PM Modi springs to Bajrang Dal’s defence: A brief history of the ‘forever-fringe’ outfit

The Bajrang Dal usually makes news for the protests — often violent in nature — it organises over various causes. In the almost 40 years of its existence, it has been accused numerous times of harassing Christians and Muslims over issues of “illegal conversion” and “love jihad”. However, it is not always that the Prime Minister springs to its defence, and in the past, even the BJP top brass has been reported to have urged the Sangh Parivar to rein it in. Here is a brief history of the organisation, which has as its motto ‘Service, Security and Sanskar’.

When was the Bajrang Dal formed?

The Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the right-wing organisation the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). It was formed in 1984 to infuse young blood — and muscle — into the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, for building a Ram temple at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

According to the outfit’s website, the Bajrang Dal was born on October 8, 1984, when some Hindu saints were embarking on a Ram-Janaki Rath yatra from Ayodhya. The website claims that when the then Uttar Pradesh government refused to provide security to the procession, the VHP asked some youth to take up the job. “Hundreds of Youth gathered in Ayodhya. They performed their duty very well. Thus Bajarang Dal was formed with a temporary and localised objective of awakening youth of U.P., and get their involvement in Ram Janma Bhumi Movement,” the website says.

In a meeting held in Lucknow the same month, Vinay Katiyar, who had been Varanasi mahanagar pracharak, suggested to VHP head Ashok Singhal that the VHP should have its own youth organisation. And thus, Bajrang Dal was formally created. Its name was chosen to highlight its association with the Ram temple movement (Bajrangbali is one of the names of Lord Hanuman), and its slogan was “Ram kaaj keenhe bina, mohe kahan vishram (How can I rest without fulfilling the cause of lord Ram)”.

Up until December 1992, the Bajrang Dal played a prominent role in mobilising support for the Ram temple cause, and in the eventual demolition of the Babri Masjid.

However, in the years immediately afterwards, as the Ayodhya issue went to court and the BJP started expanding its political footprint, organisations like the VHP and the Bajrang Dal faded out of the limelight, and many of their members hold a grudge against the BJP for using and then letting them fall by the wayside.

Has Bajrang Dal ever been banned?

Yes, by the Narasimha Rao government after the demolition of the Babri Masjid. However, the ban was revoked a year later.

Christophe Jaffrelot, professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at King’s India Institute, London, and non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has written in The Indian Express that ever since its inception, the Bajrang Dal “lacked the disciplinary regimen of the RSS. Up until 1993, the BD did not even have a uniform. Bajrang Dalis recognised each other by one sign only: the saffron-coloured headband bearing the word “Ram” that they wore.”

Therefore, after the ban on it was lifted in 1993, the Sangh Parivar decided the Bajrang Dal needed more structure and control. Jaffrelot writes, “On July 11, 1993, the BD was provided with a uniform (blue shorts, white shirt and saffron scarf) and a handbook aimed mainly at those in charge of training.” This handbook emphasised the importance of discipline. “Whether it is an individual or a nation, the entire society or an organisation, only one who knows discipline can achieve success, awareness and excellence. Without discipline there can be no success,” it said.

However, over the years, discipline has not been an attribute the Bajrang Dal has most made news for, hitting the headlines for harassing couples on Valentine’s Day, storming pubs, staging violent protests against artistes they believe are offending Hindu sentiments, and more gravely, for allegations of involvements in murders, like that of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his sons in Odisha in January 1999, and of 19-year old Masood near Sullia, Karnataka, in July last year.

While the Dal has been banned only once, calls for banning it have been raised earlier too, by BSP leader Mayawati in 2013 and Lok Janshakti Party leader the late Ram Vilas Paswan in 2008. In 2008, the Congress too had demanded a ban on Bajrang Dal.

In 2002, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was reported to have urged the Bajrang Dal to tone down, something LK Advani repeated in 2008.

What does the Bajrang Dal say its functions are?

On its website, the Bajrang Dal says its functions involve “constructive activities” like management and development of places of worship, collecting grass for cowsheds, maintenance of order in religious congregations, immediate relief activities during natural calamities, etc, and also “agitational activities”.

The website says, “Apart from the Andolans decided upon by the Centre, this category includes conduction of agitation on any of the following issues/matters (which are only suggestive) and prepare plans for associating the public opinion generated through these agitations and for expansion of the organisation. Apart from these agitations, some of the additional issues can be like this : (a) renovation of Religious Places; cow-Protection; Social Evils like Dowry Untouchability etc. and Protests against insults hurled at Hindu Maan-Bindus, Hindu Traditions, Hindu Conventions, and beliefs, etc; Protests against vulgarity and obscenity displayed on the television advertisements and through Beauty Contests; Opposition to the illegal infiltration.”