Where are we today? And where is the RSS? | Suresh Khairnar

Friends, I am not writing this post to show anyone down or up. I have been a soldier of Rashtriya Seva Dal since I was 12 years old. And counting, I was 20 years old. Till then (during the Emergency of 1973-1976, I had to resign due to going to jail!) I have been working as a full time worker of Rashtriya Seva Dal.

And due to the current situation of the country, in which communal polarization has increased the most since the independence of our country, after a gap of forty years, I was unanimously made the President of Rashtra Seva Dal for two years (from 2017 to 2019). And after assuming the post of President, I had told all the representatives in my first address itself. "That I have become the President of Rashtra Seva Dal after a gap of forty years, only and only to make India Sangh-free. I was being urged to become the President since I was thirty years old. But our children were small, and Madam Khairnar was in a government job (in Kendriya Vidyalaya), I myself was busy in fulfilling my household responsibilities, giving my full time as a house husband. That is why I did not ask to become the President. And when the condition of the country became serious due to communal polarization, then despite crossing sixty years of age, I agreed to become the President of Rashtra Seva Dal.

And if even one member of this assembly disagrees with my declaration of "Sangh Mukt Bharat", I am ready to resign from my post. Because according to me, the biggest problem of India today is to stop the spread of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in every corner of the country. Rashtra Seva Dal is the only organization that has the capacity to become its synonym. That is why I decided to become the President. And today I am making this declaration. And it is a matter of happiness that not even a single representative opposed my declaration of Sangh Mukt Bharat. That is why I fulfilled my position as the President for two years.

And according to that, I immediately organized a joint camp of Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand in Madhupur! And Tilutia in Bengal! Then in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Jammu-Kashmir, Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and North East, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Andhra-Telangana and Tamil Nadu, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Delhi, Haryana, that is, in all the states of the country! I tried to find out the possibilities of spreading the activities of Rashtra Seva Dal! And wherever I found a favorable situation! I visited there five-six times! During that time, camps and conferences were held at some places! After two years (2019) I got relieved from the presidency! But I will remain a soldier of Rashtra Seva Dal till my death!

Suddenly I came across this book "THE RSS AVIEW TO THE INSIDE", written by two authors (Walter K. Andersen & Shridhar D. Damle) and while looking at the book I felt that I needed to read it properly. And I was reading it till 2 o’clock in the night.

After waking up in the morning, I thought that I should share the organizational facts and figures of RSS with you people. So that during our reading, writing and speaking, we can know what is the organizational strength of RSS in its hundred years of journey. How can we prepare to face it? Otherwise, what is the use of talking nonsense?

This book was published by Penguin India in 2018. Although Left Word has also published AG NOORANI’s 547 page book titled ’The RSS’ a year later in 2019. And Deshraj Goyal, who himself has been associated with RSS for a long time, also has a book titled ’RSS’ available in Hindi and English. And thousands of articles and video material are available from Bhanwar Meghani and Professor Shamshul Islam, Dr. Ram Puniyani, Professor Jaydev Dole, Professor Raosaheb Kasbe, Dr. Baba Adhav, Devanur Mahadevan and Madhu Vani and activists like us. But in this book, both the authors have written this 405 page book in an academic manner, without making any criticism or comment. Neutrally.

In which the current organizational strength of the Sangh! The world’s largest organization after 1990! From two crore people participating in daily activities! To 57000 daily branches, 14000 weekly branches, 7000 monthly branches, expansion of 36,293 branches in different areas of the country! These are the figures of 2016! During 2015 to 16, the number of branches has increased from 51,332 to 57000! With the help of 6000 preachers! It is mobilized to propagate Hindu nationalism!

Apart from this, after 1980, apart from All India Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, different units have been formed for every sphere of life! Which includes important institutions like Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, All India Consumer Organization, Senior Citizen Forum, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Vigyan Bharti, Gyan Prabodhini! Apart from this, institutions like Deendayal Research Institute, Rambhau Mhalgi Academy have been formed!

Similarly, when Deoras became the head of the Sangh, he was the first head of the Sangh who recognized that in a multi-caste country like India, the brahminical nature of the Sangh needed to be changed. And he started a historic initiative to change it. And for this reason, he established ’Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram’ to promote his work among the tribals in the field of health and education and mainly for welfare programs in the tribal areas and rural areas through NGOs.

During his tenure, the number of projects has increased tenfold from 5000 projects in 1989 to 1,40,000 in 1998 and 1,65,000 in 2012. After touring the tribal areas of Maharashtra, Deoras while talking to journalists said that "45-48 departmental (RSS does not believe in the federal system of India, so they have created departments in their own language and at their convenience) workers need to be specially mobilized to work purely in the field of service. The most important thing is that after organizing a seminar on public schemes with BJP and RSS, the dialogue between the two has started.

And with regard to policy plans, we have started to expose them to the public and thus have made an important beginning to strengthen exchange and cooperation between India and each other in cultural and political matters.

Compared to Golwalkar and Hedgewar, the first and second chiefs, have been in that position for 48 years in the 98-year journey of the Sangh. And if we include Deoras’ 21 years, then the tenure of the first three Sangh Pramukhs is 69 years. And that is at least three-fourths of the 100 years of the Sangh.
And today’s RSS exists only because of his hard work and imagination. Many people accuse RSS of being a ’one leader’. But today, looking at the spread of RSS’s work across the country, it seems that after a lot of thinking at the grassroots level, he created such an organisational part so that he could give it a permanent form.

On the contrary, half-baked people, in an attempt to copy democracy, copied the so-called elections in their organizations, with all the distortions of the current election system, created fake members in the organization, filled their pockets with money to play the game of elections, starting from fake councilors, and resorted to all other election rigging.

The so-called democrats use these so-called tactics to get their favorite people to sit in those positions. Their entire energy seems to be revolving only and only around elections. And they do not pay any attention to whether the selected people have the capability to increase their organization or not.
They dance to their tunes! On this simple fact, appointments are made to important posts in their organisations! And this is why the status of all the organisations in the country is negligible in comparison to the Sangh! And this is why there is not a single organisation in the country’s 140 crore population that has the capability to challenge the Sangh! And this is why the Sangh is progressing by leaps and bounds day and night!

Balasaheb Deoras, during his tenure as Sangh Pramukh for twenty one years from 1973-94, had decided to change the Brahmin and city centric nature of the Sangh and send hundreds of young people from rural areas to Dalits and tribals for welfare work. The result of which is that today a lot of work has been done during Deoras’ time to make inroads of the Sangh from the North Eastern states to the tribal areas of the country and also in the rural areas.

Similarly, taking cognizance of the twenty-first century, they have made special efforts to change their policies and members. Due to the national economic growth increasing by 400% since 1990, according to the World Bank, urbanization has doubled in 2015 as compared to 1960. Which was 18% in 1960, 26% in 1990 and 33% in 2015. According to the Kinsey Institute, the pace of growth of the middle class has increased from 14% in 2005 to 29% in 2015 and according to their estimate, 44% in 2025. As a result of which, the increase in the number of people using mobile phones is its biggest example.

And Narendra Modi is the first Indian politician to take them under his control. In 2007, while being the Chief Minister of Gujarat, he hired a company from Thailand and started trolling with mobile holders to propagate his views. The number of these people was in thousands in the beginning. Now it is in lakhs. Which I have compared to ’Saffron Digital Army’. And these people keep on doing their propaganda and defamation campaign against people of other views 24 hours a day for 12 months. For which fake news is used. They even present the incidents of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria in a distorted manner as if they happened in India.

They do the same with the help of mainstream media organizations. For example, during the Gujarat elections, in Kolkata’s Mominpur, how the Muslim community oppresses Hindus. Such a 5-10 minute clip was being shown continuously by channels like Aaj Tak. And Saffron Digital Army was spreading it through WhatsApp University.

During that time, I had to catch a train from Kolkata to Khadigram Bihar. So, after leaving Nagpur on 14th November, I reached Kolkata in the morning. My train to Khadigram was in the evening. So, I came straight from Howrah station to Mominpur. After roaming around the area for two-three hours and talking to the local people, I did not find any of the so-called rumours to be true. One rumour was that "the Muslim community has made it unlawful for Hindus to live." And the other was that "Hindus are locked in their homes for many days." So, after roaming around the entire Mominpur two-three times, I saw that there was no incident anywhere. People were behaving as usual. And I did not see a single incident of burning or vandalism.

But a global news channel like Aaj Tak, which has the highest number of viewers, keeps making such claims continuously. And the local people said that, "No media person had come to our locality before you. They were saying the opposite. You are the only one who is investigating this."

On 15 November 2022, I was in Mominpur. I had lunch there too. And from there Shyamko went to Howrah Station to catch the Khadigram train. I have tried to take some photos with my mobile. I am giving some of them as a sample.

After Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and some other Maharashtrian Brahmins established it in 1925! After he took over the post of Sarsanghchalak fifteen years ago! Just before his death! He remained as a pracharak for four years! Shri Guruji, Madhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar in 1940, after the death of Dr. Hedgewar! Till 1973! By taking charge of the Sangh for thirty-three years! From the present-day Sangh and its functioning! He has worked to create an intellectual meeting place of Hindutva!

After his death, Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras, one of Hedgewar’s disciples from Maharashtra, was the head of the Sangh for about twenty-one years from 1973-94, despite being a Brahmin by birth. Many people make the mistake of calling the Sangh an organization of Brahmins only. But during his tenure, Deoras started giving entry to people from backward classes, Dalits, Muslims and Christians in the Sangh. People from backward castes like Narendra Modi, Adityanath, Vinay Katiyar, Uma Bharti are the biggest examples of this.

And Balasaheb Deoras during the New Economic Policy! Taking advantage of the hurried era of so-called globalization! It is because of the promotion of identity politics! I am writing about the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir movement! And the example of putting stickers of "Proudly say that we are Hindus!" on every door!

And that too while being the head of the Sangh! The controversy raised by the fundamentalist Muslim community in 1985-86 regarding Shah Bano! And the slogan that emerged from it! "The question is of faith! Not of law!" By using it as a weapon! In the name of Ram Janmabhoomi dispute! Started a series of Rath Yatras from Somnath to Ayodhya in the entire country!

And because of that, the everyday questions of the people started getting marginalized. And because of this, instead of movements on important issues like new economic policies, inflation, unemployment, displacement, environment, there was a movement on a strange issue like Jan Lokpal. And it cooled down after bringing BJP to power. It means that behind this movement, there were people from the Sangh. They used to decide every day at 5 am what would happen at Jantar Mantar. Even which slogans to raise and which not to raise. And who would be on the stage and who would not. It means that Jan Lokpal is turning into a joker. It is unfortunate that at that time, good people were swept away by that wind. Who were later thrown out like a fly in milk.

And from Dalits to backward castes to tribals! Due to their penetration in all these sections, from communists, socialists, Naxalites to Ambedkarites and many NGOs, various types of workers’ organizations which were secular! But despite their work done fifty years ago! Be it about displacement! Or environmental protection! In the politics of identity! All of them remained unconnected!

And within no time, most of the people fell into the clutches of Hindutvaists. And in riots from Bhagalpur to Gujarat, they worked as the vanguard. And from the demolition of Babri Masjid to attacks like mob lynching against minority communities, they were at the forefront.

And in the seventies, the politics of the forward and backward castes started in the entire North India. Instead of Mandal, they were able to do the politics of Kamandal. That is why most of the people of backward castes started joining the movement ’Mandir Wahi Banayenge’. And because of that, people like Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar started getting promoted in the politics of North India. And BSP and SP and Samata Party, that is, the once upon a time, the journey of George Fernandes, the low caste socialist, to becoming the President of NDA, has been a journey of political suicide. And from speaking in the Lok Sabha in support of the Gujarat riots, he went to the level of decadence of giving a clean chit to the incident of burning of Father Graham Staines and his two children in Kandhamal, Orissa. I have written about this decadent behavior of his separately under the title ’Hero of my time is zero today’.

Otherwise a man like Narendra Modi would not have been chosen to take over as the Prime Minister of India. To take India to the condition of Nazi Germany, a hundred years ago, today is the result of the tireless efforts of the Sangh Parivar. Today Narendra Modi’s government in Delhi again, which in the first phase, due to a decision like demonetization, the country’s economic condition deteriorated and the condition of common people became miserable. The one who announced two crore jobs, on the contrary, put more people to bear the brunt of unemployment. And inflation started touching the sky. How many times has the price of domestic gas increased from Rs 300 before coming to power? And how much has the price of petrol-diesel increased, from the price of pulses, vegetables and household items? And how much injustice was done to the farmers! But despite that, the return to power again in 2019 is a mystery.

The structure of the RSS organisation, its working style, and the graph of the Sangh’s expansion in other areas it has created, in terms of its branches, sub-branches and numbers, even that of its political unit BJP, from the ratio of votes to the numerical lead, shows that the Sangh has brought under its influence more than half of the country’s population. And in the field of education, looking at the number of students, teachers and vice-chancellors in India today, it seems that no other organisation has the capability to match the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh today.

I have been following the work of Rashtra Seva Dal for more than fifty years. Since then I realized that we will also be turning 82 years old on 4th June 2023 and the Sangh will celebrate its centenary in 2025. There is only a difference of sixteen years between our age and theirs. Whereas in the second year of our establishment, we had spread 125 branches in a city like Mumbai and like Mumbai mills, the activities of our 125 branches were organised in three shifts. This was told to me during my tenure as President in 2017 by Navneet Bhai Shah, who is more than 90 years old from Palghar, during a meeting. The same was after the announcement of Quit India Movement on 9th August 1942. During the tour organised by Rashtra Seva Dal in the entire Maharashtra to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Quit India Movement. For the first time it has come to light that more than a thousand martyrs of Rashtriya Seva Dal alone were less than thirty years old.

In the fight for Goa’s freedom, hundreds of Rashtriya Seva Dal soldiers from Belgaum and other border areas of Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka, including Barrister Nath Pai, Madhu Limaye, Madhu Dandavate, Nanasaheb Gore, Mahadev Joshi, Advocate Ram Apte, Menase, Vasu Deshpande and hundreds of others took part in Goa’s freedom struggle. Similarly, against the Nizam of Hyderabad, hundreds of people from Marathwada Rashtriya Seva Dal, from Professor Narhar Kurundakar to Anantrao Bhalerao, Dr. Bapu Kaldate, Gangaprasad Agarwal, Vinayakrao Charthankar, Govind Bhai Shroff, Justice Narendra Chapalgaonkar took part without caring for their lives. Despite the participation of thousands of Rashtriya Seva Dal members in the freedom movement, Hyderabad Liberation movement and Goa Liberation movement without caring for their lives, today it is an irony that the Sanghis who were absent from all these battles are today distributing certificates of nationalism and patriotism!

And where are we today? And where is the RSS? Perhaps we have been calling the RSS narrow-minded for a long time! But at the beginning of this book itself! In the preface, it has been very well described that under the leadership of Deoras (1980)! The Sangh has tried to make inroads by promoting identity politics among the Dalits, backward and tribals by sending its followers like Sunil Deodhar in Tripura! By going among the tribals of Tripura! Or Ashok Bhagat in Jharkhand! People like Asimanand in Dang with the tribals of Gujarat! “They said that you are the descendants of Shabri who fed false berries to Ram!”

For more than fifty years, our friends Comrade Sharad Patil, Medha Patkar, Kumar Shiralkar, Kishore Dhamale, Vahru Sonawane, Ambersih Maharaj, Pratibha Shinde have devoted their lives to the displacement of tribals or to get them land leases. But in the politics of identity at the cultural level, the people of the Sangh overpowered them.

And in the transition period of the so-called globalization of 1990! And due to the Babri Masjid-Ram Mandir movement! Despite many economic problems! More movements than should have been on the economic issues of the people! More were on religious grounds! From Rath Yatras to Kar Seva! The question is of faith! Not of law! But they gathered! And the biggest example! From the recent elections of Uttar Pradesh to Gujarat! Despite the highest inflation, unemployment and corruption in the history! Only on the basis of religious polarization! Defeating all kinds of mathematical calculations from the forward-backward theory! Just say with pride that we are Hindus! That the boat of elections is being taken across the storm! That means even before completing a hundred years! The Sangh is getting success in creating an undeclared Hindu nation! After accepting this fact, there is a need to take initiative to deal with it!

WALTER K. ANDERSEN PROFESSOR OF SOUTH ASIA STUDIES, SCHOOL OF ADVANCED INTERNATIONAL STUDIES (SAIS) JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY,PRIOR TO JOINING THE SAIS, HE SERVED AS CHIEF OF THE US STATE DEPARTMENT’S SOUTH ASIA DIVISION IN THE OFFICE OF ANALYSIS FOR THE NEAR EAST AND SOUTH ASIA.

and co-author is from Maharashtra but currently residing in the US
SRIDHAR D. DAMLE IS A FREELANCE JOURNALIST AND SCHOLAR OF INDIAN POLITICS BASED IN THE US.

(Author: Dr. Suresh Khairnar, former President Rashtra Seva Dal)