RSS @ 100: The Sangh Must Undo BJP's Political Hindutva to Survive

Should ideology be subordinated to politics, which has helped grow RSS exponentially since the rise of Modi?

It’s a remarkable achievement for an organisation that has been banned three times in independent India.

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

In its 100 years' celebrations, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is faced with a unique dilemma: should it go ahead with its core ideology or should it opt for moderation? It is also suffering from the inertia of huge success, which it has achieved in the last 11 years since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India, and now it has become the victim of its own success.

The RSS is also going through another crisis: should ideology be subordinated to politics, which has helped grow the organisation exponentially, from the margin to the mainstream of India’s thought process? 

RSS Through Post-Independence India

It’s a remarkable achievement for an organisation that has been banned three times in independent India. First, it was banned by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, and its top leadership was arrested and put behind bars. The second time, it was banned by Indira Gandhi during the Emergency. The third was at the time of the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Every time, it came out with flying colours except the first time—when the taint of Gandhi’s assassination lasted for almost one and a half decades—until socialist leaders decided to forge an alliance under the guise of anti-Congressism in the 1960s with the Jan Sangh, a political wing of the RSS.

Jayprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia should take the blame for giving respectability to the RSS. Once the socialist leaders decided to ally with the Jan Sangh, the taint of Gandhi’s assassination was gone forever, and the Sangh became a serious political player and started gravitating towards the mainstream of Indian politics. In 1977, Jan Sangh was merged with the Janta Party, and its two top leaders, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, became influential cabinet ministers under Morarji Desai’s prime ministership.

The Birth of BJP and the Return to Hindutva

In 1980, RSS decided to give a new life to Jan Sangh, which was renamed and reborn as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The next five years remained an era of ideological confusion for the BJP; this was one of the most interesting times for the RSS. At a time when the BJP was experimenting with Gandhian socialism, the RSS was launching the Ram Mandir movement. Finally, the BJP had to give up Gandhian socialism and come back to its original ideology, Hindutva. Advani realised the potential of the Hindutva movement and with his Rath Yatra, Hindutva’s march to emerge as the political hegemonic group began.

With the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, a new political class emerged that was in a position to directly challenge the domination of the Congress.

Unlike its forefathers, this class did not have the guilt of being communalist, and the era of marketing Hindutva began robustly. And finally, in 1998, an RSS-led BJP succeeded in getting its first prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee (though Vajpayee was sworn in as PM in 1996, it was only for 13 days). His government continued till 2004 when it abruptly lost power. 

Modi’s Rise and the Reinvention of Hindutva

But this was the time the Atal-Advani era was slowly moving into the shadows, and Modi, heralded from Gujarat, a new Hindutva which was aggressive, industrious, and gladiatorial in its instinct. Partnered with big corporates, Modi created a 'Hindutva plus' image, ie, Hindutva married with development, which finally captured power constitutionally in 2014.

Modi changed the rules of the game.

Under his influence, the entire Sangh Parivar moved like an invading army, ruthlessly crushing its opponents. To Modi’s advantage, the RSS was led by Mohan Rao Bhagwat, the most prominent Sarsanghchalak after Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras. Unlike his predecessor, KS Sudarshan, Bhagwat did not try to quarrel with his own government and avoided any confrontation with the Modi sarkar.

RSS was the biggest beneficiary of the Modi government. Unlike in the past, it suddenly became fashionable to be associated with RSS and Hindutva.

RSS membership grew phenomenally; it became one of the richest organisations in the world, and its leaders began occupying top constitutional posts in the country. With power at the centre, RSS’s culture also underwent a massive transformation. Now, big RSS leaders started moving in big cars, having private jets at their disposal became routine, lodging in five to seven-star hotels was no longer considered a mortal sin. Rather, it became a symbol of power and upward mobility of its once pedestrian, proverbially jhola chhap, Swayam Sewaks.

With the change of power dynamics at the centre, the RSS emerged as the new arbiter of power. They are now the new influential elite, the power brokers who replaced the old, Anglicised elite of the Congress era.

As they say, that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, it is alleged that the RSS cadre became one of the most artful practitioners of corrupt practices, leaving top leadership significantly concerned. It knows that the virus of corruption was the fundamental reason for the catastrophic fall of the Congress, and may lead to the same fate for the Sangh if the trend is not arrested now.

Global Image Crisis and the Ghost of 'Cult Politics'

Mohan Bhagwat, internally, in the last few years, has been the most vocal articulator of this concern. RSS is aware that, much like the Indira Gandhi cult which destroyed the Congress, the rise of the cult politics will ultimately lead to the decline of the BJP and beneficiary organisations of the RSS.

After Indira Gandhi, the Congress became a party of darbaris (courtiers), and the downfall of the Congress began. Now, RSS is worried that after the grand success of the BJP since 2014, it may be time for consolidation, to take a deep breath, think afresh and plan for the future.

RSS has another worry. It is deeply disappointed that the global media has not taken the rise of Hindutva in the spirit they had hoped for, and the negative portrayal of Hindutva has upset the RSS leadership big time.

Hindutva has been portrayed as divisive, anti-minority and intolerant. RSS leadership is apprehensive that the government’s handling of anti-minority episodes as a tool for polarisation of the population between the two communities will damage the image of Hindutva, and it will get discredited like political Islam.

Hindutva is also facing a serious challenge from Dalit consciousness and the social justice movement. Rahul Gandhi has successfully stalled the Hindutva march in the Parliamentary elections in UP and Maharashtra. And the BJP and RSS both were left with no option but to agree to the caste census despite their ideological hostility towards the same. But they had to do it despite knowing well enough that the outcome of a caste census has the potential to neutralise the essence of Hindutva. 

This is the most challenging time for the RSS, but to say that it will have a truce with Dalits and OBCs is an understatement. It has no option but to engage with them and make major ideological adjustments. The message is simple. 

Anniversaries are times for reflection. The RSS, as an organisation, should look within, wait for some time, reflect and then plan ahead for a giant leap in future. 

(Ashutosh is co-founder of SatyaHindi and a former member of AAP. This is an opinion piece. All views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)