network of Hindu hardliners in western India and Melbourne, New Jersey

(Published in: Indian Express, June 23, 2008)

Quietly, hardline Hindu outfits build a network across Maharashtra, Goa

by Kavitha Iyer

MUMBAI, JUNE 22: Bal Thackeray may have called their bombs “damp squibs” and their parent organisations may have quickly disowned the five men arrested by Maharashtra police last week in connection with the crude explosives planted at cultural venues outside Mumbai, but a closer look at the groups and the people behind them reveal an ominous, new network of Hindu hardliners in western India.

The five men were members of the Sanatan Sanstha (SS) and the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), hitherto little-known groups operating in the hinterland of Maharashtra and Goa. Two of them are also members of another newly launched outfit called the Dharmashakti Sena, pictures of whose inaugural rally in April show young men dressed in military fatigues.

These groups, which work like wheels within wheels, have been quietly mobilising Hindus on a cocktail of Ramrajya, Hindu dharma and “dharmakranti” — religious revolution — in and around Mumbai for a few years now, investigations by The Indian Express have found.

While the SS and the HJS are both registered in Goa as charitable organisations, the Dharmashakti Sena was set up in 16 Maharashtra towns and cities on Gudi Padwa day this April. Its stated aim: establishing “Ramrajya” and to make Hindus “capable of action”.

Publications linked to the three groups say the Dharmashakti Sena offers free training in self-defence and the training involves inculcating “mental courage”. It also reminds readers of the “armed battle of revolutionaries and saints”, RSS leader Golwalkar’s work on “protecting Hindus” and his teaching that “weapons should be countered with weapons”.

Conversions of Hindus, genocide, what they say is the Congress government’s poor track record against Islamic terrorism, “persecution at the hands of anti-Hindus”, are recurrent themes, alongside a call for Hindus and Hindu organisations to unite.

Unlike leaders of the RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal, the men and women behind these new outfits are low profile activists who have been quietly chipping away at the mindset of Hindus in Maharashtra and Goa. The founder of the SS, the oldest of the three groups, is Dr Jayant Athavale, a clinical hypnotherapist who practised for two decades and also set up the Indian Society of Clinical Hypnosis and Research.

But the man, estimated to be about 60 years old, rarely emerges from his “writing work” and is no longer active in the daily activities of the group, activists said. “On account of the task of writing books on spirituality as per the direction of Guru, spiritual practice and illness, H H Dr Jayant Balaji Athavale has kept himself away from the activities of Sanatan Sanstha and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti for the last four years,” SS Managing Trustee Virendra Marathe told The Indian Express in an e-mail.

“His interaction with others is limited to the extent of conveying his thoughts, if any”many of the seekers who are associated with Sanatan Sanstha from the beginning have not seen him for many years, while new seekers have not seen him at all,” he added.

The clinical hypnosis research institute he set up, in Sion, central Mumbai, is now a small centre of the Sanstha, where occasional satsangs are held. “He travels to all the centres,” said Abhay Vartak, the Mumbai spokesperson for the Sanstha. “Unse milna mushkil hai (it’s difficult to meet him).”

HJS and SS leaders are also cagey talking about Dharmashakti Sena chief Vinay Panvalkar, thought to live in the Dadar area of central Mumbai and who has travelled extensively across Maharashtra after the outfit was launched. At a ‘dharmajagruti sabha’ (religious awakening conference) in Pune in mid-May, Panvalkar is quoted as saying, “Hindus are cornered from all sides, but there is no retaliation from them.” At a later meeting in Thane, he says “The war in future will be a dharma-yudh and Dharmashakti Sena will be the guiding force.”

Police say some of the arrested activists are suspected to have had trysts with bombs and violence in the past. Maharashtra’s Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare said, “We will not simply accept the statements of the accused that the blasts were their own initiative. Various members of these organisations are being questioned. If their role is found in the planning or the execution of these incidents, we will certainly write to the Centre and seek that they be banned.” — (With inputs from Sagnik Chowdhury)

Spreading the word, Melbourne to New Jersey

•Outfits do not have formal memberships; ashrams in Goa and Panvel near Mumbai, among others, hold satsangs

• Active members offer time to spread the word; some travel and are presently in Mauritius

•Funding is through donations. Groups also earn from sale of literature, audio tapes, CDs

•Travel funded by members, stay sponsored by hosts

•Sanatan Sanstha has centres in New Jersey, Brisbane, Melbourne, Dubai

The leadership

•Dr Jayant Balaji Athavale, founder of Hindu Janajagruti Samiti
•Virendra Marathe, managing trustee of Sanatan Sanstha
•Vinay Panvalkar, chief of Dharmashakti Sena
•Dr Durgesh Samant, national spokesman of HJS
•Abhay Vartak, Mumbai spokesman of Sanatan Sanstha
•Shivaji Vatkar, Mumbai convenor of HJS