Nazia Nazar
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday reiterated that today in India, the Nazi-inspired Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideology has taken over India, a nuclear-armed state of over a billion people. In a series of tweets on his twitter account, the prime minister said “Whenever a racist ideology based on hatred takes over, it leads to bloodshed.” He was referring to the recent ongoing bloodbath, chaos and attacks unleashed by the RSS zealots against Muslims and other minorities in Delhi. The death toll in these attacks rose to 21 as the security forces failed to stem the tide of saffron bands against the Muslim minority. The Muslims and their properties were targeted in series of attacks in which forty Muslims have been killed and hundreds of them injured. The Hindu racism has taken an ugly turn after the promulgation of controversial Indian citizenship law.
More than 40 million Muslims live in Uttar Pradesh, but in the 2014 election, not a single Muslim was elected. Tools like National Citizenship Registrar (NCR) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) have been introduced whereby millions of Muslims are targeted to make them stateless on the accusation that they have illegally infiltrated from Bangladesh. The Hindutva fascists want to make India a Hindu state, as envisioned by their guru Savarkar. Muslims and other minorities will survive only as second class citizens without any social, political and economic participation. This is why even the publication of the Sachar Committee Report that exposed sheer deprivation of the Muslims is so unwelcome in the Hindutva circle. The Muslim rule in India in the past is being used to ignite the politics of revengeful anguish against the present days Muslims, despite the fact that Hindus had held prestigious posts during Mughal era.
Anyhow, from day one of its inception in 1925, RSS was focused on mobilizing and strengthening the Hindutva recruits to fight against the Muslims. In 1927, within two years of its creation, the RSS launched its first Muslim cleansing operation in its birthplace in Nagpur in Maharashtra. Its militants launched an organized attack against the local Muslims and forced the Muslims to leave the city. In fact, the resurgence of such Hindu vengeance forms the foundation of Hindutva politics in India and gave birth to the world’s largest so-called NGO RSS. The sole objective of RSS is to make India a Hindu state. (Andersen, Walter; Damla, Shridhar, 1987). While M.S. Golwalker became the RSS President in 1940, he set it a goal not to fight against the colonial British occupation. Muslims were stipulated as the number one enemy and not the British occupation.
The RSS cadres consider every Indian Muslim a traitor-cum-termite and a Pakistani insider. (Ashish Nandi, 2002). For its terrorist activities, the RSS was banned four times in the past: in 1947, in 1948, in 1975 and in 1992. During British raj, it was banned for its communal terrorism by the provincial government of Punjab in 1947. In 1948, it was banned for killing Gandhi. In 1992, it was banned for destroying the historic Babri Mosque. Since Narendra Modi – a lifelong member of RSS, became the Prime Minister, everything changed. The RSS is no more alone in its mission; the whole state apparatus, the media, the police and the army are now working hand in hand to attain the Hindutva objective. The policy of political and economic exclusivity and even cleansing operations against the religious minorities gets sanitized in the name of the democratic rights of the majority.
RSS is on the forefront in conducting barbaric acts against Muslims and other minorities in India. In the Liberhan report on Babri Mosque, it has been proved beyond doubt that the assault on Babri Mosque was not only pre-planned but it took place with political backing largely from BJP leaders. Over a thousand pages long, the Liberhan report concluded that “the RSS was the author of the carnage, and all logistical arrangements were coordinated between RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal – the students’ wing of VHP, and the BJP being the political front of the RSS-the worst-kept secret of India’s modern political history.” RSS-driven policies could be detrimental to the unity of India. Already in more than dozen states, separatists’ movements are going on, and after amendment to citizenship law, India is burning.
The group is structured hierarchically under the guidance of a national leader, while regional leaders are charged with overseeing the local branches. The RSS has historically played a major role in the Hindu nationalist movement. On several occasions it has been banned by the Indian government led by the Congress Party for its alleged role in communal violence. Some of the major political leaders of India’s Bharatiya Janat? Party were or still are members of the RSS.
