HVK Archives: RSS turns to nationalist heritage
RSS turns to nationalist heritage - Times of India
Bhaskar Roy
()
25 June 1996
Title : RSS turns to nationalist heritage
Author : Bhaskar Roy
Publication : Times of India
Date : June 25, 1996
NEW DELHI, June 23. As part of an effort to dent a newer
social base and acquire wider acceptability before the
next elections, the Sangh Parivar is making a move to
adopt symbols and heritage of the independence movement.
Making a significant departure from its tradition of
Hindu assertiveness, the RSS family is interestingly
taking a fresh look at the portrait-gallery of
nationalist heroes.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), one of the RSS front
organisations, has announced its plan to observe the
125th birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo, the
revolutionary-turned-spiritual leader, by carrying out a
year-long campaign for reunification of pre-partition
India.
"The concept of Akhand Bharat was very dear to
Aurobindo; we are, therefore, launching the programme on
August 15, his birth anniversary," said Acharya Girirai
Kishore, VHP general secretary.
But this was not an isolated decision. On the latest rath
that BJP president L. K. Advani rode before the
elections, was prominently displayed a portrait of
Subhash Chandra Bose, another stalwart of the freedom
struggle.
Seeking endorsement of its current campaign for
cow protection, the VHP is quoting Mahatma Gandhi and
Acharya Vinoba Bhave. The move to lay claim to the
nationalist legacy by the parivar has clearly been
prompted by an urgency to broad base its appeal.
In fact, there is a move by the Sangh to project its
past in a new perspective. "Dr Hedgewar was a great
admirer of Subhas Bose, Netaji visited the RSS
headquarters at Nagpur In 1940; the RSS was fascinated by
the exploits of revolutionaries like Chandra Shekhar
Azad, Khudiram Bose and Bhagat Singh," said Prof Devendra
Swarup, a former editor of the RSS mouthpiece
Panchajanyay and mem-of a Sangh think-tank.
Mr Swarup pointed to the possibility of more such
revolutionary heroes being adopted by the Sangh. "Their
saga of patriotism and sacrifice has to be highlighted,"
he said.
The Sangh move to identify with the nationalist
mainstream, however, has come in for criticism. "They
have never been part of the independence movement; this
new attempt is definitely aimed at projecting the Sangh
as nationalist," observed political scientist Rajni
Kothari.
Kothari doubts the RSS family's ability to appropriate
the nationalist heritage.
"They are trying to draw a line between the nationalist
and secular streams of the freedom movement and in the
process are distorting history for a petty political
purpose; this is an extremely dangerous tendency," he
remarked.
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