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EXTRACT
We are immortality's children
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Exclusive extracts from Jyotirmaya Sharma's Terrifying Vision that examines the thought and legacy of RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalker.
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Terrifying Vision: M.S. Golwalker, the RSS And India; Jyotirmaya Sharma, Penguin, Rs. 295.
Photo: PTI
At the centenary celebrations: The entire life of a swayamsevak belonged to the Sangh.
HINDUS, argues Golwalkar, were the immortal, divine children of this land. The Rigveda had announced this to the world? The divinely chosen children of the land could not endure its being divided. Nothing but a unified image of Bharatmata or the Motherland would suffice. This would be accomplished by a variety of men. The first category of individuals comprises those that aspired to die for freedom and ended their lives in pursuit of their goal. These were the revolutionaries. There was a second type of men, who sought death after killing a few of their enemies. Rana Pratap belonged to this category. He gave up his life fighting for freedom but did not have the confidence to achieve ultimate victory. The third category of men were like Shivaji. They were inspired by the vision of victory, despite all odds. This was the quality to be emulated in order to realize the dream of Akhand Bharat or unified India.
There were people, Golwalkar notes, who considered the post-1947 territories of the nation as a settled fact. However, nothing in the world could be considered a settled fact. To speak in this vein was illustrative of a lack of respect and reverence for the Motherland and for tradition. The very fact that Hindus were alive and lived in the shadow of a divided nation was a disgrace. Even more shameful were the misplaced debates in the nation about the form of the polity and the economic system, while the nation stood shrunk and divided. These trends were a direct result of the continued resonance of ahindu ideas influencing even minute aspects of national life like food and sartorial habits.
Idea of nation
The nation was the manifestation of the Almighty. The re-establishment of Hindu society as God was the only dharma. Golwalkar is emphatic in his belief that everything useful in the task of creating a Hindu Rashtra was dharma and all impediments to its realization were adharma. There was no difference between the Hindu ideal and the national ideal, both of which were a quest to discover the divine within. The moment the nation approximated to this sense of divinity, belief and piety would be established on a permanent basis. This was not a quasi-spiritual objective to serve pragmatic considerations. On the contrary, Golwalkar believes that all turbulence in the world was entirely due to secularism and the use of religion as a smokescreen for the purpose of increasing worldly pleasures and furthering empires.
The Hindu Rashtra, he argues, did have a temporal manifestation. In it, the conception of one Motherland, one society, mutual interests, similar traditions and the same hopes and aspirations circumscribed the idea of national life. It might seem that the nation was joined together by the force of common self-interest. But to understand the nation's real excellence and its luminous nature was to move away from a merely pragmatic definition of the nation. The Hindu Rashtra, therefore, was the only nation that imparted the knowledge of life's ultimate goal to the world. It was this that made the Hindu Rashtra pure, capable, fierce and radiant. Sages, seers and renunciants, who saved the nation for the last thousand years, had imparted this ideal to Hindu society and their vision continued to inspire nation-builders. They have shown us, he continues, that a strong, capable and glorious nation can be founded only when ancient traditions are made compatible with contemporary times and revived in their pristine form.
The national life of this land was the life of the Hindu Rashtra. Golwalkar rejects the idea that there could be any form of life in India other than a Hindu national life. Despite various differences, sects, virtues and vices, he elaborates, the Hindu Rashtra was an ancient and unified national identity. The thread of culture unified it. Culture was the life-force that inspired national life and the common denominator of the subtle influences and imprints of memory on the heart.
Whether people accepted this explicitly or not, or, for political expediency, used a different language to express the same sentiment, there was little ambiguity that Hindu national life was the only reality in India. The Sangh was the only organization that offered a clear, fearless and universally acceptable idea of the nation. In sharp contrast, there were people who entertained the impractical idea that whoever came and stayed in this country ought to be considered a part of the nation. Even to this day, regrets Golwalkar, every alien who settles in this land is deemed to be part of the nation.
Clear exposition
Acutely aware that confining the Hindu Rashtra to Hindus alone could result in him being called narrow and communal; Golwalkar preempts such charges as a sign of lack of clarity and residual slavishness. For him, there was one truth and this truth had to be announced to the world loudly and clearly: Hindus represent the idea of nationhood in this country.
Whether other communities remained in the country or not was neither his concern nor that of the Sangh. In recent years, the Sangh and its affiliates have argued that the term `Hindu' indicates a civilizational sense rather than a religious one. This contradicts Golwalkar's clear exposition of Hindu Rashtra and its composition. He was emphatic that the word `Hindu' was not a generic term. The Hindu society had been sustained since time immemorial by a single source. The social life that was established as a process was singularly Hindu.
In a strident reassertion of the immutability of the Hindu Rashtra, Golwalkar declares that the responsibility for the nation rested on the shoulders of the Hindu community. The onus of earning respect or infamy for the nation also lay with the Hindus. The might of the Hindus alone would determine the power and glory of the Hindu Rashtra. For him, the argument in favour of the Hindu Rashtra was simple enough. It went something like this.
This vast land is the Motherland of the Hindus. They are her sons. The serve her is their duty. This land has made it possible for Hindus to have a national life. The glory of this life has to be spread through dedicated service and a sense of duty. Despite differences of languages and customs, all Hindus are part of one society and that society is Hindu society. Hindu society is the only society in this land and of this land. The life of Hindu society is mixed with the soil of this land. The history of this nation is, therefore, the history of Hindu society. Hindustan is the place where Hindus live. This, in turn, means that the life of this country is the life of the Hindus. The nation is a Hindu Rashtra. The Sangh lives and works for the establishment, acceptance and fearless assertion of the truth of the Hindu Rashtra.
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ONE of the most striking features of Golwalkar's vision of the Sangh is his description of the life of a swayamsevak. Not only is it distinctively authoritarian in terms of organizational discipline, it also reflects the way in which a certain reading of the notion of renunciation was grafted on to the Sangh. From the outset, Golwalkar makes it clear that the entire life of a swayamsevak belonged to the Sangh and its work. Therefore, there was no question of entertaining any thoughts about wanting a family life. He expresses surprise at the yearning for a family, and suggests that this wish could be fulfilled in another lifetime while this life ought to be dedicated to completing the work that the Sangh had undertaken. He cites the example of a conversation between Hedgewar and a friend. The friend said that in life it was possible to have only one friend, while all others are mere acquaintances. Hedgewar retorted that if the friend were to get married, his one friend would be his wife, while all other Sangh workers would be reduced to acquaintances. With a touch of sarcasm Golwalkar observes that this friend eventually married, and faithfully served his only true friend, namely, his wife.
The swayamsevak
The ordinary and well-regulated life, then, was not for the Sangh. Golwalkar wonders how the inheritors of the glorious Hindu tradition could reduce themselves to being born, growing up, acquiring an education, getting married, producing children, growing old and finally dying. Everyone does this, he says, even plants follow a similar trajectory. The swayamsevak ought to be free of such ephemera. Moreover, there was a real danger in getting married, says Golwalkar. An individual who remains in touch with a woman, even if she is his wife, or thinks constantly of his wife, takes on feminine characteristics. This, in turn, alienates him from the Sangh's work, which is masculine.
Neither should swayamsevaks worry about old age, he continues. There were several individuals who worried excessively about impending decrepitude and infirmity, and felt that the Sangh ought to take care of them in old age. Golwalkar dismisses this worry as selfishness, and suggests that these people ought to leave old age to take care of itself. He does not stop at his. In what follows, Golwalkar outlines the most heartless and ruthless guidelines for the ideal swayamsevak. These were delivered in March 1954 at the Sindi meeting. A full paraphrase of Golwalkar's speech is reproduced here:
I have said many times that as long as this body can do the Sangh's work, it is all right.
The day doing the Sangh's work becomes impossible, the body must pass on, it must not remain.
If the body refuses to pass on, leave it on the roadside, but do not become a burden on the Sangh.
We are here to look after our work, and even if we have given our lives to it, we must have no reciprocal expectations from the organization.
There is an idea of business or trading behind the sentiment of expectation, and it dilutes pure devotion to the organization. There can be no trading with the Sangh's mission and its goal.
The way the Sangh keeps you, you will remain. If it kills, you will die.
You will not even ask, what did I do to deserve this? You must not even entertain this thought.
You must say: "The way the Sangh keeps me, I shall remain." From within your inner being, you must abandon the idea of choosing your life. The individual who conquers his heart destroys stray thoughts as well.
If an individual decides to have choices within service, then it is no seva or service. It is merely employment.
Even within the Sangh, one must abandon the idea of choice in terms of areas of work. That too becomes employment, even if it is non-remunerative employment.
Primacy of the shakha
If all swayamsevaks were to be moulded according to Golwalkar's severe vision, then a band of dedicated pracharaks had to be created. These men would emulate the fullness of the Sangh's objectives and follow the discipline envisaged by the organization. Dearth of dedicated pracharaks was a real issue for Golwalkar. He constantly raised the issue in all his public pronouncements. He spoke of the need for pracharaks who would employ all their life, time, energy, intellect and feeling in the Sangh's work and think of little else. Another article of faith was the primacy of the shakha. Golwalkar saw the shakha as Hedgewar's finest invention. He perceived it as a form of daily worship, where values were inculcated, and advocated great firmness in ensuring attendance at the shakha. The example he gave to impress upon the need for regularity in coming to the shakha was that of a peacock who strayed into a rich man's garden. This man wanted the peacock to come to his garden regularly, so he began feeding the bird opium balls. Slowly, over a period of time, he withdrew the feed, but the peacock still came to the garden regularly. The bird continued to come, surmised Golwalkar, because it had formed a habit.
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