The RSS has Imbibed Congress’ Agenda on Kashmir

The RSS

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is the “mother” of a network of about 36 rightwing Hindu organisations collectively called the Sangh Parivar.

The Sangh Parivar includes: Bharatiya Janata Party, (its political wing); Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (for farmers); Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (for the labour force); Seva Bharati (for social services); Rashtriya Sevika Samiti (for women volunteers); Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, (student wing); Shiksha Bharati (for education); Vishva Hindu Parishad (strong arm); Durga Vahini (women’s wing of the VHP); Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (overseas affiliate); Swadeshi Jagran Manch (for preaching use of what is produced in India); Saraswati Shishu Mandir (for nursery schooling); Vidya Bharati (for setting up educational institutions); Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram (for tribal welfare); Friends of Tribals' Society; Bajrang Dal (strong arm); Anusuchit Jati Arakshan Bachao Parishad (for Dalits, the downtrodden people); Laghu Udyog Bharati (for cottage industry); Bharati Vichar Kendra (think tank); Vishva Samvad Kendra (for IT related work); Hindu Munani (Tamil offshoot); Rashtriya Sikh Sangat (for Sikhs); Vivekananada Kendra; Forum for Integrated National Security, (headed by Indresh Kumar, a confidant of Swami Aseemanand, the main accused in Ajmer Dargah blast case); J&K Socialist Democratic Party (FINS affiliate); Muslim Rashtra Manch, (set up in 2002, post-Gujarat pogrom and headed by Indresh Kumar of FINS); etc., etc.

The Hindu Jagran Manch and Abhinav Bhara, accused of 2006 and 2008 Malegaon blasts, would not be openly recognised as members of the Parivar.

The RSS’s basic unit is called Shakha. Each Shakha is headed by a Chalak. Other ranks in the RSS organisational hierarchy include: district Sanghchalak; Vibhag Sanghchalak (head of four district level units); Prant Pracharak (state level head); Kshetriya Pracharak (head of three states); Sarsangchalak (national chief).

The Sarsanghchalak is appointed through the process of nomination. The sitting Sarsanghchalak nominates his successor. As of now the RSS has about 70,000 Shakhas and 2,500 Pracharaks. Its Pracharaks have of late become ministers and prime ministers in the government of India.

It receives the largest amount of foreign funding among the non-government organisations of India.

In contemporary times the RSS projects itself as a socio-cultural organisation to promote Hindutva.

It describes Hindutva as cultural nationalism of India.

The RSS has developed a new fledged rhetoric claiming everyone living in India is a Hindu by definition (“Hindu-sthan”, the country of Hindus). Accordingly India’s Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, etc., are Hindus. The term “Hindu” is the RSS equivalent of nationalist (according to this rhetoric). And since Hindutva signifies, according to the RSS, Hindu nationalism, it should be acceptable to them.

Roots of the Sangh Parivar

Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar founded the RSS in Nagpur on September 27, 1925, to defend Hindu religion and culture. Until then Hedgewar was associated with All India Hindu Mahasabha. The Hindu Mahasabha was formed in April 1915, at Haridwar as an umbrella organisation of regional Hindu Sabhas. The first of these regional Sabhas, the Punjab Hindu Sabha (which could be described as the parent of Hindu Mahasabha and the present day Sangh Parivar) was set up at Lahore by political personalities like Lala Lajpat Rai, and Madan Mohan Malaviya “to safeguard the interests of the entire Hindu community”.

It criticised Congress party’s secularism and instead called for Hindu centred politics. Also Malaviya stressed for reconversion of Muslims to Hinduism (what the Sangh Parivar now calls Ghar Vapsi, the home coming).

The Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS were ideologically similar but the latter developed faster. The RSS remained away from elections in British India while the Hindu Mahasabha took part in them. Both refused to extend support to Gandhi’s 1930 Civil Disobedience Movement and 1942 Quit India Movement.

Both the Mahasabha and the RSS produced at least one ideologue who left their indelible impression on India’s right-wing politics. One was Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, the RSS Sarsanghchalak from 1940 to 1973; and the other was Vinayak Damodar Veer Savarkar, leader of the Hindu Mahasabha.

Some scholars are of the view that the Mahasabha and the RSS are two distinct organisations. Yet, surprisingly, the BJP tends to distance itself from the former RSS Sarsanghchalak Golwalkar; and instead openly embraces Savarkar who belonged to the Mahasabha.

According to Savarkar, the Hindu-sthan is at once the “fatherland” and the “holy land”. Muslims and Christians cannot be accepted as Hindus though “Hindu-sthan” is fatherland to them, yet it is not a holy land to them. Their holy lands are in far off Arabia, and Palestine. Consequently their names and their outlook smacks of foreign origin (Hindutva Veer Savarkar). In his presidential address to the Hindu Mahasabha, Savarkar referred to Hindus and Muslims as two different nation in 1937, more than a year before Mohammad Ali Jinnah propounded his Two Nations Theory that ultimately led to Partition of British India on August 14/15, 1947.

Golwalkar divides the people of foreign origin into two categories: i) the guests, i.e., Jews and Parsis; and ii) the invaders, i.e., Christians and Muslims. He lays great stress on the fact that the only course for the foreign races is to adopt the Hindu culture and language; learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion; entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture; lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race/nation; or they may stay in the country subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment – not even citizen’s rights.

He further states that Hindus are an old nation; and should deal, as old nations ought to, with foreign races who have chosen to live in “Hindu-sthan”. He goes on to say that Hindus should purify their race just as national socialists did by purging Germany of Jews. Nazis have shown how it is impossible to assimilate races and cultures, having differences going to the root, into one united whole. It is a lesson for us in “Hindu-sthan” to learn and profit by (We, or Our Nationhood Defined M.S. Golwalkar).

Half a century earlier, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay had preached through his political novel “Anand Math” killing of Muslims and burning of their villages. It is the same book from which Hindus, Congressmen including, draw their national song “Vande mataram”.

Kashmir and Hindu Right-wing

In 1932, Kashmiri Pandits and Jamwal Dogras requested the Hindu Mahasabha leaders to convince Maharaja Hari Singh of Kashmir not to implement Glancy Grievance Commission’s recommendations that gave some concession to Muslims. Years before the 1947 Partition, Congress installed a Hindu right-winger Swami Sant Dev as Raj Guru in the royal household. He wielded such evil influence on the Maharaja that the latter failed to take decision by August 15, as to go for complete independence of Kashmir or its accession to India or Pakistan. Post-August 15, Maharaja Hari Singh launched an ethnic cleansing operation in Jammu province against Muslims in which the RSS and Sikh volunteers from Punjab took part.

In 1947, Prem Nath Dogra and Balraj Madhok founded, at Jammu, a pro-Dogra Hindu right-wing organisation by the name of Praja Parishad (Peoples Party). It shot into prominence in the politics of the State 1949 onwards when it opposed abdication of Maharaja Hari Singh; abolition of Jagirdari system; having a Sadr-i-Riyasat for the State; and the adoption of a separate flag and constitution for the State. Also, it called for complete merger of Kashmir with India. It received support from India’s political party the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and its leader Dr S.P. Mookerjee.

Dr. S. P. Mookerjee was a leader of the Hindu Mahasabha from Bengal. He was a minister in the Nehru cabinet. In 1951, he resigned and set up the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (Indian Peoples Association) at Delhi on October 21. He died at Nishat in Srinagar on June 23, 1953, while in custody of the Sheikh Abdullah government.

Praja Parishad – Jana Sangh Merger

In 1970, the Jammu-based Praja Parishad merged with the Jana Sangh. At this time the Jana Sangh was headed by Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The Jana Sangh merged with non-Congress political parties of India (Bharatiya Lok Dal, the Jana Morcha, Socialist Party of India, etc.) on January 23, 1977, to form the Janata Party to oppose Indira Gandhi-led Congress Party.

The Janata Party, under the leadership of Jaya Prakash Narayan, won a massive victory in 1977 elections because its constituents had stood in opposition to the 18-month long emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in June 1975.

Subsequent to the election victory of the JP, Morarji Desai became Prime Minister of India. Jana Sangh members Vajpayee and L.K. Advani became his ministers. The Janata Party government was soon riven by dissension. Morarji Desai was accused of compromising on secularism by giving too much weightage to right-wingers Advani and Vajpayee and their ilk.

Desai resigned on July 19, 1979, and was succeeded by Charan Singh as the PM of India. Three weeks later Charan Singh tendered his resignation.

In 1980, Indra-led Congress returned to power defeating the Janata Party in the general elections. The same year Vajpayee and Advani floated an RSS affiliated political party the BJP.

In 1996, the BJP formed government under Vajpayee in New Delhi but it lasted only for 13 days. Vajpayee had actually refused to form a minority government but a former RSS Sarsanghchalak, Balasaheb Deoras, and the then sitting Sarsanghchalak, Rajendra Singh, insisted that he should take the risk.

In 1998, the BJP came to power once again. After the Pokharan nuclear blasts and Kargil war with Pakistan, it went for re-elections and emerged as the largest Indian political party. This time they managed to stay in power for a full term and became the first non-Congress party to complete its term in office. Prime Minister Vajpayee, leader of the coalition called NDA, had to keep Hindutva programme in check because the BJP lacked sufficient numbers in the Parliament. It was a coalition compulsion that kept the BJP away from Hindutva agenda.

In 2004, the BJP lost power to the UPA, a Congress-Communist coalition.

A decade later the BJP came to power again in May 2014. After one and a half years in power, its real support base, Hindutva brigades, are on the loose. They want to dictate what Indians should eat, wear, or think. The lynching of two Muslims in Dadri and Udhampur, burning of two Dalit children in Haryana, and a Dalit man in UP, and shooting of three eminent Indian thinkers in Maharashtra and Karnataka, are not isolated incidents, but a manifestation of rising intolerance in India.

Furthermore, the hatemongering by the RSS’s ideological partner, Shiva Sena, particularly against Pakistani citizens is also being viewed with concern by common Indians.

Hindus’ Problem with Pakistan

The Sangh Parivar’s problem with Pakistan springs from the latter’s involvement in Kashmir. Pakistan, in its capacity as the foremost party to Kashmir dispute, has been demanding, for the past 70 years, UN-sponsored plebiscite in Kashmir. Pakistan’s “nasty” behaviour has always been unpalatable to Indians in general; Hindutva people are not an exception in this matter.

In fact Hindutva brigades are not responsible for the creation of Kashmir dispute. On the contrary Kashmir dispute is the handiwork of Nehru-led pseudo-secular Congress. Nehru had always nurtured imperial designs on Kashmir. As early as May 1947, when the Partition of British India had not yet been formally decided, he kick started the Gurdaspur conspiracy with Viceroy Mountbatten against Kashmir (Transfer of Power Vol 10). And within two months of the Partition, Nehru concealed, in September 1947, the reports that Tribesmen would invade Kashmir in October (Patel’s Correspondence Vol I). Instead of warning Maharaja Hari Singh of the impending danger to Kashmir, he waited for the tribal invasion to happen so that he could get an excuse to enter Kashmir and capture it.

In 1949, when the UNCIP Plebiscite Resolution of January 5, asked the Maharaja to appoint a Plebiscite Administrator (which entailed prior dismissal of un-elected Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah), Nehru, with Patel’s help, forced Maharaja Hari Singh out of the State in June. Sheikh did not volunteer resignation to pave way for the appointment of PA and plebiscite. Around this time Hari Singh had no objection to lose Kashmir Valley to Pakistan subject to the condition that Jammu was kept outside the purview of the plebiscite (Patel’s Correspondence Vol I). And Prem Nath Dogra of the Praja Parishad is on record having said in 1952, that an overall plebiscite was suicidal and that it should be limited to Kashmir Valley (Kashmir Saga Sardar Ibrahim).

It was Nehru who refused a plebiscite, neither an overall one nor a limited one to Kashmir Valley. He said that the prize India was fighting for was the Valley of Kashmir; and that if India wanted only Jammu then the issue of Kashmir would be clinched in two days (Patel’s Correspondence Vol I).

By ending 1949, Nehru with Sheikh’s help, changed the relationship between Kashmir and India from “temporary accession subject to plebiscite” to “temporary and transitional provision of Indian Constitution called Article 370”.

Nehru’s game plan was to merge Kashmir with the help of Sheikh-led provincial Constituent Assembly. To that effect an un-elected Constituent Assembly was brought into birth by ending 1951. Nehru’s scheme was to finally abrogate the Article 370 itself by 1956, and merge Kashmir with India again with the concurrence of Sheikh-led CA because the CA was to last only for five years.

However, Sheikh’s refusal in 1952, to work according to Nehru’s diktat changed the situation. Sheikh did not refuse because he was a man of principles but because he was a power hungry politician seeking to stay in power at any cost. Merger of the State and abrogation of Article 370 would have reduced his authority from being the PM of an autonomous state to a mere CM.

If Sheikh had not bolted in 1952, the President of India would not have promulgated Article 35-A; and Article 370 would have been buried by 1956. The point I am trying to make is that whatever the agenda of the Indian State on Kashmir, it is not indigenous to the RSS but is actually the Congress’ agenda. (During Congress’ rule of 60 long years the condition of Indian Muslims deteriorated to such an extent that in most places they figure below the Dalits). The ruling BJP, an RSS affiliate, has inherited the Kashmir agenda from the Congress party. If Kashmiris started cursing the Sangh Parivar, then the real culprits, Nehru’s Congress and Sheikh’s National Conference, would get a clean chit.