India: RSS connected Sewa Bharti, sole NGO collaborating with Government on Covid 19 under orders of Ministry of Ayush

 

Binoy Viswam Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) 116, North Avenue New Delhi - 110 001 Mob: 96057667022 E-mail: binoyviswam55@gmail.com Partisan orders of Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences Statement issued by Binoy Viswam, Leader of CPI Parliamentary Group & Secretary, National Council It is deeply unfortunate that even during a pandemic that has claimed over 3 lakh lives and infected more than 2.26 crore people in India, the Central Government is engaging in partisan behaviour and continuing to promote its narrow self-interests. On 12th may 2021, the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Ayush, directed State & District authorities to disturb Ayush-64 through a private organisation, Sewa Bharti, that is closely related to the RSS. The order appears to make Sewa Bharti, the sole NGO collaborating with the Government over the project to distribute and document the use of Ayush-64 to asymptomatic and mild to moderate Covid-19 patients. Beyond the tirelessly engaged Government officials and functionaries, the Covid-19 pandemic has seen a wide array of civil society organisations, citizens collectives and individuals come forward to provide assistance to the Government in combating the pandemic. These organisations and individuals have shown exemplary courage and service to the nation as they have sacrificed their own lives and provided relief in circumstances where even the Government has failed to do so. However, at no point has the Government appointed a single organisation to collaborate with it on a Covid related project across the entire country. It is therefore difficult to comprehend as to why such special treatment has been given to Sewa Bharti, beyond its obvious connections to the RSS and the Central Government’s desire to gain political mileage from the same. At a time when the nation requires assistance from all quarters, it is unacceptable that one organisation, with clear political connections, is being given sole space to collaborate with the Government on vital projects such as this. I, therefore, call upon the Minister of Ayush to withdraw the above mentioned order and allow more organisations to collaborate with the Government on this project. 24th May 2021 Binoy Viswam

Member, Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Member, Consultative Committee on Environment, Forest and Climate Change

India: On How 736 Sangh Parivar NGOs qualified for government funds, subsidised rations during the COVID-19 lockdown | Sagar - 11 July 2020, The Caravan

The Caravan - 11 July 2020

736 Sangh Parivar NGOs qualified for government funds, subsidised rations during the COVID-19 lockdown

by Sagar 

As of 13 May, at least 736 NGOs affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh featured among a list of organisations enlisted by the central government for relief interventions during the ongoing lockdown to control the novel coronavirus pandemic. All these entities come under the umbrella of the Rashtriya Sewa Bharati, which is a registered trust, and works in the fields of education, health and “self-reliance,” according to its website. The RSB’s NGOs are among the 94,662 NGOs which are working as “COVID warriors” with district administrations across the country since the first week of April, and are being monitored by a group of bureaucrats, constituted by the home secretary. Owing to this enlistment, the RSB’s NGOs became entitled to funds from the State Disaster Relief Fund, or SDRF—set up under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 for states to use during a crisis—and for buying subsidised foodgrains from the Food Corporation of India, a central government body.

In an ongoing series, The Caravan tracked the RSS’s relief interventions since the beginning of the lockdown. As demonstrated in the first report, the Sangh, a three-time banned organisation, employs disaster-relief interventions, such as the ongoing pandemic, to gain influence and acceptability for its foundational aspiration—the formation of the Hindu Rashtra. Consequently, the RSB’s organisations’ use of government funds and resources to carry out relief work is significant because the RSS has never publicly acknowledged financial support from any government for its disaster-relief work.

As of 2014, the RSB’s roster included 57,000 social and economic projects which were being executed by at least 928 NGOs registered under its domain. All these organisations are listed on the RSB’s website. The central government’s list of enlisted NGOs is collated on a portal called NGO-Darpan, run by the Niti Aayog, the central government’s planning body. The RSB’s website claims that all its organisations are voluntary and independent, and it is only ideologically attached to the RSS. However, the RSB’s own five-yearly report, last published in 2014, has a section by Bhaiyyaji Joshi, the RSS’s sarkaryawaah, or second in command. Joshi wrote that these sewa bharati units “are independent but being supported and inspired by RSS.” He further noted, “The workers of these organisations are connected with the local RSS pattern … None of the service programmes work with RSS banners though these works are directed by swayamsevaks.” Senior members of the RSB’s organisational hierarchy have held similarly high positions in the Sangh, too.

According to Sankar Das, a bauddhik pramukh—intellectual head—of Assam, the Sangh has “46 national platforms,” which include the RSS’s labour wing, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and the student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad, among others. It should be noted that there seems to be no consensus among scholars as to the exact number of organisations which come under the ambit of the Sangh. Since the Sangh is neither a registered organisation nor does it pay taxes, this has helped it avoid scrutiny of its finances and those of its affiliates, collectively referred to as the Sangh Parivar. Instead, the mythos of the Sangh is based on its voluntary nature—the RSS’s own literature and outreach has meticulously created and projected an image of an organisation that is “self-reliant” and does not take money from external sources. An oft-repeated refrain is that the RSS raises its money from voluntary members, called swayamsevaks, in the form of a donation known as “gurudakshina”—a gift given to honour a guru.

I spoke to around two dozen RSS members, including those associated with the RSB, from 11 states. Speaking about the Sangh’s funding, one of the RSB’s members gave me a response that the rest of them echoed: “Khud se kartey hain ya kabhi kabhi samaj ke logon se madad mil jati hai”—We do it ourselves or sometimes we get help from people in the society. There was no mention of any funding from the government.

In addition, the RSB’s website offers its NGOs to private corporations as “avenues” to spend their CSR funds. In fact, a week into the second phase of the lockdown, the Niti Aayog had “urged” private companies to consider the NGOs registered on the NGO-Darpan portal for their CSR spending. Under the existing law, a private corporation has to spend two percent of its profit on social projects, either through its own non-profit foundation or independently registered non-profit organisations. Earlier, on 23 March, the ministry of corporate affairs had allowed spending on COVID-related activities to be counted as CSR. Consequently, all of the NGOs on the Niti Aayog portal, including the RSB’s, qualified for these CSR funds.

According to a notification by the ministry of home affairs, the decision to engage NGOs and support them with government resources and money was formulated four days after the lockdown began on 25 March. The lockdown, enforced without any assurances on food, wage and shelter security, forced thousands of migrant workers living in the cities to return to their homes on foot, and severely impacted the most vulnerable segments of Indian society. By 28 March, at least 12 lakh migrants were grounded at various state borders after the ministry of home affairs ordered the director generals of police of all states to stop all movement of migrants. On 29 March, to deal with the situation, the government formed 11 “empowered groups” headed by bureaucrats attached to the central government to prepare a “well planned and coordinated emergency response” system against the outbreak. One of the empowered groups, EG 6, was headed by Amitabh Kant, the chief executive officer of Niti Aayog. The mandate of the group was “coordinating with the private sector, NGOs and international organisations for response related activities.”

The EG 6’s first meeting, on 5 April, was chaired by Kant, and the subsequent press release said, “CEO NITI Aayog has written to over 92000 NGOs/ CSOs registered on the Darpan portal of NITI Aayog, appealing them to assist the government.” The assistance sought was wide-ranging and included delivery of essential services to vulnerable populations, awareness drives, and community kitchens, among others. The notice also said that Kant had written to “all Chief Secretaries urging them to instruct the local administration at the district level to utilise the physical and human resources made available by NGOs and CSOs.”

Five days later, the prime minister Narendra Modi chaired a review meeting of all the empowered groups, which was also attended by the national security advisor, Ajit Doval, and the principal secretary, PK Mishra. According to the update on Modi’s website, Mishra had suggested that “coordination with NGOs at district level be done to avoid overlaps and ensure efficacious utilization of resources.”

A day after Modi’s review, on 11 April, the Food Corporation of India, which comes under the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, released a circular on supplying foodgrains to NGOs. The notice stated that “in view of the extraordinary situation … it has been decided that as an one time measure, charitable/non-governmental organizations running relief camps/providing food to needy people may be provided foodgrain … without the need for registration/empanelment with FCI or the need to participate in e-auction.”

Two weeks later, on 25 April, a group of ministers, the highest executive body set up by Modi to monitor the administration’s response system, also held its review meeting. This GoM was formed on 3 February, and was headed by Harsh Vardhan, the union minister for health and family welfare. According to a press release, Kant told the GoM, “These NGOs are supported by the States by allotting funds from SDRF funds and by FCI who is providing the foodgrains at subsidized cost.”

The very next day, Akhilesh Yadav, the president of the Samajwadi Party and a former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, accused the RSS of receiving food from the government but distributing it as its own relief material. “BJP governments are doing politics instead of working honestly. There is no difference between community kitchen and the storage of RSS in the state. The RSS is claiming the food items received from voluntary organisations and government institutions as its own and then distributing them in the Modi bag to some BJP families.” Yadav is one of the few senior politicians who have publicly criticised the RSS’s relief work during the lockdown. When I posed this allegation to Ramashish Singh, an RSS pracharak—full-time member—based out of Varanasi, he evaded it. He is also a member of the Prajna Pravah, a Sangh affiliate that describes its mission as “incorporating the theme of nationalism in spiritual terms.” Instead, Ramashish told me, “What credibility or legitimacy does Akhilesh Yadav have?”

However, a senior central tax official, who chose to remain anonymous, told me that even though the RSB organisations can recruit volunteers of their choice, including swayamsevaks, to execute their COVID-related programmes and their regular social projects, one cannot rule out the possibility that the government funds given to sewa bharati units were used by the RSS. The RSB’s own annual report of 2014 categorically states that the sewa bharti’s projects are designed and supervised by local RSS administrators, and executed by swayamsevaks, among other members. 

On 4 May, Kant chaired another meeting of EG 6, which included details of the entire plan implemented by the group. A press release about the meeting said, “The EG 6 is monitoring and coordinating with NGO and CSO networks in all State / Union Territories and with 700 District Magistrates in the country on a real time basis to fight the spread of COVID-19. The mobilisation of these 92000 NGOs has resulted in commendable outcomes.” It had details of foodgrains and their prices, for NGOs to procure and distribute. According to the statement, the EG 6 had requested all the chief secretaries “to appoint State-level Nodal Officers to coordinate with all NGOs and resolve their issues apart from leveraging their resources and networks.”

Currently, there is no way to quantify the actual transaction of money between the SDRFs and the government-enlisted NGOs since the disbursals of SDRFs during the lockdown are not in the public domain. The data on the amount of subsidised food sold to these NGOs during the pandemic is also not public.

When I spoke to the national general secretary of the RSB, Shrawan Kumar, and asked him about the funds coming from the government, he denied taking any money from the administration. He said, “I do not know about SDRF.” Kumar said that “all our state units function independently. It’s possible that the state unit knows about it and they are doing it on their own, since all our units work independently.” He agreed that “yes, we got the FCI circular and we told all our state units to use this scheme.” In addition, Kumar said that while he himself had not enlisted the RSB’s NGOs with the government but “RSB is an umbrella organisation. Each state works at its own level. They keep doing things independently; maybe one of them did this.”

While Kumar denied any knowledge of SDRF, D Vijayan, the president of the Kerala unit of the RSB, told me that they had availed of both, the FCI’s subsidised foodgrains and the SDRF. He said “we are waiting for the [SDRF] funds” and had submitted the necessary documentation for the funds to be released to them.

Kumar also insisted that “we are a registered trust and follow all the legal requirements.” Since it is registered, as per the law, RSB units can raise funds from people and private corporations. Its website states: “In order to promote its CSR activities, the company needs to identify social entrepreneurs, self-help groups or an individual from an impact and influence area and support them by impact investment. Rashtriya Sewa Bharti is an impactful avenue for channelizing the corporate CSR resources.”

It should be noted here that in its 95-year history, the RSS has never registered itself. In September 2018, during an  address at the Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital, the RSS chief, or sarsanghchalak, Mohan Bhagwat, gave a rather convoluted reason for why the Sangh is not registered or does not pay taxes. “When the Sangh started, the government was not of independent Bharat. It was 1925. It started and went on like that,” he said. “After Independence also it went on like that. In all the laws after Independence, there was no such law that every organisation has to get itself registered. And by law, the Sangh has a status—Body of Individuals. As per this status, by law, we don’t have to pay tax.”

Irrespective of the lack of a money trail, it would not be amiss to say that the RSB and the RSS are conjoined at more than an ideological level. Rishipal Dadwal, the current vice-president of the RSB, is also a rashtriya sangathan mantri, or national organisational secretary, of the RSS. In February 2019, when the former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh donated a part of his family property to the RSB, Dadwal was present during the registration of the property in Lucknow. Until 2018, Parag Abhyankar, the present sampark adhikari, or communication liaison of the Rashtriya Sewa Bharati, had been a prant pracharak –a full-time member who handles state-wide activities—for the RSS’s Malwa prant. The RSS’s state boundaries are different from the union map. An RSS publication titled, Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh: Ek Parichay, says that as per the Sangh’s administrative divisions, India has 41 states and seven union territories. 

Kumar told me that his organisation implements social-welfare projects because it is in the “interest of the nation” and part of “Indian culture.” All the two dozen office-bearers of the RSS and the RSB that I spoke to used a similar vocabulary when questioned about the Sangh’s role during disasters. All of them invoked the concept of “sewa”—service—as an essential pillar of the “nation” and “nation-building.” Their notion of “nation” was unerringly conflated with being “Hindu.” Most of them studiously avoided any reference to fundraising for the RSB’s nine-hundred plus NGOs, insisting that “people from the society” chipped in with whatever money and resources they could.

The Caravan compared the database of NGOs enlisted by the government, which is available in the Niti Aayog-run portal, NGO-Darpan, with the list of organisations registered under the Rashtriya Sewa Bharti. The RSB’s website has the details of at least 928 NGOs. Duplication or repeating entries were eliminated by cross-matching emails and mobile numbers from the NGO-Darpan database. A total of 736 RSB’s organisations, spread across 25 states, were found on the Darpan database. Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Kerala accounted for the maximum number of RSB’s NGOs enlisted with the government.

This is the second report of a series on the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh’s relief interventions during the COVID-19 lockdown. You can read the first and third report, here and here, respectively.

 Sagar is a staff writer at The Caravan.

India: Today, 'Army school' by RSS / Sewa Bharti, ... Tomorrow an Army School Run by Jamaat-e-Islami ?

First RSS ‘Army’ school from next April; Ist batch to have 160 students
School to follow Central Board of Secondary Education syllabus; prospectus ‘ready’.
By Kumar Anshuman|
Jul 29, 2019, 08.21 AM IST

Read more at:

https://m.economictimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/first-rss-army-school-from-next-april-ist-batch-to-have-160-students/articleshow/70426347.cms

India: RSS Indoctrination of adivasi young boys and adults in Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh - Report by Neha Dixit on newslaundry.com

Reproduced from: https://www.newslaundry.com | May 9, 2019

Meet the boys, young adults and old men of RSS preparing for 2019 elections in Jhabua

Battling Christianity and Islam is a top priority.

By Neha Dixit


In January 2018, Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, said all are “children of Adivasis”. Addressing a rally in Raipur, Bhagwat said: “When we say Adivasi, then that is our core identity. We are their children. Even though we see different pictures, our forefathers were the same … from 40,000 years ago."
According to the 2011 census, 21 per cent of the total population of Madhya Pradesh is Scheduled Tribe, known as Adivasi. The Malwa-Nimar region comprising the districts of Jhabua, Dhar, Badwani, Khargone, Khandwa, Dewas, and Ratlam has 22 out of the 47 seats reserved for STs in Madhya Pradesh. The area, of extreme political consequence, has been part of the RSS's pet project to draw the tribals into a pan-Hindu world through RSS-affiliated outfits like the Sewa Bharti, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and Vidya Bharti, among others.
Despite that, since the first Lok Sabha elections in 1952 up till 2015—a span of 17 elections—the RSS's political body, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has only won this seat once, in 2014.
The Ratlam-Jhabua parliamentary seat is set for polls in the last phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections on May 19. Newslaundry meets members of different age groups and outfits of the RSS to find out about their work, areas of focus, and preparations for the upcoming elections.

The RSS: old men and 'ghar wapsi'
“As of now, religious conversions of tribals by Christians is at an all-time high in Jhabua. Thirty-five per cent of the district is now Christian," says Ashok Verma, sitting in the verandah of his house in Antervelia village. Verma is in charge of the RSS unit of Antervelia in Meghnagar town in Jhabua district. A small-built man in his mid-50s, he runs a tent house and a local grocery shop, even as he’s otherwise employed in “spreading Hindutva”.
Verma attended a “Hindu Sangam” in 2008 in Jhabua and joined the RSS soon after. The Hindu Sangam is a platform to bring members, supporters of the RSS and its affiliate organisations—over 40 of them—together to exchange thoughts on building a Hindu nation. The RSS has been holding these Sangams, a congregation of Hindus in the tribal-dominated areas of Jhabua, for over three decades.

Ashok Verma, who is in charge of the RSS unit in Antervelia.

Verma's anti-conversion Hindutva rhetoric against Christians in Jhabua dates back to the 1990s. It first started when Sister Rani, a nun at a local church, was killed in the neighbouring district of Indore in 1995.  When Uma Bharti, the hardline BJP leader who came into prominence for her role in the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, was appointed as the Madhya Pradesh chief minister from 2003 to 2004, slogans like “Pehle Kasai, Phir Isai (First the Muslims, then Christians)” became commonplace in this tribal belt. These are the two communities that are perceived enemies in the Hindutva project of RSS.
In 2005, there was a spate of attacks on churches in Jhabua when a minor girl was raped inside a Christian missionary school. Since then, almost every year, anti-Christian violence picks up during the month of December. As a result, NDTV reports, in 2017, in parts of Madhya Pradesh, Christians chose to “forego Sunday prayers, carol singing and displaying crosses and rosaries through the year, fearing they will be accused of converting locals and persecuted”. In January 2018, two boys performing a "Christmas dance" in a primary school in Meghnagar were stopped by RSS members.
According to Verma, there are 400 “illegal” churches in Jhabua built to convert tribals to Christianity and to occupy government land. He estimates that at least 7,000 people have converted to Christianity in the last three years in the district. This year, on February 3, a statue of the Virgin Mary was set on fire in Ishgar village in Jhabua. He says: “They lure them with biscuits, cakes, money, non-vegetarian food. First, they get them to start lighting incense sticks in front of a picture of Jesus Christ on a weekly basis, and then get them to baptize. Are we going to be mute spectators?"
He says his local RSS unit has managed to do “ghar wapsi” of over 100 families over the past year in Jhabua.
“Ghar wapsi” is a series of “reconversion” activities initiated by the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the RSS to “facilitate” the conversion of non-Hindus to Hinduism. In December 2014, VHP leader Pravin Togadia had said the world was once inhabited only by Hindus, and that the VHP would ensure the Hindu population in India increased from its current 82 per cent to 100 per cent.
The reconversion process involves a hawan, a Hindu ritual of burning offerings to “purge” the converts, and a pledge to follow the tenets of Hinduism.
Verma believes there is a larger conspiracy behind the religious conversions done by the local churches. "The Indian Constitution guarantees reservation to STs in the government sector. By converting tribals to Christianity, they want to take over positions of power in the Indian administration and rule the Hindus."
His son Rohendra Verma, 24, nods at his father's statement. Currently unemployed, Rohendra believes that only “kattar” or “staunch” Hindus can save India. When asked if he knows of any cases of tribals converting to Christianity, he replies, "I have heard of them but don't know any in my own circles. They are taking away our jobs. We either save Hindus now or get rid of Muslims and Christians later. There are only two choices." He is yet to officially join the RSS.  
The 2011 census data negates the paranoia peddled by the RSS. According to these figures, 0.3 per cent of Madhya Pradesh's population of 77 million were registered as Christians and around 90 per cent were Hindus. The same census figures state that the Christian population in Jhabua is 3.75 per cent, 10 times less than the RSS’s figures. In fact, instead of an increase, the overall population of Christians in India has been on a decline in the past five decades: 2.60 per cent in 1971, 2.44 per cent in 1981, 2.34 per cent in 1991, 2.30 per cent in 2001 and 2.30 per cent in 2011.
Verma says the census data is “flawed”.
Apart from “saving” the tribal population from Christians, Verma also actively works towards propagating the Hindu religion among them. This includes distributing statues of Hanuman to all households, teaching them how to celebrate Raksha Bandhan, and how to conduct Hindu weddings. He says, “They didn't even know how to take seven rounds around the fire. We had to teach them."
In her book In The Belly Of The River, sociologist Amita Baviskar had written: “Adivasi religious life is built around animism and ancestor worship and evolved quite distinctly from the Hindu tradition. Their myths and rituals are located in their closeness to and reverence for nature.” Verma’s task is to appropriate these practices as Hinduism. “The kind of round stone the Bhil community worships as Bada Dev is actually like Shiv. Similarly, the foliage and the trees are part of the 'Mata Ka Van (Forest of the Goddess)’. We tell them their practices are all Hindu. They just don't know that.”
Another task is to repudiate local tribal practices and replace them with “upper-caste” Hindu rituals. The RSS started a drive here to stop the sacrifice of kadaknath—a rare breed of fowl available only in this belt—among tribals on Diwali and replaced it with the ritual worship of Ganapati and Goddess Lakshmi. Similarly, the tribal communities participate in a pre-Holi celebration called Bhagoria: a “festival of love” called pranayapurva where young women choose their life partners by applying gulal on the faces of the young men. Verma says this behaviour is a “blot on the character” of Indian women. “We have worked to stop this perversion.”
In this area, the RSS has a comprehensive network that follows a five-tiered structure of villages, mandals, khands, sankuls and jilas (divisions, segments, complexes and districts) parallel to the two-tiered government model. When asked what is the larger goal of Hindutva, Verma says, "I didn't think about it ever. I just want to see a society purged of Christianity. I hope Modiji will help us in his second term."
In the upcoming 2019 elections in the state, the BJP has fielded their local MLA Guman Singh Damor. Verma says, “We worked very hard to get Damor elected from the Jhabua Assembly seat. For the upcoming elections, our booth agents have been shortlisted. The booth tolis with 20 RSS members each are ready. Our slogan will be 'Hindu Jago, Kristi bhago (Hindus wake up, Christians go away)'."
The young men: battling Muslims and ‘deviant’ Hindu girls
Meanwhile, the Bajrang Dal is also hard at work to save Hinduism in the area.
"We try very hard to work for Hindu unity. Our special focus is on ‘love jihad’ cases," says Devraj Singh Rathore, a 21-year-old member of the outfit. Tall, lean and well-built, he wears a freshly-applied red tilak on his forehead. Rathore is an undergraduate student of commerce at a local college. His area of concern, "love jihad", is a Hindu Right-wing theory that Muslim men “lure” Hindu women to marry them and convert them to Islam. Many police investigations have conceded in court that there is no evidence to prove the existence of this practice.
The Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the VHP, formed in 1984 in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, when the VHP was organising a “Ram-Janki rath yatra” in the town. Ayodhya is believed to be the birthplace of Lord Ram and the tense communal atmosphere at the time led the government to refuse the VHP permission to carry out the procession, citing security reasons. As a result, senior leaders of the VHP had called upon the Hindu youth to protect the procession—and Hinduism—from its enemies, resulting in the formation of the Bajrang Dal.
The group organises akhadas, training camps to teach martial arts, wrestling and Hindutva ideology. Like a lot of young men, Rathore was interested in bodybuilding and wrestling, and hence started attending the local akhada in the area three years ago. “I was initially just having fun. I really got interested in Bajrang Dal activities when Deepak Makwana, the RSS pracharak from Thandla tehsil, addressed us. He said that we should think of how Muslims are united all over the world. Then why not Hindus? That really struck a chord with me."

Devraj Singh Rathore and Gaurav Vikram, both members of the Bajrang Dal.

Rathore’s friend, 22-year-old Gaurav Vikram, sits next to him. He’s also a member of the Bajrang Dal. “There are one crore Bangladeshi Muslims and 11 lakh Rohingya Muslims in India,” Vikram says. “They run terrorist training camps inside madrassas. There’s an organisation by the name of Jaish even in Jhabua. This needs to stop or they will take over.”
However, he is unable to explain how an organisation called “Jaish” is necessarily a terrorist outfit. He says, "I will find out and tell you."
Vikram has been running a mobile shop for the last three years. He was unable to enroll for higher education because of financial constraints at home. “They are taking over jobs, our country and our women. For the last three years, I have actively done the Hindu religion's promotion to fight the Islamic threat," he says.  
On May 19, Rathore and Vikram will vote for the first time in a Lok Sabha election. Rathore says, “We want a government at the Centre that listens to us. The BJP government in Madhya Pradesh under Shivraj Singh was here for 15 years. Even their administration rarely listened to us when we protested against Muslims taking out Muharram processions and against 'love jihad' cases. Now, with the Congress government in power, there is even less scope.”
Both young men firmly believe that they “show the direction to those who get lost or deviate from the Hindu way of life”. They regularly conduct vigils in Meghnagar town, especially on Fridays and during Ramzan because that is the time “Muslim shop owners in town get together to plan anti-Hindu activities”, according to them. This has often led to many reported skirmishes between the two communities.
Rathore says, "Two years back, we had a major breakthrough. We managed to separate at least five Hindu women from their Muslim husbands in town. It was a big achievement for us. But now, our Hindu girls are deviating from our traditions at a lightning fast speed."
To prevent “love jihad”, the local Bajrang Dal unit actively collaborates with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the RSS, to keep tabs on every single girl in college to track whom they’re interacting with. “If we see them talking to boys, especially Muslim boys, we inform their families,” Vikram says. The girls are then stopped from coming to college regularly and only come to sit for the exams. That is one way of saving girls from ‘love jihad’ kind of situations.”
However, this tactic hasn’t been as effective as they’d hoped over the last year. When Rathore spotted the daughter of a well-known Hindu family in Meghnagar roaming around with her Muslim boyfriend, her family was informed. However, they paid no heed. When nothing worked, they tried to “explain” to the young woman that she should end the relationship immediately. Rathore says: “She was my college senior. She said, 'there is nothing illegal in having a Muslim boyfriend'. She even threatened us with a police complaint. Imagine! We want the central government to change this law in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections."
The boys: protecting the Hindu way of life
A few kilometres inside Khacchartodi village of Meghnagar in Jhabua, in the backdrop of hillocks, stands a building under construction in a huge compound. The plaque on the building identifies it as the  “Vanvasi Sashaktikaran Kendra/Forest Dwellers' Empowerment Centre” run by the Padma Keshav Trust.

The Sewa Bharti building.

The centre currently serves as a hostel for 26 boys in the age group of 5-17 monitored by Sewa Bharti, the welfare organisation of the RSS. "We have children from many tribal communities including Damoh, Bhil, Bhilala, and Katara. It takes up to three years to make a Bhil-speaking child learn Hindi. How will they learn Indian values and build a Hindu Rashtra if they don't learn Hindi?" asks Kailash Ameliya, the hostel’s coordinator. He is lean and wears a pigtail on his head—a tradition observed by upper caste Brahmins—and a pointy moustache. Ameliya has been associated with the organisation for the last 15 years.
Most of the boys are students of Class 2 to Class 11 in several local government-run (shasakiya) schools, Ameliya says. They are selected on the basis of a test that involves IQ, general knowledge and course-related questions. "Most of their parents are migrant labourers in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, so we get them here. The children of single parents are given priority."
Once they complete their school education, the students are made to stay at the hostel for four more years to, as Ameliya says, integrate them into the “mainstream” way of life and “serve Bharat Mata”.
At the hostel, the students wake up at 5 am. The shakha, an RSS assembly ritual, commences at 6 am. Mango Singh Katariya, the manager of this Sewa Bharti branch, says, “We teach them how to play Indian games like kabaddi and kho-kho. We have also come up with a game called Tank War to instill feelings of nationalism in the young boys so that they can protect Bharat Mata.” Tank War is a game where each group tries to make a chain and encircle the other group to capture it. The groups are often named “India” and “Pakistan”.

Mango Singh Katariya, the manager of this Sewa Bharti branch, and Verma.

As we talk, Satyanarayan Chakradhari, a member of Vidya Bharti, the educational wing of the RSS, steps in. He announces that he was just passing by. On his arrival, both Ameliya and Katariya stop answering further questions from this reporter. Instead, Chakradhari intervenes in the conversation.
“Our aim is to protect Indian culture and values, and we can only do that by catching the children young,” he says. According to him, there are 16 Christian schools in Jhabua which convert tribal children to Christianity. Chakradhari echoes what Ashok Verma had said earlier: “5,000 people were converted to Christianity last year.”
He laments, “Can’t you see the Christian influence? Children want to celebrate birthdays by cutting cake instead of going to temples. They want to study in an English medium school. And the girls! The Western clothes, such forthrightness instead of being docile. We believe in teaching them Indian values and culture from childhood itself so that they don’t lose their way when they grow up.”
When I ask to take a photograph, Chakradhari refuses. “We don’t engage with the media. You can take pictures of the boys.”

The boys who stay in this hostel.

The 26 boys are lined up in a huge hall in the backdrop of a large Bharat Mata poster. They’re all dressed in half-sleeved shirts and pants. I’m not allowed to speak to them. They greet me in chaste Hindi and begin with a war song followed by a hymn in praise of Bharat Mata.
In the upcoming elections, this Sewa Bharti branch plans to carry out a mass drive among the hostel children to “write pamphlets on Bharat Mata and the Hindu way of life” for distribution among the local population. "So that they vote for the sons of Bharat Mata and not the Kristis," adds Chakradhari.

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India: BJP’s spectacular success in Northeast; in 1995 RSS and affiliates had 650 units, in 2017 over 6000

The Indian Express

Behind the BJP’s spectacular success in Northeast, years of silent work by Sangh
Back in 1995, the RSS and its affiliated organisations had about 650 such units in the Northeast; today there are over 6,000.

Written by Samudra Gupta Kashyap | Updated: March 27, 2017 8:15 am

To form N Biren Singh’s government in Manipur, the BJP has risen meteorically to win 21 seats. (Source: Express Archive)

What do T Thangzalam Haokip of Henglep, Vungzagin Valte of Thanlon, V Hangkhanlian of Churachandpur, Samuel Jendai Kamei of Tamenglong and Nemcha Kipgen of Kanpokpi have been common? They are all tribals, members of the new Manipur Assembly, elected on BJP tickets. More significantly, they are all Christians, and have been elected from constituencies where almost 99% voters are Christian. The elections in Manipur have dismantled the myth that the BJP is a party that belongs to and works only for Hindus.

In Manipur, the BJP has risen meteorically to 21 seats; less than a year ago, it had swept the Assam elections, increasing its strength from 5 to 60 in the Assembly. While credit for the success in Manipur is due to a team led by Northeast Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convener and Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav, the young strategist Rajat Sethi, party secretary in charge of Manipur Prahlad Patel, and Assam BJP secretary Jagadish Bhuyan among others — the party also owes is remarkable showing to the work carried out silently by a number of organisations of the Sangh Parivar, some of whom have been working in 100% Christian areas in the Manipur hills.

“It is a fact that the BJP worked hard. But one must also remember that various Sangh wings have been working very hard for years, both in the Imphal Valley as well as the surrounding hill districts,” Jagdamba Mall, a veteran RSS organiser who has spent 40 years in Nagaland and was deputed to Manipur for the elections, said. “Tribal people, irrespective of their religious faith, particularly trust and respect our welfare programmes. This trust was definitely converted to votes,” Mall said. As many as 15 organisations affiliated to the Sangh have been active in Manipur, some for over three decades. “All the good work these wings have done have paid dividends,” said Shankar Das, prachar pramukh of the RSS’s Uttar Assam prant, which covers most of Assam, and the whole of Nagaland and Meghalaya. Instead of openly campaigning for the BJP, the RSS wings focused on getting people out on polling day. “When you go from door to door, house to house and village to village asking voters to come out early, the message not only becomes clear, it also gets translated,” Das said.

Organisations like Sewashram, Ekal Vidyalaya, Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, Sewa Bharati, Kisan Sangha, ABVP, Vidya Bharati, Friends of Tribal Society or Van Bandhu Parishad, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bharatiya Jan Seva Sansthan, Bharat Kalyan Pratishthan, Bal Sanskar Kendra, and the Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh have been running formal and informal education units across Manipur, and have had some impact, especially on the parents of children attending these centres. “You should not be surprised if you find children of some so-called extremist leaders of Nagaland attending English-medium schools run by a Sangh wing,” said one RSS worker who belongs to Maharashtra but has spent over 20 years in the Northeast.

Back in 1995, the RSS and its affiliated organisations had about 650 such units in the Northeast; today there are over 6,000. The number of Ekal Vidyalayas is said to have crossed the 3,000 mark. The RSS has over 120 shakhas and mandalis in Manipur alone, and its Ekal Vidyalayas — though restricted to the Imphal Valley — have touched a large number of families. “We have not only promoted Indian culture, but have also successfully driven home the point that Manipuri culture is an inseparable part of it,” said Kedar Kulkarni, who has recently moved to Manipur after having served for several years in Nagaland. And while the illegal influx of Bangladeshis resonates across the region, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had, during a recent visit to Manipur, declared that the problems of the state were the problems of the entire nation.

The BJP’s alliance with the Naga People’s Front (NPF) in neighbouring Nagaland — which had not gone down well with the Meiteis because the NSCN (IM) includes parts of Manipur in its Nagalim map — too contributed to the BJP’s victory. Although the Congress initially gained some ground among Meitei and non-Naga voters of Manipur underlining the central government’s signing of the Framework Agreement with the NSCN (IM), a sizeable section of Meiteis later changed mind, with the RSS playing a role in persuading them. “We have been focusing for long on the patriotism and nationalism of the Manipuri people,” Mall said. The membership of the RSS has been increasing in the Hindu-majority areas of Assam. In the Imphal Valley, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura, the Sangh’s organisational structure has grown from 2 divisions until 2013 to 4 now.

Veterans in the RSS strongly believe that Manipur is just the beginning of the realisation of their potential in the hill states, and more is in store. The number of workers in Tripura has doubled in just a year, and with Assembly elections likely in February 2018, the BJP could give the ruling Left Front a run for its money. The RSS is also working to prepare the ground for the BJP in Meghalaya, another Christian-majority state that goes to polls early next year. Various Sangh wings are fast adding units, and last year, over 300 RSS cadres — mostly from the Khasi and Jaintia communities — paraded through Shillong in khaki shorts and white shirts, holding sticks. The BJP already has an ally in Conrad Sangma’s National People’s Party, which has a strong base in western Meghalaya — what it needs now is the help of the RSS’s wings to reach out rapidly in the eastern region of the state.

RSS outfit sewa Bharti appeals for Quake aid in Nepal

Sewa Bharati Appeals for Nepal EarthQuake Victims
http://www.sewabharathi.com/2015/04/sewabharati-appeals-for-nepalearthquake.html

India: Sewa Bharti Sangh Parivar'scharitable face; 800 not-for-profits to participate in Delhi / Wipro's Azim Premji Says Attending RSS Event is Not an Endorsement

Azim Premji, Subhash Ghai and GM Rao to be chief guests at Sangh Parivar's charity event
By Vasudha Venugopal, ET Bureau | 4 Apr, 2015, 02.34AM IST

NEW DELHI: As the dust settles on the controversy stirred up by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat by linking Mother Teresa's work with conversion, the Sangh Parivar is trying to project its own charitable face.

More than 800 not-for-profit organisations, most of them affiliated to the Sangh, are set to participate in a three-day event starting Saturday on the outskirts of New Delhi.

It will showcase the social and charitable work done by predominantly Hindu organisations. The idea is to highlight the "compassionate side"of RSS and prove that social work wasn't something introduced to India by foreign missionaries. Industrialists Azim Premji and GM Rao, and film maker Subhash Ghai are expected to be chief guests at the inaugural function, which will be presided over by Bhagwat and attended by top RSS leaders and spiritual guru Mata Amritanandamayi.

It is after that the Sangh is holding an event of this kind, and it has been scaled up much higher this time with over 4,000 delegates from 836 RSS-affiliated organisations participating.

The event is being held to send out the message that "service to society has existed in the country from the beginning", said Ajit Prasad Mohapatra, the all-India Sah-Sewa Pramukh of RSS. "What the missionaries do is not of our concern. We have been doing service with a sense of responsibility, with the aim to make every Indian self-reliant with self-respect,"he said. "Our charity is driven by dharma, not daya."

At the event, the Sangh is expected to present the work done by its volunteers for Swachh Bharat, Kashmir floods and protection of cows, among others.

One of the key themes is cow protection.

"We will urge our volunteers and sevaks to go to farmers, villagers, and stop them from selling their old cows,"Mohapatra said. "Cows, once they stop giving milk, can be used for cow products such as cow urine and cow dung which can fetch good prices. People don't know this and fall to the lure of butchers."Sangh leaders are expected to speak on the importance of serving the society in a united way on Saturday.

"For instance, there are over a thousand NGOs that work in the area of protection of cows, but do all these NGOs know that we must be focussing on the protection of native breeds of cows and look at bringing down the hybrid variety? We learn by each other's experiences and so it is important that we remain united,"said Satish Agarwal, the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand incharge of Seva Bharati, the sangh's charity wing.

The participating NGOs include those that run hospitals, schools, cultural centres, old-age homes, blood banks, yoga centres, orphanages and leprosy centres.

To showcase its full network, the sangh has started linking its affiliated NGOs online. Out of its 400 NGOs, 96 have already been linked now, said sangh sources.

Similar events, but of a smaller scale, were held earlier this year in three cities, where the sangh put up stalls and brought out brochures on the free hostels, hospitals, colleges and ashrams being run by Hindu spiritual leaders. "People talk about the charity done by missionary activities with great gusto but for decades, the sangh has been doing work but never sought publicity,"Agarwal said.

"The sangh has always believed in working for the poorest of poor, maintaining door-to-door contact. We have always focussed on smaller projects, especially in rural areas, because that creates more impact, but less noise,"Agarwal said. "But we are also changing now, feeling the need to consolidate our activities and tell peoplewe are working for them."

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/azim-premji-subhash-ghai-and-gm-rao-to-be-chief-guests-at-sangh-parivars-charity-event/articleshow/46800991.cms?prtpage=1

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ndtv

Wipro's Azim Premji Says Attending RSS Event is Not an Endorsement of Its Views
All India | Agencies | Updated: April 06, 2015 09:52 IST

New Delhi: Wipro Group chairman Azim Premji on Sunday said his presence at an event associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) didn't mean that he endorsed the views of the organization.

"Some people expressed apprehension that by attending a forum like this I would be seen as endorsing the ideology of the Sangh. I did not follow the advice because I am not a political person. I am however deeply interested in and concerned about my country. Also, I believe that merely speaking at a particular forum does not in any way mean that one endorses all, or any, of the views that might be expressed at the forum, or which may be held by the organisers," Mr Premji said, addressing a session attended by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

The 69-year-old industrialist, who is among India's richest men, was trending high on twitter as his presence at the function sparked a buzz.

The RSS is the ideological mentor of the ruling BJP and is widely believed to advise it politically.

The function on Sunday was organized by the "Rashtriya Sewa Bharati," a Sangh body that supports various organisations in the field of social work. Mr Premji said he respected the work they did, which was the reason for his presence.

"If there are differences of views or divergence of ideas they can be resolved through discussion and dialogue," he said.

Mr Premji later spoke on the need to increase public expenditure on school and higher education, which has gone down in the budget.

He said the government has to play a key role in school education and also advocated public investment in the field. "Private sector cannot substitute the role of the government in primary education," he said.
Other corporate heavyweights, including GMR Group chairman GM Rao and Zee Group chairman Subhash Chandra, also attended the event.
Story First Published: April 06, 2015 08:50 IST

http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/wipros-azim-premji-clarifies-after-attending-rss-event-752486

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Speech of Azim Premji at Rashtriya Sewa Sangam #Sewabharati Convention of NGOs working in the social sector
http://www.sewabharathi.com/2015/04/speech-of-azim-premji-at-rashtriya-sewa.html

Modi's Delhi: After World Hindu Congress, VHP's Virat Hindu Sammelan in March 2015 ; Sewa Bharti Convention - Rashtriya Sewa Sangam on 4 to 6 April ... RSS basking in the sun

The Sunday Standard

RSS Capital Statement of Mind and Spirit

By Pratul Sharma

Published: 15th Feb 2015 06:00:44 AM

NEW DELHI: What do business tycoon Azim Premji, spiritual leaders Amma Amritanandamayi Devi, Jagadguru Shankracharya, industrialist G M Rao and film-maker Subhash Ghai, have in common?

All of them, and other heavy hitters of the industrial and the intellectual world, would converge in Delhi in April to be a part of a mega function which will showcase the strength and networking of 800 organisations affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) working among India’s socially deprived sections.

Under the RSS’s umbrella community service organisation Sewa Bharti, close to 4,000 delegates would participate in the three-day event to be held from 4 to 6 April. It is for the first time the RSS is making such a strength statement in the capital. Chief Mohan Bhagwat will inaugurate the ‘Rashtriya Sewa Sangam,’ the second edition of the national shivir, held every five years, while senior leaders like Suresh Bhayyaji Joshi will provide ideological direction.

Sewa Bharati officials said they have also extended an invitation to Prime Minster Narendra Modi to attend the event.

Though the organisers are quick to deny it, since the formation of the BJP-led government at the Centre, the focus and scale of events planned in Delhi have increased. Last year, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) held the first World Hindu Congress that saw the participation of half-a-dozen Union ministers and experts from various fields. In March, the VHP will bring swamis together for the Virat Hindu Sammelan in March, to be held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

The participants and officials of the Rashtriya Sewa Sangam will be staying in two resorts on the outskirts of Delhi in Alipur—Blue Sapphire and City Park. Sewa Bharati will officially announce the event during a media interaction at Delhi India Habitat Centre in March.

Suhasrao Hiremath, the Akhil Bharatiya Saha Seva Pramukh of the RSS which guides the organisation, told The Sunday Standard, “The purpose behind the congregation is to highlight the work done by Sangh organisations in various sectors like health, women empowerment, education, and environment. The karyekartas will discuss the activities undertaken by them and decide the roadmap ahead in their group discussions.”

The Sangh has invited Premji for the inaugural session, in the company of Bhagwat. The three-day shivir will be inaugurated by Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi Devi).

Sewa Bharati sources said they have also invited business leaders like GM Rao of the GMR group, Venogopal Dhoot of Videocon, film-maker Subhash Ghai among others. Invitations have been extended to many well-known personalities from different fields. Premji was approached as he is known for his philanthropist work, a Sewa Bharati officer bearer said. “He donates `450 crore for welfare activities,” the officer bearer said.

Premji, a Gujarati Muslim businessman, is billed India’s fourth richest person, and will be attending a Sangh function for the first time.

Another key aspect of this three-day event would be an exhibition featuring the work done by Sewa Bharati recognised organisations. The exhibition will be inaugurated by Jagadguru Shankracharya Rajrajeshwar of Haridwar.

According to the organisers, Sangh NGOs are different from others working in the field as they “do not hanker after government grants.” The organisations which adhere to the saffron ideology have to register themselves with Sewa Bharati. The volunteers often involve themselves in rescue operations during national calamities like floods, earthquakes, train accidents and other disasters. Sewa Bharati members were seen in action during the floods in Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir. The organisation claims its presence in over 600 districts across the country.

“Our purpose is to get together all the deprived sections of the society, so that it increases their confidence and they become self reliant,” says Hiremath.

Book Review: Sunila Kale on Menon Women of the Hindu Right

Kalyani Devaki Menon. Everyday Nationalism: Women of the Hindu Right in India. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010. 224 pp. $49.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8122-4196-9.


Reviewed by Sunila Kale (University of Washington International Studies Department)
Published on H-Asia (May, 2011)

Commissioned by Sumit Guha

Kale on Menon Women of the Hindu Right

In Everyday Nationalism: Women of the Hindu Right in India, Kalyani Devaki Menon provides us with a rich ethnographic account of the mechanisms, tactics, and ideologies by which Hindu nationalist organizations build their support among Indian women in the communities in and around India’s national capital, Delhi. The subject matter continues to be timely, for despite the sidelining of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party from the center stage of national politics in India, Hindu nationalism in its cultural, social, as well as political variants continues to thrive in India.[1] The focus in this book on women is equally welcome as part of a larger body of scholarship that seeks to disaggregate the Hindu nationalist movement to understand how its various constituents operate alongside and sometimes against each other.

Menon conducted a year-long ethnography among individuals working in the Delhi chapters of several Hindu nationalist organizations: the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, the women’s organization directly linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh; the Durga Vahini and Matri Shakti, women’s organizations related to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad; the Mahila Morcha, the women’s affiliate of the Bharatiya Janata Party; and Sewa Bharati, a social service organization that in Delhi concentrates mostly on providing educational and vocational training to Delhi’s poor urban communities. Her sustained interactions with forty-five women and ten men in the movement take her from ordinary chapter meetings to specialized retreats and nationalist rallies full of incendiary speeches. Her ethnography among her mostly middle-class and upper-caste participants attends to “the everyday constructions of ideology and politics through which activists garner support at the grassroots level.” To this end, she looks at how individual members and organizations use “history, religion, politics, and social work to articulate the everyday fears, desires, needs, and interests of diverse groups with the movements goals” (p. 5).

While Menon is interested in the pluralism of the Hindu nationalist movement itself, a quality that rests at the heart of the movement’s “expansionary strategies” (p. 5), her potentially more significant contribution is the examination of moments when individuals become what she calls “dissonant subjects,” transgressing the norms of the movement. In these moments, Menon sees an opportunity to examine “everyday acts that complicate our analysis of Hindu nationalist subjects” (p. 3), in particular the ability of movement leaders and movement structures to variously overlook, discipline, or incorporate dissonance. Menon engages these theoretical issues of Hindu nationalism’s pluralism and the role of dissonant subjects in her introductory chapter. The subsequent chapters are organized around the movement’s uses of historical narratives, the language of fear, a twinning of religious and political duty, volunteerism, and the use of games and fun. These are all examples of the common practices by which movement leaders inspire new recruits and instill a normative agenda, and Menon provides a valuable ethnographic snapshot of these everyday acts.

Menon notes that at times the normative emphasis among these women’s organizations is distinct from hegemonic Hindu nationalist discourses. Menon argues that it is through an accommodation of ideological or normative pluralism that the movement has been able to grow substantially among Indian women, as well as among other groups who might otherwise be alienated by rigidly enforced hegemonic and patriarchal norms. This is perhaps most clearly demonstrated in Menon’s analysis in chapter 1, where she takes up the subject of “everyday histories.” For example, in most dominant Hindu nationalist narratives, the seventeenth-century Maratha king Shivaji is valorized as the epitome of a righteous Hindu ruler and the progenitor of the modern Hindu nation. However, Menon finds that among the women of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, the figure of Jijabai, Shivaji’s mother, is the generative force for a newly awakened Hindu politics in the early seventeenth century, an “architect of the Hindu Nation” (p. 47). The stories that circulate around Jijabai underscore the central role of motherhood for Menon’s interlocutors, one that allows individual women to make a deep impact on public, political events through the private choices they make for themselves, and most importantly, for their children.

In chapters 2 and 3, Menon interrogates the uses of fear and insecurity in the garnering of new recruits and the justification of certain kinds of social work. For example, in one conversation with a member of Sewa Bharati, we hear the position that the Hindu nationalist movement’s education outreach among Delhi’s lower-income communities is essential to countering the threats that conversion poses from minority religions, particularly Christianity. In the subsequent chapter, Menon examines the productive uses made of fears of Pakistan during the Kargil war. In her analysis of the speeches of female ascetics like Sadhvi Rithambara, Menon argues that it is “their dual status as renouncers and as women that makes these sadhvis such effective voices for the values, morals, and politics of the movement” (p. 82).

While chapter 3 draws from her fieldwork experiences at rallies and other significant occasions, Menon’s book is strongest and most illuminating when it takes us into the everyday world of work and play. In chapter 4, Menon presents material from her fieldwork among women in social service organizations. In the first part of the chapter Menon accompanies two VHP social workers in their volunteer time in the obstetric and gynecology unit of one of Delhi’s government hospitals. The two women play critical mediating roles for the largely poor, illiterate, and inexperienced patient population seeking prenatal attention. They routinely serve as stenographers, helping patients to input information for hospital registration, and in some cases they function as triage nurses, determining which patients require attention and which will most likely be sent home by the hospital staff. Here we get a more grounded sense of the vital social work that is done by individuals and organizations of the Hindu Right and how this work connects to the expansion of the movement among new communities.

Chapter 5 shifts the focus to a singular event, a weekend retreat, or shivir, organized by the Rashtra Sevika Samiti with the imperative to recruit new members. Organized games and play, physical exercises and drills, lectures, prayer, and patriotic songs structure the day’s activities, all with the aim to position new recruits “toward the cultural politics of the movement” (p. 131). Games and play are particularly apt strategies to “disseminate these ideas because they are able to convey Hindu nationalist constructions of history, politics, and morality without raising the hackles of those who might otherwise disagree with them” (p. 155).

Menon gives us a very good sense of the ideology and practices of the organizations and individuals with whom she interacts. There are a few places, however, where the reader might have wished for additional or perhaps different kinds of information to make sense of the larger argument. Among the occasions in which members of the Hindu nationalist movement become dissonant subjects we have the opening vignette, in which Ela, a volunteer in Sewa Bharati, expresses the opinion that “it is meaningless” to build a temple to Ram “on the blood of so many Indians” (p. 1). This views sits at odds with Ela’s own family history in the RSS, her own long-standing association with Sewa Bharati, and the focal nature of the efforts to build a temple at the former site of the Babri Masjid for the Hindu nationalist movement over the last several decades. Similarly, we hear that another Hindu nationalist, Vimla, doubts the authenticity of female renunciates, who merely “have to look spiritual” (p. 102) to be granted a life of wealth and luxury. Again, given sadhvis’ privileged position of deference and authority in the movement, and their importance to some of the arguments of Menon’s book, Vimla’s views seem jarring.

Menon’s focus on dissonance in the introductory chapter of the book alerts the reader to pay closer attention to the narratives of such moments, and her theoretical survey of this concept is valuable and provocative. However, as the book unfolds, its rich ethnographic documentation geared toward “dissonance” is not supplemented by a continued engagement with this vital idea. While episodes of dissonance like the ones described above are inherently interesting, there seems to be less rigorous pursuit of the questions surrounding these moments: How do individuals themselves understand their transgression of the movement’s norms? Are there potentially more radical consequences to this dissonance? Could such moments of dissonance constitute the germ for a potential subversion of hegemonic positions? Menon’s book comes at a time when the broad swath of the Hindu Right is in a moment of reinvention, and this work is therefore timely and important in this context. It is an important contribution to the discussion of Hindu nationalism, and its emphasis on the everyday practices of nationalist organizations helps to clarify the movement’s expansion outside of its early upper-caste and middle-class support base into lower-caste and lower-class communities and especially through gender as both a dissonant and a resonant category of experience for members of the Hindu Right. Menon has given us a rich view of women in the Hindu Right of northern India, and whatever questions she leaves unanswered are perhaps stimulants for new research agendas.

Note

[1]. In the 2009 Indian parliamentary elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party won 116 seats, enough to secure its position as the second largest political party after the centrist Indian National Congress, which won 206 seats. The BJP has a substantial political following in a number of state governments as well. Among the most populous states where it functions either as the sole party in power or as a coalition partner are Gujarat, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand.

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the list discussion logs at: http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl.

Citation: Sunila Kale. Review of Menon, Kalyani Devaki, Everyday Nationalism: Women of the Hindu Right in India. H-Asia, H-Net Reviews. May, 2011.

URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=29835

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

While BJP sinks, RSS is seen as expanding

[A Times of India report below, that picks up mostly what the RSS propaganda journal has to say in this regard.]

The Times of India

RSS service projectsmultiply ten-fold
TNN 4 November 2009, 07:58am IST
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NAGPUR: It's political offshoot, Bharatiya Janata Party, may be in a disarray and desperately trying to get out of the knots it has tied for
itself. But the parent organisation and Hindutva fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) can take immense pride in having spread its wings far and wide through its social service projects. Recording an impressive growth, the service units of the Sangh parivar grew ten times in little over one decade.

'Sewa Disha' a special journal published by RSS front organisation released to the media on Tuesday reveals that its service projects all over the country that numbered 15,063 in 1997 have grown into a massive network of 1,57,776 in 2009. The journal, published once in five years, gives full account of the service work done by the innumerable units of the Sangh parivar, said RSS spokesman Manmohan Vaidya.

The service projects are engaged mainly in four fields-- education, healthcare, social work and economic self-reliance. Of the total 1.5 lakh projects, nearly 40% or 59,498 are into imparting education. This work is mainly done through Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (3147 units), Rashtriya Sewa Bharti (20,500 schools), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (25, 922 units), Vidya Bharti (9682) units, Rashtriya Sevika Sangh (149 units) and Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (98 units). Similarly, 38,582 health-related units are being currently operated through mainly Seva Bharti, VHP, Bharat Vikas Parishad and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams. While the number of social projects that do village development to disaster management have now grown 42,304, economic activity is being executed through 17,392 projects, according to the journal.

Its in Kerala that the RSS projects have grown the most-- from 688 in 2004 to 8921 this year while Karnataka follows with 9662 projects, up from 2535 in five years ago. Practically every state has RSS presence through these projects. Special attention is paid to north-eastern states that are reeling under insurgency problem and in difficult terrains like jungles, hills and the strife-ridden Jammu and Kashmir to spread education and health in places where the government facilities are non-existent or neglected.

"I can tell my personal experience having been associated with such projects in Gujarat. At Deoghar village in Kutch, the Sangh shakhas have succeeded in eradicating vices like alcoholism and brought harmony by ending group rivalries among villagers," said Vaidya who worked for a long time in the western state. From basic education through 'Ekal Vidyalaya'( one-teacher schools) launched by the Pophali couple in Jharkhand to special projects for higher learning, research and promoting sustainable, organic farming the 'Seva' units are holding the RSS flag high across the nation, said Vaidya.

A BJP Run State Govt Confers Gandhi Award to RSS Outfit

newindpress.com

Award named after Gandhi to RSS outfit raises eyebrows
Monday August 11 2008 15:40 IST

IANS

BHOPAL: The Madhya Pradesh government's decision to confer an award named after Mahatma Gandhi on Seva Bharati, an RSS outfit, has raised many an eyebrow with political parties like the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) terming the move as an insult to the great leader.

Madhya Pradesh Culture Minister Laxmikant Sharma Sunday announced the state government's prestigious Rashtriya Mahatma Gandhi Award, carrying a cash prize of Rs.1 million and a citation, will be given to Seva Bharati, New Delhi.

"Gandhi believed in serving humanity and Seva Bharati is also doing the same," Sharma said.

While the minister said Seva Bharati works in the spirit of Gandhian philosophy and deserved the award named after the father of the nation, state Congress president Suresh Pachauri said the move only exposed the "saffron agenda" of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.

"Any award named after Mahatma Gandhi should only be conferred on an institution or a person dedicated to Gandhian principles. But the award conferred on an organisation allied to the RSS raises doubts on the intentions of the government already working on saffron agenda. It is an insult to Gandhi," Pachauri told IANS.

CPI-M state secretary Badal Saroj said that conferring an award instituted after Mahatma Gandhi to an institution affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was ironical and an insult to Gandhi.

CPI-M state secretariat member Pramod Pradhan added: "It was unfortunate and biggest injustice done by this government in the name of Gandhi. It was also a direct attack on Gandhian principles."

Gandhians and activists here also condemned the decision.

Eminent educationist Anil Sadgopal said conferring an award instituted in the name of Mahatma Gandhi to an institution promoting "Hindutva politics" was an insult to the great leader who believed in secular and democratic values as none else.

Gandhi Bhawan director Ramesh Chand Bhargawa, a staunch Gandhian was surprised at the move, but refused to comment and said it would not be proper to say anything without knowing who the juries were and on what criteria the decision had been taken.

Indore's transition from trade union politics to communal politics

(Published in: The Economic and Political Weekly,July 26, 2008)

Communal Violence in Indore

by Jaya Mehta, Vineet Tiwari

The "Bharat bandh" of July 3 saw communal violence erupt in Indore, with the police either on the sidelines or allegedly conniving in the attacks on the minorities. A number of events preceded the flare-up. Now fear and insecurity haunt the minority areas.

In the wake of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad's (VHP) call for an all-India bandh, Indore witnessed widespread violence on July 3 and 4, 2008. Eight persons died. (Seven of them were Muslims.) Many people were injured and were admitted to hospitals in a serious condition. This was just a glimpse of the communalist forces active in the town and in Madhya Pradesh (MP).

Background

Indore has had a glorious past of communal harmony. The Holkar state was known for its secular and progressive rule in the region. Indore was also a major textile centre in central India. Hindu and Muslim labourers worked side by side and the working class culture constituted a major bulwark against caste and religious divides. However, the mills have closed down. Indore is no longer an industrial town. It is now a major business hub and a real estate hot spot. Trade union politics has given way to communal politics. The working class culture has been replaced by the neorich culture of shopping malls.

The town is flush with loads of unaccounted money. At the same time, unemployed youth are available in large numbers for recruitment into various activities which characterise the distorted lumpen capitalism of our time.

After the BJP government came to power in the state again in 2003 the Hindu right wing organisations geared up their activities on all fronts and the local administration supported them. 'Path sanchalans'are organised regularly by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in different parts of the town. All public parks are used for morning 'shakhas'. The premise of a girls' college has been taken over to build a temple complex. 'Surya namaskar' is compulsory in all government schools.

Communal politics has made deep inroads in the administrative setup as well as in the audiovisual and print media. Temples in the premises of police stations are a common feature.

It is in this milieu that activists from the Bajrang Dal and other allied organizations have routinely registered their rowdy presence at the railway station, at the airport, in hospitals, and of course, on the streets. The Christian and Muslim communities have been attacked innumerable times. The Muslims retaliate locally. The Christians lodge their protests in various secular forums. However, the skirmishes occur with greater frequency than before.

As a background to the violence on July 3 and 4, one needs to mention two specific occurrences during the past year.

(1) Karbala Dispute: Over the last 150 years or so Muslims have been using a particular piece of land, the Karbala ground, for their three-day long fair of Moharram. This land was given to them in 1890 by Holkar rulers. They have all the necessary proof regarding legal ownership of the land. In 2000, Bajrang Dal, RSS, VHP and BJP activists claimed that there was an old Hanuman shrine in the ground.A Hanuman idol was installed and they started worshipping there every Tuesday.

The case went to court. In 2006, the court mandated that such activity should stop. A huge protest was organised against the ruling in April 2006 and the 'aarti' continued. Taking no cognisance of the court order, the administration decided that the Hindu organisations would be allowed to perform aarti on Tuesdays and the Muslims would continue using this ground for the Moharram fair.

In 2007, Moharram fell on January 30, a Tuesday. The clashes between the two communities started 10 days in advance. Muslims were humiliated and beaten up mercilessly both by the saffron brigades and the police. One old imam in a mosque was beaten up by the police and both his legs were fractured.

On January 30, the administration decided that the Muslims would use the ground till 9 pm. After that the ground would be vacated for the Hindus to perform the aarti. The Muslims gathered on Karbala ground in a large number (about 5-10,000).

At 9 pm, a small group of Hindus reached there. The collector requested the Muslims to vacate the ground. The humiliated mass in thousands refused to vacate and were assaulted by the police. The Karbala issue has become a ready excuse for starting a confrontation at any time. The Hanuman idol is there, the mazaar or the dargaah is there in the other corner of the ground. Despite the presence of police security, the area is always tense.

(2) arrest of SImI activists: On March 27, 2008, the Madhya Pradesh police made a sensational arrest of 13 Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) activists, who included Safdar Nagori, the organisation's top leader and Shibly Peedical Abdul, a Kerala born computer engineer, sought by the police since 2006. The media publicity that these arrests got generated an impression in the town that many Muslims in Indore had links with the terrorist organisation. A number of innocent people have been harassed by the police in this connection.

The cases were registered in Pithampur, an industrial suburb of Indore which belongs to Dhar district. The bar council of Dhar passed a resolution that no lawyer would take up the cases of those arrested in SIMI connections. When one lawyer came forward to take up the cases he was beaten up in the court. In this way, those arrested were denied their fundamental right of defence. Incidentally, Dhar has also been experiencing communal politics since the Babri demolition. The issue of Kamaal Moula masjid and 'Bhojshala' is known to everyone.

It is against this tense background that one looks at the happenings from July 3 onwards.

Chronology of Events

The VHP and BJP gave a call to observe the Bharat bandh on July 3 to protest against the Jammu and Kashmir government's order revoking the transfer of 40 hectares of land to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board. The local leadership of BJP and the allied organisations naturally decided to make the bandh a big success. It was an opportunity to once again demonstrate their power. As the day broke, the saffron activists unleashed a reign of terror determined to stop all routine activities and in addition harass Muslims in the town in whatever way possible. At around 10 am, the bandh supporters marched in a procession and entered the Badwali Chowki, a Muslim dominated area. They shouted provocative slogans and misbehaved with local residents. There was not enough of a police force to control the hooligans. This happened afterwards in other Muslim dominated areas - Ranipura, Lodhipura, Mukeripura, Narsinghbazar, etc.

In Khajrana area, rowdy mobs of 10-15 teenage boys spread out and attacked, with hockey sticks, Muslim men and women walking on the roads. The victims were poor labourers wanting to go for work. Two women were coming home after a funeral. All these people were stopped, their religion was ascertained by their looks or by their names, and then they were beaten up. The police did not help the victims. They were left unattended on the road. When the Muslims went to the police station, there were only a few constables present and they refused to lodge their complaint. The Muslims then attacked the police station. This was sufficient for the police to behave in the most brutal manner. The bandh supporters were there in large numbers. The local 'patidar' community arrived on the scene with private guns. Some ammunition and arms was reportedly with Muslims also. There was firing resulting in the loss of three lives. Incidentally, all the three were Muslims. In Mukeripura area, when a mob of bandh supporters were near a masjid, they shouted provocative slogans. There was stone pelting from the rooftop of a building.

The bandh supporting mob started throwing stones in retaliation. On the local television channels one could see that the police stood by helpless, unable and unwilling to stop the violence. In all, four people died in the violence which erupted in the town on July 3, 2008. Apart from three Muslims who died in Khajrana, one Sindhi Hindu youth died in Mukeripura. Local residents reported that he was playing cricket outside his house, when the saffron cadre took him to the riot affected area. He died there with head injuries. Police and district administration imposed curfew in four areas of the town.

The next day, on July 4, fresh violence erupted in many other areas and in Juna Risala, two lives were lost because of police firing. Newspapers say that Muslims coming back from the nearby masjid after 'namaz' in Juna Risala started throwing stones and petrol bombs. The police was thus forced to open fire. However, according to the residents in the area the reality was just the opposite. The Muslims werecoming back peacefully after the namaz.

A petrol bomb was thrown on a scooter standing near the masjid. It caught fire, the Muslims were agitated. The saffron squads were present on the spot. The stone throwing took place from both sides and the situation got out of control. The police resorted to teargas shells and firing almost simultaneously. The area also has police residential quarters. The Muslims threw stones and petrol bombs on those houses and people witnessed that there was firing from the roof tops and from windows of the police quarters. Two people died in the firing (both Muslims). After this, curfew was imposed in the whole town.

On July 4, when curfew was imposed in the whole town, a religious procession of Venkatesh Mandir was not stopped in the Chhatripura area. Some 3,000 people participated in the procession. It is to be noted that the procession was taken out in an area, which had witnessed rioting and killing just a day before. Sumitra Mahajan a Member of Parliament, Mahendra Hardia a legislative assembly member, and many other BJP leaders participated in this procession. The police and administration found themselves helpless. Kailash Vijayvargiya, a minister in the state government, was given the responsibility of restoring peace and order. He repeatedly alleged that SIMI has been behind this eruption of violence. The director general of police reasserted this allegation. When asked to provide satisfactory evidence, the press was informed that the police was looking for evidence.

The very next day the Pithampur police recovered four live country made bombs, eight detonators and batteries from a mine in the vicinity of the Pithampur-Rau bypass. Although the police did not explicitly connect the riots with the discovery of bombs and the detonator, all the newspapers prominently placed the two news items adjacent to each other.

The curfew continued for five days. Sewa Bharati, an RSS outfit, offered help to the curfew affected people by providing them food. Along with food, they also distributed copies of a local eveninger, which had brought out a special issue on SIMI's activities in Indore. At the same time, the Bajrang Dal activists stood outside a hospital (Rajeshri Hospital) and did not allow Muslim riot victims to be admitted there.

On July 7, 2008, the BJP leaders took out a peace march in a riot-affected area. The implicit message to the minority people was - "Look, nothing happened to us and nothing will happen to us. You be aware of our strength". The collector and superintendent of police (SP) reaffirmed the message. There are hoardings in the town asking the union government to take back the Haj facilities from Muslims. The Congress leaders came and took the BJP, RSS and district administration to task. They addressed the press and raised a big protest in the assembly at Bhopal. With the elections approaching, the focus will soon shift from providing real justice to the victims to collecting votes.

After five days of curfew the town limped back to normalcy. Like Ahmedabad, Indore is also divided into two. The Muslim majority areas are simmering with anger and a sense of terrible insecurity. These areas are still under police guard. In many households the earning members are still not able to resume their work. The other side has resumed its normal life. The middle class Hindu community blames the Muslims for the disturbance in the town. The Hindu right wing activists go on with the refrain that they wanted a peaceful bandh; it is because of the noncooperation of Muslim community at large and the militancy of SIMI activists that bloodshed occurred.

Administration and Police

Both the collector and SP in the town took charge just about a month before the violence. The administration was admittedly unprepared for the violence which erupted in the wake of the bandh call. The police force recruited in the sensitive Muslim majority areas was inadequate and did precious little to confront the saffron squads harassing the Muslim families.

On July 4, the Khajrana area was under curfew. The police van arrived there on the pretext of guarding the streets under curfew and entered the Muslim residential area. Reportedly, the police force went on a rampage without any provocation from any quarter. The police threw stones at Muslim houses and vehicles parked in the street.

There is the more serious question of police opening fire at Khajrana on July 3 and at Juna Risala on July 4. The Muslims in Juna Risala refused to perform the last rites of the dead, till the first information reports (FIRs) were lodged against three policemen. Reportedly, even though the FIRs have been lodged, no action has been taken against them. On the other hand, the bandh supporters demanded that the FIRs be taken back. Any action against these policemen would bring down the morale of the entire police force, it is said.

The story of police action in Khajrana is even more sinister. One 17 year old boy Imran was going for work. When he saw the crowd in front of police station, he turned back to go home. According to his 14 year old younger brother, a policeman caught him, dragged him down to the ground, put the gun on his face, pulled the trigger and walked away. The mother found the body in the city hospital.

Till now, in communal conflicts, private parties were attacking each other with sticks, stones, knives and other such weapons. This is the first time that private guns have been used on such a large scale. Apart from those who died in firing, a large number of wounded persons suffered from bullet injuries. It needs to be investigated how many licences were issued lately for fire arms and to whom.

Media

Most of the pictures in the newspapers, or footage given on TV showed the Muslim boys and youth with beards and caps throwing stones or shouting. It is clear where the cameramen were and when these photographs were taken. The cameramen stood on the other side, i e, the side of the BJP-VHP people. Channels were continuously showing the scenes of violence for next two to three days after the incident with the label "live".

Once curfew was declared and rioting stopped, the media started reporting in great detail how people (the middle class) were passing their time during the curfew - playing cricket in the streets or inside the compounds of their multistoried buildings; men were cooking some special dishes, or, watching TV with the family or playing cards, etc. The media reported how marriages were organised under the curfew, and so on. The BJP leaders were projected as peaceseeking people appealing to the public to calm down. They led massive peace rallies. Little space was left for reporting the plight of those poor families whose near ones had died or those who were lying in hospitals. There was no effort in the media to mobilise public opinion to take action against the culprits of this crime. In fact, as already mentioned, the media collaborated in diverting attention to SIMI involvement.

Conclusions

The July 3 Bharat bandh for Amarnath shrine land was only an excuse. Any odd excuse can cause a flare-up in Indore. And every new flare-up makes the situation more volatile. Indore is indeed a mini-Gujarat in the making.

The Muslims are insecure. They cluster together and seek shelter in the religious infrastructure whether it is Friday namaz or sending their children to madrasas. At the same time, the Muslim youth is restive and desperate.

The Hindu right wing has many sufficiently well organised squads of young activists who are ready to cause mayhem anywhere at a very short notice. No one dares to resist them. The administration and media offer support with impeccable loyalty to the ruling party's political agenda. The educated and elite Hindu middle class is complacent, rabidly anti-Muslim and anti-reservation. The rest of the Hindu community (the poor and the lower caste) is silent. This silent majority has no opinion, primarily because it has no confidence that its opinion matters anywhere.

It is of utmost urgency that the secular space be recovered. Politics has to be necessarily wrenched from the domain of caste and religious divides so that the meaningful agenda of development, employment and equitable growth comes on the centre stage. One hopes that the civil society groups and the left parties, and secular forces from other political and nonpolitical parties/ organisations will come together and take up this ambitious task without losing any time. One hopes that sufficient confidence can be instilled in the silent majority. It can then claim its democratic space and declare, "We will not allow Madhya Pradesh to become another Gujarat".

Shafi Mohd Sheikh, Ashok Dubey, Sarika Shrivastava, Pankhuri Mishra and Sourabh Das helped in collecting the data, meeting the victims and in writing this article. Jaya Mehta (jaya_mehta[at]hotmail.com) is an economist and Vineet Tiwari (comvineet[at]gmail.com) is a human rights activist and journalist, both are based in Indore.