THE bloodthirsty Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has completed 100 years since its establishment and alongside this, the vile campaign for “Akhand Bharat” (a unified India) has intensified.
Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, its political influence has significantly increased. Currently, the celebration of the establishment of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is underway. For the first time, Indian Prime Minister Modi praised and commended the RSS and over 50 political representatives and observers from 24 countries participated in its centenary session. In the context of its hundred-year journey, more than 100,000 Hindus have convened in various gatherings, along with many other programs that commenced on October 2 with a speech by the organization’s chief, Mohan Bhagwat, at the headquarters in Nagpur. Nationwide household outreach programs have also been organized during the centenary celebrations.
The RSS is an organization with fascist political ideologies that supports authoritarianism over democracy. Historical evidence clearly indicates that its leaders directly derived their national and political ideologies from Hitler and Mussolini and many of its prominent leaders traveled to Italy and Germany to receive training in fascism. Today, the network of its branches (shakhas) spread across India is essentially nurturing this fascist mindset and the toxic germs of fascism. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was established on 27 September 1925 by Keshav Ram Bhale Ram Hedgewar in Nagpur. Its aim is to unite Hindus and transform India into a Hindu nation. To achieve this, the RSS has established dozens of organizations across various sectors of life. RSS workers receive both physical and mental training. Physical training is conducted in fields known as shakhas. During this training, volunteers joining the RSS are informed that India is solely a country for Hindus and there is no place for others; they are also told that Muslims and people of other religions were originally Hindus who later converted to other faiths.
When Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee, the founder of the BJP, decided to resign from the Nehru cabinet to form an extremist party, he requested workers from the then RSS chief, Golwalkar, leading to the formal establishment of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh with the help of RSS volunteers. Dr. Mukherjee became its President and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya was appointed as General Secretary. The early history of the BJP indicates that it was born from the RSS, which also considers it its own party. Consequently, the RSS’s publishing institution, Suruchi Prakashan, released a book titled “RSS: An Introduction,” which lists the BJP among the 30 organizations identified as ideologically aligned.
Danish scholar Thomas Blom Hansen, in his book The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India, writes that “the RSS has only nominal interest in democratic values; it has been committed to the mission of making India a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ (Hindu nation) since its inception. It views Hinduism not just as a religion but as a way of life.” The organization remains actively engaged in issues like Muslim appeasement, conversion, cow slaughter, the Ram temple and the implementation of a uniform civil code. Wikipedia states that in 1927, Hedgewar trained 100 RSS volunteers against Muslims and attempted to lead a procession with drums in front of a mosque on the day of Lakshmi Puja. When Muslims attempted to stop them, RSS workers were prepared and forced Muslims to leave the area. The author of the book Hindutva, along with other important RSS leaders like M.S. Golwalkar, mentioned in a letter how he used his hands during the riots in Nagpur.
The Hindu nationalist ideology of the RSS is clearly reflected in the writings of Hindu Mahasabha leaders like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Lala Lajpat Rai, V.D. Savarkar and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. For this reason, the organization has faced several bans, though these were later lifted due to its influence and pressure. The first ban was imposed during British rule by Punjab’s Prime Minister Malik Khizr Hayat Tiwana on January 24, 1947 and lifted four days later. The second came after Gandhi’s assassination by Nathuram Godse, an RSS propagandist and the third followed the Babri Masjid demolition. The RSS now operates 77,848 branches promoting Hindu extremism, with around 100,000 new recruits aged 20 to 35 joining last year. It runs 93 international branches under the name Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, including 641 in the US and 48 in the UK. Its presence is strong in Nepal, Kenya and neighbouring African countries, while five branches operate secretly in Middle Eastern states. Recently, the RSS established the “Muslim Rashtriya Manch” and “Jamaat Ulema” to attract Muslim youth and influence them through ideological training in schools and colleges.
The main source of power and control of the BJP lies with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Both are two sides of the same coin. RSS has always been opposed to regional languages, minority rights and their religious identities. This is evident in India, where incidents like the murder of Christian priest Graham Staines in Odisha and the killing of Ansari in UP in the name of cow protection reflect this ideology. Muslims are labeled as traitors, Dalits are brutally killed and this ideology is prevalent. This is the same ideology that leads communal politicians to call Colonel Sophia Qureshi a terrorist’s sister. India is currently under the grip of the terrorist RSS. Those who hold this violent ideology consider Muslims, backward classes and Christians as “foreigners” and always question their loyalty. This is the true face of Hindutva, which the world needs to know.
—The writer is Chairman, Tehrik Jawanan Pakistan.
