RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's call for unity: A shift in Hindutva discourse?

The calling for halt to rash of 'masjids built over mandirs' claims could stem from realisation that it will be impossible for BJP government to maintain order if the issue spirals out of control

If a crow sits on top of a temple, can it become an eagle? Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Sarsanghchalak (chief) Mohan Bhagwat asked in a speech on Thursday as part of the Sanjeevan Vyakhyanmala series in Pune. He also brought back the Sangh’s ambition that India should rise as a vishwaguru, or teacher to the world. This is something the Modi government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have stopped saying lately. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is now evangelising vishwamitra (friend to the world).

 

While these statements sound merely rhetorical, they aren’t. These were important flourishes in what appears to be a determined effort to shift the current discourse on communal relations in the country, give a sermon to the BJP and its vast support base — especially in the Hindi heartland, which is  seeing a rash of “masjids built over mandirs” claims, Sambhal and Ajmer Sharif being the latest.

 

Since the Supreme Court has now called time-out on all these, and is hearing the old challenge to the Places of Worship Act, 1991, it might even be seen as a cue to the Court.

 

When even the sarsanghchalak is calling a halt to all such activity and activism, you have to wake up and pay attention, whether you are a follower or a critic of the BJP. In an unambiguous speech, he called out wannabe Hindu leaders, saying that some people think that by raising such (temple-mosque) issues, they can become Hindu leaders. That’s like a crow sitting atop a temple hoping to become an eagle.

 

The return to the vishwaguru aspiration is also rooted in the same sermon. India did not become a nation because of conquest, commonality of language, culture or faith, or even shared strategic interest. India became a nation through its unique ancient ideology and samveshi sanskriti (syncretic culture). We saw everybody as our own. Unity doesn’t mean homogenising or destroying this diversity. “We used to say unity in diversity, now we must start believing diversity is our unity.”

 

He suggested that India try a little experiment by eschewing all issues that create enmity or revive the old suspicions. This experiment would demonstrate to the world that we can all live peacefully. This also answers his point about being a vishwaguru. Only if we can prove this to the world, can we become the natural vishwaguru.

 

While the secular side and political parties still seem to be analysing what he said, surprisingly — or maybe not so surprisingly — criticism has come from the hard right, especially on social media. Many have claimed that he’s lost his mind or that he’s presuming too much by thinking he can speak for all Hindus. And that just because he’s calling a halt to the mandir-masjid issues, it doesn’t mean people are going to stop, as this is a long-awaited quest for justice for all the “awful things done to the Hindus during centuries of Muslim rule by various dynasties”.

 

This will face a test soon enough when we see what response the Modi government gives to the Supreme Court on the Places of Worship Act? Will it defend the Act, stand against it, as much of its support base seems to be doing, or maintain ambiguity. That will be a test of how seriously the sarsanghchalak is taken now. His statement is quite significant and detailed. He’s taken you back to the time of Muslim rule, and very significantly, he says that a process of assimilation was going on, and then Aurangzeb came, and ruined it.

 

Then, he says that in 1857, a maulvi and a sant had decided to give the Ram Mandir to the Hindus and called for a ban on cow slaughter. That was all. But the British got alarmed by that unity and divided us. This finally led to the creation of Pakistan. We can’t let somebody create similar “gadbadi’ (mischief) again.

 

This is actually of a piece with what he had said at an RSS office-bearers’ training camp in Nagpur on June 13, 2022. He had said that we should stop looking for a shivling under every mosque.  Now, it’s evident that those who acted in Sambhal or Ajmer are not taking this seriously, so maybe he’s serving a reminder. 

 

It isn’t the first time Mr Bhagwat has spoken out as if trying to correct some distortion in Hindu politics. He spoke, for example, at Ambikapur on November 15, 2022 — again addressing RSS volunteers—saying that Hindus and Muslims in India are the same in the sense that their DNA is the same. That’s also not something hard Hindutva would like very much.

 

Why is he speaking out on these issues often and at this point so emphatically? Let’s explore a couple of possibilities. The RSS chief is often guided by the feedback he gets from his wide network of RSS workers across the country. And it looks like he’s concerned about the ruckus distorting their own party’s politics. It also gives the RSS a bad name because everybody starts identifying the RSS with it. Second, it is damaging the global reputation of what’s already seen as a bad, militant ideology in many parts of the world, feeding into the belief that Hindu extremism is on the rise. In any case, there is a strong concern that the leadership of Hindus should remain within the BJP and the RSS, and not become a franchise that grows in a protozoan way, spreading wildly.

 

There’s a realisation that if this goes on—if mandir-masjid issues come up from place to place and this escalates—then it’ll become impossible for their own government to maintain peace and order. It would tarnish their image and ultimately make them unpopular. Therefore, this should not be allowed to continue.

 

If you’re a critic of the RSS, you might be inclined to immediately dismiss this as cynical, but think about it. It could also be smart politics because nobody has a greater stake in the BJP government doing well, not only surviving, but prospering and ruling for a long time, than the RSS. To that extent, it looks like a very rational intervention.

 

A new kind of Hindutva is rising—not militant and armed in the conventional sense, but angrily fighting to “right” the past with lawfare. They are breaking out of the four walls of party offices onto the street, and then into the backstreets of small-town India. Local media, YouTube channels and social media are the weapons that follow a petition in a local court. Mainstream TV channels then pick it up. Rival party spokesmen then jump in with their default positions, and we have yet another crisis.

 

The question is, how many Sambhals can India or even the BJP governments afford? If this goes unchecked, the same BJP governments that thrive in this politics will find their states ungovernable. It is the BJP that likes to say India is a secular country because its Hindu majority wants it to be so. That’s a very sound argument, actually. It’s all the more reason the Hindus themselves and the party that claims to represent them have the greatest interest in keeping things together.

 

By special arrangement with ThePrint