Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS founded in 1925) boasts of being the greatest defender of the nation and the largest organization of Hindus in the world. These brags are continuously repeated by RSS members who rule India at different levels and media subservient to the Hindutva cause. Unfortunately, these claims have not been confronted with the facts available in the RSS archives even by the researchers and rulers who professed to be anti-Hindutva thus the RSS narrative getting legitimacy.
Friends from India and abroad who are
concerned about the increasing threats to the democratic-secular-egalitarian
Indian polity (though debatable) from the Hindutva organizations have been
feeling the need for a concise document on the sinister anti-national and
anti-Hindu game-plan of the RSS and
other like- minded offshoots. The need for such a document is rightly felt for
countering the Hindutva propaganda at
all levels. The following document is an attempt to accomplish this objective.
It is hoped that equipped with this document all those who love India as a
democratic-secular nation and want to save our beloved country from the Hindutva
onslaught would be able to challenge the fountainhead of the Hindutva politics,
RSS. It is divided into 2 parts: ‘Anti-national RSS’ and ‘Anti-Hindu RSS’.
This narrative is based solely on the
documents drawn from the RSS/Hindutva archives.
PART 1: ANTI-NATIONAL RSS
AGAINST
SECULAR INDIA
The editorial (titled ‘Glorious Hindu
Nation’) in the maiden issue of the English organ of RSS dated July 3, 1947,
strongly rejected any talk of an Indian nation where Hindus and Muslims would
stay as equal partners. It branded the concept of a composite Indian nation as
a British conspiracy and went on to
decry Mr. Hume (one of the founders
of the Indian National Congress) for advancing the theory that
“Muslims were equal partners in this land of the
Hindus—Hindusthan—and propagated the theory that Hindus and Muslims combined
could only make a nation. Unfortunately, neither the Hindu masses nor the
leaders could see the trap and they began
to honestly believe that India’s salvation lay in Hindu-Muslim unity,
for which they strove with all their might. Things proceeded according to
British plan and the Muslims began to claim equal partnership in the country.”[1]
Importantly, Organizer in an editorial
(titled ‘Whither’) on the very eve of Independence,
dated 14 August 1947, while rejecting the whole concept
of a composite nation wrote:
“Let us no longer allow ourselves to be influenced by false notions
of nationhood. Much of the mental confusion and the present and future troubles
can be removed by the ready recognition of the simple fact that in Hindusthan
only the Hindus form the nation and
the national structure must be built on that safe and sound foundation…The
nation itself must be built up of Hindus, on Hindu traditions, culture, ideas
and aspirations.”[2]
DENIGRATING THE NATIONAL FLAG
The RSS English organ Organizer in its editorial (titled ‘The Nation’s Flag’), dated July
17, 1947, while reacting to the news that the committee of the Constituent
Assembly of India on national Flag had decided in favour of Tricolour as the
National Flag since it was acceptable
to all parties and communities wrote:
“We do not at all agree that the Flag ‘should be acceptable to all
parties and communities in India’. This is sheer nonsense. The Flag represents
the nation and there is only one nation in Hindusthan, the Hindu Nation, with
an unbroken history extending over 5,000 years. That is the nation and the flag
must symbolize that nation and that nation alone. We can not possibly
choose a flag with
a view to satisfy
the desires and wishes of all the communities. That is to complicate
matters and is unwarranted and entirely unnecessary…We cannot order the choice
of a flag as we order a tailor to make a shirt or coat for us…
“If the Hindus in Hindusthan had a common civilization, culture,
customs and manners, a common language and common traditions, they had also a
flag, the oldest and the noblest in the world, just as they and their
civilization are the oldest in the
world. That is the historical perspective through which the question of our
National Flag should be approached and not in the slipshod manner in which it
is being done at present. It is true that temporary misfortunes following
foreign invasions and all the horrors that attended them threw the National
Flag of Hindus into the shade.
But all knew that it is bound to rise again one day
to its pristine glory and greatness. There is something
immensely endearing to the nation’s heart and soul in this unique colour of the
Flag which is the colour peculiar to the morn [morning] when life-giving sun
makes his slow but majestic appearance in the east. In the same way, our
forefathers have handed down this glorious flag of ours as the life-giving
force to the world. It is only the ignorant and the malicious who can not find
or appreciate this peculiar charm, nobility and grandeur in the Flag—a charm,
nobility and grandeur as glorious as that of the sun itself. This Flag and this
alone can be the true national Flag of Hindusthan. That and that alone will be
the only one acceptable to the
nation. There is growing evidence of this insistent demand on the part of the
public and the Constituent Assembly would be well advised to carry out their
wishes.”[3]
Shockingly, RSS organ Organizer on the eve
of Independence of India carried a long piece, ‘Mystery behind the Bhagwa Dhawaj’,
which while demanding hoisting of saffron flag at the ramparts of Red Fort in
Delhi openly denigrated the choice of the Tricolour as the National Flag.
“The people who have come to power by the kick of fate
may give in our hands the Tricolour but it never [sic] be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself
an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad
psychological effect and is injurious to a country.”[4]
It was in July 1947 that the Constituent Assembly
of Independent India deliberated on the issue of the
National Flag of the country and adopted the Tricolour as the national Flag.
However, RSS under the leadership of M. S. Golwalkar refused to accept as one.
While addressing a Gurupurnima gathering
in Nagpur on July 14, 1946, stated that it was the saffron flag which in
totality represented their great culture. It was the embodiment of God: “We firmly
believe that in the end the whole nation will bow before
this saffron flag.”[5]
Even after independence when the Tricolour
became the National Flag, it was the RSS which refused to accept it as the
National Flag. Golwalkar opposed this choice of the national Flag in an essay
entitled ‘Drifting and Drifting’ (reproduced from in the book Bunch of Thoughts, a collection of
Golwalkar’s writings in English published by
the RSS in 1966). Citing
examples of ‘Drifting’ from the Hindutva goals by the
Founding Fathers, Golwalkar wrote:
“…Our leaders have set up a new flag for our country. Why did they
do so? It is just a case of drifting
and imitating. How did this flag come into being? During the French Revolution,
the French put up three stripes on their flag to express the triple ideas of ‘equality’, ‘fraternity’
and ‘liberty’. The American Revolution inspired by similar principles took it
up with some changes. Three stripes therefore held a sort of fascination for our freedom fighters
also. So, it was taken up by the Congress. Then it was interpreted as depicting
the unity of the various communities-the saffron colour
standing for the Hindu, the green for the Muslim and the white for all
the other communities. Out of the non-Hindu communities the Muslim was specially named because in the minds of
most of those eminent leaders the Muslim was dominant and without naming him
they did not think that our nationality could be complete!
“When some persons pointed
out that this smacked of a communal approach, a fresh, explanation was brought
forward that he ‘saffron’ stood for sacrifice, the ‘white’ for purity and the
‘green’ for peace and so on. All these interpretations were discussed in the
Congress Committees during those days. Who can say that this is a pure and
healthy national outlook? It was just a politician’s patchwork, just political
expediency. It was not inspired by any national vision or truth based on our
national history and heritage. The same flag has been taken up today as our
State Flag with only a glorious past. Then, had we no flag of our own? Had we
no national emblem at all these thousands of years? Undoubtedly, we had. Then,
why this void, this utter vacuum in our minds?”[6]
AGAINST NAMING THE COUNTRY AS INDIA
When the Constituent Assembly decided to
name the country as India, it was RSS which vehemently demanded it to be named
as ‘Hindusthan’, the land of and for
Hindus. In an editorial (titled ‘Hindusthan’)
in its English organ, Organizer dated
July 31, 1947, it demanded that whether it was the issue of naming it or
finalizing the character of its polity, the exclusive Hindu character must be
guaranteed. It read:
“Great responsibility rests on the shoulders of the men now sitting
and discussing details about the constitutional structure of Free Hindusthan. Posterity will judge them by
their actions. Let them not betray the nation and her cherished ideals and
aspirations. Let their guide be the innermost feelings and aspirations of the
vast majority of the people of this country. Unquestionably, they want their Mother Country to be named and known as
Hindusthan. [Italics as in the original] the word Hindusthan spontaneously brings to mind happy association of
oneness of people of this land, their common culture, common history, common
law and the common glorious ancestors, while the word India denotes the
anti-thesis of these. It has nothing to inspire the nation. On the other hand,
there is a whole chain of events that
makes us feel ashamed and our souls revolt. This alone is enough justification to cast away the name India and adopt the
natural one, Hindusthan. There can be no compromise on this. Those who are bent
upon compromise, sacrificing fundamental principles are not only shirking their
responsibility to the nation but they are thereby doing the greatest harm to
it.”
The editorial concluded with the following demands: “Emphatically;
the National Flag should be the traditional Hindu flag, the National Language,
Hindi, and this dear homeland of ours, Hindusthan.”[7]
Interestingly, the terms Hindu and Hinduism are
missing in any ancient ‘Hindu’ (Brahmanical) scripture. Swami Vivekananda stated that the term Hindu
could not be applied to Hindus as it meant, "inhabitants of the other
side of the Indus...for all the people that live on this side of the Indus no
longer belong to one religion. There are the Hindus proper, the Mohammedans,
the Parsees, the Christians, the Buddhists, and Jains."[8]
He suggested that all those who follow Vedas should be
known as Vedantists. It will be interesting to note that ‘Hindusthan’ was
Sanskritization of the of the Persian term Hindoostan which Mughal rulers used
to describe their kingdom.
MUSLIMS, CHRISTIANS & COMMUNISTS AS INTERNAL THREATS
The ‘Holy’ book for the RSS cadres
Bunch of Thoughts, has a long chapter titled
as
‘Internal
Threats’ in which Muslims and Christians are described as threat number 1 and
2 respectively. Communists are played at number 3. This chapter
opens with the following statement:
“It has been the tragic lesson of the history of many a
country in the world that the hostile elements within the country pose a far
greater menace to national security then aggressors from outside.”[9]
While treating Muslims as threat number 1 he goes on to
elaborate,
“Even to this day there are so many who say, ‘now there is no Muslim
problem at all. All those riotous elements who supported Pakistan have gone
away once for all. The remaining Muslims are devoted to our country. After all,
they have no other place to go and they are bound to remain loyal’...It would
be suicidal to delude ourselves into believing that they have turned patriots
overnight after the creation of
Pakistan. On the contrary, the Muslim menace has increased a hundredfold by the
creation of Pakistan which has become a springboard for all their future
aggressive designs on our country.”[10]
He goes on to spit venom against common Muslims in the following words:
“...within the country
there are so many Muslim pockets, i.e., so many ‘miniature Pakistans’… The conclusion
is that, in practically every place, there are Muslims who are in constant
touch with Pakistan over the transmitter…”[11]
While deliberating on the ‘Internal Threat’ number 2, the Christians, he says,
“such is the role of Christian gentlemen
residing in our land today, out
to demolish not only the religious and social fabric of our life but also to
establish political domination in various pockets and if possible all over the
land.”[12]
RSS DEMANDED TRANSFER
OF DELHI MUSLIMS
TO PAKISTAN
Organizer dated September 25, 1947, demanded
that all Muslims
residing in Delhi should
be repatriated to Pakistan. It wrote:
“Delhi for long formed part of the Punjab and since the exchange of
population has been undertaken between West Punjab [Pakistan] and East Punjab
[India], the right and only course
left for the Government is to evacuate the Muslims of Delhi to west Punjab. It
is pointed out that any other course would lead to grave trouble again, for the
public mind, still remains disturbed due to fear that Muslims would create
further trouble whenever they get an opportunity.”[13]
Golwalkar’s hatred for Muslims was
inexhaustible and never-ending. So far as his hatred for Muslims was concerned
there was no difference in his views contained in We or Our Nationhood Defined in 1939, or his hatred for Muslims in
1960. In fact, this hatred got wilder. While addressing the leading RSS cadres
of south India in Bangalore on November 30, 1960, he declared:
“Right from Delhi to Rampur, Muslims are busy hatching a
dangerous plot, piling up arms and mobilizing their men, and probably biding
their time to strike from within.”[14]
Shockingly, no proofs were given and law
and order machinery was not informed about such a critical situation but this
Guru of Hate continued spitting venom against patriotic Indian Muslims.
His only purposed
seemed to be to
create mob-hysteria against Muslims. More shocking was that
Indian State took no action against Golwalkar for creating enmity between 2 major religious
communities of India.
For Golwalkar and RSS, Communists are described as ‘Internal Threat’
number 3 as the
latter rise in defence of a democratic-secular Indian polity and challenge the
Hindutva forces which are working overtime to undo an all-inclusive India.[15]
SIKHISM,
JAINISM, AND BUDDHISM NOT INDEPENDENT RELIGIONS
RSS regards
followers of Islam and Christianity as emigrant or foreigners and demands their
cleansing as these two religions are declared to be foreign religions. However,
RSS has no respect for Indian religions like Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism as
these are not treated as independent religions but part of Hinduism. Guru
Golwalkar set the agenda by declaring that, “the Buddhists, the Jain, the
Sikh are all included in that one comprehensive word ‘Hindu’.”[16]
RSS DECRIED THE DEMOCRATIC-SECULAR CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
The second sarsanghchalak of the RSS, MS
Golwalkar led the organization during 1940- 1973. What RSS thought about the
Indian Constitution would be clear from the following words of his reproduced
from Bunch of Thoughts [p. 238]:
“Our Constitution too is just a cumbersome and heterogeneous piecing
together of various articles from various Constitutions of Western countries.
It has absolutely nothing, which can be called our own. Is there a single word
of reference in its guiding principles as to what our national mission is and
what our keynote in life is? No!
Some lame principles form the United Nations Charter or from the Charter of the
now defunct League of Nations and some features form the American and British
Constitutions have been just brought together in a mere hotchpotch.”
In fact, RSS wanted this Constitution to be
replaced by Manusmriti or Codes of
Manu. When the Constituent Assembly of
India had finalized the Constitution of India RSS was not happy. Organizer in an editorial (‘The
Constitution’) on November 30, 1949, complained:
“The worst about the new constitution of Bharat is that there is
nothing Bhartiya about it. The drafters of the
Constitution have incorporated in it elements of British,
American, Canadian, Swiss and sundry other constitutions. But there is no trace
of ancient Bhartiya constitutional laws, institutions, nomenclature and
phraseology in it…But in our constitution, there is no mention of the unique
constitutional development in ancient Bharat. Manu’s Laws were written long
before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day his laws as
enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and
elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits
that means nothing.”[17]
RSS IS COMMITTED
FOR CONVERTING DEMOCRATIC-SECULAR INDIAN INTO A HINDU RASHTRA
Against Secularism
The RSS is committed to
establish a Hindu Rashtra in opposition to a Secular India will be clear by the
perusal of the oath (pratigya) which
every member must take before admission into the RSS and prayer (pararthana) which is recited in its
meetings.
Oath:
“Before the all-powerful God and my ancestors, I most solemnly take
this oath, that I become a member of the RSS in order to achieve all round
greatness of Bharatvarsha by fostering the growth of my sacred Hindu religion,
Hindu society, and Hindu culture. I shall perform the work of the Sangh
honestly, selflessly with my heart and soul, and I shall adhere to this goal all my life. Bharat Mata Ki Jai.”[18]
Thus they are not faithful to the Indian
Nation as it exists as a legal entity but want to subvert it into a theocratic
state like Muslim League which created Pakistan in the name of Islam.
Prayer:
Affectionate Motherland, I eternally bow to you/O
Land of Hindus,
you have reared me
in comfort/O Sacred
Land, the Great Creator of Good, may this body of mine be
dedicated to you/I again and again
bow before You/O God almighty, we the integral part of
the Hindu Rashtra salute you in reverence/For Your cause have we girded up our
loins/Give us Your Blessings for its accomplishment...”[19]
AGAINST DEMOCRACY
What kind of political system the RSS wants
to usher in and run will be clear from the following words of MS Golwalkar’s
speech which he delivered before the 1350 top level cadres of the RSS at Resham
Bagh, the RSS headquarters at Nagpur in 1940:
“RSS inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology is
lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land.”[20]
AGAINST
FEDERALISM
The RSS is also dead against federal
structure of the constitution, again a ‘Basic’ feature of the India polity.
This is clear from the following communication of Golwalkar which he sent to
the first session of the National Integration Council in 1961. It read:
“Today’s federal form of government not only gives birth
but also nourishes the feelings of separatism, in a way refuses to recognize
the fact of one nation and destroys it. It must be completely uprooted,
constitution purified and unitary form of government be established.”[21]
Even in 1954 Golwalkar while presiding over
one anti-federalism conference at Bombay demanded: “India should have Central Rule and from administrative point of view
states should be administered territories.”[22]
These have not been some stray ideas of the RSS ideologue on Indian Federalism. The
‘Holy’ for the RSS cadres, Bunch
of Thoughts, has an exclusive chapter titled, ‘Wanted
a unitary state.’ While
presenting his remedy to the federal set-up of India Golwalkar wrote:
“The most important and effective step will be to bury deep for good
all talk of a federal structure of our country’s Constitution, to sweep away
the existence of all ‘autonomous’ or semi-autonomous ‘states’ within the one
state viz., Bharat and proclaim ‘One Country, One State, One Legislature, One
Executive’ with no trace of
fragmentational, regional, sectarian, linguistic or other types of pride being
given a scope for playing havoc with our integrated harmony. Let the
Constitution be re- examined and re-drafted, so as to establish this Unitary
form of Government and thus effectively disprove the mischievous propaganda
indulged in by the British and so unwittingly imbibed by the present leaders,
about our being just a juxtaposition of so many distinct ‘ethnic groups’ or
‘nationalities’ happening to live side by side and grouped together by the
accident of geographical contiguity and one uniform supreme foreign
domination.”[23]
RSS & CONSPIRACIES ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
The central publication house of the RSS, Suruchi
Prakashan, Delhi, published a book in 1997,
titled Param Vaibhav Ke Path Par (ON THE ROAD TO GREAT GLORY)
penned by Sadanand Damodar Sapre, a senior RSS functionary. This book
contained details of more than 40 organizations created by the RSS for different tasks but more
importantly it described how many of
these organizations are run in a clandestine manner for hidden agendas. This
publication showed that the whole network ran like a well-organized mafia
through its subsidiaries and satellites. There has always been a conscious attempt
to create confusion about its
different fronts which provide RSS with the opportunity to dissociate with any
of these as per its convenience. For instance, it used Hindu Jagaran Manch
(HJM) for attacking Christians in late 1990s and when public opinion, media and
Parliament seemed to turn against it, RSS denied any relation with HJM.
However, according to this publication Hindu Jagaran Manch was created by the
RSS as admitted in the
above-mentioned publication. The book confesses:
"From the point
of view of Hindu awakening this kind of forums
[like Hindu Jagran Manch] at present are active in 17
states with different names like ‘Hindu Manch’
in Delhi, ‘Hindu Munani’ in Tamilnadu, ‘Hinduekjut’ in Maharashtra.
These are forums, not associations or organizations, that’s why it is not
required to have membership, registration and elections."[24]
How RSS indulges in conspiracies can be
known by the following disclosure in Param
Vaibhav Ke Path Par about a case in Delhi immediately after Partition:
"Swayamsevaks had posed to have adopted Musalman
religion in order to gain the confidence of Delhi Muslim League for knowing
their conspiracies."[25]
What these swayamsevaks, impersonating as Muslims, on the eve of Independence
were doing was made clear by none other than Dr. Rajendra Prasad who later
became first President of the Indian Republic. In a letter to the first Home
Minister of India, Sardar Patel, on 14 March 1948, Prasad wrote:
"I am told that RSS
people have a plan of creating
trouble. They have got a number of men dressed as Muslims and looking like Muslims who are to create trouble
with
the Hindus by attacking them and thus inciting the
Hindus. Similarly, there will be some Hindus among them who will attack Muslims
and thus incite Muslims. The result of this kind of trouble amongst the Hindus
and Muslims will be to create a conflagration."[26]
PART 2: ANTI-HINDU RSS DOCUMENTS
RSS official site ( https://www.rss.org//Encyc/2015/3/13/Vision-and-Mission.html ) describes its ‘Vision and Mission’ in the following words:
“The Hindu culture is the life-breath of Hindusthan.
It is therefore clear that if Hindusthan is to be protected, we should first
nourish the Hindu culture. If the Hindu culture perishes in Hindusthan itself,
and if the Hindu society ceases to exist, it will hardly be appropriate to
refer to the mere geographical entity that remains as Hindusthan. Mere
geographical lumps do not make a nation.The entire society should be in such a
vigilant and organized condition that no one would dare to cast an evil eye on
any of our points of honour.
“Strength, it should be remembered, comes only through
organization. It is therefore the duty of every Hindu to do his best to
consolidate the Hindu society. The Sangh is just carrying out this supreme
task. The present fate of the country cannot be changed unless lakhs of young
men dedicate their entire lifetime for that cause. To mould the minds of our
youth towards that end is the supreme aim of the Sangh.”
But the fundamental problem with RSS is that its
definition of who are Hindus is exclusionary and is led by Brahmanical worldview.
For an organization which has been aggressively fighting for imposing of
Manusmriti as constitution of India, Hindu women, Lower Castes Hindus and
non-Aryan Hindus do not exist as human beings, in fact, occupy status lower
than animals. It divinely believes in inherent inequality among Hindus. Let us
get familiarized with this major trait of RSS ideology.
CASTEISM & HINDUISM ARE SYNONYMOUS
Faith of RSS
brass in Manusmriti, naturally, leads them to believe in Casteism too
which gave birth to the debased practice of Untouchability. For RSS Casteism is
the essence of Hindu Nationalism. Golwalkar did not mince words in declaring
that Casteism was synonymous with the Hindu Nation. According to him, the Hindu
people are no one else but,
"The Hindu People, they said, is the
Virat Purusha, the Almighty manifesting Himself. Though they did not use the
word ‘Hindu’, it is clear from the following description of the Almighty in
Purusha-Sukta [in the 10th book of Rig Ved] wherein it is stated that the sun
& the moon are His eyes, the stars and the skies are created from his nabhi
[navel] and Brahmin is the head, Kshatriya the hands, Vaishya the thighs and
Shudra the feet. [Italics as in the original text] This means that the
people who have this fourfold arrangement, i.e., the Hindu People, is [sic]
our God. This supreme vision of Godhead is the very core of our concept of
‘nation’ and has permeated our thinking and given rise to various unique
concepts of our cultural heritage."[27]
What kind of a
Hindutva civilization the RSS and Hindutva camp want to build by enforcing the
laws of Manu, can be known by having a glimpse of the laws prescribed by Manu
for the lower castes, Untouchables and women. Some of these dehumanizing and
degenerated laws, which are presented here, are self-explanatory.
A selection of Laws of Manu denigrating Dalits/Untouchables
1. For the sake of the
prosperity of the worlds (the divine one) caused the Brahmana, the Kshatriya,
the Vaisya, and the Sudra to proceed from his mouth, his arm, his thighs and
his feet. (I/31)
2. One occupation only the lord prescribed
to the Sudras, to serve meekly even these (other) three castes. (I/91)
3. Once-born man (a Sudra), who insults a
twice-born man with gross invective, shall have his tongue cut out; for he is
of low origin. (VIII/270)
4. If he mentions the names and castes
(jati) of the (twice-born) with contumely, an iron nail, ten fingers long,
shall be thrust red-hot into his mouth. (VIII/271)
5. If he arrogantly teaches Brahmanas
their duty, the king shall cause hot oil to be poured into his mouth and into
his ears. (VIII/272)
6. He who raises his hand or a stick,
shall have his hand cut off; he who in anger kicks with his foot, shall have
his foot cut off. (VIII/280)
8. A low-caste man who tries to place
himself on the same seat with a man of a high caste, shall be branded on his
hip and be banished, or (the king) shall cause his buttock to be gashed.
(VIII/281)
As per the Manu
Code if Sudras are to be given most stringent punishments for even petty
violations/actions, the same Code of Manu is very lenient towards Brahmins,
“Let him never
slay a Brahmana, though he have committed all (possible) crimes; let him banish
such an (offender), leaving all his property (to him) and (his body) unhurt.” (VIII/380)
A selection of Laws of Manu demeaning Hindu women
1. Day and night woman must be
kept in dependence by the males (of) their (families), and, if they attach
themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under one’s control. (IX/2)
2. Her father protects (her) in childhood,
her husband protects (her) in youth, and her sons protect (her) in old age; a
woman is never fit for independence. (IX/3)
3. Women do not care for beauty, nor is
their attention fixed on age; (thinking), ‘(It is enough that) he is a man,’
they give themselves to the handsome and to the ugly. (IX/14)
4. Through their passion for men, through
their mutable temper, through their natural heartlessness, they become disloyal
towards their husbands, however carefully they may be guarded in this (world).
(IX/15)
5. (When creating them) Manu allotted to women (a love
of their) bed, (of their) seat and (of) ornament, impure desires, wrath,
dishonesty, malice, and bad conduct. (IX/17)[28]
The reproduced
parts of the Manu Code above need no further elaboration and commentary. They
are too glaringly venomous, Fascist and horrible against Untouchables who are
referred to as Sudras by Manu. Perhaps this was the reason that the German
philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche who contributed immensely to the growth of
totalitarian ideas in Europe in the 20th century, fell in love with this work.
It is to be noted
here that a copy of Manusmriti was burnt as a protest in the presence of
Dr. BR Ambedkar during the historic Mahad agitation on December 25, 1927. Dr
Ambedkar called upon Dalits to commemorate December 25 as the Manusmriti
Dehen Diwas (Manusmriti burning day) in future. In fact, Brahmanism
as basis of the RSS world-view, is the original Fascism in the history of human
civilization.[29]
The story does
not end with Manusmriti. The RSS bookstores sell titles like How to
lead a Household Life by Swami Ramsukhdas which openly preach violence
against the Hindu women. This title is part of low priced anti-woman literature
published by Geeta Press which was awarded Gandhi Peace Award for 2021 by Modi
government. This largest publication house of Hindu literature in the world,
beside this title has more than 20 other titles containing the same anti-Hindu
women philosophy. Here is a glimpse from this book which is in the
question-answer form and available in English, Hindi and other regional Indian
languages.
Question: What should the wife do if her husband beats her and troubles
her?
Answer: The wife should think that she is paying her debt of her
previous life and thus her sins are being destroyed and she is becoming pure.
When her parents come to know this, they can take her to their own house
because they have not given their daughter training to face this sort of bad
behaviour.
Question: What should she do if her parents don’t take her to their own
house?
Answer: Under such circumstances what can the helpless wife do? She
should reap the fruit of her past actions. She should patiently bear the
beatings of her husband. By bearing them she will be freed from her sins and it
is possible that her husband may start loving her.[30]
There is blatant preaching in favour of the inhuman Sati as we will see
in the following:
Question: Is ‘Sati Pratha’ (viz., the tradition of the wife being
cremated with the dead body of the husband on the funeral pyre) proper or
improper?
Answer: A wife’s cremation with the dead body of her husband on the
funeral pyre is not a tradition. She, in whose mind truth and enthusiasm come,
burns even without fire and she does not suffer any pain while she burns. This
is not a tradition that she should do so, but this is her truth, righteousness
and faith in scriptural decorum.[31]
This
book declares that “Cremation of a wife with her husband’s dead body is the
backbone of Hindu Religion”.[32]
RSS hatred for dark-skinned South Indians
Another anti-Hindu
trait of RSS is hatred for ‘dark-skinned’ or non-Aryan Hindus. It was not long
ago that a senior RSS ideologue, Tarun Vijay (the former editor of the RSS
Hindi organ, Panchajanya, ex-member of the Indian Parliament, former in-charge
of the RSS project of spreading Hindutva politics in Tamil Nadu and former head
of the ‘India-Africa Parliamentary Friendship Group’ reaffirmed it. Talking to
a global news network while denying that Africans nationals were attacked in
India due to Racism, he could not hide the reality that he was a die-hard
Racist. According to him:
“If we were racist, why would (we) have the
entire south (India) which is completely… you know Tamil (s), you (know people
from) Kerala, you know Karnataka and people from Andhra. Why do we live with
them? We have black people around us.”[33]
He was candid in
sharing his belief learnt at the RSS intellectual forums that White Indians
from North of the country were living with “the black people around us” who
inhabited Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra. Tarun’s statement
reemphasized the racist understanding of RSS about India; North Indians are
White (Aryans) whereas South Indians are Black (Dravidians) thus belonging to
two different races. The message from him was that Aryans of the North were
doing a favour to Black South Indians by allowing the latter to stay with the
former.
Golwalkar on human Crossbreeding in Kerala: Denigrating the Kerala
Hindus specially women
RSS which claims
to be the largest world organization of Hindus is, in fact, working over-time
to establish the hegemony of the North Indian Brahmanis over the Hindu society
in South India. The RSS brand of Brahmanism treats South Indian Hindus as
inferior racially.
And RSS does it
brazenly. Golwalkar was invited to address the students at the School of Social
Science of Gujarat University on December 17, 1960. In this address, while
underlying his firm belief in the Race Theory, he touched upon the issue of crossbreeding
among human beings in the Indian society in history. He said:
“Today experiments in crossbreeding are made only on
animals. But the courage to make such experiments on human beings is not shown
even by the so-called modern scientist of today. If some human crossbreeding is
seen today it is the result not of scientific experiments but of carnal lust.
Now let us see the experiments our ancestors made in this sphere. In an effort
to better the human species through cross breeding the Namboodri Brahamanas of
the North were settled in Kerala[34].and
a rule was laid down that the eldest son of a Namboodri family could marry only
the daughter of Vaishya, Kashtriya or Shudra communities of Kerala [Golwalkar
kept out Brahmin families]. Another still more courageous rule was that the
first off spring of a married woman of any class must be fathered by a
Namboodri Brahman and then she could beget children by her husband. Today this
experiment will be called adultery, but it was not so, as it was limited to the
first child.”[35]
The above
statement of Golwalkar was highly worrying in many respects. Firstly, it proved
that Golwalkar believed that even in the Hindu society India had a superior
Race or breed and also an inferior Race which needed to be improved through crossbreeding.
Secondly, a more worrying aspect was his belief that Brahmans of the North
(India) and specially Namboodri Brahamans, belonged to a superior Race. Due to
this quality, Namboodri Brahamanas were sent from the North to Kerala to
improve the breed of inferior Hindus there. Interestingly, this was argued by a
person who claimed to uphold the honour and unity of the Hindus world over.
Thirdly, Golwalkar as a male chauvinist believed that a Namboodri Brahman male
belonging to a superior Race from the North only could improve the inferior
human Race from South. For him wombs of Kerala’s Hindu women enjoyed no
sanctity and were simply objects of improving breed through intercourse with
Namboodri Brahamanas who in no way were related to them. Thus, Golwalkar was,
in fact, confirming that in the past male dominated Hindu High Caste society
forced newly-wedded women of other castes to pass their first nights by
sleeping with superior Caste males.
Shockingly,
Golwalkar expressed these Racist, anti-women and anti-egalitarian views not in
the presence of some uneducated or anti-social elements but before a noble
gathering of gentry consisting of the faculty and students of a prime
university in Gujarat. In fact, Golwalkar was welcomed by Dr. B. R. Shenoy,
Director of the School when he arrived at the auditorium. The press reports made
it clear that there was no murmur of protest against such fascist and
ridiculous ideas. It shows the degree of respectability which High Caste
oratory enjoyed in Gujarat and explains why Hindutva could make inroads in this
region.
Inside
RSS: Males are volunteers and women are servants
RSS founded in 1925 was to be an exclusive male
organization whose cadres were to be known as swayamsevak or volunteers. The RSS top brass made its intentions
clear of treating women as of lower status than males when it decided to start
its women wing; Rashtr Sevika Samiti
in 1936. The nomenclature made it clear that women members were not called swayamsevak or volunteers but Rashtr Sevika, female servants of the
nation[36]
which was a Hindu nation. This identity
of women in the Rashtr Sevika Samiti
as servants was not only a technical issue but outcome of RSS’ attitude towards
Hindu women which glorifies the subservient role of women in the society. The difference in the
status of cadres will be more clear by the perusal of the ‘prayer’ offered in
these two organizations. The RSS cadres offer the following prayer:
“Affectionate
Motherland, I eternally bow to you/O Land of Hindus, you have reared me in
comfort/O Sacred Land, the Great Creator of Good, may this body of mine be
dedicated to you/I again and again bow before You/O God Almighty, we the
integral part of the Hindu Rashtra
salute you in reverence/For Your cause have we girded up our loins/Give us Your
Blessings for its accomplishment.”[37]
The Sevika Samiti
members offer a prayer in Sanskrit language for which no official Hindi or
English version is available. The prayer reads:
“O’ MOTHERLAND, O Holy Land,
these girls [daughters] of yours who have been cultivated and finely groomed by
you, Salute you.
O’ kind, auspicious Hindu Land we
are dedicating our lives to you.
O’ World Power we bow before you,
You have built this great Hindu Nation.
It is due to your graciousness
that we have equipped ourselves to adhere to this divine path.
O’ Mother Durga The
faithfulness/virginity/honour ['सतीत्व'] which has made this
Nation divine, before which the whole world bows, bestow on your dear girls
that ideal holy faithfulness/virginity/honour.
O’ Mother, bestow on us the
divine force to destroy immorality and evil habits, Bestow on us the divine
power to inspire father, son, friend and husband to follow the right path.
O’ Mother, Bless us so that we
become good tempered/modest], steadfast], capable and organized, we follow our own
religion and own course with maximum faith.
Bless us so that we become
gratified mothers glorious and powerful Nation.[38]
These are
Rashtr Sevika Samiti
members [who according to its website number around three lakh] only who pledge
to maintain ‘faithfulness/virginity’, remain ‘modest’, ‘steadfast’, and not fall prey to
‘immorality and evil habits’. The RSS male swayamsevaks make no such
commitment.
The RSS leadership
misses no opportunity to emphasize the subservient role of the Hindu women.
While addressing leading RSS cadres at Indore a stronghold of the RSS declared
that Hindu women should
restrict themselves to doing household chores as per the ‘social contract’.
According to him:
"Theory of contract, theory of social contract, a husband and wife are
bound by a contract which says 'you (woman) look after the household chores and
satisfy me, I (man) will take care of your needs and will protect you', and
until she delivers her duties without fail, he keeps her on the contract and if
she fails to honour the contract, he disowns her…”[39]
Bhagwat did not specify when
this contract was executed and even if executed in the past, why should it have
been binding on the following generations.
If RSS supporters feel that the above RSS documents reproduced are fake, the author invites them to file a criminal
defamation case.
Shamsul Islam
July 5, 2025
[1] Organizer, July 3, 1947.
[2] Organizer, August
14, 1947.
[3] Organizer, July 17, 1947.
[4] Organizer, August
14, 1947.
[5] MS Golwalkar, Shri Guruji
Samagar Darshan (collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), Bhartiya
Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd., volume I, p. 98.
[6] MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya
Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996 [first edition
1966], pp. 237-238.
[7] Organizer, July 31, 1947.
[8] Complete Works of Vivekananda, vol. 3,
Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta, 1997, pp. 228-229.
[9] MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya
Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996,
p. 177.
[10] MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya
Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996,
pp. 177-78.
[11] MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya
Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996, p. 185.
[12] MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya
Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996, p. 193.
[13] Organizer, September 25, 1947.
[14] Organizer, September 25, 1947.
[15] MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya
Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996,
p. 195.
[16] Golwalkar, MS, The Spotlights,
Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1974, p. 171.
[17] Organizer, November
30, 1947.
[18] Shakha Darshikha, Gyan Ganga, Jaipur,
1997, p. 66.
[19] Shakha Darshikha, Gyan Ganga, Jaipur,
1997, p. 2.
[20] MS Golwalkar, Shri Guruji
Samagar Darshan (collected works of Golwalkar
in Hindi), Bhartiya Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd.,
Volume I, p. 11.
[21] MS Golwalkar, Shri Guruji Samagar Darshan
(collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), Bhartiya
Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd., Volume 3, p. 128.
[22] MS Golwalkar,
Shri Guruji Samagar
Darshan (collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), Bhartiya Vichar
Sadhna, Nagpur, nd., Volume 3, p. 70.
[23] MS Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya
Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996 [first edition
1966], p. 227.
[24] Sadanand
Damodar Sapre, Param Vaibhav
Ke Path Par, Suruchi Prakashan, Delhi,
1997, p. 64.
[25] Sadanand
Damodar Sapre, Param Vaibhav
Ke Path Par, Suruchi Prakashan, Delhi, 1997, p. 86.
[26] Rajendra Prasad to Sardar Patel (March 14, 1948) cited in Neerja Singh
(ed.), Nehru - Patel: Agreement Within Difference—Select
Documents & Correspondences 1933-1950, NBT, Delhi, p. 43.
[27] Golwalkar, M. S., Bunch of Thoughts,
p.36-37.
[28] The above selection of Manu’s Codes is from
F. Max Muller, Laws of Manu, LP Publications, Delhi, 1996; first
published in 1886. The bracket after each code incorporates number of
chapter/number of code according to the above edition.
[29]
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/manusmriti-dahan-divas-protest-staged-at-collectorate/article30396588.ece
[30] Ramsukhdas, Swami, How To Lead A
Household Life, Gita Press, Gorakhpur, 1999, p.43. (Gita Press has more
than 15 titles denigrating women in many Indian languages including English.
Some of the titles openly preach Sati and violence against women which are
serious crimes under the Indian Penal Code.
[31] Ibid,
p. 36.
[32] Ibid,. pp. 59-60.
[33]
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/if-we-were-racists-we-wouldnt-be-living-with-south-indians-bjps-tarun-vijay/articleshow/58065423.cms
[34] The issue of the origin of the Namboodri
Brahmins is debatable.
[35] M. S. Golwalkar cited in Organiser,
January 2, 1961.
[36] https://www.gkexams.com/dictionary/hindi/37623-sevika-meaning-in-english.html
[37] Shakha Darshika (Jaipur: Gyan Ganga Prakashan, 1997), 1.
[38] https://sevikasamiti.org/Prarthana
[39] https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/women-meant-to-do-household-chores-another-shocker-from-rss-chief-509519 & https://www.indiatoday.in/india/north/story/rss-mohan-bhagwat-at-it-again-says-women-should-be-just-housewives-and-husbands-should-be-the-breadwinners-150908-2013-01-05
