Three reasons why RSS is changing, but more in words than deeds

RSS is keen to showcase that it can be modernist in its outlook. But can it?

Is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the repository of aggressive Brahminism and champion of its own version of Hindu tradition, turning a new leaf?

The RSS statement at the end of the three day consultations of its Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, its top decision making body, in Nagaur in Rajasthan has surprised many for its relatively modern outlook on the entry of women into temples and its efforts to reach out to Other Backward Castes and Dalits. This is not to mention its near revolutionary change – by its own standards – in dropping its khaki shorts for brown trousers.

 

Here is a look at why the RSS is keen to showcase that it can be modernist in its outlook. A closer study of the three resolutions would also show how the change for the 90-year-old outfit is more in words than deeds.

1) Youth and khaki shorts: 

The RSS has been unable to attract the youth. The RSS claims to have increased its number of ‘shakhas’ from 40,000-odd in 2014 to nearly 57,000 now. But this is based on its own claims. The ground reality is quite different.

Fewer younger men, particularly in urban areas, frequent these ‘shakhas’. The RSS constitution allows only Hindu males above 18-years of age to become Sangh volunteers. These volunteers have to attend morning ‘shakhas’, which comprise drills and discussions on current affairs in neighbourhood parks. But there are hundreds of shakhas where no more than half dozen young men, at times not even that, are in attendance.

The embarrassment of wearing unseemly baggy khaki shorts in the midst of a park full of young men and women in their smart track suits is one reason for the dwindling attendance. Other is the changing lifestyles, which involve working late into the night. This has meant that sons from families that have traditionally owed allegiance to the RSS, mostly from upper castes, are not keen to attend morning ‘shakhas’. The RSS tried to change this by organizing ‘IT milans’ for those savvy with social media as well as shakhas only for professionals, where the dress code is not rigid and the timing of the shakha is flexible.

But the RSS gives a lot of importance to having numbers on the ground. The switching to brown trousers over khaki shorts could help in getting more youth to shakhas in smaller towns and cities but would still be anachronistic for an ever aspirational India.

2) RSS and caste

In Nagaur, the RSS passed a resolution that appealed to all to observe social harmony and work towards ending caste discrimination and untouchability. It also minced no words in criticizing affluent castes for demanding the reservation benefit. Along with its founder KB Hedgewar, the meeting started by invoking Dalit icon BR Ambedkar.

But caste continues to remain an albatross around the RSS neck. It continues to remain a Brahmin-Thakur-Bania dominated outfit, although it has tried to change that in recent years.

Many young men, particularly from among castes known as OBC and Scheduled Castes, showed interest in joining the RSS because of the rise of Narendra Modi. These young men were inspired that Modi, an OBC and an RSS pracharak, has risen to become the prime minister of India.

However, some of the recent controversies have yet again betrayed the RSS’s upper caste bias. Repeated statements by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat calling for a review of the caste based reservation policy were slammed even by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members. The BJP and the larger Sangh Pariavar’s mishandling of the suicide of Dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula, where its leaders questioned the genuineness of Vemula’s claims of having been a Dalit and even his mental balance, lost them goodwill among the Dalits.

For the RSS, it is important that OBCs and Dalits join the organization if it is to become champion of the interests of all Hindus and not just the upper castes. It will also likely to increasingly get its cadre from the OBCs and Dalits. Can its deeply Brahminical leadership convinced of the superiority of the upper castes change itself to accommodate OBCs and Dalits in its leadership? 

3) Temple entry for women

The most surprising for some was RSS number two Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi criticizing those temples where the entry of women is banned. The RSS said mindsets needed to be changed through dialogue, but spoke against street action of women trying to barge into the temples. It said the issue should not be politicized.

Unfortunately, the RSS has been halfhearted in its approach towards empowerment of women. The RSS doesn’t allow women in its ‘shakhas’ and is yet to learn to look at them beyond the image of mother, wife and daughter. All its affiliates, as well as those championing Hindu interests within the Congress, had opposed the Hindu Code Bill in the 1950s that had sought to give Hindu women equal status to men in the eyes of the law, particularly in property rights.

The RSS is coming to terms with the aspirations of a younger India. Cadre of RSS affiliates like the Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini have somewhat ceased to attack young men and women on Valentine’s Day, but still aggressively disapprove of the event. However, there is also an effort to reach out to the mainstream media and RSS cadres are active on social media. But it is mostly to convince the other of the RSS viewpoint instead of engaging in discussions to understand and empathize with the other point of view. Increasingly, the RSS has also tried to strengthen its affiliated organizations to reach out to a cross section of the Hindu society. 

It remains to be seen how long does the RSS take to change the world view of its core support base of predominantly upper caste Hindu male who lives in smaller towns and cities.