100-years-of-rss-harmony-over-homogeneity-hegemony

There has been a great transformation in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the last 100 years of its existence. Believed to be the world’s largest volunteer organisation, the RSS enjoys another unique distinction that it continues to remain united. There has never ever been any division despite the mammoth size of the organisation. It has also tried to dispel the notions of promoting majoritarianism in the country by seeking to impose one homogeneous culture. The RSS has now been asserting and promoting “harmony” over “homogeneity” or “hegemony” of one particular section of the people.

 

The RSS is estimated to have about fifty lakh active volunteers. Every morning and evening it holds about 50 thousand “volunteer-gatherings”, called ‘shakhas’, across the country. In these gatherings the volunteers perform morning physical drills/exercises, besides the “bodhik” (brainstorming) discussions. Even if there is only one volunteer, s/he will hold the proper drill and ‘prarthana’ (prayer), which is the RSS anthem in praise of the motherland. While the RSS remains the ideological fountainhead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, it is these, mostly small “shakhas”, which strengthen the backbone of the RSS ideology and help the BJP to strengthen and consolidate its position across the country.

 

Also read: RSS 'banyan tree' of India's culture, modernisation: PM Modi

 

No wonder, the BJP remains far ahead of its rival political parties. As long as the RSS volunteers remain in the field, challenging the BJP will not be a mean job. Unlike the traditional political workers, the RSS workers are “the volunteers” in real sense. They work tirelessly and selflessly without any expectation of rewards, while at the same time carrying their own professional and business activities. 

 

It is because of these volunteers that the BJP’s “election campaign” is always an ongoing and continuous process, every morning and evening, every day, without fail, where the issues are debated and discussed and spread across. Before the onset of social media, the RSS rivals would accuse the organisation of indulging in the “whispering campaign”, as it would spread the message through word of mouth only, across the country within no time.

 

In politics it is not only the type of messaging, but also the “reach” of the message that is very important. With such a strong network of RSS volunteers, the BJP’s message gets across unsaturated, undiluted, in the pure form it is aimed at to be conveyed. That is the reason the RSS continued to grow, despite a complete blackout by the media till the early twenty-first century. The media was not just indifferent, but also hostile towards the RSS. The RSS leaders also preferred to avoid the media. RSS leaders addressing press conferences, although still rare, or writing for newspapers is just a recent phenomenon.

 

The RSS’ critics continue to call it a “fascist” and “Hindu supremacist” organisation. Being fair to it, the RSS is neither fascist nor supremacist. It indeed is a staunch nationalist organisation, in the similar mode as the Indian National Congress used to be during the country’s freedom struggle with Mahatma Gandhi at the helm. But, unlike the Congress, the RSS remained categorical in remaining only a “cultural” organisation dedicated to cultural renaissance of the country.

 

It was blamed for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, just because the Mahatma’s assassin Nathuram Godse was said to have attended RSS ‘shakhas’ at some point of time. There was no evidence ever produced that any of the RSS leaders or volunteers had any role in conspiracy to kill the Mahatma. The RSS was still banned in the aftermath of the assassination. The ban was later revoked. The RSS was banned for the second time in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya. The ban was rescinded by the Supreme Court of India after some time.

 

Its opponents may accuse the RSS of being communal or fascist but, there has never been any case against the organisation or any of its volunteers having been involved in any sort of violence, leave aside communal riots. Rather, the RSS volunteers have often borne the brunt and paid with their lives, whether in Punjab, Kashmir, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal or anywhere else for being patriots and nationalists.

 

Not many people have clarity about the relationship between the BJP and the RSS. The RSS does hold a lot of influence over the decision making of the BJP, but it does not exercise any direct control or authority over the party. The BJP remains functionally completely an independent organisation. Yes, it pursues the same agenda as that of the RSS. Given the relationship between the two organisations, the RSS does depute its senior leaders at the national and state levels, who are called “organising secretaries”. They act as bridges between the RSS and the BJP.

 

The RSS is not only the ideological fountainhead for the BJP, but also acts as its mentor and at times, even a sort of an “ombudsman”, and keeps on not only guiding the party, but also correcting it and its leaders from time to time. 

 

While the RSS may never have publicly pursued any communal or sectarian agenda, it had never opposed it publicly either. However, of late the RSS Chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat has provided more clarity about the RSS thinking, particularly vis-à-vis the Muslims. The RSS’ relationship with the Muslims has never been smooth due to the mutual mistrust. However, Dr Bhagwat has tried to extend an olive branch to the community. Some of his and other RSS leaders’ statements are an indication towards that direction.

 

After some idols were found inside the Gyanvyapi mosque in Uttar Pradesh, there were attempts to find similar “proofs” of temples having been demolished for the construction of mosques during the Mughal rule. Dr Bhagwat, came out with a clear and categorical statement saying, “do not try to dig a temple in every mosque”. Before that, he was quoted saying, “Muslims are also ours…they are separate from us…only their way of worship has changed…this country belongs to them as well…”

 

During the Aurangzeb controversy and demands from certain sections and organisations that his tomb be demolished, given the treatment he meted out to Shiva Ji and SambhaJi as also the Hindus and Sikhs, the RSS distanced itself from the issue, saying, “Aurganzeb was an insignificant and inconsequential issue”.

 

As the RSS completes its 100 years of existence, it has become an integral part of the country’s political system. No wonder, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi has always been bitter about it. However, not everyone in his party is comfortable with bluntly targeting the RSS. Apparently Gandhi realises it himself also and that is why he said it publicly in Gujarat that the party was filled with RSS and BJP supporters. That was probably the biggest “compliment” for the RSS coming from a rival, that it has managed to ideologically “infiltrate” into the Congress.