In another seven years, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will turn 100. While deliberating on a plan of action to commemorate the Sangh’s centenary in September 2025, Mohan Bhagwat, the seventh sarsanghchalak, has also been mapping out a course to reinvent the organisation.
During the three-day deliberations on ‘Future of Bharat: An RSS Perspective’ at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan, Bhagwat made a strong pitch for reaching out to new constituencies. The RSS should have arguably been contented with its political offshoot, the BJP, bagging a huge majority on its own to form the government at the Centre in 2014. The RSS should have another reason to be happy that the BJP is in power in 19 of 29 states which account for 70 per cent of the country’s geographical area.
Yet, the RSS is seemingly far from being contented and there are many reasons. The core agenda of the Sangh is not even at the forefront of the public discourse despite a Right-wing government being in power without facing the constraints of coalition.
“Political ad-hocism prevails over the core agenda of the RSS, which include Article 370, Uniform Civil Code and construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya. There’s a growing sense that the BJP is using the RSS cadre base solely for electoral purposes,” said a senior RSS functionary.
Also, under the leadership of Amit Shah, the BSP has been making an aggressive pitch to expand its own cadre base. The party launched a massive membership after the 2014 victory and its total membership now stands at nine crore.
Bhagwat candidly admitted that his three-day outreach was planned following extensive deliberations within the organisation. The outreach discourse made it clear that the RSS is eager to move beyond its traditional base and connect with new constituencies, including Muslims and ‘liberal’ Hindus. Hence, the sarsanghchalak advocated ‘universal humanism’ as Sangh’s core belief and also as the defining feature of Hindutva.
Under Bhagwat, Sangh’s yearning to deviate from ‘guru’ Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar’s ‘vision and mission’ is a reflection of the new challenges confronting the RSS with changing times. At the core of the ideas put forth by Bhagwat was that Hindutva means the sum total of Indian values, which even the Muslims in the country share.
Incidentally, the Rashtriya Muslim Manch patronised by the RSS has been holding closed-door sessions with intellectuals from the minority community for past two years and Bhagwat, sources said, has attended some of them.
“The new RSS is emerging. There’s a sense that their ideology is getting acceptance. The obvious attempt now is to expand the support base as much as possible. The outfit is even keen to change its fundamental views and reach out to Muslims,” said Prof. Badri Narayan of G B Pant Social Science Institute.
The Sangh, sources said, was eyeing a cultural space in even Pakistan and Afganistan. “The RSS is seeking assertion of Hindu cultural values beyond India. There’s an interesting shift happening. For the RSS, government formation is a small thing; the larger aim is to gain wider acceptance for Indian cultural values explained as ‘Hindutva’,” added Narayan.
Historian Irfan Habib, however, sees a contrasting power-play unfolding within the saffron family. “The common people are talking that the rise of Modi-Shah duo in politics is posing challenges to the RSS. There’s a sense that Modi-Shah duo has gone are not toeing the RSS line,” he noted.
Though stating that Bhagwat’s overtures to Muslims were welcome, Habib said the words spoken at Vigyan Bhavan would hold no meaning until they are put into action. “In the hinterland of India, mob lynchings are taking place which passes on without condemnation by people in power. There should be a concrete plan of action on part of the RSS which should be implemented among its cadre,” Habib said.
Bhagwat is not expecting an outright acceptance by the Muslims, either, and expressed willingness to hold more dialogues with those opposed to the RSS.
“The RSS is aiming at social transformation through cultural means. By commenting that the issues of ‘shamshan-kabristan’ (crematorium-graveyard) are raised by those who want to cling to power by any means, Bhagwat has shown displeasure at the BJP having become an election machine in the recent years,” said a senior BJP functionary.
There is a sense of disappointment within the RSS that the economic policies pursued by the Modi government haven’t been much different from the previous UPA dispensation. The RSS affiliate, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, has been at loggerhead with the government on a number of issues. “The economic policies being pursued by the Centre bear no footprints of the RSS,” added the RSS functionary.
Bhagwat’s views on the economy and education policy revealed RSS dissatisfaction with the Modi government. By making it clear that the Sangh didn’t believe in political hatred, as reflected by BJP’s ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ pitch, and by acknowledging the contributions of the Opposition party in the freedom struggle, he sought to distance the RSS from the BJP’s approach of winning polls at any cost.
In his 10th year at the helm of affairs, Bhagwat is steering the RSS to new territories. By getting former President Pranab Mukherjee — a life-long Congressman — to Nagpur, Bhagwat showed he believes in dialogue. There’s much anticipation that he will continue to stay on the centre stage and direct the future course of the saffron parivar.