Ever the opportunists
From VD Savarkar to Dr Hedgewar to “Guru-ji” Golwalkar to Balasaheb Deoras to Mohan Bhagwat, opportunism has marked the politics of the RSS even though they have cleaved to a “Hindu Rashtra” as their ideological goal.
In working towards that goal, they have always favoured tactically adjusting their vocabulary and position to suit evolving situations.
Bhagwat himself admitted to this when he said at the recent three-day convention of the RSS that situations evolve, and the RSS’s stated positions have to be adjusted to changing circumstance. At the World Hindu Congress in Chicago earlier this month, he was blunter: “Politics must be fought like politics, but do it without changing yourself.”
Thus it was that having got two of his chelas to actually fire the bullets that killed two Englishmen, Savarkar then found himself caught in conspiracy charges in London, and was recaptured at Marseilles, where he had escaped from the ship carrying him to trial and sentencing in India, and transported for life to the Andamans.
Within months, he was writing the most cringing, debasing letters to the Viceroy, declaring his loyalty to the British, and begging to be released, so that he could deploy his many talents on mobilizing the youth of India in the cause of the empire.
The Hindu right wing has always justified this craven submission to the colonial power as a tactic employed by Savarkar to return to the mainland, opportunism prevailing over principle.
The Brits relented, and just about a decade after his incarceration, allowed him to be transferred to house arrest in Ratnagiri on condition that he abjured political activism, a condition to which he swore fealty and unflinchingly adhered to until his release in 1937.
Savarkar was almost immediately elected president of the Hindu Mahasabha having, technically speaking, never been a member of the RSS. But the founder of the RSS, Dr Hedgewar, credited Savarkar with being the inspiration for the adoption by the RSS of “Hindutva,” a term coined by Savarkar. Savarakar translated this new word into “Hindudom” (modelled on Christendom), and excluding Muslims and followers of other Semitic faiths from equal citizenship in the “Hindu Rashtra” he sought to promote.
Following from his denunciation of Muslims and Christians as anti-national, Savarkar openly embraced Jinnah’s two-nation theory. It was a theory that had not emanated initially from Muslim communalism but from Savarkar’s own maiden presidential address in 1938. In that sense, Savarkar could claim parentage to both Hindu communalism and Muslim separatism.
Savarkar, having set the example, the floundering RSS of the early days was given a shot in the arm by the grand reception accorded in Rome to Hedgewar’s closest friend and comrade, BS Moonje, by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Moonje returned to India fascinated by fascism and persuaded Hedgewar to reorganize the RSS by giving it a distinctive uniform -- the khaki shorts and black cap of the RSS came straight from the Black Shirts of Mussolini’’ army of fascist goons.
Yet, as soon as Mussolini’s dominance in authoritarian European regimes was overtaken by Hitler, MS Golwalkar, the upcoming future successor to Hedgewar, became an avid fan of the German dictator. In extended conversations with a German acolyte, Golwalkar moved from undying admiration of Mussolini to undiluted praise for Nazi racism, particularly commending the principle of “racial purity” on which Hitler’s philosophy was founded.
The conversations became the defining text of RSS propaganda after 1940 when Golwalkar succeeded Hedgewar as the head of the organization. But after Hitler came to be detested universally as the most vicious mass murderer in history, the RSS found Golwalkar’s fulsome remarks most damaging, and so conveniently dismissed the long published book, propagated by the RSS for the better part of a decade in the 40s, as “not authentic.”
Bhagwat is now doing exactly the same thing by bowdlerizing Golwalkar’s Bunch of Thoughts to exorcise the embarrassing bits, and circulate the revised edition as the true “Thoughts” of the “Guru-ji.” Hypocrisy on this scale is breath-taking.
They won’t repudiate Golwalkar 1938 and 1966, but think that “circumstances” require them to deny what might now be conveniently erased. Such “lipa-poti” on Bhagwat’s part is nothing new; it is part and parcel of the RSS tool bag of deception, deceit, and denial.
Nor is Bhagwat’s revisionism new. He began giving the RSS a new image from his Vijayadashami address last year when he and the RSS saw Modi’s support slipping, both because he was failing to fulfil the many bogus pledges he had made during the 2014 election campaign, even as demonetization and the hopelessly botched implementation of GST were transforming Modi from the Sangh Parivar’s greatest asset to their greatest liability. Moreover, while the excesses unleashed on minorities were galvanizing their cadre, they were alienating that large segment of Hindu “fence-sitters” who had decided in 2014 to give the BJP a chance.
Indeed, Walter Anderson and Shridhar Damle in their most recent book The RSS: A View to the Inside, firmly place Bhagwat’s drift from Modi-Shah in the context of the massive BJP losses in the 2018 Lok Sabha by-elections. The authors add, perceptively, “The Opposition in 2018, meanwhile, shows signs of coalescing” even as the BJP’s “favourability rating” declines.
This is the setting that has led to Mohan Bhagwat mouthing a few sentences that he hopes will change public perception of the RSS as a communal organization dedicated to the replacement of our secular order.
What Bhagwat has not taken into account is that an overwhelming majority of Indian Hindus have rejected the RSS view of Hinduism and the role of religion in our polity.
Bhagwat’s recent speech is no more than a continuation of the Hindu right wing’s century-long tradition of political opportunism. It is yet another attempt at shoring up voter support for the BJP and, therefore, not to be read as defining a revolution in the ideology of the RSS. “Bhagwat”, say Anderson/Damle, “has often reiterated that all Indians are culturally Hindu, which is likely to remain the RSS’s stand on Hindu nationalism.”
That accounts for why just weeks earlier, Bhagwat at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s World Hindu Congress in Chicago described his opponents as “dogs.” The full sentence reads: “Even a lion or a Royal Bengal Tiger, who is the king of the jungle, if he is alone, wild dogs can invade and destroy him. Our opponents know this.”
To take the wildlife analogy further, may I remind the Hon’ble Sarsanghchalak that a snake may slough its skin but never drains the poison from its fangs.
Mani Shankar Aiyar is a senior Congress leader and former MP, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Trouble in paradise? REUTERS
Bhagwat’s speech reflects concerns
Consistency has never been a virtue in the RSS.From VD Savarkar to Dr Hedgewar to “Guru-ji” Golwalkar to Balasaheb Deoras to Mohan Bhagwat, opportunism has marked the politics of the RSS even though they have cleaved to a “Hindu Rashtra” as their ideological goal.
In working towards that goal, they have always favoured tactically adjusting their vocabulary and position to suit evolving situations.
Bhagwat himself admitted to this when he said at the recent three-day convention of the RSS that situations evolve, and the RSS’s stated positions have to be adjusted to changing circumstance. At the World Hindu Congress in Chicago earlier this month, he was blunter: “Politics must be fought like politics, but do it without changing yourself.”
Thus it was that having got two of his chelas to actually fire the bullets that killed two Englishmen, Savarkar then found himself caught in conspiracy charges in London, and was recaptured at Marseilles, where he had escaped from the ship carrying him to trial and sentencing in India, and transported for life to the Andamans.
Within months, he was writing the most cringing, debasing letters to the Viceroy, declaring his loyalty to the British, and begging to be released, so that he could deploy his many talents on mobilizing the youth of India in the cause of the empire.
The Hindu right wing has always justified this craven submission to the colonial power as a tactic employed by Savarkar to return to the mainland, opportunism prevailing over principle.
The Brits relented, and just about a decade after his incarceration, allowed him to be transferred to house arrest in Ratnagiri on condition that he abjured political activism, a condition to which he swore fealty and unflinchingly adhered to until his release in 1937.
Savarkar was almost immediately elected president of the Hindu Mahasabha having, technically speaking, never been a member of the RSS. But the founder of the RSS, Dr Hedgewar, credited Savarkar with being the inspiration for the adoption by the RSS of “Hindutva,” a term coined by Savarkar. Savarakar translated this new word into “Hindudom” (modelled on Christendom), and excluding Muslims and followers of other Semitic faiths from equal citizenship in the “Hindu Rashtra” he sought to promote.
Following from his denunciation of Muslims and Christians as anti-national, Savarkar openly embraced Jinnah’s two-nation theory. It was a theory that had not emanated initially from Muslim communalism but from Savarkar’s own maiden presidential address in 1938. In that sense, Savarkar could claim parentage to both Hindu communalism and Muslim separatism.
Savarkar, having set the example, the floundering RSS of the early days was given a shot in the arm by the grand reception accorded in Rome to Hedgewar’s closest friend and comrade, BS Moonje, by the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Moonje returned to India fascinated by fascism and persuaded Hedgewar to reorganize the RSS by giving it a distinctive uniform -- the khaki shorts and black cap of the RSS came straight from the Black Shirts of Mussolini’’ army of fascist goons.
Yet, as soon as Mussolini’s dominance in authoritarian European regimes was overtaken by Hitler, MS Golwalkar, the upcoming future successor to Hedgewar, became an avid fan of the German dictator. In extended conversations with a German acolyte, Golwalkar moved from undying admiration of Mussolini to undiluted praise for Nazi racism, particularly commending the principle of “racial purity” on which Hitler’s philosophy was founded.
The conversations became the defining text of RSS propaganda after 1940 when Golwalkar succeeded Hedgewar as the head of the organization. But after Hitler came to be detested universally as the most vicious mass murderer in history, the RSS found Golwalkar’s fulsome remarks most damaging, and so conveniently dismissed the long published book, propagated by the RSS for the better part of a decade in the 40s, as “not authentic.”
Bhagwat is now doing exactly the same thing by bowdlerizing Golwalkar’s Bunch of Thoughts to exorcise the embarrassing bits, and circulate the revised edition as the true “Thoughts” of the “Guru-ji.” Hypocrisy on this scale is breath-taking.
They won’t repudiate Golwalkar 1938 and 1966, but think that “circumstances” require them to deny what might now be conveniently erased. Such “lipa-poti” on Bhagwat’s part is nothing new; it is part and parcel of the RSS tool bag of deception, deceit, and denial.
Nor is Bhagwat’s revisionism new. He began giving the RSS a new image from his Vijayadashami address last year when he and the RSS saw Modi’s support slipping, both because he was failing to fulfil the many bogus pledges he had made during the 2014 election campaign, even as demonetization and the hopelessly botched implementation of GST were transforming Modi from the Sangh Parivar’s greatest asset to their greatest liability. Moreover, while the excesses unleashed on minorities were galvanizing their cadre, they were alienating that large segment of Hindu “fence-sitters” who had decided in 2014 to give the BJP a chance.
Indeed, Walter Anderson and Shridhar Damle in their most recent book The RSS: A View to the Inside, firmly place Bhagwat’s drift from Modi-Shah in the context of the massive BJP losses in the 2018 Lok Sabha by-elections. The authors add, perceptively, “The Opposition in 2018, meanwhile, shows signs of coalescing” even as the BJP’s “favourability rating” declines.
This is the setting that has led to Mohan Bhagwat mouthing a few sentences that he hopes will change public perception of the RSS as a communal organization dedicated to the replacement of our secular order.
What Bhagwat has not taken into account is that an overwhelming majority of Indian Hindus have rejected the RSS view of Hinduism and the role of religion in our polity.
Bhagwat’s recent speech is no more than a continuation of the Hindu right wing’s century-long tradition of political opportunism. It is yet another attempt at shoring up voter support for the BJP and, therefore, not to be read as defining a revolution in the ideology of the RSS. “Bhagwat”, say Anderson/Damle, “has often reiterated that all Indians are culturally Hindu, which is likely to remain the RSS’s stand on Hindu nationalism.”
That accounts for why just weeks earlier, Bhagwat at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s World Hindu Congress in Chicago described his opponents as “dogs.” The full sentence reads: “Even a lion or a Royal Bengal Tiger, who is the king of the jungle, if he is alone, wild dogs can invade and destroy him. Our opponents know this.”
To take the wildlife analogy further, may I remind the Hon’ble Sarsanghchalak that a snake may slough its skin but never drains the poison from its fangs.
Mani Shankar Aiyar is a senior Congress leader and former MP, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
