Many individuals have mistaken concepts concerning the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), its chief Mohan Bhagwat informed an invited viewers of round 1,000 people assembled in Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi, on August 26, 27, and 28. Many critics modified their views as soon as they bought to know the Sangh higher, he mentioned, citing Jayaprakash Narayan, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, and Pranab Mukherjee. JP was a strident critic of the RSS earlier than he joined fingers with it towards Indira Gandhi; Azad was appreciative of the RSS’s self-discipline in its early years and turned vital later; and Mukherjee, a Congress chief, on Mr. Bhagwat’s invitation, addressed an RSS gathering, leaving a long-lasting imprint for historical past.

The RSS, based by Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in 1925, is popping 100 in October 2025. Mr. Bhagwat, its sixth chief, is popping 75 on September 11, 2025. Mr. Bhagwat spoke for greater than 4 hours over the three days. On the final day, he answered written questions dropped by the attendees over the primary two days. He additionally met diplomats, professionals from numerous fields, and journalists over the three days and answered questions throughout the desk.

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Over time, all politics want remakes. Does the RSS change over time, and if sure, is there something that’s immutable about it, Mr. Bhagwat was requested. There are three articles of religion that don’t change, he mentioned. First is the religion within the formation of the person; second, change has to occur in society, and the system will change itself; and third, “Hindustan is a Hindu rashtra.” “Barring this, all the pieces else can change concerning the Sangh,” he mentioned.

The Sangh is strolling a tightrope between flexibility and permanence on a variety of points, Mr. Bhagwat’s responses recommend. He needs to get extra individuals to comply with the Sangh’s views, with out dropping those that are already within the camp.

Paradox of state energy

The ethical claims of the RSS — self-discipline, sacrifice, incorruptibility, and so forth. — have been simpler to make when it was distant from energy. However the final decade of close to absolute management of state energy throughout the nation has expanded its affect but in addition weakened its declare of aloofness. By endorsing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s full authority over authorities, Mr. Bhagwat sought to dispel strategies of discord between the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering (BJP) and the RSS, and likewise underscored a level of separation between the 2.

“When our volunteers do good work outdoors, they maintain the credit score; when they don’t work effectively, we get the blame,” he mentioned half in jest, although not within the context of Mr. Modi. Energy is efficacious to have, but it surely additionally needs a distance from energy. “… that’s utterly mistaken. It’s merely not doable,” he addressed the query of the RSS working the BJP or the federal government. “I’ve been working a shakha for 50 years. If somebody offers me recommendation a few shakha, then I’m the professional. However they’re working the state, and have been doing so for a few years. They’re the consultants on the state. They know my experience, and I do know theirs.” The excellence between working the state and working the organisation is marked, and will additionally presumably recommend that the Sangh needs to have its say within the appointment of the brand new BJP president, which is delayed by a number of months now. To a selected query on the difficulty, Mr. Bhagwat’s response was enigmatic. “Had we been deciding, it might not have taken this lengthy!”

The BJP is the political entrance of the RSS, and a video on its 100 years famous the electoral successes of the BJP as its personal. However the Sangh is open to supporting different events too, Mr. Bhagwat mentioned. “They should ask,” he mentioned, recounting an incident from the Nineteen Eighties when catering preparations for a Nationwide College students’ Union of India (NSUI, the Congress’s scholar wing) camp in Nagpur went awry. “I used to be a pracharak within the city then, and Rajiv Gandhi was answerable for the NSUI. The native MP of the Congress known as me for assist, and our volunteers ensured that canteens have been up and working in a matter of some hours….” “All they should do is to ask,” he responded to a query on why the Sangh doesn’t help different events. “From our aspect, there isn’t a obstruction. The obstruction is from their aspect. So, respecting their needs, we step again,” he mentioned. Rahul Gandhi, Chief of Opposition and the present supremo of the Congress celebration, is a strident critic of the RSS.

‘We, the Individuals’

All politics is about dividing individuals into members and non-members, residents and aliens. The Sangh’s conception of the individuals is cultural and everlasting; however then it comes into battle with the ideas of contemporary nation states. “We’re not a federation of communities or societies. We’re one individuals. We, the Individuals…” Mr. Bhagwat mentioned, outlining his conception of a Hindu society that’s autonomous from the state. Even earlier than there was a political entity of the Indian state, the Hindu nation existed, he mentioned. “There have been many kings and kingdoms, and so they even fought wars amongst them. Nonetheless, the nation was one throughout the land,” he mentioned.

One group with a shared heritage might be unfold throughout totally different states, and it occurs in different elements of the world additionally. The partition of 1947 divided the territory, however persons are the identical. When the sensation of shared ancestry returns, “regardless of the political or financial preparations of the time, everybody will prosper, dwell fortunately, and peacefully, and friendships will develop. Due to this fact, waking up from this nightmare of a divided India is important… Akhand Bharat is a reality,” he mentioned. On this level, he comes near thinkers who recommend there generally is a widespread South Asian future.

If all the subcontinent is one, the Akhand Bharat, why hassle about immigration from Bangladesh? It’s not a query of cultural oneness however worldwide regulation and adherence to it, the RSS sarsanghchalak mentioned. “You ask whether or not stopping infiltrators is correct… One should include permission. If permission is denied, one shouldn’t enter. Coming into by ignoring legal guidelines and laws is mistaken… Due to this fact, infiltration have to be stopped.” Partition can’t be undone, and worldwide borders as they stand right now are actual and must be enforced with the facility of the state.

Islam and Christianity

Mr. Bhagwat addressed questions associated to 2 of probably the most contentious facets of RSS historical past and beliefs — its views on Islam and Christianity, and caste. “From the primary day Islam got here to India till right now, it has remained right here and can stay right here. Any Hindu who thinks Islam will vanish will not be pondering within the Hindu manner,” he mentioned, including that Islam and Christianity have been two totally different types of worship that should not have any impact on the cultural heritage they share. Nonetheless, divisions persist, he mentioned, and that is due to the distrust between communities. Hindu distrust in different communities comes from “their lack of self-confidence”, whereas the Muslims and Christians stay influenced by separatist ideas.

So the best way to construct belief and transfer ahead? Mr. Bhagwat thinks Hindus at the moment are consolidated and robust, and they need to really feel no insecurity. “… there may be no need to look for a Shivling under every mosque,” he mentioned, reiterating a degree he made earlier too, in an indirect reference to quite a few incidents throughout the nation involving Hindu activists, BJP governments, and the judiciary initiating or advancing claims over mosques. However Hindu claims in three locations are distinct and Muslims ought to respect that, in response to Mr. Bhagwat – Ayodhya, Kashi, and Mathura. In Ayodhya, a temple has been constructed on the location the place a masjid was destroyed by a crowd mobilised with the help of the RSS in 1992; Hindu claims over mosques adjoining to the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi and the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Mathura are being litigated.

Whereas the Hindus ought to make no claims over any extra Muslim locations of worship aside from the three, the Muslims and Christians should change their outlook to create belief amongst Hindus, Mr. Bhagwat mentioned. “We all know that Muslims and Christians will connect with a typical consciousness of our previous… once they reject the narrative that claims, ‘as a result of our worship is totally different, we’re separate from this society and tradition.’ Muslims and Christians should see that ‘we’re not Europeans, we’re not Arabs or Turks. We’re Indians, our ancestors are Indian’.” When that turns into the language of their leaders, when that’s taught, all the pieces can be advantageous. Hindu society is ready eagerly for this — it should occur,” he mentioned. Mr. Bhagwat feels talking about Hindu-Muslim unity is redundant. “They’re already one.”

Venture of Hindu unity

Unity of castes is one thing that’s central to RSS pondering all the time. The Sangh’s growth and the BJP’s electoral victories are linked to their growing help amongst subaltern castes. Mr. Bhagwat is evident that the Sangh will take any steps essential to maintain that trajectory intact, together with a whole rejection of Manusmriti, a two-millennia-old code of conduct protecting social norms, duties, legal guidelines, and ethics for people and communities. Its prescriptions with regard to subaltern castes and girls are in battle with fashionable values and the Indian Structure. “… if there are references [in the Manusmriti] that help untouchability or discrimination, we don’t settle for them. Smriti (social codes) change with time. If a brand new smriti is required, then our spiritual leaders should create one — one that features all sections, sub-sects, castes, and sub-castes of Indian society, and that guides sensible conduct. That’s what we imagine is important.”

Mr. Bhagwat may be very delicate to the upper-caste Hindu sentiments on this regard. They’ve been the unique supporters of the RSS’s Hindutva philosophy, however he tells them concessions for the oppressed lessons are their dharma. He addressed opposing views throughout the Sangh on the difficulty of reservation. “Injustice was performed, so there have to be redress. Those that dedicated the injustice are lengthy gone. Immediately we might say, ‘We don’t imagine on this any extra, why ought to we undergo for it?’ That too is an argument. Each arguments have benefit, however that isn’t the answer. The answer is to empathise with the feelings of those that have suffered.” He reiterated the slogan he has given for Hindu unity — “one temple, one effectively, one cremation floor” for all. A number of villages throughout the nation continue to report caste violence related to participation in temple rituals and use of water sources and cremation grounds by subaltern lessons. Mr. Bhagwat mentioned the RSS marketing campaign on this challenge has nudged individuals in lots of villages to share these sources, citing examples from Telangana and Madhya Pradesh.

In 2018, throughout a three-part lecture sequence as he did final week, Mr. Bhagwat publicly distanced the RSS from certain views of M.S. Golwalkar, notably these regarding Muslims, as discovered within the e book Bunch of Ideas. Golwalkar, the second chief of the Sangh, had labelled Muslims, Christians, and Communists as “inner enemies” of India, and instructed that Muslims be denied citizenship rights. The Sangh now explains that they have been mentioned within the warmth and nervousness of Partition violence, and the organisation doesn’t comply with these beliefs. Although the partial public disowning of Golwalkar occurred in 2018, the Sangh had deleted these views when it compiled a brand new anthology titled Sri Guruji: Imaginative and prescient and Mission 10 years earlier in 2008. The brand new e book retained solely Golwalkar’s “abiding ideas” deemed related throughout time, the RSS says.

Opponents of the RSS attempt to perceive it by means of texts written by its leaders or scriptures such because the Manusmriti. The RSS, in the meantime, was overlooking the textual content, and reaching out to the subaltern lessons of individuals across the nation, an try it continues thus far. “In our custom, there are two authorities — shastra (scripture) and loka (the individuals). In apply, individuals comply with what fits them, not all the time what’s written in texts. That’s the reason there isn’t a single e book for Hindus. Over time, individuals have interpreted texts in methods handy to them,” he mentioned. So, does the RSS merely comply with the individuals, or does it attempt to change the individuals? “Now we have to take the individuals alongside. If we attempt to change too quickly, we attempt to U-turn a car that’s going quick, it could actually solely trigger accident,” he mentioned.

Mr. Bhagwat’s problem within the one centesimal yr of the Sangh will not be convincing his critics and opponents — that will be inconceivable and immaterial. The extra materials and consequential query for the Sangh and the nation is whether or not he might flip across the Sangh’s personal supporters to cease searching for Shivling in each mosque and discard caste discrimination. Its critics too may want the RSS luck on this rely.

varghese.g@thehindu.co.in