HVK Archives: Culture shock troops
Culture shock troops - Telegraph
Rakesh Sinha
()
April 7, 1998
Title: Culture shock troops
Author: Rakesh Sinha
Publication: Telegraph
Date: April 7, 1998
After the 1998 general elections, India's polity is in
equilibrium between anti Bharatiya Janata Party and non-Congress
formations. A corollary to this is the national agenda of the BJP
and its allies. Ideologically neutral, this charter of social
and economic programmes contains no disputed issues. The demands
of coalitional Politics and a need for political stability led
the BJP to drop its five cardinal concerns - an end to
minorityism, Article 370, banning cow slaughter a uniform civil
code and Ayodhya - from the agenda.
This flexibility and reconciliatory character robbed the left and
its big brother, the Congress, of a target to attack. They have
instead redirected their ire against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh, claiming it was planning to use the BJP government to
implement a hidden agenda".
Such polemical attack on the RSS is part of an old secularist
tradition in Indian politics. Neither the left nor the Congress
dared to discuss the actual issues raised by the RSS. These
include questions like: what is secularism in the Indian context?
What constitutes cultural nationalism in the Indian context? Is
India a multinational state? These issues are ignored. Instead
critics prefer to talk about hidden agendas. It is because of the
secularists' inability to gauge the ideology of the masses that
they have seen a severe erosion in popular support.
The RSS does not want to impose its agenda. Its agenda will be
implemented when it gets sufficient popular support. Ideological
indoctrination is the only way to establish a new paradigm.
However, the role of the state in this regard is only
supplementary. In this, secularist ideologues fail to comprehend
the different contexts of 1948 versus 1998.
After the assassination of M.K.Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru .overrode
strong opposition from the then home minister, Vallabhbhai Patel,
and banned the RSS to cheek its growth. Patel was not the only
senior Congressman who argued the services of the RSS should be
used in the task of nationbuilding. The shadow of the RSS was
larger than the reality of its strength. The ideological
commonality between them and the sangh was reflected in the 1949
Congress working committee resolution. Passed soon after the ban
on the RSS was lifted, it allowed RSS member to join the
Congress. Nehru reversed the decision a month later
The sangh continued to influence Congress politics. A.G. Kher,
Uttar Pradesh minister for local self-government, wrote an
article in Mahratta called "Admit the RSS into Congress fold".
Urging his party to cooperate with the RSS, he warned partymen
that "calling them fascist, abusing and insulting them, and again
and again repeating old charges does not serve any purpose." An
example of this, of course, was PD. Tandon's resignation from the
party presidency after being accused by Nehru of representing the
reactionary ideology of the RSS."
Since then, under the aegis of the Indian state, the RSS has been
projected as an illegitimate creation, outside the Indian secular
tradition. Textbooks, government sponsored and controlled media,
academic curricula and various forms of propaganda have been used
to denounce the sangh.
Nevertheless, over 50 years the RSS increased its base and
restored its credibility as a true heir of the Indian tradition.
It has more than 29,000 shakhas and nearly 800,000 swayamsevaks
attend them daily Its more than half a dozen front organizations,
like the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the Bharatiya
Mazdoor Sangh, enjoy supremacy in their respective fields of
operation. Functional groups like the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashra, Vidya
Bharati Seva Bharati and so on have helped expand the sangh's
social base. The impact of its ideology was highlighted by the
recent revelation that RSS controlled schools and shakhas have
reached the doorstep of 10 Janpath. Or, more accurately, the
premises of Priyanka Vadra's in laws' native home in Moradabad.
One of the most debated issues in Indian politics has been the
nature of the RSS. Its claim to being a cultural organization is
strongly disputed by its adversaries. During the colonial period,
the RSS alone was targeted among the voluntary organizations for
its unalloyed anti British character.
Interestingly, its formation in 1925 was a nonevent in the
political landscape of the Central Provinces. Colonial officials
saw it only as a new akhara exponent. It was only five years
later that the British decided the RSS had a political character
when its members joined many Congress led actions like the civil
disobedience movement. The sangh was accused of being a communal,
fascist and political organization by the British home
department. Thereupon an order was issued by the provincial
government prohibiting government servants and their wards from
associating with or participating in RSS activities.
This action led to an unexpected protest during the budget
session of the Central Province council in March 1934. A one
rupee cut motion moved by V.D. Kolte against the order was passed
unanimously: a humiliating defeat for the British. Even Muslim
members supported the sangh. One member, rejecting the
accusation that the sangh was communal or political, accused the
British of trying to "give a dog a bad name and then hang it."
In independent India, this colonial attitude towards the RSS
continued to be a dominant ingredient of the Nehruvian socio-
political doctrine. Today's claims of a hidden agenda have more
than an echo of the British charges against the RSS. The RSS
combines Hindu philosophy and activism, subsuming in its ideology
both ancient and modern traditions of Hindutva. It is a
reassertion of the country's indigenous values and socio-cultural
traditions. In its worldview, politics is a secondary priority.
The RSS's basic task is to be a sangathan that stresses moral and
mental development. Its organs enjoy functional autonomy in their
respective fields. The sangh intervenes in politics only when it
is absolutely necessary. For instance, it participated in the
anti-cow slaughter movement of the late Fifties, in the
Jayaprakash Narayan movement of the Seventies and the
Ramjanmabhoomi movement in 1990. The RSS's silent work in social
and educational fields through groups like the Seva Bharati and
Vidya Bharati have had a tremendous impact.
The Bharatiya Jana Sangh and later the BJP were formed to
indirectly influence the expansion of their ideology through the
polity and the state. The BJP leadership, while groomed and
trained in RSS shakhas, does not need daily dos and don'ts from
the cultural elite in Nagpur. The sangh evolved a method of
multilayered communication and consultation to achieve consensus.
There are three important dimensions of its panchayati democracy:
collectivism, consultation and consensus. Thus it is not
farfetched that BJP leaders and ministers should informally
consult with the RSS's cultural elites. The latter's moral
authority is beyond dispute within the sanghparivar.
At present, swadeshi is one of the most important issues the
sangh wants asserted by the Indian state. The farreaching
consequences of foreign direct investment, including the
multinational corporation culture, needs to be handled by the new
government with great caution. Another important issue is the
gradual reshaping - one could call it Indianization - of the
country's educational and cultural policy At present, Christian
based ethics and values still dominate the educational system.
Then there are the challenges posed by terrorist and separatist
groups to national security and integration. These need to be
met with an iron hand. A soft state cannot provide a solution.
The compulsions of coalition politics may not allow for the
fulfilment of the RSS agenda. The sangh's organs will continue to
raise its voice to create public opinion in favour of these
goals. But this does not mean alienating the BJP or indulging in
doublespeak. The RSS will continue to strive for a total
transformation of the country. It is not like the Seva Dal of
the BJP. Nor is it a mere reform movement like the Arya Samaj or
the Ramakrishna Mission. Its ultimate goal is to prepare India to
play a civilizational role, a preparation that can be done only
through Hindutva.
The author teaches political science at Delhi University.
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