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Advice to the RSS: Celebrate diversity!

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Last updated on: October 26, 2015 09:51 IST

'Unity in diversity is a dated notion as India, today, is more unified and cohesive
and yet more pronouncedly diverse than ever in its history,' argues Shekhar
Gupta.
hile the
Bharatiya
Janata Party
has ruled
India in the
past too, it is
only now that
the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak
Sangh chief's
traditional

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as constituents of a larger entity (Janata, 1977 to 1980) or a coalition leader (NDA, 1998 to
2004).
Now there are no alibis as Mr Vajpayee's government had, when many of his policies,
particularly on the economy, were resisted by the RSS.

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We haven't seen any such discordance since Narendra Modi rose to power. It is primarily
because Mr Modi himself suffers from no hypocrisy over his belief in Hindutva. He also
believes he was able to govern Gujarat brilliantly, so why should there be a problem at the
Centre? His pitch to the RSS, therefore, is different from Mr Vajpayee's.
Mr Vajpayee gave RSS leaders then (mostly his old contemporaries) great personal respect and
let BJP ministers and chief ministers help RSS leaders' favourites and family members get

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But his ties with the RSS and also its then chief K S Sudarshan were fraught with suspicion
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viciously and often lovingly. More in the sense of how you may sometimes mock old
grandparents.
He let them mess with culture and human resource development, which he left under the
charge of his friend and then RSS favourite, Murli Manohar Joshi (who, by the way, has a real

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doctorate in physics and was a tenured professor at Allahabad University).

But beyond that, key areas of economy, foreign policy, even the fight against terror and the way
it affected relations with Pakistan were fully his domain. He led India through those perilous
years, maintaining strategic restraint through Kargil and after the Parliament attack with
magisterial panache.
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he Sarsanghchalak's Dussehra speech made front pages still, but never had the importance
it does now. This is why, in the changed situation now, those who complained about

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important count: News value. The new arrangement is a political reality.

The ideological underpinnings of the RSS are simple, if simplistic. Its founding fathers, Keshav
Baliram Hedgewar and 'Guruji' M S Golwalkar, and to a lesser extent Vinayak Damodar
Savarkar (he founded the idea of Hindutva nationalism, but was more nuanced and
Westernised) believed in the global superiority of Indian (Hindu) culture, philosophy and
science.
Golwalkar and Hedgewar talked about how those conquered by Western powers remained
suppressed and miserable while those to whom we 'reached out' in the more distant 'past,'
particularly in Southeast Asia, only benefited and still gratefully carry Hindu lifestyles and
names -- even if some may have become Muslim later (Indonesia).
The West-phobia of the RSS is fascinatingly qualified. It rejects the West's values and suspects
its motives, but also has a child-like obsession with impressing it. Swami Vivekananda became
a real icon when he delivered his famous speech in Chicago and 'swept off their feet' his
materially rich American audience trapped in spiritual poverty.

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he Hindu Rashtra won't banish all minorities. RSS idealism would rebuild a nationalism
on Hindutva that minorities happily embrace and start believing that they are happier in
Hindustan (The RSS prefers 'Hindusthan') than in any Islamic or Christian country. This is the
origin of the 'Kalam Standard' for the patriotism of Indian Muslims.
It follows that they must owe this to the big-heartedness of Hindutva, way more ancient than
their faiths, than merely to Ambedkar's Constitution. Note that in the speech this year,

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Ambedkar is deified, almost like Bhagat Singh (a crimson-red Leftist). His rejection of
Hinduism and embracing of Buddhism has been accepted and admired for how it followed
deep analysis of 20 years. But there wasn't much said about his Constitution.
In essence, the RSS is in awe of the West's rise, but fears its cultural influence. It believes that
philosophical winds should blow from east to west. Mr Modi, with his frequent public
engagements on his foreign visits, fulfils that need. To an extent, the RSS old-guard would see
him as a modern, jet-setting Vivekananda, powered by the Indian State and taking the good
word around the world. Mr Vajpayee was ideologically confused, even a deserter.
SS ideologues run into trouble when they also interpret the mandate of 2014 to mean that
that it entitles them to bring about deeper cultural changes within India as well. The idea on
which I would pick an argument with the Sarsanghchalak is that while learning to live with
diversity, you could also homogenise Indian society.
His call for common laws, common policies that apply equally to all, is majoritarian, and
unsustainable. His idea of 'population control' is outdated and loaded -- and tells you why,
while most RSS people fought the Emergency, among a large section there was admiration for
Sanjay Gandhi as he targeted Muslims with his sterilisation and slum clearance. Not
surprisingly, his wife Maneka Gandhi and favourite bureaucrat Jagmohan (of Turkman Gate
fame) subsequently became stars of the BJP. It won't even be a stretch to say that the same
affinity led Sanjay's closest ally and loyalist Bansi Lal to also eventually join hands with the
BJP.
The call for population 'control' is rooted not in data, but paranoia. There is no better way of
controlling population, for any community, than education and prosperity. India's overall
population growth rate (at about 1.4 per cent now) is falling more dramatically than
anticipated and even Muslim growth is declining. It is all happening voluntarily, and happily,
with rising incomes and, more importantly, girls going to school.
ver the decades, in fact, India's diversity has grown deeper, become more widespread and
pronounced. Growing federalism is helping state leaders discover powers they never realised
the Constitution had for them. They are also pushing to enlarge these.
So many states now, especially BJP-run states, are drafting their own labour and land laws
because the Centre cannot pass enabling legislation. Peripheral states, from Kashmir to the
Northeast, pass laws and set up governance norms to suit their own respective demographies
and culture. Cow slaughter, for example, is an offence under Kashmir's own Ranbir Penal
Code.
All these are making India stronger, not weaker. Any notion now that this can be reversed in a
new unification is fantasy. There is no need therefore to seek unity in this diversity. It is a
dated notion as India, today, is more unified and cohesive and yet more pronouncedly diverse
than ever in its history.
I would, therefore, suggest that the Sarsanghchalak modernise two things in the RSS to make it
relevant to modern India. One, of course, is its uniform, the 'ganvesh.' And second, its slogan,
from unity-in-diversity to, simply, celebrate diversity.
IMAGE: RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat at the Vijaya Dashmi event in
Nagpur. Photograph: PTI
Shekhar Gupta
Source:

Related News: RSS, Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr Vajpayee, Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, India

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RSS
by Prakash Bedekar (View MyPage) on Oct 27, 2015 12:32 PM
Bhagwat Saheb, sorry to say, but you have lost touch with a common man or simply you do not bother about the
same. Do you know the prises of essential goods in the market? Have you thought how a common man can procure
dal, chawal for his family, with the current prises of toor dal crossing Rs 200/ per kg, do you still want to congradulate
Modi govt for the fantastic work done in such small period of 18 months?
Forward | Report abuse

The RSS / Sangh Parivar claim

by piri (View MyPage) on Oct 26, 2015 10:54 PM | Hide replies

to represent the interests of 80 % of the Indian population.

For arguments sake, let the interests of the remaining 20 % (the religious minorities) be ignored at present. Perhaps
it may be imagined that they will silently agree to remain second class citizens who are denied many of the rights
enjoyed by regular citizens.
So, if the 80 % of the population whose interests the Sangh Parivar claims to represent is given primacy over the
minority 20 %, will the Sangh Parivar then administer material justice to all those who make up that 80 % (i.e., all the
hyndus in the country) ?
To start with, will the RSS/Sangh Parivar push the authorities to implement comprehensive land reforms in the vast
boondocks of North India (where Rajputs, Jats, Thakurs, Bhoomihars, etc. hold the great part of the agricultural land
and keep the rest of hyndu society around them as landless wage earners on that land) ?
Will they ?
After all, those landless peasants/labourers are also hyndus.
Will the RSS pave the way for redistribution of agricultural lands among all the hyndus such that landlessness and
subsistence level farming cease to exist among hyndus ?
Will the RSS / Sangh Parivar push the govt to increase public funding of education and health care to the levels
sorely needed to bring the living standards of all hyndus in North India at par with at least that of the people of
Kerala ?
Will the RSS / Sangh Parivar disband those reprehensible feudal era khap panchayats and send those
Forward | Report abuse
Re: The RSS / Sangh Parivar claim
by piri (View MyPage) on Oct 26, 2015 10:56 PM
old men home under pain of death/retribution after getting it across into their thick heads that they
will all have their backs broken if they so much as say or do any of the things they regularly do
now even once more ?
Will the RSS / Sangh Parivar allow the children of the under class (who form the great majority of
the hyndu population) to become educated to levels which will help them find their own voice ?
Will the RSS / Sangh Parivar stand the sight of womenfolk of the hyndu underclass going out of
their homes more often to study / play / work at their own terms ?
Will the RSS / Sangh Parivar stand the sight of hyndu workers demanding and insisting for fair
wages ?? Fair working conditions ?

Forward | Report abuse

rssss-by the/of the/for the panditts

by vijay gowda (View MyPage) on Oct 26, 2015 10:14 PM
Why... ..all rzz top leaders are ONLY.Brahminna/pandits...why other nonbrammins are nonhindus
Forward | Report abuse

While muxlim population growth

by piri (View MyPage) on Oct 26, 2015 08:56 PM
rate as per the 2011 census is still higher than the growth rate of non muxlims, the difference between hyndus and
li
h
d h l i th l t t
d
d

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