The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : A two-way street

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Wednesday, Jul 13, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

A two-way street

Jyotirmaya Sharma

IS THE Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh being unreasonable in its attitude towards the Bharatiya Janata Party? For most observers of the recent skirmishes between the RSS and BJP president L.K. Advani it might seem that an overbearing and formidable Sangh Parivar was intimidating Mr. Advani and holding the party ransom to its whims and fancies. The converse, however, is true.

All the recent belligerence on the part of the RSS is indicative of its weakness and vulnerability as an organisation as well as the repository of an idea/ideal. Despite calling itself a cultural organisation, the Sangh has a concealed political agenda that manifests itself in the idea of nationalism, or rashtravaad, as the Sangh characterises it. The nation, as distinct from society or community or cultural groups, is essentially a political construct. In its self-description, however, the Sangh has sought to look at the state as an extension of a pre-social (Aryans as the "original" inhabitants of India) and pre-political (Akhand Bharat as the uninterrupted idea of the state) arrangement.

Despite periodic protestations about ideological purity, the RSS has had to reconcile to the fact that the only effective way to realise its agenda is through the political process. This is evident in the instance of the BJP leading the Ram temple movement from the front. The RSS and its affiliates, like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, could only provide tactical and organisational support to a movement that was essentially political in its tone and tenor. Without the BJP, the Sangh's agenda would, indeed, be reduced to that of any cultural organisation, incapable of leading a movement and putting its agenda effectively on the map of political discourse in the country. The religious sects in Gujarat realised this around the same period and have openly aligned with the BJP in that state to further their agenda.

Salience of state power

There is also a tacit realisation within the RSS about the salience of state power in determining the course of its ideological goals. Control of the apparatuses of the state (or to borrow an Althussarian phrase, the "ideological state apparatuses") has now become an important function of the Sangh's agenda; evident in the way the saffronisation of education was pushed during the BJP's recent stint in power at the Centre. Its advocacy of a strong and decisive Indian state has invariably been wrapped in nationalistic swaddling clothes. This again conceals a dilemma for the RSS.

In spite of several defects, the Indian state gains its legitimacy from the democratic process. The RSS has never been part of this process, despite claiming to represent the aspirations of the majority of the Indian population, namely the Hindus. It is the BJP that has lent some credence to this claim in the last decade. Even that would have been impossible without the BJP projecting itself in the form of the National Democratic Alliance incarnation. All that the Sangh can do today is to claim that its fabled "cadres" had something to do with the success of the BJP after 1983.

The question, then, is one of maintaining control over the BJP, and not "ideological deviations" as the Sangh characterises the current impasse. The BJP's six-year stint at the Centre has taught the party the importance of compromise and pragmatism in politics. The party has also learned three important lessons. Firstly, the idea of an undifferentiated and seamless Hindu majority is a myth. Secondly, emotive issues, such as the Ramjanmabhoomi movement, work only in the absence of political alternatives. What to many may seem as an increase in religious fervour is only a quasi-religious way of articulating dissent and dissatisfaction over the deteriorating quality of life and issues of governance. Lastly, the gravest threat to its Hindutva ideal comes not from Muslims, Christians, atheists, agnostics or secularists, but from a large majority of Hindus who find the articulation of this anachronistic ideology uninteresting and untenable.

Minimalistic ideology

The BJP today is reconciled to being part of the political process on the basis of a minimalistic ideology. It today seeks to present issues that were once projected as questions of Hindu pride and identity as "national" issues. Given an opportunity to play the Hindutva card, the BJP will unashamedly do so only if doing so translates into political and electoral gains. On the other hand, the RSS wants to have a say in the Indian state and influence the power it wields without compromising on what it calls "ideology" and "idealism." It knows it cannot do so without the BJP, an entity that is fast moving away from its paternal control.

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