India Today
‘Bajrang Dal does RSS’s dirty work’
by Arnab Bannerjee
New Delhi, February 18, 2009
Militant Hinduism in India is seeing a convergence between the Savarkarites and the RSS. This convergence has been facilitated by militant organisations like Bajrang Dal, according to Christopher Jaffrelot, well-known author on Hinduism.
"In contrast to the 1940s, when the Savarkarites and the RSS leaders followed two different routes, there are more affinities between them now," Jaffrelot said.
The French author pointed out a parallel situation when, after Partition, many from the Sangh Parivar gravitated towards Godse because they felt that other Hindu organisations were not militant enough to face the emerging challenges then.
They found the Savarkarist strategy of violence and even terrorism more relevant then, according to Jaffrelot, who was delivering a lecture on From militia to terrorism: Is the Sangh Parivar back to Savarkarism? organised by SciencesPo India Alumni Associations (SPIAA) on Monday.
He went on to explain how Pragya Singh - arrested by the police in the Malegaon bomb blast case - was a sadhvi who had been an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leader in Ujjain and Indore till 1997. He added how all the people involved in the blast had gradually gravitated towards militancy from the mainstream Hindu parties.
Jaffrelot emphasised the role of the Bajrang Dal in the rise of Hindu militancy by pointing out how the party had organised training camps in Nagpur as early as 2001.
He then recalled how the RSS organised training camps in Alwar in 1947. According to him, the RSS, with the help of Bajrang Dal, has created a buffer which does the dirty work for the Sangh Parivar.
Jaffrelot also pointed out that since the turn of this century, India has been most affected by terror attacks - 800 people have died over the last eight years.
Jaffrelot has been visiting India since 1984 and has studied its political history in detail which has resulted in books like Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics (1999).
According to him, the Indian government has attributed the growth of violence in the 2000s to neighbouring countries, using the "foreign hand" theory that Indira Gandhi had initiated in the 1970s.
He observed that the local citizens are not responsible for these acts "for they can only be the fault of Pakistan and especially ISI infiltrators". Bangladesh figures as another usual suspect in this updated version of the "foreign hand theory". "Your State has become weak by the growing assertiveness of these movements backed by armaments like AK-47. But all is not lost. India has a great tradition, and has the wherewithal to counter oppression or terrorism," Jaffrelot concluded.
Courtesy: Mail Today
|
