Vidya Bharti. The schools run by Vidya Bharti promote hindu nationalism but the emphasis is on academic excellence and their students have consistently shown a high degree of scholastic achievement.

Two of the most controversial organizations under the Sangh umbrella, popularly known as the Sangh Parivaar, are Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra and the Bajrang Dal. The Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra is the Sangh’s answer to Christian missionaries and has successfully copied the missionary model. It sends its volunteers for humanitarian activities in the tribal areas and they provide medical help and open schools for the people in those areas; in the process, they also teach them their Hindutva philosophy. Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra has been hugely successful and these “born-again Hindus� have been a factor in the electoral success of the BJP in states like Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

The other and perhaps the most controversial member of the Sangh Parivar is the Bajrang Dal, its youth wing. It seeks to reverse the effects of Muslim rule by demolishing mosques, such as those in Ayodhya, Mathura and Varanasi that are claimed to be built on important demolished Hindu temples. They take an aggressive approach ('direct action')to preventing cow slaughter, Hindu-Muslim marriages and conversions of Hindus to other religions; they are even against beauty contests and celebration of Valentine’s Day which they regard as against the Indian culture.

The Bajrang Dal claims to be non-communal and states: "The Bajrang Dal is not against any religion. It acknowledges respecting the faith of other people, but expects and asserts for a similar respect of the Hindu Sentiments. Being Hindu, the Bajrang Dal believes in validity of All Religions and Respect for all human beings, irrespective of caste, color, and religion (Aatmasvat Sarva Bhuteshu). It is for this purpose that the Bajrang Dal has undertaken various public-awakening campaigns. It does not believe in violence or any unlawful activity." In practice, it has adopted strong-arm tactics to achieve its objectives. The US state department as well as Human Rights Watch has called the Bajrang Dal an extremist organization; Professor Paul Ross, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and South Asian Studies at the University of Washington, has described the Dal as the Hindu equivalent of the Nazi storm-troopers.

The Sangh Parivaar includes several other organizations. Wikipedia lists the following organizations as members of the Parivaar, along with their membership:
• Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian People's Party (17m)
• Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), National Volunteer Association (2.5m)
• Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, Indian Farmers' Association (8m)
• Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Indian Labour Association (4.5m)
• Adivasi Kalyan Kendra (2.3m)
• Fishermen's Co-op Societies (2.2m)
• Vivekananda Medical Mission (1.7m)
• Adhyapak Parishad (1.8m)
• Vivekananda Kendra (1.8m)
• Bharatiya Vikas Parishad (1.8m)
• Deen Dayal Shodh Sansthan (1.7m)
• Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, National Volunteer Association for Women (1.8m)
• Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, All India Students' Forum (1.8m)
• Janata Yuva Morcha (1.8m)
• Shikha Bharati (2.1m)
• Vishwa Hindu Parishad, World Hindu Council (2.8m)
• Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, Hindu Volunteer Association – overseas wing
• Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, Nativist Awakening Front
• Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Nursery
• Vidya Bharati, Educational Institutes
• Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, Organisation for the improvement of tribals
• Bajrang Dal, Army of Hanuman
• Vijnana Bharati, Indian Science Movement
• Samkalp,
• Sanskar Bharati, Organisation of artists
• Sahkar Bharati, Organisation of co-operatives
• Adhivakta Parishad, Lawyers' association
• Vit Salahkar Parishad, Financial consultants' association
• Seva Bharati, Organisation for service of the needy, founded in 1984.
• Bharatiya Vichara Kendra

To sum up, the tentacles of the Sangh Parivaar reach all sectors of the civil society in India. It should however be emphasized that these organizations are quite autonomous and the RSS does not control the activities or the organization of its members. Indeed, most of them can be considered as branches of a banyan tree whose branches have developed their own roots and sources of sustenance. Thus, even if the parent body is banned, its branches will continue to survive and grow.