New book on RSS looks into its approach to caste and women's participation

NEW DELHI: Why does the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) not have discussions on caste? Why are women not part of an RSS shakha (daily training)? Why was MS Golwalkar, the second chief of the RSS, a controversial figure? Does the RSS value freedom of speech?
These questions which have dogged the RSS for decades may finally find answers in a new book, ‘The RSS: Roadmaps For the 21st Century’, written by Sunil Ambekar, the national organising secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the RSS. The book, published by Rupa Publications, will be launched by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on October 1.

Ambekar, who hails from Nagpur and has spent about 40 years in the RSS, tells ET that his book contains a futuristic vision of what the RSS should do in the years to come.

On how RSS views caste
Ambekar says the training of swayamsevaks (volunteers) in the Sangh parivar makes them “caste neutral”. “No one in the RSS is ever asked what his caste is. There is never a discussion on caste, unless there is a policy issue or a problem. In the last 70 years, discussions around caste, politics of caste vote banks have only amplified the problem. Swayamsevaks make a very conscious choice to think beyond caste,” he says.

On criticism that the Sangh’s top leadership has long been considered a Brahmanical clique and every sarsanghchalak, except for one, has been a Brahmin, Ambekar saya the issue was about “solving the problem in the society” which cannot be done by looking at who the RSS makes its chief. “This is a problem of the society, and as we evolve and shed these biases, it will also be reflected in organisations. The Sangh is also evolving and these changes will come here too,” he says.

The Sangh, he saya, believes in socially engaging with people and has specifically intensified its outreach among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the past decade. “We see being a Hindu as a unifying factor. Only if you are Hindu above all, you will evolve beyond caste. We believe that we all have multiple identities, and that that doesn’t bring chaos. We are working at synchronising these identities, and putting national interest above everything,” he says.

According to Ambekar, the Sangh, which had “earned the praise of even Mahatma Gandhi for being free of caste-discrimination”, does not believe in forcibly creating bodies to represent every community, as it believes in organically working with the society. “That is why unlike organisations that promote inter-caste love marriages as the only way to end caste oppression in the country, we believe in approaching the issues organically. Love and marriage are decisions that cannot be imposed. But if a couple wants to marry despite their different caste backgrounds, we support them wholeheartedly,” he says.

The RSS pracharak says there are many unanswered questions in the caste system that exist today and that it is important to understand how communities were coded into rigid strictures after the British came to India. “Either you destroy an existing system and build a new one because a society can’t exist in vacuum. But the society has not really come up with an alternative model. The Sangh believes that the caste system as it existed then is redundant now, and there is no use of talking about its origins,” he said. “In the last 70 years, discussions on caste have only intensified caste discrimination. It took years for America to bring in equality, but in India, we established political and constitutional equality in one day, with BR Ambedkar’s constitution coming into force.”

He said his book will also focus on how the freedom struggle of the country has been presented to the people of the country by selectively omitting the contributions of people from the tribal community, the warriors of 1857 revolt, Azad Hind Fauj and freedom fighters from southern India.

Relevance of Golwalkar
Ambekar’s book has also touched on the contentious issue of the arrest of Golwalkar on charges of abetting Mahatma Gandhi’s murder, which were subsequently dropped, although the RSS was banned for over a year in the aftermath of the assassination. Golwalkar was known for writing provocative literature that lauded Hindu supremacy and was anti-Muslim, and parts of his thoughts were discarded by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat last year for not being relevant any longer.

“Guruji was a saint-like figure who told the swayamsevaks to forget and forgive when the Sangh was banned for a few months. The government trusted him to go convince the Raja of Kashmir, Hari Singh about signing the instrument of Accession to India. He was also part of the government committee on gauraksha in the sixties,” saya Ambekar. “All this, including the mention of Gandhi in everyday ekatmata stotra of the RSS shows how for the Sangh, there is nothing above national interest.”

Women in RSS
Ambekar says while it is true that women are not part of the daily shakha of the RSS, they form over 25-30 per cent of the ABVP, Sewa Bharati, Vidya Bharti and several other institutions under the Sangh, apart from the Rastriya Sevika Samiti, whose membership is increasing every year according to him. He said that while “demanding physical activity”, an essential character of the RSS shakha, was the reason why women were kept away initially, the Sangh has evolved a lot since, in terms of attracting women.

“The Sangh is constantly evolving. We have family shakhas, mixed gender shakhas in the west. Looking at shakha as the only activity of the RSS is not fair, as women in the household of every swayamsevak get associated with the RSS in some way,” he said.

Freedom of Expression
Ambekar, who was among the first to raise his voice slamming the February 16, 2016, incident on JNU campus when allegedly seditious slogans were raised, says the Sangh believes that there is a natural expression of love and commitment for the country which should not be ridiculed or undermined. “It is completely okay to be against the PM or the RSS, but why should one raise questions against the existence of the nation? This kind of sentiment should not find place in our country. Even to tackle them we have legal structures, which might be slow but will surely reach there,” he says.