RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat should ponder why, when he says something noble, his followers remain silent while others laugh. Hearing words such as love, harmony and peace from the RSS chief, his followers tell each other that this is not meant for us, this is for the consumption of a gullible world that believes in these values. Others say that words such as these, coming from Bhagwat, have no value because these people cannot be trusted. In his own term as RSS chief, he has made similar statements on a number of occasions: but his organisations work in just the opposite direction.
In fact, whenever he speaks of love and harmony, there is a new upsurge in hatred and violence. From his own people. Do they not pay heed to him? If so, where is his authority? Or are the violent people outside the fold of RSS? Which means it no longer has control over the Hindutvavadis. Then why should he be taken seriously at all?
The history of RSS, however, reveals how one of its faces is turned towards the world while the other, towards its own people. RSS cadres garland statues of Gandhi, but hold the conspirator and executioner of his assassination as their ideal. Can RSS officials, or Lal Krishna Advani or even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dare, anywhere outside India, to declare fascists such as Golwalkar as their ideological father and Savarkar their most revered figure? Whichever country RSS supporters go to, they are welcomed as people from the land of Gandhi and they are made to bow before his statue.
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Despite this dichotomy, honourable words have their own weight. Therefore, when Bhagwat said that the campaign to convert mosques into temples should stop, everyone welcomed it. This came after a wave of claims over mosques and other sacred places of Muslims, and seemed like a relief to the community. But no RSS supporter wishes that Bhagwat’s words are followed by the RSS network.
Bhagwat stated that after the construction of the Ram temple, if anyone believed that by fanning communal flames he would become the leader of Hindus, he is wrong. He appeared upset with the temple-discovery drive. He added that Indians have been living in harmony for long, and that everyone has the right to worship in their own way; that nothing should be done to disturb peace and harmony.
Bhagwat’s statement has been welcomed by all those who are generally critical of or opposed to the RSS. Because, at least this time, he was saying the right thing. But is it surprising that his own people have remained cold to his suggestions? No official of his political wing, the BJP, or the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the Bajrang Dal, has welcomed Bhagwat’s words on peace and love. What does this mean?
Just when Bhagwat was talking about harmony, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that “Sanatana Dharma” (an equivalent for Hindutva as defined by the RSS) is India’s national religion. How do these two statements go together?
Far from welcoming Bhagwat’s appeal of peace, many of those who believe in the anti-Muslim ideology of the RSS are openly advising him to keep quiet. Some elements of the RSS’s pervasively violent ethos posted on X that he should give up the illusion that he is the sole leader and spokesperson of Hindus. Who is he to tell us which mosques we should claim and which we should not? Some asked why a Ram temple is necessary in Ayodhya but not a Harihar temple in Sambhal. Who is Bhagwat to decide?
Harmony can be infectious
Bhagwat’s statement was publicised outside the RSS in a big way. But the RSS downplayed this part of his speech. The Organiser, RSS’s mouthpiece, reported his speech with the headline “Bharat is sanatana [eternal]; it is not related to politics, but to dharma [religious and moral law] and sanskriti [culture].” The statement, which excited the outside world, has been watered down by the Organiser. He was quoted thus:
“We have, since time immemorial, been living harmoniously with each other. If the world wants to live so, then Bharat has to have that harmony within. Hindus deeply feel for their devotional sites. But what will happen if we bring forth a new issue everyday due to those feelings? This cannot go on.”
But even this much was not published in the Hindi mouthpiece of the RSS, Panchjanya. This can only mean that Bhagwat’s own people do not want to publicise even his small desire for peace. Because just as the company of bad makes one bad, noble ideas of peace and harmony can be infectious, and the RSS people must be protected from them at all costs.
In the same speech in which Bhagwat showed his displeasure at the disease of searching for temples everywhere, he also dog whistled whenhe said that some ideologies that came from outside have traditionally been intolerant of others. They had once ruled this country, so they think that they can rule this country again. But India runs on the Constitution.
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Bhagwat did not spell out which ideology came from outside and is conspiring to rule India again. Today, if there is one ideology that boasts it would rule India, it is the “Sanatan” ideology of the RSS. After all, his beloved Adityanath has said that Sanatan is the national religion of India. Isn’t it then a joke to talk about the rule of the Constitution?
In this very statement, Bhagwat said: “Our sanskriti [culture] teaches us that we acknowledge and accept you as you are with your faith and belief. But time and again we have been backstabbed. [The] last backstab was when this assimilation had started to happen and Aurangzeb killed his brother Dara Shikoh and others like him. This brought back a wave of intolerance.”
Bhagwat said that we should embrace others. He also said that the feeling of superiority and inferiority should be given up. Intolerance should be given up. But who are the people he is advising to give up intolerance? When he asks some people to shed intolerance, he acknowledges that there is intolerance in the country. Who is intolerant? Intolerance for what? Bhagwat does not feel the need to clarify this.
An artist paints ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on a girl’s cheek ahead of the Ram temple consecration, in Lucknow on January 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
SANDEEP SAXENA
Bhagwat says that we (i.e. Hindus) are liberal and tolerant by nature. Then who is intolerant? Who is intolerant towards Muslims? Who is attacking Muslims when they offer namaz, even in their own homes? Who is entering their homes and opening their fridge to see what they are eating? Who is attacking Muslim girls or women because they are wearing hijab? Who is entering Muslims’ homes and planting saffron flags there? Who is beating them up and forcing them to chant “Jai Shri Ram”? Who is shouting slogans to kill and slaughter Muslims?
Who is entering the homes and churches of Christians and vandalising them? If we are all one and we should accept each other, then who is attacking Hindu-Muslim marriages? Are these not examples of intolerance? Is it not true that today India has been devastated by a flood of intolerance?
What is the source of this intolerance? Obviously, Bhagwat will not talk about this because the source of this intolerance is the ideology of the RSS itself. Day after day, in its “shakhas,” in its “bauddhiks,” in its schools and all its programmes, its people are fed with the idea of India being the best in the world, the Vishwaguru [global teacher]. The topic of the event in which Bhagwat was in fact “Vishwaguru Bharat.”
Human and humanity
On the one hand Bhagwat is advising his people to forget the difference between self and the other; on the other hand, he is asking them become so strong that no one could scare them. Who is scaring whom? If Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians are one, then whom are Hindus being advised not to fear?
If Bhagwat has even an iota of humanity and honesty, then he will definitely think why everyone, except his people, praised that one part of his speech in which he is heard hinting at his opposition to the temple-discovery campaign. And why do his own people not listen to this?
No one wants to believe that someone born in the shape of a human being will be completely devoid of humanity. But such people exist and have existed. We have before us the majority of Israel and people such as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have not even been touched by humanity. History has witnessed Hitler, Mao and Stalin. They look human. And yet, not a drop of humanity in them. What about people like Bhagwat?
We, however hold on to the belief that as there are examples of humanity all around, it can somehow touch or even move even such people. We all hope that the bad men should somehow become good. The welcome that Bhagwat’s statement has received is an expression of this human desire. But the reaction of his own people reminds us of the lyrics of the old Hindi film song “Kasme, Wade, Pyar, Wafa, Sab Baatein Hain Baaton Ka Kya! Vows, promises, love, fidelity: Mere words, of what worth are they!)“
Apoorvanand teaches Hindi at Delhi University and writes literary and cultural criticism.
