Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is an Indian right-wing Hindutva volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of Hindutva organisations called the Sangh Parivar, which has developed a presence in all facets of Indian society and includes the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling political party under Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India. Mohan Bhagwat currently serves as the Sarsanghchalak of the RSS, with Dattatreya Hosabale serving as the Sarkaryavah.
Founded on 27 September 1925, the initial impetus of the organisation was to provide character training and instil "Hindu discipline" in order to unite the Hindu community and establish a Hindu Rashtra. The organisation aims to spread the ideology of Hindutva to "strengthen" the Hindu community and promotes an ideal of upholding an Indian culture and its "civilisational values". On the other hand, the RSS has been described as being "founded on the premise of Hindu supremacy". The RSS has been accused of an intolerance of minorities, particularly Muslims.
During the colonial period, the RSS collaborated with the British Raj and played no role in the Indian independence movement. After independence, it grew into an influential Hindu nationalist umbrella organisation, spawning several affiliated organisations that established numerous schools, charities, and clubs to spread its ideological beliefs. It was banned in 1947 for four days, and then thrice by the post-independence Indian government, first in 1948 when Nathuram Godse, a member of the RSS, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi; then during the Emergency ; and for a third time after the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992. In the 21st century, it is the world's largest far-right organisation by membership. The RSS has been criticised as an extremist organisation, and there is a scholarly consensus that it spreads hatred and promotes violence.
Founding
The RSS was founded in 1925 by K. B. Hedgewar, a doctor in the city of Nagpur, British India.Hedgewar was a political protege of B. S. Moonje, a Tilakite Congressman and Hindu Mahasabha politician from Nagpur. Moonje had sent Hedgewar to Calcutta to pursue his medical studies and to learn combat techniques from the secret revolutionary societies of the Bengalis. Hedgewar became a member of the Anushilan Samiti, an anti-British revolutionary group, getting into its inner circle. The secretive methods of these societies were eventually used by him in organising the RSS. After reading Vinayak Damodar Savarkar's ideological pamphlet, Essentials of Hindutva, published in Nagpur in 1923, and meeting Savarkar in the Ratnagiri prison in 1925, Hedgewar was extremely influenced by him, and he founded the RSS with the objective of "strengthening" Hindu society.
Hedgewar believed that a handful of British colonialists were able to rule over the vast Indian subcontinent because Hindus were disunited, lacked valour, and lacked a civic character. He recruited energetic Hindu youth with revolutionary fervour, gave them a uniform of a black forage cap, khaki shirt and khaki shorts—emulating the uniform of the Indian Imperial Police—and taught them paramilitary techniques with , sword, javelin, and dagger. Hindu ceremonies and rituals played a large role in the organisation, not so much for religious observance, but to provide awareness of India's supposed "glorious past" and to bind the members in a religious communion. Hedgewar also held weekly sessions of what he called , consisting of simple questions to the novices concerning the Hindu nation and its history and heroes, especially warrior king Shivaji. The saffron flag of Shivaji, the Bhagwa Dhwaj, was used as the emblem for the new organisation.
Two years into the life of the organisation, in 1927, Hedgewar organised an "Officers' Training Camp" with the objective of forming a corps of key workers, whom he called . He asked the volunteers to first become "sadhus", renouncing professional and family lives, and dedicating their lives to the cause of the RSS. Hedgewar is believed to have embraced the doctrine of renunciation after it had been reinterpreted by nationalists such as Aurobindo. The tradition of renunciation gave the RSS the character of a 'Hindu sect'. Developing a network of was the main preoccupation for Hedgewar throughout his career as the RSS chief. The first were responsible for establishing as many as possible, first in Nagpur, then across the Maharashtra region, and eventually throughout the rest of India. P. B. Dani was sent to establish a at the Benaras Hindu University; other universities were similarly targeted to recruit new followers among the student population. Three went to Punjab: Appaji Joshi to Sialkot, Moreshwar Munje to the DAV College in Rawalpindi and Raja Bhau Paturkar to the DAV College in Lahore.
Motivations and history
The RSS was founded to propagate the ideology of Hindutva, to provide "new physical strength" to the majority community, and was "directed against Muslims".After Tilak's demise in 1920, like other followers of Tilak in Nagpur, Hedgewar was opposed to some of the programmes adopted by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi's stance on the Khilafat Movement was a cause for concern to Hedgewar, and so was the fact that 'cow protection' was not on the Congress agenda. This led Hedgewar, along with other Tilakities, to part ways with Gandhi. In 1921, Hedgewar was arrested on charges of sedition over his speeches at Katol and Bharatwada. Ultimately, he was sentenced to a year in prison.
He was released in July 1922. Hedgewar was distressed at the lack of organisation among volunteer organisations of the Congress. Subsequently, he felt the need to create an independent organisation that was based on the country's traditions and history. He held meetings with prominent political figures in Nagpur between 1922 and 1924. He visited Gandhi's ashram in nearby Wardha in 1924 and discussed a number of things. After this meeting, he left Wardha to plan to unite the often antagonistic Hindu groups into a common nationalist movement.
Hindu–Muslim relations
The 1920s witnessed a significant deterioration in the relations between Hindus and Muslims. The Muslim masses were mobilised by the Khilafat movement, opposing the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire by the Allies and some demanded the reinstatement of the Caliphate in Turkey. Mahatma Gandhi made an alliance with the movement for conducting his own non-cooperation movement. Gandhi aimed to create Hindu–Muslim unity in forming the alliance. However, the alliance saw a "common enemy", not a "common enmity". When the government refused to entertain demands of the Khilafat Movement, some Muslims turned their anger towards Hindus. The first major incident of religious violence was reportedly the Moplah rebellion in August 1921. It was widely narrated that the rebellion ended in large-scale violence against Hindu officials in Malabar. A cycle of inter-communal violence throughout India followed for several years. In 1923, there were riots in Nagpur, termed "Muslim riots" by Hedgewar, where he thought Hindus were "totally disorganised and panicky". These incidents made a major impression on Hedgewar and convinced him of the need to "organise" Hindu society.After acquiring about 100 swayamsevaks in the RSS by 1927, Hedgewar took the issue to the Muslim domain. He led the Hindu religious procession for Ganesha, beating the drums in defiance of the usual practice not to pass in front of a mosque with music. On the day of Lakshmi Puja on 4 September, Muslims are said to have retaliated. When the Hindu procession reached a mosque in the Mahal area of Nagpur, Muslims blocked it. Later in the afternoon, they attacked the Hindu residences in the Mahal area. It is said that the RSS cadres were prepared for the attack and "beat the Muslim back". Riots continued for 3 days and the army had to be called in to quell the violence. Muslim households had to leave Nagpur en masse for their safety, due to widespread violence against them. Tapan Basu et al. note the accounts of "Muslim aggressiveness" and the "Hindu self-defence" in the RSS descriptions of the incident.
Stigmatisation and emulation
French political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot points out the theme of "stigmatisation and emulation" in the ideology of the RSS along with other Hindu nationalist organisations such as the Arya Samaj and the Hindu Mahasabha. Muslims, Christians, and the British were thought of as "foreign bodies" implanted in the Hindu nation, who were able to exploit the disunity and absence of perceived "valour" among the Hindus in order to subdue them. The solution lay in emulating the characteristics of these "Threatening Others" that were perceived to give them strength, such as paramilitary organisation, emphasis on unity, and nationalism. The Hindu nationalists combined these emulatory aspects with a selective borrowing of traditions from the Hindu past to achieve a synthesis that was uniquely Indian and Hindu.Hindu Mahasabha influence
The Hindu Mahasabha, which was initially a special interest group within the Indian National Congress and later an independent party, was an important influence on the RSS, even though it is rarely acknowledged. In 1923, prominent Hindu leaders like Madan Mohan Malaviya met together on this platform and voiced their concerns on the 'division in the Hindu community'. In his presidential speech to Mahasabha, Malaviya stated: "Friendship could exist between equals. If the Hindus made themselves strong and the rowdy section among the Mahomedans were convinced they could not safely rob and dishonour Hindus, unity would be established on a stable basis." He wanted the activists 'to educate all boys and girls, establish akharas, establish a volunteer corps to persuade people to comply with decisions of the Hindu Mahasabha, to accept untouchables as Hindus and grant them the right to use wells, enter temples, get an education.' Later, Hindu Mahasabha leader V. D. Savarkar's 'Hindutva' ideology also had a profound impact on Hedgewar's thinking about the 'Hindu nation'.The initial meeting for the formation of the Sangh on the Vijaya Dashami day of 1925 was held between Hedgewar and four Hindu Mahasabha leaders: B. S. Moonje, Ganesh Savarkar, L. V. Paranjpe and B. B. Tholkar. The RSS took part as a volunteer force in organising the Hindu Mahasabha annual meeting in Akola in 1931. Moonje remained a patron of the RSS throughout his life. Both he and Ganesh Savarkar worked to spread the RSS shakhas in Maharashtra, Panjab, Delhi, and the princely states by initiating contacts with local leaders. Savarkar merged his own youth organisation Tarun Hindu Sabha with the RSS and helped its expansion. V. D. Savarkar, after his release in 1937, joined them in spreading the RSS and giving speeches in its support. Officials in the Home Department called the RSS the "volunteer organisation of the Hindu Mahasabha."