(This article was first published in Organiser)
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is more than just an
ideology, it is a methodology,” said RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat
while addressing a three-day lecture series at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi in
2018. With the BJP emerging as the biggest political party of the country and
resolutely occupying power in states and the Centre, the RSS itself has come
under considerable spotlight. It can be safely said that RSS today is no longer
an alternative discourse, it is, in fact, the main discourse of the country.
With millions of ‘swayamsevaks’ involved in voluntary work across the country
and overseas, it has also become the subject of curiosity, conjecture and myth.
Going back to the early years of RSS, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru
had labelled the RSS as a communal organisation as early as in 1946. Nehru
later ruled the country for 17 years and left behind a legacy of Nehruvian
ideology, which talked about secular nationalism, non-alignment and Socialism.
This Nehruvian ideology brought greater acceptance to the idea that RSS was a
communal organisation. As a result, the RSS came to be seen within an insulated
secular-communal framework and no need was felt to go beyond that
understanding. No critical approach was developed or empirical studies were
conducted on the works of the RSS other than in the pre-fixed context of
secular-communal dualities. Barring the work of rare academics like Walter
Anderson and Pralay Kanungo, no serious attempts were made to develop an
understanding of the work and approach of the RSS based on academic enquiry and
data. The subject was always approached with narrow pre-arrived conclusions on
the ideas of RSS and Hindu Rashtra. The outcome was that RSS was labelled as a
radical ‘Hindu Right-Wing’ organisation with ‘Fascist’ objectives and all views
were restricted to this narrow typecast setting.