RSS: A view to the inside
April 21, 2020
Title : RSS- A view from the inside
Author : Walter K Andersen and Shridhar D Damle
Year : 2018
Genre : Non- Fiction
RSS- A view from the inside is supposed to be a kind of sequel to the 1987 book, The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism, by
the same author Walter K Andersen. In this book, along with fellow co-author
Shridhar D Damle, he attempts to trace the path towards bringing the Sangh Parivar into the mainstream
society and in extension to mainstream politics. Although a sequel, this book
stands on its own to understand the RSS and the Parivar irrespective of the reader’s familiarity with the earlier
book.
The first five chapters
are a general overview of the RSS and its functioning over the past three
decades and the remaining nine chapters are each a case study in the decision
making and actions of the RSS with respect to independent issues which include
Ayodhya Ram-Jhanmabhoomi, Ghar Wapsi, Economic
self-sufficiency, Rebellion in Goa among others. But if the reader wants to
know the basic ideas and philosophies that underlie these issues and a critical
analysis of them, one would not find fruit in such search.
The single thread that
connects the whole book is the authors’ attempt to chart the process of
evolution and thereby the inclusiveness that has been growing in the Sangh for the
past four to five decades. The authors remind us of the time when Guruji M.S Golwalkar, when discussing on
the probability of Muslims joining the RSS, said that he does not have a
problem with them joining the RSS but ‘that he doubted any Muslim would join a
nationalist organization like the Sangh’.
Later in the book the authors quote the current head of the RSS, Mohan Bhagwat,
when he remarked “No one has the right to
measure another person’s patriotism” however he caught on to the leash by
asserting in the same breath that ‘Muslims are Hindus by nationality’. The
evolution is also made evident by the authors through different examples like
the inclusion of Christians into the sangh,
tolerating beef habits in North-East India and so on.
The book provides a
detailed structure of the RSS organization in the Annexure. It is interesting
how an organization with such rigid structure could be all at sea when it comes
to its own ideas. The authors attempt to demonstrate that ‘the sangh parivar itself has several (often
contradictory) definitions of Hinduism’ and it is no different even with
Hinduness or Hindutva, as the authors
analyse that ‘the term has meant different things to different individuals and
groups in the parivar’. The
confusions don’t just stop there; it extends to specific issues including
economics (which leans Left than the Congress), English education and so on.
Thus the authors collectively compare the parivar to early 1940-50s Congress
party but a more apt comparison would be with pre-independence Congress which
was not just a party but an umbrella under which all kinds of opinions
co-existed with just one common goal- independence; here it is ‘Hindu’
interests.
As one of the author Shridhar Damle is a
member of the RSS in USA, it creates suspicion when with a whole chapter on the
Ayodhya issue, the violent ruckus it created was only mentioned on the go
without any emphasis. The authors also concentrate more on the BJP (rightly
with reason) and even hint at CM Yogi Adithyanath becoming Prime Minister if he
could emulate Modi’s Gujarat.
But to their credit, the
authors discussed how official authorized view of the parivar doesn’t coincide
with what they and their followers put forth in reality. Such dichotomies are
present throughout the book when dealing with different issues including caste,
beef, English education, reservation and Muslim participation in RSS and MRM
among others.
Overall the book tries to
convince the reader that the RSS is a moderate force trying to hold on to both
the progressive BJP on one side and more hardline cultural purists on the
other. To me, personally, it has only partly convinced and made me more
equipped to see through the curtain of hypocritical promises but to judge
yourself, go get the book and see if it convinces you.
By Benolin
PostLectio is just a fancy word for book reviews
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