The Brotherhood in Saffron

by Walter Anderson

  Each year the RSS celebrates six festivals (utsav). These festivals not only articulate the experience of those taking part, but like all ritual, they help to shape the spirit of the group. The ritual year begins with the Hindu New Year (Varsh Pratipad). This utsav provides the shakha leadership an opportunity to evaluate the previous year’s progress. The date coincides with Hedgewar’s birthday and is sometimes celebrated as Founder’s Day.

  The second utsav is the Coronation Ceremony of Shivaji (Hindu Samrajya Divotsav) which is celebrated to honour the ‘Hindu victory’ over ‘Muslim Mughal’ rule. The baudhiks at this festival frequently emphasize the ‘virtues’ of strength, bravery and courage.

  The third is Raksha Bandhan, a north Indian celebration that Hedgewar introduced into the Sangh. The festival provides an opportunity for a sister to reaffirm her brother’s obligation of continuing protection. She does this by tying a silk thread around her brother’s wrist. In the RSS adaptation of this festival, the mukhya shikshak or karyavah gives each swayamsevak a rakhi (a silk thread bracelet) to tie around the wrist of a fellow swayamsevak. The baudhik will emphasize the ties of kinship that bind the swayamsevaks together. Groups of swayamsevaks will also visit those who have either left the RSS or who only irregularly attend shakha and give then rakhis encouraging them to renew their fraternal ties.

  The fourth festival is Gurudakshina. On this occasion, the swayamsevaks offer money to their ‘guru’—the bhagva dhwaj (the banner). Most of the RSS funds are raised at this utsav. Each swayamsevak goes before the banner, offers pranam, and throws flowers on the base of the banner staff. On each side of the banner are the pictures of ‘heroes’ of the Hindu nation, such as Hedgewar, Golwalkar, Ramdas Swami, and Guru Govind Singh. There are also usually pictures of several well-known Hindu warriors, such as Shivaji and Rana Pratap. Flowers are offered to these pictures as well. The member puts his offering (contained in a sealed, unmarked envelope) along with flowers on a thali (a round metal tray) and presents the offering to the banner. This banner is sometimes the topic of the baudhik. It is the image of the divine which swayamsevaks are encouraged to worship. Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar has written that the banner is

  the symbol of our dharma, our culture, our traditions, and ideal. It embodies the colour of the holy sacrificial fire that gives the message of self-immolation in the fire of idealism and the glorious orange hue of the rising sun that dispels darkness and sheds light all-around [sic]. It has been the one guiding star to all our endeavours, material as well as spiritual, the one unfailing witness to every page of our history.88

  Dussehra, the festival commemorating the victory of Ram over Ravan, is celebrated with more pomp and on a larger scale than any other festival. All shakhas in a geographic division of the RSS combine to perform the rituals. Prior to the formal function, the RSS band will march through the city followed by uniformed participants. The public is invited to the ceremony. A well-known person from the area, often with no RSS affiliation, presides over the function. The swayamsevaks en masse will offer pranam to this person. He and a pracharak begin the festivities by worshipping a set of weapons (shastra puja) traditionally associated with Shivaji.89 One offers puja (worship) by applying sindur (vermilion) and flowers to the weapons. The RSS bands play martial music, and the assembled swayamsevaks sing patriotic songs. En masse, the swayamsevaks demonstrate their skills with the lathi, sword, and various exercises.

  Concluding the festival year is the celebration of Sankrant (the winter solstice). The major themes of the utsav are personal renunciation and service to the nation. One part of the ceremony is meant to teach a behavioural trait considered ‘virtuous’. Sweets are distributed with the injunction that the words that come from the mouths of swayamsevaks should be as ‘sweet’ as the substance going into it. The injunction is (in Marathi): Tul gul gya ani god god bola (take the sweet and speak sweetly).

  The RSS operates a large number of camps to indoctrinate the swayamsevaks, to offer instruction regarding the teaching of the samskaras, and to develop a sense of solidarity among members. At any given time of the year, one is likely to find an RSS camp operating somewhere in the country.

  Camps fall roughly into three categories. The first are the Instructors’ Training Camps (referred to as ITC) usually managed by district committees. These camps last about fifteen days, usually during the winter months. Like other camps, they are isolated from outside contacts, conducted within some large institution (e.g., a college or high school), and are totally self-sufficient, containing their own kitchens, clinic, bookstore and laundry, besides the residential and instructional facilities. Everyone is dressed identically, for the RSS uniform must be worn by everyone attending a camp. Even the camp leaders do not wear their insignia to indicate their position. Swayamsevaks pay their own expenses at the camps.90 RSS funds are used only for those participants whose families cannot afford the fees. ITCs are intended primarily for the older members, and the emphasis is on the intellectual aspects of the RSS programme.

  Numerous three-day camps are also conducted throughout the year. These are designed for specific groups (high-school students, college students, businessmen, etc.). These camps are particularly attractive to the younger members of the RSS.

  By far the most important camps are the Officers’ Training Camps (OTC) which are run to train the workers of the RSS. The selection process and the planning begin several months before the camps are held. These camps are conducted for about one month during the summer season. The central executive of the RSS staggers the timing of the state camps so that the sarsanghchalak and other senior RSS figures can visit all of them. Every pracharak is expected to attend two of these camps; teachers and other office bearers attend at least one; other swayamsevaks may attend if approved by the shakha’s mukhya shikshak and the local pracharak. Those who have completed the second year of OTC are encouraged to attend the third-year training camp held at Nagpur.

  Most of the trainees at these camps are between fifteen and twenty-five. The youngest we met was fourteen, and the oldest was thirty, though we were told that there were older swayamsevaks in attendance. We met Africans of Indian descent at several OTCs. They had come to India to take instructional training in the RSS discipline and intended to implement the discipline within their overseas RSS affiliates.91 The Bharatiya Swayamsevak Sangh (the RSS affiliate in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) now conducts its own camps, as does the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (the British affiliate).92

  The participants of OTC are assigned to ganas (groups of between fifteen and thirty) which are directed by ganapramukhs (instructors). The instructor stays with this group throughout the month. He is responsible for teaching the physical (sharirik) and intellectual (baudhik) classes which form the camp curriculum. The instructors we met were in the age group of twenty-five and thirty-five. The camps’ directors make a deliberate effort to mix different age groups and people from various regions of the state. We were told that this was done to break down feelings of exclusiveness. While we met men from the scheduled castes, their gana mates were either ignorant of the fact or expressed a lack of interest. If pressed on the issue, a typical response was, ‘We are all members of ek jati [one group] here.’

  The various activities carried out in the camp are designed to develop a sense of solidarity among the participants. The participants are encouraged to call each other by kinship terms. They take turns serving food to each other. To break down feelings of purity/pollution, they are required to take their turn at cleaning the latrines, sweeping, and other so-called ‘defiling’ activities. Besides this, the seminars and lectures frequently emphasize the unity of all Hindus.

  The activities are designed to teach the participants the games, exercises and songs which form the basis of the shakhas’ programme. They are required to participate in the seminars which are held every day. Many participants keep notebooks, in which they record the words of patriotic songs, take notes on physical exercises, games and topics of discussion.
Below is a list of moral and civic lessons which one swayamsevak recorded in his diary:93

  A swayamsevak should behave like an ideal person in society. He should not commit any antisocial action and damage the image of the Sangh.

  Non-Hindus must be assimilated with the Hindu way of life. The words ‘Muslim’ and ‘Christian’ denote a religious phenomena, while the word ‘Hindu’ is synonymous with the nation. Even in the United States, it is emphasized that non-Americans should be assimilated into ‘Anglo-Saxon’ culture.

  The RSS was organized to prevent the further disintegration of Hindu society.

  The RSS is a family. The RSS emphasizes the samskaras [inculcation of good values]. The samskaras create the man. We have to create the man by reviving his unknown virtues.

  The higher authorities within the RSS can be compared to the head of the family.

  The lack of leadership in India must be eliminated. A gatanayak [group leader] should work in his own field with a specific purpose. A little work will not do. In the past, castes and pilgrimage places provided group leadership. Now the RSS has to fulfil this responsibility. The RSS shakha programmes create and develop such qualities.

  We purposely avoid taking credit for achievements, though in reality, many things have been done by the RSS. Whatever we have done, we have done for the good of society. We do not want credit. We have to work as a part of society.

  Those who attend shakha are one, and the remaining are divided by caste and class.

  Rational arguments separate people from us. It is not necessary to convince people of the need of the RSS. Our arguments should appeal to the heart. To succeed in RSS work, we should attract society with a sweet tongue. We should avoid a hot temper and debate.

  Inactivity in a swayamsevak is a psychological sickness, but it can be eliminated. Give others work which they are capable of doing. Tell others of his [sic] capacity. Through this, you can increase his capacity.

  We are all children of this land. So we are one family without any discrimination between us.

  Our nation should be so powerful that nobody could dare insult us. If we unite, no power in the world can check our progress.

  Government cannot change the nation; selfless people change it. So we have to create a cadre of workers in different fields and on different levels, and then planning will be successful.

  Land and people are the body. Government is the clothing, and culture is the soul.

  The RSS does not want to organize only a part of society, but all of society.

  In the last one thousand years, the bonds that linked society were broken. This led to selfish caste mentality that divided society. To unite it, the RSS has devised a certain methodology. Meeting together every day is the heart of the system. RSS shakha is our, home for one hour each day, and RSS work is our duty for the other twenty-three hours.

  There runs through these notes an emphasis on submerging the self within the ‘nation’, which tacitly assumes a commitment to the RSS and which involves the conviction that there exists a mutuality of interests between the individual and the RSS.94 Another theme is the proposition that those who participate in the RSS are unique. The image used is that of the RSS and society as a family. RSS publicists frequently employ this metaphor not only to deepen the commitment to cooperation, but also to provide a rationale for social obligation. Hindus ‘owe’ something to each other as members of the Hindu nation and as co-citizens in the Indian state. What is ‘owed’ is something more than willing adherence to legal obligations; it involves personal commitment to the task of revitalizing the corporate nation, and its social and political institutions.

  At the conclusion of a camp, each participant is required to demonstrate the physical skills which he will later teach in his individual shakha. The participants are also required to take a written examination. The following is a sample of questions set for those attending a second-year camp:

  What are the places where Indian culture dominates?

  After listening to the three baudhik lectures of Guruji [i.e., Madhavrao Golwalkar], what ideas have come in [your mind] about your work?

  What is the object of ‘gata’ system in the shakha?

  Give one illustration of Dr Hedgewar’ s life which reflects his way of treating people.

  There were also questions requiring the students to recall specific facts, such as,

  When was the RSS founded?

  When is Hindu Samrajya Diwas celebrated each year?

  What is the name of the all-India physical instructor of the RSS?95

  The camp also provides an opportunity for RSS leaders to observe closely the progress of the participants and gives the RSS a rather comprehensive picture of the recruitment pool from which it will draw its leaders. This training is followed by a kind of probationary assignment at the local level of the organization.

  Only a small percentage of those who attend shakha become full members of the RSS. The requirements are quite stringent. A prospective member must demonstrate his loyalty to the RSS by regularly attending shakha, baudhik, chandan, the RSS festivals, and the camps. He must conform to the behavioural model of an ideal swayamsevak, and he must demonstrate the ability to work well in groups. If judged fit, a life oath is administered:96

  Remembering Almighty God and my forebears, I take this oath. For the betterment of my sacred Hindu religion, Hindu culture, and Hindu community, I will devote myself to the prosperity of my Holy Motherland. I swear that I shall serve the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh with my body, my mind, and my money. I will be faithful to this oath throughout my life.

  4

  The RSS ‘Family’ Takes Shape

  Events in post-war India confronted the RSS with a series of challenges which forced the organization to reassess its objectives and its programme. The RSS had established its organizational structure and had formulated its ideology. The RSS had become a national organization, and its leadership was determined to play a role in the country’s development, though there was an internal debate about how to achieve this goal. The deteriorating communal situation and the partition of British India, both considered disasters of the first order, caught the senior RSS leadership off guard and unprepared. This lack of a programme exacerbated the internal debate regarding tactics.

  No senior member of the RSS questioned the relevance of character building in an independent India. The debate was over whether character building was sufficient to bring about the Hindu revivalist ideals of the founders. We shall call activists those who believed that the RSS should have a broader agenda. Those who were wary of such moves outside the narrow character-building environment of the shakha we shall refer to as the traditionalists.1 In the activist category were many young men who had responded to Golwalkar’s call in 1942 for additional pracharaks to expand the organizational base of the RSS.2 Many of these new recruits were college students who had been deeply disappointed by the apparent failure of Mahatma Gandhi’s Quit India movement to bring India closer to independence. Some of them previously had been attracted to communism, but were dismayed by the collaboration of Indian communists with the colonial authority during World War II. For these restless young men, the RSS represented an alternative approach to freedom from that of Mahatma Gandhi and of the communists.

  The traditionalists for their part were most prominently represented by those swayamsevaks who had been attracted to the RSS in the 1930s by Dr Hedgewar. Most were Maharashtrian and in their twenties and thirties when they joined the RSS. They tended to see organization building as still the priority activity and were reluctant to support any programme that might give the political authorities an excuse to place restrictions on the RSS.

  The young activists in the RSS for their part did not have a common agenda or a national spokesman. In Maharashtra, many wanted the RSS to support the political activity of the Hindu Mahasabha,3 while in other states there were members who wanted the RSS to support the Congress. Still other activists were angry that the RSS had
not used its paramilitary structure directly either to oppose the British or to struggle against partition of the country. If the RSS meant anything, it surely stood for the territorial integrity of India—referred to as Bharat Mata (Mother India) in the RSS. They argued that the RSS had considerable assets, such as its very high standing among the Hindus in north-western India,4 which could have been used to resist the partition.

  The partition of India came as a shock to many swayamsevaks and shattered their image of the RSS as a bulwark against the creation of Pakistan. The partition, more than any other event, caused many members to question the judgement of the leadership. Another source of discontent sprang from the absence of an RSS programme to organize students, workers, farmers, businessmen, civil servants, etc. Many activists believed the RSS should organize these groups so that the RSS itself could play a leading part in shaping events during a critical period in India’s history. Still others wanted the RSS to engage directly in revolutionary acts against the British. They were deeply disappointed that the RSS did not lend its backing to the naval mutiny at Bombay in 1946.

  The activists’ criticism of the RSS leadership was muted during the partition, when the full-time workers of the RSS were almost totally absorbed in refugee relief, and during the ban on the RSS, when most were engaged in underground work. However, the activist experience during the partition and the ban appears to have strengthened their conviction that the RSS had to become a more dynamic organization. With the leadership imprisoned during the ban, responsibility for managing the RSS devolved to middle-level pracharaks, who thus became more self-confident about speaking out on organizational matters. With the lifting of the ban on the RSS in 1949, their criticism of the leadership surfaced.