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Communal Harmony

By Shamsul Islam. Dated: 5/13/2018 1:09:28 PM

Will plastic surgery of RSS hide its anti-national and anti-social character?

"Rakesh Sinha's piece is in defence of RSS, which is blamed for fascist and totalitarian traits, belief in a theocratic Hindu state, hobnobbing with individuals like Savarkar, BS Moonje etc. and 'conventional Hindutva organizations' like Hindu Mahasabha, Ram Sena, Hindu Militia, Hindu Rashtra Sena, all of them wanting to model Hindu rashtra on the lines of Hitler and Mussolini."
Plastic surgery is a highly advanced surgical procedure through which a deformed, damaged and bad looking human body/part can be restored, reconstructed, altered and improved. But sometimes we come across over-enthusiastic supporters attempting it on their organizations in order to hide anti-national, anti-social, questionable and retrograde beliefs, in the past and the present. In such cases it is of no help. It is, in fact, political 'construction' and can be seen in Rakesh Sinha's 'Category confusion' (The Indian Express, May 2, 2018).
His piece is in defence of RSS which is blamed for fascist and totalitarian traits, belief in a theocratic Hindu state, hobnobbing with individuals like Savarkar, BS Moonje etc. and 'conventional Hindutva organizations' like Hindu Mahasabha, Ram Sena, Hindu Militia, Hindu Rashtra Sena, all of them wanting to model Hindu rashtra on the lines of Hitler and Mussolini. We come to know that now RSS is a non-conventional Hindutva organization. Sinha blames 'pseudo-secular media' for projecting the above mentioned 'conventional' Hindutva individuals/organizations "as true representatives [of] Hindutva". He also makes an astonishing claim that "RSS precluded the emergence of a reactionary organization among Hindus".
Interestingly, he presents character certificates from CPM founder, AK Gopalan, to the Central Provinces Legislative Council, in defence of RSS on the above mentioned serious allegations. Not even once this newest RSS ideologue refers to any RSS document to counter the allegations.
We need to compare Sinha's defence with the documents available in the archives of the RSS.
RSS AND TOTALITARIANISM
The most prominent ideologue of the RSS, Guru Golwalkar had settled the issue as early as 1940, "The RSS inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land." This slogan of one flag, one leader and one ideology was directly borrowed from the programmes of the Nazi and Fascist Parties of Europe. It was for this reason that RSS hated federalism. Guru decreed that "bury deep…federal structure of our country's Constitution…proclaim 'One Country, One State, One Legislature, One Executive'…Let the Constitution be re-examined and re-drafted, so as to establish this Unitary form of Government…"
Golwalkar idolized the Holocaust and declared that it could be a way to deal with the minorities in India. He wrote in 1939: "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…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 to learn and profit by."
RSS AND THEOCRATIC HINDU STATE
RSS hates democratic-secular India. Rejecting it, the English organ of the RSS, Organiser, on the very eve of Independence (August 14, 1947) editorially declared: "Let us no longer allow ourselves to be influenced by false notions of nationhood…in Hindusthan only the Hindus form the nation and the national structure must be built on that safe and sound foundation…the nation itself must be built up of Hindus, on Hindu traditions, culture, ideas and aspirations."
Not only this, when Indian Constituent Assembly passed the Constitution on November 26, 1949, Organizer in an editorial dated November 30, demanded rejection of it and promulgation of Manusmriti as Hindu constitution. It is to be noted that Manusmriti decrees sub-human status to Hindu women and Sudras.
RSS denigrated the choice of the National Flag of the democratic-secular India too. Organizer in its August 14, 1947 issue declared that "The people who have come to power by the kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour but it will never be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country." Surprisingly, Sinha skips any mention of OATH and Prayer, mandatory for all RSS members which make them to commit to a Hindu rashtra everyday.
LINKAGES WITH 'CONVENTIONAL HINDUTVA ORGANIZATIONS'
It is a lie that RSS was different from other militant Hindutva organizations. HV Seshadri, a senior RSS author wrote that Savarkar's inspiring concept of Hindutva "struck the chord of Doctorji's [KB Hedgewar, founder of RSS] heart. For he too… had arrived at the same truth of Hindu nationhood". Dhananjay Keer, a biographer close to RSS wrote that "Before starting the volunteer organization known as the RSS, Dr. Hedgewar had a long discussion with Savarkar over the faith, form and future of the organization". Seshadri also discloses that when Moonje decided to start a military school for Hindus (financed by the British government and Scindias, than a pro-British Prince) in 1936,"Doctorji was on the committee of conveners…Later on Doctorji became a member of its EC".
According to Moonje's diary (available in NMM&L), 12 days after meeting with Fascist dictator, Mussolini, in Italy former held a meeting with Hedgewar on March 31, subject of which was military organization of the Hindus. According to HV Pingle, an official chronicler of the life of Hedgewar, latter joined hands with Moonje in forming Ram Sena of which Hedgewar was appointed as commander-in-chief.
One hopes Sinha ji will spare some time to delve into the RSS backyard to look into its questionable past and present. If he has any difficulty in finding the RSS documents, this humble author will be the first to help him.
—(Countercurrents)
Shamsul Islam is a retired Professor of University of Delhi. Email: notoinjustice@gmail.com