Octopus of Hate

Despite the current political setback and its failure to expand its xenophobic base, the RSS and its brand of Hindutva is resilient and kicking

Pralay Kanungo Delhi

In the last 60 years, Hindutva's march from the margins to the mainstream of Indian politics has been spectacular. However, Hindutva invokes extreme hysterical responses being passionately propagated by the proponents and virulently vilified by the opponents. Coined in colonial Bengal during the late 19th century when Hindu revivalism was in ascendancy, it remained obscure till VD Savarkar, in the midst of Hindu-Muslim communal mobilisations, made it a political ideology in his seminal work Hindutva (1923). He defined a Hindu as a person who regards Bharatvarsha his pitrubhumi (fatherland) as well as punyabhumi (holyland). Logically, according to Savarkar, Muslims and Christians fall outside the ambit of the Indian nation as it is not their holyland. Being an atheist, for him, Hindutva not Hinduism constitutes the core of Hindustan; while the former is a history in full, the latter is only a derivative.

Thus, he emphasised that Hindutva (political/ideological) is superior to Hinduism (faith/religion), and thus, should always remain the guiding principle of Indian nationhood. Subscribing to Savarkar's exclusivist thesis, KB Hedgewar founded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) at Nagpur in 1925 to unite Hindus and propound India as a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation). Being more of a practitioner than a preacher, Hedgewar recruited young boys, set up shakhas (branches), imparted both sharirik (physical) and boudhik (intellectual) training regularly, and despatched a dedicated band of trained disciples as 'pracharaks' (propagandists) to open shakhas, indoctrinate young boys with anti-Muslim ideas and propagate Hindutva outside Maharashtra. His organisational ingenuity paid dividends in a short time when his emissaries, with the help of existing Hindu Sangathanist networks, were able to enter different parts of India.

Hedgewar's successor, MS Golwalkar, sharpened the ideology of Hindu Rashtra in his We or our nationhood defined (1939) by clearly defining 'We' and 'Others' and applauding Hitler's approach to the minorities. Though the RSS replaced this controversial text with a 'moderate' Bunch of Thoughts (1966), the latter followed similar trajectories and identified three enemies of Hindu Rashtra — the Muslims, the Christians and the Communists. As a master strategist, Golwalkar dissociated with the Hindu Mahasabha, did not antagonise the British, scrupulously followed the government fiat, and more importantly, did not allow the RSS to participate in the freedom struggle, thereby enabling it to expand quietly, away from government scrutiny and public gaze. Partition riots in north India provided the RSS an ideal opportunity to prove its credentials as 'defender' of Hindus and enhanced its credibility among them.

In 1948, the RSS was banned due to its alleged complicity in Mahatma Gandhi's murder by Nathuram Godse, a former swayamsevak, and most of its leaders, including Golwalkar, were arrested. The ban was lifted in March 1949, only after the RSS pledged to adopt a written constitution and confine itself to the 'cultural' domain. The adverse experiences during the ban period paved way for the birth of its political progeny, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) in 1951.