Dr Rakesh Sinha’s piece ‘Of Swayamsevaks and intellectuals’ in The Indian Express ( 24th March 2017) was a refreshing one.
To begin with, the right wing political ideology in post-independent India was emotionally interlaced with freedom movement against British imperialism. The patriotic fervor coupled with the spiritual preface added by Aurobindo Gosh, patriotic revitalization infused by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Veer Sawarkar have all summarized the right wing ideology by then. Indian’s self-esteem was boosted by the brilliancy of Rabindranath Tagore, Sarojini Devi’s mastery in English, their revolutionary rhymes and awarding of the Nobel Prize, all added to the Indian’s inner strength further. Not to miss out the noteworthy research and discovery made in Indology studies by western and Indian Historians, the discovery of Indus Valley Civilization all, had a lasting impact on Indians.
Yet, alongside, a gutter too was flowing, causing epidemics, death, and destruction. It was none other than, retrograde Marxism. The then nationalists were confronting them effectively yet the monster grew into sizable proportions which blocked the highway of India’s post freedom dreams of a superpower. Jawaharlal Nehru mindfully co-hosted the destructive ‘left-wing’ ideology and poisoned the education system in post-Independent India.
Mahatma Gandhi’s unfortunate assassination and it’s aftermath blame game on RSS and other Sangh organs had a terrific impact on the next generation of Indian’s in the post-Independent India. It has pulled down the Hindus morale very badly, which helped Nehru in a big way retaining power for some more years.
When India slowly limped back to regain it’s glory, breathing free air after Independence, the Left monster grew slowly and steadily under the wings of sham socialist Nehru.
Liberalism is now more of a condemnation of own faith, over indulging in self-deprecation with a guilt-ridden mentality. This tendency is found among Hindu educated elite more than among Muslim youth. In fact, it is Muslim youth ought to have been dubbed as retrograde, lumpen, bigots more than Hindus, but the left dominant media had an agenda to protect the minorities against the mighty majority community. This has resulted in the continuous bashing of Hindus, Hinduism, and right wing leaders from Sangh Pariwar.
Self-styled Left liberals had captured the print media and academia in 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, later the electronic media in 90’s onwards.
RSS ideology, the Panchajanya, were all circulated, talked about in hush, hush manner in my school days (the 1970’s) in Hyderabad. It’s because education syllabi were heavily loaded with Marxian ideology, ( state syllabus were an exception ) and no equal space was given to RSS ideology.
And the ruler then, was Jawaharlal Nehru and Mrs. Indira Gandhi.
The new generation TV anchors, trained under Prannoy Roy have spread the entire spectrum of electronic media and caused all the damage. In early day’s of TV debates, Prannoy Roy used to hand pick the participants (probably after screening them, from budding IT industry then) made them sit in a particular order, later they used to endorse him forming an opinion. I still remember how those ‘kids’ used to raise their hands in agreement with PR. It’s all what the Intellectual debates then.
Shoba De, Veer Sanghvi, Karan Thapar, Tavleen Singh, were all ‘not liberals’ in present day sense. There were occasions when they all took a stand in support of Hindus or right wing ideology and questioning the bigotry of minorities. But then there is a secular foot soldier troop in the media circles, who’s duty is to tap such potential celebrities in journalism, to draw them to their fold. They succeeded. This process is still on. They tapped Arvind Kejriwal to Chetan Bhagat, Devdutt Pattanaik etc/ it’s their professional job. It’s their agenda.
‘The saffron political actors have been more successful than saffron intellectuals’– Dr. R Sinha
This is not the whole truth. Saffron intellectuals were not successful only for the reason they were denied space on Electronic media and even in Print media. In those days I was reading political columns only by AG Noorani, Khushwant Singh, etc but not a line from any ‘right’ guy.
Equally, some saffron political actors were successful, though, not because of penetration of their ideology, but then people were desperate for a political alternative to the ’emergency Congress party’. Not to forget the Leftist political actor’s dominance then. One can not forget so easily the ‘dual membership’ fiasco against RSS and Jana Sangh, which toppled the opposition coalition apple cart, which was formed to defeat the Indira Gandhi’s Congress party. The birth of BJP itself is proof enough how the then Jana Sangh could not muster strength and courage against Leftist groups.
Again BJP grew only as an alternative to Congress party, in the backdrop of emergency excesses of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Advani’s highly successful rath yatra was symbolic to anti-incumbency, more than a fervor for Hindus unity, or adulation for Lord Ram. The political pundits and psephologists can find the similarity between Advani’s rath yatra with Narendra Modi’s ‘sab ke saath sab ka vikas’ yatra recently in UP, which took BJP to a massive victory. In both one can see the people’s frustration with the incumbent Government’s series of failures and emotionally integrating the people beyond caste preferences.
While one has to appreciate the fact that RSS has helped build a counter narrative in grass root levels among the marginalized section of the populace, in remote villages, and North Eastern states, it has to introspect why it took a decade or two for Arunachal Pradesh, Assam & Manipur to accept BJP? Because of failure to translate into votes. Of course unless BJP is ruling at center with full majority, with a leader like Modi captivating the mood of the nation, such Juggernaut victory at state levels, not an easy task.
About the second group of critics like Sampradayikta Virodhi Andolan etc which the author says produced a plethora of literature against Hindu beliefs and right-wing organizations. Such activities were witnessed in Andhra Pradesh too. T Punniah Chowdhary, T Nagi Reddy, P Sundarayya, Gora, Dr. Samaram all spearheaded anti-Hindu movements for several decades. Where there is Marxism, there will be RSS. This is the pleasant rule of nature.
More than Leftists Andhra Pradesh attracted RSS in a big way. Both in present Telangana and coastal AP.
The third group is constituted by RSS hate club, and this hate club swallowed the genuine RSS critics and never allowed the RSS to face the discourse table. But after the entry of neo-pseudo leftist TV journos, these anchors had a set narrative and it is going on till date.
“The critics have undermined another characteristic of the RSS movement. The RSS has confronted state power in a major part of its nine-decade-long history. But it has never rebelled against the state or used anarchist methods” – Dr.R Sinha
This is true. And this is indigenous in nature. An organization which affirms their faith in the land they are living from centuries, worship the faith, cherish the wisdom inherited from ancient Rishis and holy scriptures, can’t even dream rebelling against the state which is constituted by the same citizenry through the electoral process under the popular constitution. The Marxian and Naxalbari movements were diagonally opposite to RSS’s nationalism. So, what we are witnessing today as a result of Marxism growth, is all, anti-national slogans, self-loathing frustrations among a few youths in academia.
From the time of late 80’s and early 90’s a paradigm shift of Left-wing ideologues started showing up on Indian politics. In fact, Prannoy Roy and his team were basically self-loathing Hindus masked as Liberal Hindus. In practice how many of these liberal Hindus are practicing Hindus? They only visit Church and believe in Jesus miracles or antagonists. This group has rewritten the very definition of ‘Secularism’, which now means only pro-Muslim and anti-Hindu.
So it is now difficult to identify these 3 categories of RSS critics in the present scenario.
1) RSS critiques of Academics and Intellectuals.
2) The second group produced anti-RSS literature, engaged in anti-RSS debates and
3) The RSS hate club.
In the present day scenario, all the 3 seemingly classified groups of RSS haters, are all working in tandem. One can hardly divide them basing on the groups’ motive and the style of their criticism.
Christian missionaries, radical Naxal groups, anti-Hindu journalists, writers, Bollywood fringe characters, all have a common lineup; that is hatred towards Hindus and Hinduism coupled with an inherent character of self-loathing.
In this vicious setup, it is unlikely that these groups would come close to RSS, and shed their misgivings. This is a pure delusion. Because these groups did not form the hostile opinion on RSS, after convincing themselves that RSS is wedded to dogmatism and Hindu supremacism. Their hatred towards RSS is etched in their genes. It shall continue.
This is the ‘Right’ time when 3 popular TV Channels have shed their liberal coat and started daring the anti nationals in their true patriotic spirit, and so now, neo-liberalism can be effectively controlled and exposed of its prejudices. The essence of RSS idea of nationalism can be broadened to achieve national integration.