Bismillahirrahmaanirrahim
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Blurb: In 1987 as the Ram Janmbhoomi movement gathers momentum, a 13 year old from a village in Rajasthan joins the RSS. Despite his untouchable status he quickly rises to the post of Karyavah. Ahead of the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992, he becomes the RSS district officer chief of Bhilwara. He hates Muslims with a passion without having met one. He joins thousands of Karsevaks to Ayodhya. He mocks Mulla-Yam Singh. He participated in riots. He goes to jail. He finds Hindutva intoxicating. He is ready to die for the Hindu Rashtra. And yet, he remains a lesser Hindu. He turns into a critic of the Sangh, becomes an Ambedkarite and makes it his life's mission to expose the hypocrisies of Hindutva.
The author takes us through his childhood when the Ram Janmabhoomi –Babri Masjid dispute was at fever pitch. The air was ringing with slogans like, “bacha bacha ram ka/ janmabhoomi ke kaam ka”, “ Jo hindu ka khoon na khaule/ khoon nahi wo paani hai”. It was October 1990,he was 15 years old studying in class 10 conducting a campaign from ram temple in his village Sirdiyas in Maandal Tehsil in his home town Bhilwara. Bricks to build the temple had already been sanctioned with prayer. He was so desperate to join the karsevaks that without his letting his family know he ran away with the workers of RSS. People wearing garlands, saffron band tied around their necks, red tika chanted, “Ram ji ke naam par jo mar jayenge, dunya me naam apna amar kar jaayenge”. They set out for Ajmer by train and thousands of karsevaks met up in a choultry. Leaders of RSS and VHP were also present and exhorted the karsevaks to reach Ayodhya at any cost. The senior leaders who spoke were clear in the instructions that even at the cost of their lives the workers must meet the objective of wiping out that stain of slavery- the Babri Masjid. They were told that equipments to destroy the structure, hoes, spades, crowbars etc would be provided by the locals at Ayodhya. The workers caught a train to Lucknow where well known faces of RSS, VHP, and BJP were present to motivate the workers. The crowd consisted of young, old, rich, poor, ordinary and privileged workers who had come together to do God’s work. As the train started to slide out of the station, all the important functionaries slid out of the train.
One by one. the big folk, the industrialist, the Sangh Pracharak, the leaders of the VHP and BJP all excused themselves. Only impassioned dalits, Adivasis, other young people from lower castes and a few sadhus, sants and ascetics remained in the train. They were told that the leaders have other contingents to see off and they'll follow them to Ayodhya. They never came. They were sensible people and went back to their homes.
The train was full of RSS of workers and a few regular passengers sat quite intimidated. There were also a few Muslims in our compartment seeing whom the workers started shouting, “If it’s in India that you want to stay, Vande mathram is what you must say”. They wanted to throw them off the train because of whom Lord Ram was imprisoned, who had made them into second class citizens in their own country, each one of whom marries four women and they keep multiplying breeding armies of their kind.
The Muslim passengers were terrorized by the hate filled stares and slogans and seeing them frightened and cowering thrilled the workers. As the Karsevaks went to sleep, the situation became less tense and the author noticed that the other passengers were looking relieved. They had shown them their place!
The train reached the station called Tundla. The Mulayam singh government had stopped the train and everybody was arrested. They were packed inside trucks and take to Mathura Inter College which was already full so they were moved to Agra’s multipurpose stadium where a provisional jail camp had been set. The stadium was full of arrested passionate youth while all the great respected Big Brothers who had inspired them to martyr themselves for the temple had left them at Ajmer and gone back. Still they felt immense pride that they had been jailed for Lord Ram. That jail was really not a jail at all. Daily meetings of the Sangh call shakhas were held regularly along with lots of discussion hymns and religious discourses. Mulayam Singh’s government had ordered police firing on RSS workers at the bridge over the Sarayu . Many had died, many were injured and others had thrown themselves into the swift flowing river to escape bullets. After some time the detainees were released from the makeshift jail and as they were walking along the tracks suddenly in front of them appeared a dozen people. They were Muslims with stones in their hands who chased the workers away from the settlements along the tracks. The workers made to the railway police station . They went out after the angry Muslims had left and caught a train headed for Jaipur. Both the author and his brother BadriLal had embarked upon the journey and their parents were certain that they had fallen to police bullets; instead in 15 days they were back home alive and perfectly well.
The intoxication of Karseva may have worn off but the madness of nationalism had gripped the author. He was just a school student when he had enrolled in RSS. Modern subjects like Geography and Mathematics were followed by religious indoctrination, chanting of praise of Hindu Gods. The author once questioned his geography teacher that if the sun was a ball of fire how had Lord Hanuman swallowed it. The teacher replied that Bajrangbali was so powerful that he could have easily chewed up the sun. He said that the son is a God in the shaka but in school it is a ball of fire. He was told that anyone who had entered the shaka and still doubted the faith will perish. His teachers turned him away from science and told them that their best teaching was all sports, exercise and Shakha education. In his village they were about 50 members in the shakha who came from all castes. They all addressed each other as “ji”. The entire village which mostly consisted of OBCs was organized around caste including the school but it was less evident in the shakha. Gradually, the writer noticed that the chief activists of RSS were all from the so called upper caste while the lower caste people made the rank and file workers. He started to internalize RSS’s ideology very quickly, going through its magazines and looking up to the teachers, very soon he was promoted from a ground level leader to the chief teacher. He was called at the district headquarters to be given the responsibility of being district office chief of the RSS.
In the Shaka, which in Hindi means “branch”, the daily gathering of RSS workers were held for an hour. There are even WhatsApp shakhas and apparently some in IIMs too. The routine of the shakha is: running for five minutes, physical exercises for 10 minutes, games for 20 minutes, yoga for 10 minutes, intellectual input for 10 minutes and prayer for five minutes. The instructor blows a whistle and everyone turns towards the saffron RSS flag in a stand at-ease position.The saffron flag is hoisted and hands are placed on hearts, heads bowed, the attendance is taken, the prayer to the motherland is recited and then the order of dispersal is given. Every day the surya namaskar must be performed, beginning with the chant of of mitrayah namah and ending with surya narayananana namah. Other yoga postures like the mountain pose, the tree pose, the triangle, the warrior, the thunderbolt, the camel and corpse were performed.
The Sangh celebrated 6 main festivals among which, Diwali, Holi, Republic day, Independence Day are NOT included . What the Sangh did celebrate was, The Hindu new year and the RSS’ s founder’s birthday on 1st April, Vijay Dashami, Makar Sankranti, Hindu Empire Day (the coronation of Shivaji Bhonsle in 1774 as emperor) , Rakhsha Bandhan and Guru Poornima (in which donations were collected under the RSS saffron flag). Each member had to buy the uniform called the ganvesh with his own money, that consisted of a white shirt, black cap, belt, brown shoes, and khaki shorts. The classes included learning about and hailing Shivaji , Rana Pratap, Shiva, Mahadev and RSS leaders like Golwalker and Hedgewar. The karsevaks were taught ekamata stotra and ekatmata mantra about the unity of Bharat Varsh.
The smallest unit of the shakha is the individual Swayamsevak himself , above him the gatanayak, the group leader, the chief teacher, who was at the top and gave all the orders . There was a lot of emphasis on nationalism in the shakhas and it was made obvious that those who attended the shakhas were the true patriots , the rest were clearly traitors .
A Pracharak is a full time activist who remains celebate and a vistarak is a part time activist who enters family life (grihastham) and works in society to expand the work of the sangh . In Bhilwara, the Sangh’smoney was placed with a trader which was used for “social welfare”. The pracharaks received no salary and lived a life of austerity with two sets of clothes, spreading the mission of the Sangh. The district pracharaks would travel across the districts and the money for petrol and daily expenses were taken from the trader assigned in the area, here, the BJP leader Shyam ji Daad . The businessman who handled the shakha' s money were always harsh and uncouth, as if they were doing a favour when they were actually just the custodians of the money .
Once the author asked the pracharaks why these baniyas are given the control over the money and he was told that wealthy RSS workers are able to keep the money safe whereas others might end up spending it out of need. This community has proved to be best at maintaining an accounting for money. The author was convinced, perhaps this is why every caste has been allotted a particular kind of work and they’re good at it.
Big businessmen and professionals considered it an honor to have the Pracharak over for a meal. The food was mostly vegetarian but the pracharaks who were kshatriya were permitted to eat meat but never in the Sangh office or in public spaces. At a personal level everyone was permitted to eat meat , in fact certain enthusiasts believe that Hindus had become weak and cowardly because of their vegetarianism. But the culture of vegetarianism stayed in the Sangh because the strongest supporters of the Sangh were Brahmins and Baniyas. The practice of RSS workers eating at homes was very special, it took the reach of the Sangh deep into the society. The Sangh called itself a factory for the construction of individuals, to touch individual by individual, to bring them to the shaka, go to their homes, eat with them, prepare them for their ideology, this was the style of the song.
The sangh has organized the country into 11 regions and 41 districts for its work. Each administrative district has been further divided into two or three sangh districts and sangh activists at various levels are appointed to each of these units. In different regions there are what is called sangh “Thought family” that have official post holders at every level. The sangh office in every district has a store with uniform, books and other materials that can be purchased. In order of leadership, the chief manager ( satkaruavah) and the sarsangchalak are at the very top. So far 6 pracharaks have become sarsangchalaks out of whom 5 are Brahmins and one kshatriya. In the sangh posts are filed by nomination not election as the sangh is thought to work like a family where the choice made in consultation among elders is more acceptable than elections. Questions have been raised never from within the sangh, only from outside, about the fact that the leaders have always been Brahmans. Dalits, Adivasis and backward classes who form the rank and file of the sangh aren’t allowed to rise beyond certain posts. Over the last two decades ever since this question has arisen the RSS has been very aware that marginalized community should be given organizational responsibilities yet the presence of such groups at the national levels of the organazation is still barely noticeable. Dalits and backward classes had participated enthusiastically in the 1990 and 1992 karseva campaigns and the sangh leadership too had paid special attention to young men of these group. But despite such conscious efforts very few dalits have become pracharaks and remain at the low to middling level of district organisation. According to the All India Working Committee, even after 2000 most post holders were Brahman, Baniya or Kshateriya and a couple of people from backward classes but not a single Dalit or Adivasi. The example of Ramnath Kovind is revealing. He belongs to an untouchable caste, rose high in the BJP and has now reached the highest constitutional post in the country but never made the cut to be considered for the highest post in the unconstitutional RSS.
The sangh’s larger agenda is to reach every limb of the social body. A women’s organization was founded in 1936 setting up the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti. The author wondered why the word “self” (swayam) was missing from its name and thus making women workers ”servants” rather than working for self. He asked several seniors but received no satisfactory reply and finally contended that women are incapable of deciding what to do with “self” unlike men, hence they must “serve others”. After all, the seniors of the sangh, believed Hedgewar was right not to include women in sangh because that would ensure it’s destruction. Not only was there a separate organization for women but for workers, farmers, writers, intellectuals, journalists, filmmakers, Dalits and Adivasis. The students organisation ABVP was founded in 1948. In 1952 Vanvasu Kalyan Ashram – Forest Dwellers Welfare body was founded to save innocent Adivasis from Christian missionaries. All kinds of legal hurdles were placed in RSS’s functioning after the assassination of Gandhi so the leaders thought they needed some political power. Swama Prasad Mukherjee resigned from Nehru’scabinet and directly asked sangh for political support. Hence in 1951 a party called the Bhartiya Jan Sangh was formed which later became BJP under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani.
After its intervention in electoral politics, a trade union Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh was set up in 1955 to counter Left's influence on workers. Saraswati Shishu Mandir were established to indoctrinate young children with sangh's ideology. The Vidya Bharti network of sangh runs 13067 schools with 150190 teachers and 3475757 students . For businessmen, Bharatiya Vikas Parishad was formed in 1963 and for more religiously inclined, the VHP was formed in 1964.
There are about hundred such organisations devoted to cultural and general research, some to rewriting history and science, some to foster social harmony, for sick welfare, for religious awakening, indigenous economics. platforms for lawyers, traders, doctors, and ex-servicemen. In order to reach larger number of people the sangh has also set up several publishing houses like Bharat Prakashan , Suruchi Prakashan , Lokhit Prakashan, Gyan Ganga Prakashan, Archna Prakashan and many many others. Without being formally registered the sangh is the world’s largest NGO. Organisations run on Sangh ideology receive the lion’s share of their funding from all over the world. Organisations linked to the sangh have been fundraising on a massive scale but they never come under question, the nationalism label is a powerful charm.At the shakha, the portrait of Bharat Mata held a saffron flag instead of the tricolor. When the author questioned his seniors, he was told that the tricolour was accepted as a national flag only after independence in 1947 but the saffron flag is from ancient times.
The aim of the sangh was militarization of Hinduism and Hinduisation of military. Thus instruction given in the shakha were actually commandments given in military style and Sanskrit was used over local languages. During the intellectual session, questions such as who are we, who is this country, who considers this their motherland were asked. The reply generally was around, “we of pure Aryan blood. We are Hindus of Sanatana Dharma, only we Hindus consider this our motherland, we were gurus of the universe, we were invaded by the s Huns, Kushanas, Mughals,Britishers etc who looted our wealth and made us slaves. Only the Hindus are true sons of mother India”. The author was filled with pride about being Hindu and of pure Aryan blood and began to look down upon people of other faith.
Now that the author was the chief teacher, he religiously went to the shakha everyday. His family who had been Congress supporters were opposed to his involvement in the RSS. He convinced his brother to come to the shakha even though he is not a member of the RSS, now he has joined BJP. The author tried to learn Sanskrit and internalize the teachings of the sangh. On Guru Poornima everybody placed an amount in an envelope and presented it under the flag in the shakha. It was called guru dakshina.The author questioned how could a lifeless object like a flag could be our teacher. He was told the story of a Vedic sage who accepted as his guru 24 objects and animals, plants, trees, rivers, dogs, cats. The author’s doubts were stilled. On another occasion he asked if Hindus are the majority in India how can they be insecure? There was not a single Muslim or a person of any other religion other than Hinduism in his village; he had never heard the azaan or seen namaz being offered. It was difficult for him to imagine people of this community as his enemy. He was told that even Mahatma Gandhi said that Hindus are peace-loving cowards and Muslims are aggressive goons. One can never trust them to not to betray us and that’s why Hindus are not safe even in our country.
The author religiously read several publications and magazines of the RSS, one of the releases called the Panchjanya is what turned him into an ideological and intellectual fanatic in the cause of this Hindu rashtra. The RSS also has a training camp called the Initial Training Camps of 20 days which included training in physical exercise, wielding knives, swords etc supposedly for self defence. The activities were kept away from the eyes of the media. The author was determined to fight Muslims and congressis once he went far and wide to seek them since he had never seen a Muslim in his life. These infidels consider Bharat not as mother but as a witch, they celebrate the victory of Pakistan, they each have 4 wives and each produces 40 children, they practice no birth control and refuse vasectomies. They even have protection from the law they don’t obey the Supreme Court, the government changes the law to please them, they get subsidy to go on haj.Their men emerge all dressed up in the evening to seduce Hindu women and Hindu girls end up falling in love with them. After exploiting them sexually they sell them into brothels. They have arms buried under the Masjids, they eat beef,they spy for Pakistan. They are not ours, not of our religion, not of our nation.
The author was promoted from the post of chief teacher to karyavah.The highest post in the shakha. There were no brahmin workers in the village and being the most active member in the shakha, he was the natural choice. At meetings he discussed how to expand membership of the shakha, how to arouse the Hindu society etc.People were trained in the art of delivering lectures and given information about the injustice against Hindus
The order expressed his desire to be a full time Pracharak to the then district pracharak. He desired to give up his family and home, living a life of an ascetic to forward the goal of the sangh. The reply of the district pracharak shocked him. He said “ Brother you have to see the broader picture,the society is very complicated. Tomorrow someone may ask you your name, your village, your samaj and the moment he realizes that you are from a marginalized community his attitude to you might change. You may have to swallow the insult, you may be upset and want to retaliate. All this will weaken the work of the sangh. My advice is to remain of vistarak and serve the nation in that capacity”. The author was devastated and felt intense pain at having been born in a lower caste community. He was ready to give his life for the sangh and the only obstacle was his birth itslef.
He also tried to contributed to the ideology. He would write content and poetry titled as “Annihilate Pakistan” and other jingoistic Islamophobic tirades and seemed to be very proud of them. About those, the pracharak humiliated him saying he was doing too much thinking. “ The sangh needs people who are physically strong, not people like you who are constantly thinking and questioning”.
The pracharaks form the spine of the sangh . One RSS leaflet stated that there are 2559 pracharaks of whom 1646 are for shakha work , 147 for organizational work, 437 for work in sangh related bodies, and 335 for starting work in new areas.
The author was working for the RSS at the district level in Bhilwara and stayed in the Ambedkar Hostel run by the social welfare Department for students. He was 16 years old. He would try to convince the dalit and adivasi boys in the hostel about hindutva ideology. It was the first time he was in an environment where everybody was from scheduled caste and tribe and so there was no sense of being inferior to anyone. But soon he was called by the district head of RSS and was told to vacate the hostel because that environment would “corrupt his ideology”. To protect his ideology the author left the hostel and started to live in the district office of the sangh where he was given the responsibility of being the chief of the district office. He was so pumped by the idea of Hindu rashtra that he was not even aware such a thing as constitution exists, he only knew of the manusmriti. His idols in those days were brahman men like the RSS founders and he knew nothing about lower caste and dalit figures.
The process of shaking the foundation of his ideological beliefs began with him moving into the sangh office. Once he was taken into the home of a RSS worker who had come under the influence of Osho Rajneesh.The workers tried to convince him to return to the work of the sangh but he refused. While leaving he handed out a newspaper called the “Osho Times” to him. The author read the issue in secret and began to buy Osho Times regularly.The RSS trained to value nothing but nationalism, nobility of character, celibacy and spirituality. There was no concept of anything like sexual attraction and there were no girls in shakhas anyway. The participants were made to believe that sex was in fact destructive of the spiritual power of men. They were indoctrinated with notions of chastity specially of women and the need for women in particular to be good, self sacrificing wives and mothers. But reading Osho opened his mind to that sexual desire is natural and good.
Although the first karseva campaign for Ram temple had failed, the demand to build a Ram temple was kept on the boil in the Hindu community all over the country. Sangh affiliated organisations were running a campaign targeting the government with the challenge, “Build the ram temple or resign”. On March 12, 1991 a huge rally was launched for the temple at Ayodhya in Bhilwara planning to wind through the Muslim majority area to reach the district collector's office. The police thought there might be law and order issues arising from the rally being held at the same time as the afternoon namaz. A confrontation took place between the police and rambhakts and the police started a lathi charge. The police fired in the air several rounds and two people were killed : Ratanlal sen and Suresh Jain. Jain and Sen. Truth is that their deaths had nothing to do with the movement, Jain was returning from his night duty while Sen was doing some shopping nearby and fell victim to the police bullets. Since both happened to be Hindu, legally a Jain is regarded as a Hindu in India, they were declared as martyrs for ram janmabhoomi and a protest procession carrying their ashes was promptly announced. Good for them they were Hindus, they received the title of martyrs. Had they been Muslims they would have been quietly buried by their families.
For a while the author kept throwing stones at the police, soon did he realize he was the only one doing so. He spotted a nearby school and ran to hide inside it among the students. The police and teachers started taking the students out and he tried to slip out with them but the moment he reached the lane some policemen burst at him with lathis. Somehow he escaped them and found himself in a nearby hospital where thousands of people had gathered. After basic first aid he was jolted to reality and was quite affected by the entire incident and decided to return home for some days. The author’s father was a hardcore Congress supporter and would often stop him from going to the shakha. He said this party of Baniyas and Brahmans will never be with us farmers and outcastes. “They just use us to start fights with our Muslim brothers. They themselves can never fight they use us”. The author was disgusted at his father’s Muslim appeasement.
Those who had died in the protest procession were declared martyrs and their ashes were being paraded from village to village with the sangh, VHP activists and office bearers. In April-May, 1991, a film was screened at one of the meetings about police brutality towards RSS workers and the Hindu leaders described the atrocities in detail even though not a single of them were present on the scene or had received even a scratch. The way they described what happened brought tears to everyone’s eyes, even those who were personally present and had borne the beating of the day. The first meeting ended with exhortation to Hindus to be united and organized. This was the first successful meeting in their dalit basti.
As the meeting got over the author arranged for everyone to have a meal at his home. His father tried to stop him saying that those people will not eat in the home of an untouchable. The author was furious and tried to contradict him by saying he had been with the sangh for several years and was the chief of the district office and had eaten with so many RSS workers. The sangh does not practice untouchability and caste prejudice like the village. That’s the kind of thing the Congress has propagated. His father was shook and conceded to his demand and prepared to feed the incoming guests. The order was thrilled to be able to prove his congressi father wrong. Just that morning he had put up two stickers on his front door that read “Garv se kaho hum Hindu hain, bhagya se hum Hindu hain”.
The moment he invited the participants to come home for the meal there was a certain hesitation. The district chief took him aside. He was a baniya. He told him, “ friend you are aware of the inequalities in our society. Today we have sadhu sant among us who would be really upset if without informing them we give them food from a lower caste home. They could be so angry they might leave”.
These words turned the author into stone, he was speechless.He stared at him blankly when finally the district chief asked him to pack the food and have it put in the car. They will be used to feed people in the next village. His intention was crystal clear; it was to be kept a secret that the food was from a lower caste worker’s home.He experienced fully what it meant to be of lower caste. If they actually didn’t believe in untouchability or in caste discrimination and believed all Hindus to be one and talk of a united Hindu society then what kind of hypocrisy is this? If this can happen to him, what kind of intolerable behavior must the rest of his community face. For the first time in his life he stepped aside from his Hindu identity and started seeing the world like a person from a lower caste.
The next day brought no relief to him.His friend Puroshottam Shrotiya, a brahmin who had gone with last day's processions, had come back to Sirdiyas. When he returned in the morning he was carrying the kettle in which the sweet had been sent by him. He informed him that the food the author had sent was thrown out on the road just before Bhagwanpura and the night’s meal was provided from the home of a brahman. “Your food was not eaten, it was thrown away”, he said. The author was enraged; he did not believe him.The sangh couldn’t be so casteist and cruel.His friend said that if he doesn't believe him he should come and see for himself, some of the food must still be lying there. They went off on their cycles towards the site and there the author saw with his own eyes there, on the side of the road the food he had sent from home lying scattered about. And crows and dogs with no discrimination amongst themselves were feeding on it. He decided to follow the yatra and confront them.
He confronted the leaders of the yathra on their shameful conduct but they flatly denied throwing out the food. Upon insistence, they said that the car turned the corner at a high speed and the food flew out of the hands of the person holding it. How easily the most revered brothers can lie! There could be no doubt they had deliberately thrown away the food prepared by an untouchable. He felt intense humiliation and a sense of insult. He asked himself, “ Was this the Hindu rashtra I was working so hard, so ready to kill and be killed? What is my own history?”. He realized that in the Hindu caste system he was lower than the shudra, he was an untouchable, not one of the four varnas but an outcast, the 5th cast. He may be an RSS worker but he was not a Hindu all the way. He did not lose hope immediately and spoke to as many influential people as he could, from leaders to pracharaks at every level. He even approached the sarsangchalak. But every person he spoke to dismissed his complaint as a small matter and instead exhorted him to move on. But untouchability and discrimination is not a small matter in anybody’s life. To declare someone untouchable by birth and then refuse to accept their hospitality, this can be a small matter only for the architects of the Hindu rashtra.
The incident depressed him so much that he started to think about suicide and the many ways he could carry it out. One night he ate rat poison along with his food and went to bed thinking there would never be another morning in his life. A powerful wave of pain or rose in his stomach, nausea overwhelmed him, the pain was unbearable. He vomited violently and passed out. Upon waking up he found his brother with him in a hospital. The news of his attempted suicide spread like a wildfire and in order to escape the embarrassment he went to bhilwara. Once in seclusion he questioned himself why was he ready to die and for whom, for what, would anybody care if he died? He contemplated his own foolishness about being ready to die for the love of the sangh and at even their hatred. Be it sorrow or joy, it was he who was dying. After much inner churning and deep thought he decided not only to make a clean break with the sangh but to widely publicize its casteist behavior towards him. Knowing his limited resources and the strength of sangh, the struggle was sure to be lifelong.
May 1991 marked the beginning of his days of struggle. Yet he continued to rest his hopes in the RSS and believed that someday he would get justice; he met other office bearers and presented his case but they all just asked him to be positive. The period between may 1991 and December 1992 was one of utter despair. He roamed aimlessly like a homeless man.During that time the mass fervor for kar seva and Demolition of babri Masjid came back with a vengeance in 1992. This time no one from his family or village joined the karseva. He made it a point to speak to people specially those belonging from scheduled castes telling them about his own experience. He also started working with some friends to establish a students outfit that would eventually become Vidyarthi Adhikari Rakshak Sangh (VARS). He was at the Ambedkar hostel on 6th December when they heard the news of demolition of Babri Masjid on the radio. Nobody responded to it in any way in the hostel or discussed it among themselves. The author went out into the market to see jubilant Hindus bursting crackers and distributing sweets. By contrast there was visible police presence at the mosque near the railway station, the Muslim majority areas were marked by such massive police presence that it was as if curfew had been clamped. In the upcoming days some restrictions had been placed on RSS for its role in bringing down the Babri Masjid. There were raids at certain RSS office and several leaders went underground. But the truth is that the police were never serious about apprehending anyone. His father felt that what these people had done was not right, a house of God has been destroyed. The author reflected on his past and how eager he was to bring down the mosque but when finally the aim reached its conclusion he felt no joy. He had realised that it was all just an excuse to humiliate the Muslims.
The order was convinced to attack this Indian version of the Taliban. He enrolled in a Bachelors of Arts degree in 1993 and started working on his student organization. The members of VARS were hounded by ABVP and the leader Briraj Krishna was beaten so brutally, he almost died . The author also became aware that behind all the facade of chastity, purity and nobility, the sangh was involved in various corrupt activities such as manufacturing of illegal explosives, bootlegged liquor ,exhorting money from mafias etc. Most of the times sangh activists preferred to use the lathi rather than argument.
He wanted to take revenge on RSS in whatever way possible. His circle now included people from other faiths and secular minded people. He befriended some Muslims one of whom was Naushad Alam. He was the imam of a mosque and also taught in the madrasa. Once he was sitting in the madrasa attached to the mosque and he recalled all the conversations about weapons being stored in the basement of the mosques and got a little scared. He started talking to Naushad and was surprised that the ice of hatred towards Muslims in his heart began to melt. Muslims turned out to be people just like him, he went inside the mosque and its madressa, their kitchen, their bedroom, sat with them, ate with them. They discussed poetry and patriotism and reached the conclusion that the enemy of Muslims and dalits was the same. They decided to form 2 organisations one of Muslim youth and the other of dalit youth. The objective of both was to expose the activities of RSS. Naushad eventually joined the Communist Party of India Marxist leninist and served as a block president of a district in Bihar for four years. He is now Zone president of the AAP. The author on his part decided that the way to counter the RSS was to convert out of Hinduism.
He deliberated which religion should he convert to. The sangh had taught him that Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism were part of the Hindu society. Islam was out of question because he had been fed so much disinformation about its cruelty and violence that he had enormous distrust of it even now and did not even consider it as a possibility. So finally he thought why not become a Christian. He started searching for Christians so that they could lead him to conversion; he met the owner of a printing press whose name was Bethuel Gaekwad and told him why he wanted to become a Christian. But the Christian man chastised him saying Christianity does not believe in revenge but in forgiveness so forgive the RSS if you want liberation. But the author was not interested in liberation, he had one objective and it was to expose the sangh. He met several more Christians asking them to convert him but all of them stepped back scared when they heard the name RSS. They thought he was a spy for the RSS trying to trap then.
Soon he met a school teacher who was originally a brahman and had later converted to Christianity. His name was Newman and he taught him some chapters from the Bible. Soon they decided that he should be baptized and for that he had to present himself before the district collector and declare that he wanted to convert to Christianity. He flatly refused to do so since he just wanted to provoke the anger of RSS and thus they decided to induct him secretly by the rituals of baptism. After the conversion was complete the author felt no joy, he felt like he had climbed out of a dith and fallen into a well. He soon realized that religion was not for him. He realized that liberation was to be found not in the Bible or any religion but in liberating himself from all of that, he accepted that he was not a believer.
Around May 1991, he had no place to live so he went to a priest that he knew, Sant Chaitanya Sharan Shastri.He started living with him and found that he also harbored some grudge against the RSS as a junior priest had been acknowledged over him during some yatra. He kept bashing the sangh before the priest and he would always warn him not to keep on talking about the sangh like this. He said, “ they’re capable of stuffing people into a sack, pounding them to a pulp and the world wouldn't even know”. Even though the priest was a good person but he was casteist to the bone. Once they went to a Bihari Banya’s house for dinner and the host asked the author’s name. After hearing the name they asked what sort of brahmans are they. As the author was about to answer that he is not a brahman the priest hastily broke in saying that they are Kshatriya Brahmans. Upon returning the priest was angry with him for trying to declare his scheduled caste status and going to the extent of saying that lower caste people have no intelligence hence even though he had a chance to pretend to be a brahman he was about to reveal his true identity as an insect of a dirty gutter. The author realized that he could not become a Brahman and the brahmans could not become humans. He left the temple and never met the priest again.
The order returned to his village in August 1995. He was completely disillusioned with the idea of religion and found each one of them expansionist, each conjuring visions of heaven and hell and wanted to run away from the abstractions of fear fortune And God. This is when he started reading Ambedkar. He knew Ambedkar in two ways: first was through the RSS where in every morning prayer at the shaka they were made to remember Ambedkar; they read the sangh approved story of his life. Second was through his reading of Osho where Gandhi was criticized and Ambedkar counterposed to him as the more scientific and rational thinker. The sangh had taught him that Babasahab was a great nationalist and had contributed to writing the constitution of India, that he had wanted to make sanskrit the national language and saffron flag the national flag. That despite every temptation he had not converted to Islam or Christianity but to Buddhism, which was a part of Hinduism. And that he was opposed to the continuation of article 370 in Kashmir. Now reading Ambedkar himself the author found out that his views and everything were the exact opposite. The first book he read was “Riddles in Hinduism” which completely blew his mind and “Annihilation of Caste” gave him a clear understanding of how Brahmanism is responsible for the establishment of the hateful system of caste hierarchy and discrimination. He was horrified that he was made to sing the sangh in praise of Manu who was responsible for the evil of untouchability. After Ambedkar,he went on to read Kabir, Periyar and Phule.His desire for revenge was slowly turning into a desire for transformation. He read a lot of literature critical of the RSS and this humanist and Ambedkarite thought changed the direction of his life.
In 1996, he received a Xerox copy of a supposedly confidential letter of the sangh circulated by a Dalit organization (BAMCEF) and Minority communities Employees Federation founded by Kanshi Ram.Reading that letter made the origins of the organizations clear. The brahminical casteist structure had kept the lesser shudras in slavery for thousands of years. When the system started to crumble under modern education and the British rule, the utterly casteist Marathi Chitpavan Brahmans led by Baliram Hedgewar set up RSS in 1925. Its function was to use the façade of hindutva cleverly. Women, backward classes and Dalits were to be eternal slaves. Systematically using nation, religion, culture and nationalism as popular slogans to mislead the masses, they put the mentally in thrall to them. They became blind followers. This is why the backward castes still carry their dead ideas of brahmanism on their shoulders. The confidential letter of the sangh was addressed to upper castes exhorting them to make the caste system of Hindu society even stronger. “If not for the caste system everyone would have become Muslim or Christian”, the letter read. In the name of harmony the letter encouraged the upper castes to bring educated professional dalits, adivasis and backward castes together under hindutva. The letter also exposed the anti reservation ideology of the RSS. One of the author’s journalist friends Surendra Prabhat was courageous enough to publish this confidential letter and was harassed viciously. The letter was eye opening. It convinced the author that religious indoctrination and fundamentalist organisations can never work for the welfare of scheduled castes.
Initially the author’s battle was only against the casteist members of the sangh and not entirely against the RSS. He somehow believed that once the highest leaders of the sangh were made aware of his grievance, they would look into it. When absolutely nothing was done, the full hypocrisy of the sangh became painfully obvious.He turned towards fresh audiences and started targeting Dalit, RSS workers. He was astonished to find that each of them reported similar disheartening experiences in the sangh, relating to their caste identity. They all had their own depressing stories but they lacked courage . Each one was in the sangh at the behest or orders of some so-called upper caste patron and it was futile to expect them to be a part of his rebellion. He realized that the Dalits and Adivasis were mere tokens. The real owners of the song were brahmans and baniyas. It would never be any place for the dignity and self respect of the scheduled caste and scheduled tribes. They only wanted to use them to attack the Muslims.
In 1999, An Australian missionary Graham Staines was murdered along with his two small sons in Odisha by Dara Singh of Bajrang dal. The author with his friend Alauddin Bedil launched a signature campaign against this heinous act. He had no fear and started his fight against the sun with all his might. Later when he joined a government school as a primary teacher the battle became sharper because the RSS had full control over Hindi medium primary school teachers.At the teacher training program, the teachers were being welcomed by tying a turban and applying tika . The author strongly objected to this and was supported by some other Muslim and dalit trainees. They objected to the singing of RSS songs and hindu slogan. This enraged the authorities many of whom had affiliations with RSS and they started harassing him . After the training when he was allotted his school, it was two kilometers from his village. It was a village of a backward caste community called Gurjars whose work was agriculture and animal husbandry. The tragedy of backward castes is that they consider themselves pure Hindus and under this sway of Hindutva are at the forefront of committing atrocities against Dalits. If we ask these foot soldiers of Hindutva of their own position in the caste hierarchy of Hinduism, they are stumped. When forced to accept that they are sudras, their face dark and they become quiet. The babasaheb whose constitution made them humans, they look upon with hatred, treating him as a hero for dalits alone, distancing themselves from him. Another feature of backward castes today considering themselves superior and proving this by attacking and humiliating the scheduled castes. The Sudras failed to understand that the other 3 upper castes watch these activities with amusement and joy. It’s fine by them if the lower caste an outcast are at each others throat. The sangh hasn’t provided them anything not even a place in the leadership structure but the youth of backward caste roam around clutching to themselves the practically dead body of hindutva.It was among these people that the author had to serve as a teacher to their children. The children were already indoctrinated with the idea that the new teacher was of a lower caste. They would not drink water from the same container he used. There was not a single family or individual with whom he could sit and chat for a while or whose home he could enter. They would stop him from even riding his cycle or inviting to any functions. In many other places his colleagues could not even sit on chairs or if they touched the midday meal, it was thrown away. One of the teachers committed suicide.He soon realized that there was no point teaching these people who are so obsessed with the caste hierarchy. He resigned.
The author decided to start a monthly publication called “Diamond India”. First 7 friends then 13 more joined to contribute and it was decided that the journal would combat communalism, casteism and corruption and spread the message of love, solidarity and humanity. On 14th January 2001 the first copy of Diamond India was published. The idea was to reach villages in which there were no other sources of information other than RSS publications. People were now getting to read two kinds of opinion and the Journal was beginning to be accepted as an alternative to the sangh narrative. An audio division of Diamond India was also opened up since cassettes were very popular in those days.The popularity of Diamond India soon came under the gaze of the sangh. The sangh found out that the entire team of Diamond India was in government employment .It was natural for the partners in Diamond India to be worried once the sangh started threatening them one by one. It was decided that while their financial contribution would continue, their names would be removed from the Journal. Now the entire responsibility of diamond India fell upon the author. Once he was sitting in the office and reading a newspaper when he saw that a public hearing had been organized by an organization of farmers and workers in Janvad village panchayat in Rajsamand. The public hearing had established that lot of rupees had been embezzled from village development works. The news item said that the first National Convention on the Right to Information was to be held the next day at the Subhash garden in Bevar. He decided to attend it .
The next day on 6th April 2007 he went to report on the first National Convention on Right to Information There were several speakers including a former speaker of the Lok Sabha, Rabi Ray, hindi journalist Prabhash joshi and chief minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot.The next day he wrote a story of 12 pages covering the entire convention and sent 2 copies of it to the headquarters of Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) .The MKSS central committee decided that someone should go meet the writers of diamond India who produced this report and set up a working relationship that would be mutually beneficial. However the meeting did not take place at the time. It was an incident of communal violence soon after that brought this to fruition. In bhilwara district at the Asind Block headquarters there was a temple of the Gurjar Community with a 400 year old mosque called Qalandari Masjid . Inflamed by the RSS a mob of youth razed this mosque to the ground.The mosque was not a functioning mosque and it was present amidst the temple complex of Sawaibhoj Mandir. Gradually as hindutva politicized the Gurjar community, the mosque became a burning issue among the youth. They decided to destroy this already diminished place of worship on 27 July 2001. The mosque had been completely demolished and its rubble had been pushed into a deep pit which was being filled with water. He took a few pictures and came back to Bhilwara. When the news hit the media the Muslims raised their voice in protest, the whole country became aware of what had happened. But this incident was met with silence even from the secular sections nobody wanted to risk any kind of confrontation. A team of human rights organisations soon arrived at the location among which were some MKSS people.He explained to them how for so many centuries this ancient Mosque stood undisturbed and now it had been razed to the ground.The main person responsible for the vandalism of the mosque was very close to a leader of the Congress. Sometimes caste awareness is so strong that people forget all of other beliefs and ideology. It was also brought to notice that the extremists were now planning to prevent their annual festival, the urs at the Bariya Mazar also located in the premises of the temple. After demolition of the mosque, a yagana was conducted to purify the premises. Dalits were publicly insulted at the ceremony and despite all efforts at persuasion, were not allowed to sit around the sacrificial fire. The author himself was not at all in favor of Dalits participating in Hindu rites but it was also a test case to see if these people who claimed all Hindus were brothers would really permit Dalits to participate. The author decided to speak directly to the supposedly enlightened Khandeshwari Maharaj who had apparently stood on his feet continuously for years and had taken an oath to never utter a word. He had successfully excluded schedule caste from every yagna he conducted in the area. He angrily declared before the Baba that either Dalits will participate in the yagna or he is free to turn them into ashes. The net outcome of this controversy was that news of it spread far and wide an attendance at the yogana was very thin.
In 2009 at another yogana in the same Baba’s presence the same discrimination was again shown. He had an ashram built with voluntary labor from Dalits who also contributed financially but not one dalit couple was allowed to participate. The author proposed that at eight of the 108 firepots, Dalits be permitted to offer sacrifice. This was rejected straight away and it was proposed that separate firepits would be constructed for them. And they will not be allowed to eat with the rest of the devotees. The author challenged the administration that they could not discriminate on a public land and invoked the SC ST Prevention of Atrocities Act against the organizers. Later the committee grudgingly agreed to allow Dalits to participate but by then the Dalits refused. Ultimately the yagana was held but on private land of some person . Add another yagna, a condition was laid that the Dalits must eat cow dung in order to purify themselves if they wanted to attend the ceremony. The order visited the chief minister of the time Ashok Gehlot and raised the issue before him. The chief minister took up the issue with great sympathy and understanding. He made it clear that Dalits participation was mandatory but by this time Dalits refuse to participate again. The organizers were forced to declare it a private event.
The author says that he has no belief in rituals of Hinduism nor does he think the situation of Dalits will be improved in the slightest by their participation in such things. However if some Dalits wish to participate in such public events,it is their constitutional right and he would fight shoulder to shoulder with them to achieve it now and in the future. In a religion, animals are worshipped, cats and dogs are kept as beloved pets, they eat with their masters but Dalits cannot even be touched. They are not even considered humans but it is expected of them that they should prove their nationalism and praise the country.
The authorr was accused of taking money from Hindus and then writing against them. He started writing against communalism drawing attention to growing extremism in all religious communities and attacking the trend.
After the godhra train burning incident everyone was very disturbed and MKSS immediately issued a statement condemning the act and demanding strictest punishment for the perpetrators. On the following day of this incident began a targeted massacre of the Muslim minority in Gujarat. Various organisations of the sangh including the Gujarat government were all involved. More than 2000 Muslims were killed. It was not a riot it was a pre-planned and systematic massacre, an attempt to wipe out an entire community. The government termed it a justifiable reaction to Godhra. Questions were raised about the chief minister Narendra Modi even by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Maya kodnani one of Modi’s senior ministers herself participated in one of the massacres and was sentenced to prison. Many workers of the sangh, activist of the BJP, constables in police stations , administrative and police officials as well as lower ranks of administrations all participated in violence. The Hindu mobs had lists of Muslim homes. Former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri was cut down and set alight by a bloodthirsty Hindu mob despite his phone calls for help to Modi and Sonia Gandhi. The saffron Taliban had taken over all police stations. They conducted mass rapes of women in public, sliced open the stomachs of pregnant women and pulled out the fetus at the tip of swords, swung them in the air before cutting them into pieces. Much of the violence had been conducted by dalits and Adivasis. The game plan of the right wing forces were successful, Muslims Adivasis and dalits died fighting each other. Thousands of Muslims were killed in the violence and hundreds of Dalits and adivasis died in police firing while those who instigated the violence remained safe.
Dalits attempt to prove themselves pure Hindus by taking a leading part in riots and violence against Muslims. The author wrote an editorial in Diamond India titled “Talibani Hindus, listen”. He wrote that every Dalit and Adivasi who has suffered casteist insult and untouchability sees caste Hindus as Talibanis, as cruel oppressors. The sanghis were enraged by the label of Hindu Taliban and he started getting threatening messages and an apology was demanded. He refused to do so.
Many people claim that sangh does not promote hatred against other religions. But the author says that from his own personal experience he can vouch that the sangh not only promotes enmity with the other people but even gives training in deadly weapons. He himself had received these trainings. The sangh is in fact a quasi military organization which promotes the arming and militarising of the Hindu community. The nation cannot forget the RSS workers who carried out bomb explosions in different parts of the country in 2006 in the name of Abhinav Bharat. How could a Hindu be so evil?
The author says that hearing the narrations of torture of the riots deeply unsettled him. He documented the gatherings of Bajrang Dal and VHP and recorded the public speeches of Praveen Togadia. Who openly incited violence against Muslims and distributed swards among Hindus. Since he was a doctor and his poisonous speeches were such a source of tension the Medico Friend Circle an Association of doctors made the demand that his medical degree be revoked. Medico Friend Circle claimed that when Gujrat was burning, he assembled doctors in his clinic and encouraged them to stay away from work thus keeping them away from hospitals where they were seriously needed by Muslim patients. The author presented all evidence before Ashok Gehlot and Togadia was taken into custody. This man who roared like a lion on the stage now had tears in his eyes. This is the reality of these people.
The author started challenging the organizations of the sangh in his writings demanding to know what their plans were for adivasis and dalits In the Hindu rashtra. Will they only be used to carry out violence, to die and kill in riots? While their own children study in English medium schools why give the children of the poor the slogan of Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan. Why was the sangh promoting a primitive talibani mentality? The author says that he wants to ask those Adivasis and dalits who wore the RSS uniform so proudly and who worked as their workers, has the RSS launched a single struggle against casteism and untouchability ?They oppose reservation in jobs in promotions and want to end prevention of atrocities act. The Hindu rashtra has no place for dalits and Adivasis.
The other quotes Babasaheb warning to Dalits of India, “If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will no doubt be the greatest calamity for this country. No matter what the Hindus say, Hinduism is a menace to liberty, equality and fraternity. It is incompatible with democracy. Hindu Raj must be prevented at any cost”.
From March 2005, Bhilwara smouldered in the fires of communalism and trident distribution program started by the VHP. On one incident of saffron flag was found at the door of a building used for Eid namaz which angered the Muslim community who took out a silent procession. That very evening the Idol of vishnu was paraded in ceremonial procession. The two processions clashed and 11 shops and two houses belonging to Muslims were burned. The mobs organized to attack Muslim businesses places of worship and homes. Between 9:00 PM to 2:00 AM on 8 April 2005 some 25 Muslim men were picked up by the police thrashed mercilessly an arrested one had his beard bold and you another was offered urine when he asked for water. Sometime later at 5 temples nearby the number 786 considered auspicious in Islam was found written, green flags and bones of dead animals were also found. Hindus rose up violently against the Muslims and the situation remained tense for many days. Meanwhile the acts of sacrilege at the temples were traced to Shiv Sena leader Ramratan Jhanwar.When this conspiracy was exposed no remorse at the anti Muslim climate was expressed by the Hindu community.The atmosphere was so poisonous that it was not possible to even be seen with the Muslims. The author published a report called the “Approaching Footsteps of Fascism”. No sooner was the small booklet published that all hell broke lose. His printing press was raided and he was threatened with dire consequences; he faced a social boycott and for the next three years every time he had to travel he had to inform the police. Some renowned activists and journalists spoke in his favor and the National Human Rights Commission demanded explanations against the constant harassment. Yet not one single dalit organization or literateur raised a voice in his support. BJP realized that the attack on him had become a national issue of right to freedom of expression and off the human rights of a journalist.Hence this slowly backed off.
In September 2006 an issue arose among the Suliya Dalits of Kerada who were stopped from entering a temple to Chanduma Mata (which was built by their ancestors) by the Gurjar community. The gurjars also decided to pocket the entire income from the temple and launched a plan to sideline Dalit history. The author called a meeting of 40 dalit Families. The author says that he thinks it’s a waste of energy to fight for Dalits’ entry into any place of worship, the 33,00,00,000 gods and goddesses of Hinduism have not done a thing for Dalits. Not a single diety’s heart melted at their condition. But whatever the differences of opinion on religion, if the fundamental rights assured by the constitution are denied to them then that is simply unacceptable. On 18th November 2000, a meeting was called in which thousands of people from neighboring villages also turned up; the meeting declared that if the administration did not ensure entry of the lists in the temple by 12 December 2006, they would take matters into their own hands. The RSS took note, the VHP jumped into the matter and all the organisations of the sangh stood up against the dalits.This episode is an excellent example of the hypocrisy of the sangh which talks about harmony but works actively to prevent Dalits from fighting for their dignity. The sangh put forward their sold-out Dalits activists to discredit the actual struggle. They brought some Dalits on rent from outside who were taken up to the veranda of the temple and presented before the media and were made to claim that there was no discrimination against them.
The Dalits were not fighting for temple entry and worship but they were fighting for their right to equality.Eventually over 5000 Dalits and adivasi men and women entered the temple despite all opposition; it was a historic victory.Meanwhile the sangh could not tolerate the little assertion and they claimed that there was a conspiracy with Muslims and Christians to break the Hindu society.
On love jihad: During his days in shakha, the author had often heard that one of the main ambitions of Muslim men was to have sex with a Hindu woman and that Islam says it brings them a reward in heaven. They were told that Muslim students were only interested in attracting Hindu girls. The workers of RSS often lamented what do their Hindu women see in these Muslim men. The common view was that Muslim men eat meat while Hindu men are vegetarian. Non vegetarian food increases the libido where as the vegetarian diet of Hindu men reduces sexual desire. Another theory was that the root cause of attraction is circumcision. Hindu women cannot resist this aspect of Muslim men. Various ways of countering this trap were discussed one of which was that Hindu men should be advised to make Muslim women fall in love with them and make them convert. Anyone who could lure a Muslim woman should be given rewards.
The author says that he’s embarrassed of these conversations and now believes that love is a jihad in itself. Falling in love and staying in love is nothing short of a crusade. As for the author himself, he was married the moment he was born and on becoming an adult had to start living with his wife. He loves his life partner beyond any dream. He says that even though she has not read any feminist literature or been part of any feminist organization but she’s outspoken in her feminist beliefs. She has been at the forefront of protests and political actions against atrocities. She is the real head of their household; she gave meaning to his life.
The order says that the sangh’s understanding of a worker was that a “Swayamsevak never really leaves”. His old acquaintances would ask with great sadness, “what went wrong how did we lose a worker like you?”. At the local level the sangh sold out Dalits acted as a shield for the RSS. They landed up wherever the struggles were going on to give a clean chit to casteist Hindus. The RSS opened their schools in their neighborhoods and drew them into their web of seductive words. They are now ready to sing the praises of the very system that oppresses them. According to the sangh, the root cause of caste oppression is the Muslim community. not the casteist Hindu. How cunning they are! RSS wants to free itself from any responsibility for the shameful caste discrimination and oppression and pass that burden onto Muslims thus pitting Muslims and Dalits against one another.
The relentless questioning of the sangh and its affiliates regarding the place of dalits and Adivasis led them to work seriously on these issues and to address them.In 2012, the sangh introduced the concept of harmony and the first step was why identify all the dissenting individuals and organizations. They were lured with promises of government jobs and money.The second task the sangh took up was the rewriting of literature of backward castes and presenting caste histories in the light of Hindu text that showed the brahminical system as noble and egalitarian,hence placing the entire responsibility for caste based evils on Muslim invaders. They even morphed doctor Ambedkar’s writing and made him appear as anti-Muslim and supporter of the Hindu rashtra. They started defaming progressive and left wing organisations that worked for backward castes and tribal rights by spreading rumors that they were funded by Christians abroad and were trying to destabilize the country. The whole point was to ensure that Muslims, Christians Dalits and adivasis should not come together. The sangh launched a campaign called “one temple, one cremation ground, one source of water”. If it will take everyone sitting together and eating together to make Dalits stay within the fold of Hinduism then let’s do it -seems to be the spirit of this campaign. They are also trying to look at Inter caste marriage positively since they understand the importance of keeping Dalits and adivasis in the fold.
The sangh is trying to win over Dalits and Adivasis with awards, rewards, posts and prestige. They understand that as long as the Dalits and Adivasis votes went to secular parties, it was impossible for the BJP to come to power.The sangh even approached the author for joining BJP but he flatly refused.
He refused to join politics completely, for which many friends even rebuked him. They must have felt this man is of no use to us if he doesn’t join politics. But even his activism earned him several enemies. Members of his family face life threatening attacks, false cases were slapped on him and the police, CID,CBI,IB all carried out multiple investigations against him. The sangh got so petty that they wrote anonymous letters accusing him of embezzlement of funds and also started sending letters from his name to his friends to incite enmity. The author did not give up; he has chosen to speak the truth and always stand up and fight the battle against injustice, oppression, exploitation and inequality.
Long Live the Revolution.
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THOUGHTS:
Bhanwar Meghwanshi' s book, even though a one man's story is such an important to read in order to understand an entire insidious system in a parasitic relationship with the most oppressed people in the society. I like how he specifically keeps mentioning that the need to keep Dalits and Adivasis in the fold of Hindutva is to use them as the cannon fodder against Muslims. The one-way intoxicating relationship between hindutva and OBCs, SCs , STs is explained from several personal and anecdotal experiences. Plus his insights on the internal working of the RSS, the tecahings, the whole system and even the general environment in the shakha, the casual talk between Sanghis are so important because the RSS heavily shields its internal activities from the media.
However I wish the author spoke in more detail about the dynamic between OBCs and Dalits. Even though the OBCs and SCs have been inducted into Hindutva in the name of a united Hindu front, the OBCs yet are found to be perpetrating crimes against SCs. How does that dynamic of harmony and hierarchy work between two oppressed groups and what is the way out. The author does point out that the basis of all this "harmony"is the creation of a common cause, against a common enemy, ie Muslims. I wish he also spoke about the need to counter Islamophobia as a means for awareness among OBCs, SCs and STs. If islamophobia is the weapon of Hindutva, isn't that mandatory to be countered?
On that note, I do have one huge criticism of the work. The author repeatedly, repeatedly, keeps calling the RSS 'The saffron Taliban' or "The Hindu Taliban". The first time he did that, it caught the eye of RSS and they were enraged and I think this is why he keeps using this term- to incite the RSS by associating them to Taliban. But the problem is that RSS is not enraged due to Taliban's legacy of violence, they are enraged simply because the Taliban is considered Muslim.
Forget, the implication, it would even be factually incorrect to say RSS is following Taliban since RSS is older than Taliban! If anything, Taliban would have learnt from RSS lmao. Moreover despite Taliban's legacy, you cannot compare a group borne out of ashes and fury of one of the most devastating war and RSS that is plainly a bigoted supremacist movement formed to maintain an oppressive structure.
Moreover when we say things like "Hindu Talibani" or " Hindu Pakistan" or "Hindu Shariah " , it implies that the standard of evil is always Muslim. It suggests the exact same narrative that has spread by westetn islamophobia and "war on terror". That the evil of western communities is because of influence of Islam and west doesn't itself possess the capacity to be evil. It sets a very Islamophobic response where in, even thought you are aware that victims of RSS are muslims, you still imply that their violence and bigotry is learnt from muslims. Let's stop this trend. Call a spade a spade.
Apart from this, the biography excellently captures the author's anger and defiance in the face of opposition from one of the most dangerous organisations in the world. It is a tale of unending courage and revolution.
Long Live the Revolution.
Inquilab zindabad.
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Hanan.
Extremely well written! Thank you for doing this. I am immensely grateful to have the opportunity to read your insights (never ever disappointed, really). Thank you for pointing out the criticisms of the book in the end. Much love and respect. <3
My favourite part:
"Moreover when we say things like "Hindu Talibani" or " Hindu Pakistan" or "Hindu Shariah " , it implies that the standard of evil is always Muslim. It suggests the exact same narrative that has spread by westetn islamophobia and "war on terror". That the evil of western communities is because of influence of Islam and west doesn't itself possess the capacity to be evil."
Inquilab Zindabad! 🍁❤