Strap out

Before the liberal among us fume at the RSSs ever deepening fundamentalist particularism,lets ponder the delightful irony of the outfit being enlightened at last on the obvious. The unmistakable leather belt spot in the middle of the distinct RSS uniform holding together not merely the characteristic khaki shorts and white shirt but seemingly,symbolically,the very ideology and activities of the RSS has just revealed its essence. Everything,after all,comes together in the middle the centre which must hold. And without the decades-old Ganavesh thats grown on the idea and image of the RSS as skin,what would this Sangh outfit be?

It wasnt till the 1920s that men and boys started wearing the belt. The trivium behind this historic change of mode for holding the upper and lower halves of the male dress together was the advent of a lower trouser waist. Its just as well that the RSS was founded in 1925. Nevertheless,the leather belt of the white-khaki-dark brown triad is indeed animal skin,albeit tanned from putrescible rawhide,as leather by definition is. Some voices have been raised against the binding strap and the RSS will dispense with it this year,substituting a synthetic replacement.

Back in 2009,there was talk of a change of the Ganavesh,as there were reports of the RSS losing touch with the youth. The RSS is in a bit of a serious spot again. Its image has taken a sound beating with investigations into saffron terror. There will,however,be no change apart from the belt for now,certainly not the shorts a frightful thought in this cold. Whats more,the RSS is banking on technology to reach out,with its IT cells expanding from the one in Bangalore. Will its virtual world too be no stranger to the RSSs real-world concerns?