M.R.Lalu
If you missed your chance to reasonably dissect the perpetual existence of an organization that has ever since its inception in 1925 remained a subject of critical scrutiny, appreciation and acceptance, then you have missed an opportunity to understand its veracity, depth and influence today. What we need to develop is an intellectual audacity and frankness to look at the genesis and chronological nurturing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as it has entered its 100th year of a colossal existence this year, a moment that it must be planning to celebrate in an incredible manner. Known for its daily gatherings called Shakhas, the RSS has been pulling millions of volunteers called Swayamsevaks (selfless workers) to areas such as temple-grounds, halls, rooftops and places where they can assemble irrespective of their geographical vulnerability with a focus on national regeneration. Its mission, the social cause, that it has been trying to consistently make the world understand, has never been swallowed without suspicion and disbelief. But its journey through a tumultuous century beginning from pre-independent India to the present moment of India’s rise as a global power, seeks our deliberate awareness about its expansion with dignity and decorum.
More tumultuous indeed was its journey after the British left our soil. Founded by Dr.Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur on September 27, 1925, its fundamental focus was on promoting cultural values by ensuring the Hindu unity. Its founder thought that the unity of the majority was the best and foremost requirement without which, he believed, neither independence nor India’s independent survival was possible. Dr.Hedgewar could literally lay the foundation for an organization of his dreams but its future momentum and progress was guaranteed by its second Chief M.S Golwalkar. With his saintly persona, Golwalkar had given the RSS its socio-political and socio-spiritual makeover. His spiritual exuberance and intellectual insightfulness gained the organization its present enhanced transformation and under his leadership it became a humongous establishment mobilizing Hindu unity with millions of its members steering its cause.
Along with an ideological unity of the Hindus what Dr.Hedgewar actually conceived was the creation of a nationalist society purely rooted in character and discipline. His belief in this direction made the daily assembly of the Swayamsevaks obligatory. A daily polishing of the essential instinct of patriotism among the youth, he thought, would give them a clear direction while helping them materialize their long standing desire for freedom. Dr.Hedgewar’s social life began with Indian National Congress, chiefly motivated by Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and that was probably the platform he began the nurturing of his patriotic instinct. His reformist mind was not satisfied with the movement that the Congress was taking the country through. What had chiseled the reformist in him was an anxiety that he was principally haunted mainly due to India’s vulnerability of being confusingly diverse, which he perceived, would fail to consolidate its inner powers to keep the country united. After him came M.S.Golwalkar and his efforts as the chief of the Sangh brought considerable changes in its functioning. He initiated the “Pracharak” system, a non-monastic order of celibates - a bunch of full time workers called ‘Pracharaks’. Swami Chinmayananda famously differentiated between a monastic order and the “Pracharak system”. “The difference between a monastic discipline and the Pracharak system is the RSS has white-clad sanyasis while monastic life is in saffron”, he said.
A unique quality of the Sangh is its existence without any membership drive. It sustains on the commitment and dedication of its Swayamsevaks who become its volunteers without being officially enrolled through a drive. M.S.Golwalkar or “Guruji” he is fondly known in the Sangh was a predestined monk of the Ramakrishna order. He was an ardent follower of the Vivekananda philosophy and his period as the Chief of RSS witnessed the patriotic values that Vivekananda expounded being carried out in principle and practice. Though the Sangh stayed away from politics, its journey through the turbulent political scenario of India compelled its ideological framework to face a revamp with its senior functionaries being deployed to cooperate with a new political party that Syama Prasad Mookerjee sowed the seeds of. This political experiment of Mr.Mookerjee in 1951 was the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Many RSS veterans like Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Lal Krishna Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were deployed to the party. The BJS expanded through the Nehru era providing a strategic political threat to his hegemony and later on the RSS was instrumental in transforming Jan Sangh to its present form the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For the Sangh, its history has been full of ups and downs.
Its first major jolt was a ban from the Nehru government. The Sangh was banned on February 4, 1948 following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Though the RSS was not directly implicated, Nathuram Godse’s past association with the organization forced the government to ban it. The government accused the Sangh for promoting an ideology of violence while justifying its axe on the outfit. The ban was lifted on July11, 1949. The RSS faced its second ban during the Indira regime. Throughout her monopoly politics that ultimately drove her to declare a state of emergency, Indira Gandhi banned the Sangh on June 26, 1975. The RSS was actively on the forefront opposing her authoritarian regime and continued to propel its opposition from underground while most of its prominent leaders were imprisoned. The ban was lifted as the emergency ended and a new government led by the Janata Party came into force. The demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992 and the communal riots thereof ultimately led the Sangh to face prohibition once again. This was the third in the line. It was lifted in 1993 and that was the moment its political outfit the BJP assumed an active presence in India’s political spectrum. Probably, the Congress has continuously failed to register an upward thrust since 1992. For both the parties, the demolition of the disputed structure was a turning point. The BJP’s political rise and the Congress’s fall began there. India witnessed a saffron surge slowly emerging from the backyard of the Sangh establishment.
Picking from the RSS history, one of the most celebrated events of its journey, is still pompously remembered by its members. Political climate in India gained more clarity as the RSS activities progressed and the year 1963 witnessed the Sangh volunteers participating in the Republic Day Parade along with the Indian Army upon the invitation of the government. Among the mass movements that the RSS has churned in the country; the Ram Janmabhoomi movement was the most prominent. The movement gained the Sangh and its political enterprise the BJP much acceptance among the Hindus. The rise and political influence of BJP naturally contributed to the expansion of the Sangh. About forty branch organizations of the Sangh sprung from its ideological stem are known as the Sangh Parivar. They have been stretching across the social ambiance of India with their outreach activities giving the group its humongous shape and power. Members of the Sangh Parivar literally make it one of the largest disciplined assemblies of volunteers across the world. Unsurprisingly, its immense growth frequently shatters the dreams of its political opposition and the regimes under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, once a Pracharak of the Sangh, have consecutively engraved this concern of the opposition more rampant. While it crosses a significant milestone, a century is a long period of survival and relevance.
—M.R.Lalu
(Author and Freelance Journalist)