By Albert Thyrniang
The ‘historic’ and maiden ‘Path Sanchalan’ (procession) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in the state capital raised many an eyebrow. The sight of 300 RSS cadres mostly indigenous Khasis and Jaintias marching through the streets of Shillong wearing khaki shorts and white shirts and armed with sticks looked intimidating. It even sent shock waves to many.
Shillong is freezing cold. The RSS cadres braved the chilling cold donning only shorts and shirts. The Shillong RSS unit leader Makashang Khongshei, a proud RSS cadre since 1993 said that his organisation is to protect the interests of the indigenous people of Meghalaya. Protect from whom? This question has been asked to the ADCs many times. But we have got no answer till date. Will the RSS take the place of the ADCs? Is the RSS bigger than the ADCs? Anyway wearing khaki shorts is neither traditional, nor indigenous nor Indian. It is a colonist remnant. With the procession the link between the RSS and Khasi and Jaintia traditional organizations is established. One of the designs of the RSS is to club Niam Khasi and Niamtre with Hinduism. It is for Seng Khasi and organizations for Niamtre to state clearly that Seng Khasi and Niamtre are indigenous religions distinct from Hinduism. They have to categorically reject the claim of the RSS and outrightly disassociate themselves from the fundamentalist outfit.
Though the organizers stated that the objective of the rally was to spread awareness about nationalism but we all know the RSS has an agenda. The agenda is to spread Hindu ideology to all corners of India. It’s no more a secret that the saffron brigade wants to declare secular India a ‘Hindu rashtra’ by 2020. The Sangh demands that minority Muslims and Christians accept that India is a nation of Hindus. They have a clear strategy of ‘re-conversion’. RSS, under the guise of upholding Hindu values, is anti-Muslim and anti-Christians. The right wing group had a hand in the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992, vandalism and desecration of many churches. Mahatma Gandhi himself called the RSS ‘a communal organization’.
In Bunch of Thoughts, M. S. Golwalkar, reverentially addressed Guruji by RSS, while hailing the glories of Hinduism, denounces non-Hindu Indians, terming them “hostile elements within the country (thus) posing a far greater menace to national security than outside aggressors”. In his controversial book, which the RSS considers its Gita, the second Sarsanghchalak (Supreme Leader) of RSS’s main targets were Muslims, Christians, and Communists. In chapter XI he elaborately challenges their patriotism and talks of their “future aggressive designs on our country.” He questions their very existence and favoured them to be thrown out and exterminated. Naturam Godse, a former RSS member who felt that Mahatma Gandhi was pro-Muslim, assassinated him in 1948.
Golwalkar hated democracy too. To him “democracy is to a very large extent only a myth in practice…The high-sounding concept of “individual freedom” only meant the freedom of those talented few to exploit the rest”.
The 800 strong Meghalaya RSS unit has ambition to enroll more members. At present the fundamentalist outfit may be silent on cow slaughter and other contentious issues. But once the Sangh spreads it wings in the abode of clouds, it will raise its ugly head. No doubt cow slaughter, conversion, anti-minority, Hindutva and other anti-national ideology will be at the forefront of the RSS activities. Should the Scotland of the East embrace or keep the communal RSS at bay? Does Shillong need the RSS and its sickening ideology?
The organizers also denied any political link to the rally. Untrue! The RSS has close ties with the BJP. The latter is in fact a political wing of the former. Historically BJP is firmly linked with the RSS. The RSS is the ideological brain of the BJP. Party appointments and decisions are always made in ‘consultations’ with the top brass of the Sangh. Party functionaries are appointed at the pleasure of Mohan Madhukar Bhagawat and his predecessor. The party depends on the grassroots works of the Sangh’s Shakhas Swayamsevaks (volunteers of the RSS) to win elections. One of the dreams of RSS is to see a BJP government in Meghalaya.
Calling the landslide victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 general election a “Hindu revolution”, (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) VHP and RSS had, under a planned strategy, made lakhs of RSS foot soldiers work overtime to ensure their pracharak’s triumph. To spread its ideology throughout the length and breadth of this country the polarizing organization has a blueprint to install BJP governments in at least 20 of India’s 31 states over the next four years.
Now lets consider the RSS’s deep link to Nazism and Fascism. Prominent personalities of RSS have always deeply admired Fascism and Nazism. For its fascist view and propagation the RSS was outlawed by the British. Much before the RSS movement commenced in India, senior RSS members had direct links to both Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany. The RSS’s admiration for these totalitarian regimes was due to their shared opposition to the British Empire. Mussolini and Hitler were able to rebuild their respective nations quickly from the wreckage of war, into powerful economic and military states by invoking patriotism and nationalism.
The greatest admirer of Hitler and Mussolini was Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a leading RSS member who coined the term Hindutva and advocated reconversion of the converted Hindus back to Hinduism. He said in 1940 that Hitler was not a human monster because he was a Nazi. “Nazism proved undeniably the saviour of Germany”, he proudly proclaimed. Savarkar criticised Nehru’s staunch opposition to fascism teaching Pandit Nehru that Hitler knew better than him what suited Germany best. Gandhi too was derided by Hindu nationalists for opposing Nazism and fascism.
The RSS might have not explicitly been anti-Semitic but Savarkar praised Hitler’s inhuman treatment of the Jews. In 1938 while supporting anti-Jewish legislation in Germany, Savarkar justified their being driven out of the country because they were minorities in that country. He recommended a similar action for Muslims in India. Today RSS’s hatred for Muslims is likened to Nazis’s hatred the Jews.
Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, another senior RSS member believed Nazism should be applied in India. Golwalkar said, “To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic Races — the Jews. Racial pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by”. Savarkar also strongly viewed that Hindus should rule India and others should either be banished or amalgamated with the Hindu majority.
RSS’s enthusiastic observance of Subhash Chandra Bose is understandable. Facing the wrath of the British, Bose took shelter in Germany and Japan. Hitler and Bose were mutual admirers. During a speech given to Indian military officers in the presence of the fugitive Indian nationalist in Dresden, Germany, in 1943, Hitler himself said, “I am impressed by the burning passion with which you and your Netaji seek to liberate your country from foreign domination. Your Netaji’s status is even greater than mine. While I am the leader of 80 million Germans, he is the leader of 400 million Indians… It is the duty of all Indians to accept him as their leader and obey him”.
After the defeat of Fascists and Nazis in World War II, Hindu nationalists dissociated themselves from the totalitarian regimes. However, their call for a Hindu India have strengthened over the years inspiring both the RSS and BJP to be anti-minority. Even after their disappearance in Europe Nazism and Fascism still remain an obsession with many nationalist Indians today. Now Nazism and Fascism have reached the Meghalaya capital! Will Shillongites say ‘welcome’?