RSS: ARE YOU WAKING UP INDIA OR SLAYING IT DOWN?
Narayana Rao Rampilla
Am I to believe that a rally by Mohan Bhagwat, Chief of India’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), at Madison Square Garden will awaken the sleeping giant of India with a message of “universal oneness”? Could it truly uplift the suffering masses of India-be they Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, or Dalits?
Mr. Bhagwat is no Jawaharlal Nehru. He does not carry the legacy of that transcendent midnight hour in 1947 when India awoke to life and freedom, anchored by an unyielding constitutional commitment to pluralism. Instead, this high-profile international tour looks like an explicit deflection from the political ground cracking beneath the BJP establishment’s feet at home. It appears to be a calculated ploy to divert attention from the protests of Generation Z in the streets of New Delhi, operating under the banner of the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP).
What happened? Why is India at this stage? The RSS, driven by its sectarian Hindutva philosophy, was neither created in ancient times-despite its obsessive fixation on ancient history-nor does it possess an economic program to solve the problems of modern India. It came into being in 1925 under its founder, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, who refused to participate in the anti-colonial freedom struggle and stood in sharp disagreement with Mahatma Gandhi. The RSS was banned in 1948 following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a member of the Hindu Mahasabha, an affiliate of the RSS (Hedgewar himself had been a member of the Hindu Mahasabha before founding the RSS). The ban was lifted only after the organization pledged to uphold the Constitution of India and explicitly promised to limit its activities to the cultural domain.
The RSS is not a registered political organization; it is a paramilitary organization. The current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) serves as its political wing. In layman’s terms, the RSS is the base upon which the BJP rests. Yet, the Constitution of India-which borrowed its tenets from the United States Constitution, among others-proudly declares India in its Preamble to be a “Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic.”
The RSS is the ideological wing of the BJP. The question is: Is it secular? Definitely not. We all remember that the then Chief Minister of Gujarat and now the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, was historically denied a visa to the U.S. due to his administrative responsibility during the horrific 2002 Gujarat riots, which resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 people, predominantly Muslims. Why, then, are we rolling out the red carpet for the RSS chief at Madison Square Garden?
in the India I grew up in, the RSS and the BJP were never a formidable political force. They were, at best, localized provocateurs, beating drums outside mosques to incite division. Apparently, they weaponized anti-Muslim sentiment to capture and stay in power. But it is not just India’s Muslim population that bears the brunt of this majoritarian drive-just ask our Christian brothers and sisters. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) stands as explicit testimony to their plight. Meanwhile, the Sikh community continues to fiercely resist the RSS’s patronizing attempts to assimilate them as Hindus.
This brings us to the core contradiction of the Hindutva project vis-‡-vis Dalits: How can Dalits-who constitute approximately 300 million people-be expected to survive, let alone achieve true equality, within a majoritarian Hindu Samraj (empire) governed by a Hindutva philosophy built on a rigid social hierarchy? The RSS preaches Samrasta-a concept of “social harmony” that calls for the integration of all castes under a singular Hindu umbrella. However, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the historic leader of the Dalits, rejected this token integration, exposing it as a mechanism designed to preserve upper-caste hegemony within the caste system of an imperial Hindu Samraj. This approach stands in complete contradiction to Dr. Ambedkar’s lifelong advocacy for the Annihilation of Caste.
Dalits remain deeply leery of the RSS due to its historical condemnation of the Hindu Code Bill, which was introduced by Dr. Ambedkar in the late 1940s and early 1950s to secure fundamental divorce and property rights for women, as well as to legalize inter-caste marriages. What is more, in 2015, Mohan Bhagwat explicitly suggested a review of the constitutional affirmative action reservations preserved for Dalits (SC/ST) under the Constitution of India, even though the RSS attempted to walk back those comments later. On top of that, the RSS Chief’s abstract rhetoric of “universal oneness” directly contradicts the brutal reality of everyday, caste-enforced violence. For the RSS and its political wing, the BJP, Dalits are viewed merely as a vote bank. How on earth can we continue this form of caste apartheid in the 21st century and still expect to become a fully developed country on par with others?
This is not an abstract exercise for me; it is a battle I have fought on the frontlines. As part of the SC/ST Action Committee at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, I championed and led a historic student movement in 1982ñ83 against institutionalized caste discrimination. I paid a heavy price for my defiance-enduring rustication and expulsion from the university-but I refuse to stay silent now as that same majoritarian architecture is packaged for a Western audience.
I say to Mr. Bhagwat: If you truly want to awaken India, you must discontinue the toxic colonial tactic of “Divide and Rule” and completely abandon your exclusionary, majoritarian empire.
[Narayana Rao Rampilla (Rao Rampilla) is an international legal scholar, activist, and a professional actor. As a prominent leader of the SC/ST (Dalit) Action Committee at Jawaharlal Nehru University (1982ñ1983), he spearheaded a historic national civil rights movement against caste discrimination. Modeling his campus resistance strategy on France’s May 1968 Sorbonne student revolution, he underwent an indefinite hunger strike that lasted for 10-days, enduring institutional rustication to ultimately secure wide-ranging reforms for millions of marginalized Dalits. Globally, Mr. Rampilla has served as a UN Legal Officer and a UNDP Policy Advisor. His extensive international advocacy includes successful litigation opposing the establishment of Casino on the Reservation of the Seneca Nation of Indians and presenting landmark legal research alongside global human rights icons Ramsey Clark and Albie Sachs.]
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