The RSS and its Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat occupy a curious position in India’s social and political landscape. In one sense, the RSS is, to quote Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the “world’s biggest NGO”. However, the RSS is also the fountainhead — ideological, political and arguably, of human resources — of the BJP and various other political groups. Perhaps that is why the three-day lecture series by Bhagwat, ‘100 Years of the Sangh’s Journey — New Horizons’, which concluded on August 28, has received widespread attention. Eleven years into the BJP government, Bhagwat’s words strike notes across three registers. First, the RSS chief tried, as he has done earlier, to present a more inclusive version of Hindutva. Second, he reinforced his commitment to many of the more parochial — and problematic — political planks of the BJP. Finally, he articulated social and economic challenges. On all three, some of his diagnosis was sharp but his prescriptions fall short.
Bhagwat’s lectures come at a time when the relationship between the BJP and the RSS is not what it once was. In an interview with this newspaper last year, party president J P Nadda said that “the BJP is capable now… it runs its own affairs”. Simply put, a dwindling influence in the BJP will translate to less political capital. In this context, Bhagwat seemed to reiterate many of the BJP’s controversial political stands: He flagged “demographic changes” and urged people to have three children, all but supported meat bans during festivals to protect people’s “sensitivities” and suggested that Muslims “take a big step towards brotherhood” by willingly handing over the sites of the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi and the Eidgah in Mathura for the construction of temples. Behind these shibboleths, though, there is a slight calibration of political positions, often absent from the politics of the ruling party. On demographic changes, for example, Bhagwat acknowledged that fertility rates across all communities were going down, and despite the statement on “meat bans”, he said that food preferences are a private affair and the government should not dictate them. Even on Kashi-Mathura, Bhagwat reiterated that beyond three sites (Ayodhya being the third), “don’t look for a temple or a shivling at every place”. This is at odds with the BJP’s position on religious sites like Sambhal in UP. Bhagwat also spoke of the need for reservation to correct historical injustice, and of linguistic, cultural and religious diversity as an essential part of the country’s ethos.
The nuances of the RSS chief’s words notwithstanding, the three-day event also highlighted where the organisation has been found wanting. As it looks to “new horizons”, the RSS seems to lack the imagination to face the challenges that lie ahead. Bhagwat flagged important challenges, such as the worrying view of education merely as a means to employment. But his solution was an anecdote about fostering entrepreneurship. The distinction between “independent swayamsewaks” taking part in temple movements and not the organisation, too, appeared specious. Similarly, asking a beleaguered minority to take on the burden of “brotherhood”, with no concrete measures for equality and inclusion, is disturbing. On the economy, the RSS has not gone beyond its tired idea of “swadeshi”. The social, political and economic views of the RSS chief are, no doubt, important. But an equally compelling question demands an answer: Why are conversations and willingness to engage with those who disagree not part of the BJP or the government’s playbook?
