The mask is cultural; the
intent is political. To understand this, one must listen to the words of the
Sangh’s own leaders.
The Ideological DNA of ‘Bharatiya’
The RSS is not coy about
its vision. In his 1939 manifesto We, or Our Nationhood Defined, M.S.
Golwalkar declared:
“The foreign races in
Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to
respect and revere Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the
glorification of the Hindu race and culture … or may stay in the country wholly
subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges,
far less any preferential treatment—not even citizen’s rights.”
This is the raw
ideological core that trickles down into every Bharatiya affiliate. When
Vidya Bharati writes textbooks, when Vigyan Bharati organizes science fairs,
when Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram works with Adivasis, the hidden curriculum is always
the same: assimilation into a Hindu-first identity.
Savarkar’s Narrow Nationhood
The roots go even deeper,
to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the father of Hindutva. In Hindutva: Who
is a Hindu? (1923), Savarkar defined the boundaries of the nation as
follows:
“A Hindu means one who
regards this land of Bharatvarsha, from the Indus to the Seas, as his
Fatherland as well as his Holyland.”
On the surface, this
sounds unifying. But in practice, it excludes every Indian whose holy land
lies elsewhere—Muslims, Christians, Jews, Parsis. Thus, Bharatiya
becomes shorthand for Hindu, narrowing the meaning of Indian-ness
itself.
Deoras and the Call for a Hindu Nation
The RSS often claims it
is merely a social service organization. Yet its own leaders have said
otherwise. Balasaheb Deoras, the third Sarsanghchalak, bluntly stated in
1974:
“RSS will not rest until
it turns Hindu society into a united, powerful force and until it transforms
the entire nation into a Hindu nation.”
This is the political
heart beating beneath the ‘cultural’ skin. When the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh
negotiates with the government, when Bharatiya Kisan Sangh protests in rural
India, they are not neutral unions—they are tools in the larger project of turning
the Indian republic into a Hindu rashtra.
The Continuity into the Present
Fast forward to the
present, and the mask has grown thinner. Mohan Bhagwat, the current RSS
chief, declared in 2018:
“The RSS believes the
people of India are Hindus. Hindutva is India’s identity.”
This claim erases
pluralism in one sweep. If all Indians are Hindus, then Muslims, Christians,
Sikhs, Buddhists, and tribals are either subsumed or erased. The very word Bharatiya
becomes a Trojan horse: it suggests inclusivity, but enforces uniformity.
BJP: The Political Arm of the Network
The RSS maintains the
legal fiction of being non-political. Yet the Bharatiya Janata Party is its
most powerful creation. No one expressed this more honestly than Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, who in 1995 declared:
“The Sangh is my soul.”
This admission closes the
circle. The cultural affiliates create the ecosystem, the ideological training
ground, and the voter base; the BJP translates it into electoral power. Behind
the veil of ‘Bharatiya’, the Sangh Parivar has built the largest ideological-to-political
conveyor belt in independent India.
Why the Word ‘Bharatiya’ Matters
Words are political
weapons. By monopolizing the word Bharatiya (Indian), the RSS positions
itself as the sole representative of the nation. Competing
organizations—whether secular NGOs, independent trade unions, or minority
associations—appear less authentic, even unpatriotic.
Thus:
- Vidya Bharati suggests it teaches “Indian” knowledge, but
really it saffronizes education.
- Vigyan Bharati suggests it promotes Indian science, but
often it propagates pseudo-science with Vedic labels.
- Sanskar Bharati suggests it preserves culture, but it
selectively curates Hindu majoritarian culture.
- Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram claims to uplift tribals, but it rebrands
Adivasis as “Vanvasis”—forest-dwelling Hindus—denying their independent
identities.
This linguistic strategy
converts patriotism into partisanship.
The Agenda Behind the Camouflage
When you join the dots,
the agenda is clear:
- Cultural Homogenization: Replace India’s plural identities with a
singular Hindu identity.
- Political Mainstreaming: Create pipelines from classrooms, unions,
and cultural events into BJP’s political base.
- Historical Revisionism: Reframe history as Hindu heroism versus
foreign villainy, marginalizing contributions of minorities.
- Electoral Polarization: Use “Bharatiya” credibility to sway rural
voters, workers, and tribals into Hindutva folds.
Conclusion: The Mask Slips
If ‘Bharatiya’ truly
meant inclusive Indianness, it would celebrate diversity. Instead, in the Sangh
lexicon, it is a codeword for Hindutva. As Golwalkar, Savarkar, Deoras,
Bhagwat, and Vajpayee themselves admit, the long project is nothing less than the
transformation of India’s secular republic into a Hindu rashtra.
And that is the danger.
By hiding this agenda under a patriotic word, the RSS has created the perfect
camouflage. To expose it, we must do what the Constitution demands: separate
culture from politics, religion from state, and nationalism from majoritarianism.
Otherwise, tomorrow’s
India may find that the word Bharatiya no longer belongs to all its
people, but to one ideology alone.
Siddhartha Shankar Mishra is an Advocate at the Supreme Court of
India. He writes on law, politics, and society, exposing the intersection of
ideology and power.
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