RSS – Caged in Patriarchy
Savera
Of late, RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat has been toiling away trying to burnish the image of his organisation on its foundation centenary. He has been giving long lectures to audiences of ‘learned’ or ‘eminent’ people – mostly RSS sympathisers – explaining the ideology of the RSS. The objective is to portray the RSS as a nationalist organization, committed to spreading harmony and universal brotherhood, drawing upon the wellspring of Hindutva or Sanatan Dharma. In the process he has tried to create a deceptive image of RSS claiming that all those who love the motherland are Hindus irrespective of their worship methods or customs, that Bharat/India will lead the world in thought as well as material prosperity, and so on. One of the issues he addressed recently was of the RSS view of women. This was necessary because the RSS is an exclusively men’s organization, with a handful of women drawn from affiliated organisations in its Pratinidhi Sabha (an all-India representatives’ body), but with no women permitted in its primary membership or as participants in its shakhas (daily meetings of members). This mode of organising men and boys who are then supposed to rejuvenate all Hindus and change the whole world seems anachronistic if not fantastical. Bhagwat was at pains to assert that the problem lay with the society – people revere women as goddesses but freeze them there while in the real world they mistreat and exploit women. This may sound like a good description of Hindu society but it conveniently ducks the question: what has the RSS – avowed organizer and rejuvenator of Hindus – done about it in the past 100 years? Why has it left the organizing of women to an adjunct organization called the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti but never allowed women in the parent RSS? Why has RSS never taken up issues like dowry and bride burning; son preference and falling sex ratio; violence against women, inside homes and in society; keeping women confined to homes for care work; and such other indicators of the stranglehold of patriarchal thinking on society?
Rooted in Patriarchy
The RSS is committed to Hindutva or Sanatan Dharm (as they have taken to calling it) which is imbued with the retrograde and obnoxious ideas of patriarchy. Some indication of this can be gained from looking at what various Hindu religious texts have to say about women. It is not possible to carry out a comprehensive dissection here, but an illustrative account will be sufficient. The following excerpts are based on research of ancient texts done by Meena Gupta, formerly a teacher in Delhi University.
Rig Veda says that a woman’s intellect has little weight. Although Rig Veda maintains that a girl has the right to choose her life partner, Atharva Veda says that dedication to husband should be the priority. The Vedas repeatedly indicate preference for sons and maintain that inheritance of property vests with men not women. Vedas allow remarriage by widows.
Ramayana says that women by nature are crooked, fickle and devoid of religious knowledge. It says that husband is god and master for her. Although abandoning women is considered a cruel act, Sita is abandoned after questions were raised about her chastity. In the Ramcharitmanas, a popular version of the Ram legend, written in 1600 AD, Tulsidas infamously writes that women need to be thrashed just like drums, uncultured persons, low castes and animals.
Mahabharata says that there is no creature more sinful than a woman, she is poison, snake ; they are false in behaviour; they don’t deserve freedom; they are exceedingly fond of sexual congress. It says that women should take food after husband; should partake food left by husband; stand when he stands; go to bed after he sleeps; should not take his name; be gracious even when beaten; not to be rude to him; should not reply to her husband; obey him instantly. It prohibits widow remarriage but allows remarriage to husband’s younger brother if first marriage was not consummated. The whole story of Mahabharat revolves around the humiliation of Draupadi. It says that a wife should be beaten with a rope or split bamboo when she is at fault.
Bhagavad Gita says that women are prone to degradation and need protection
Arthshastra asserts that one should never trust women, they are reckless, liars, deceitful, stupid, greedy, impious and cruel; the heart of a woman is divided; women are the cause of all domestic disputes, and wars and sinful deeds; a woman’s real place is inside the four walls. It also says that a woman is lost without husband, that she can purify herself by drinking the water used for washing her husband’s feet. Widow remarriage is prohibited. It justifies wife beating.
Manusmriti attributes sleep, lust, anger, dishonesty, malice and bad conduct to women; calls them heartless and disloyal and needing to be guarded; that they should not be given freedom otherwise they will disrupt social structure; they are fickle. It says that a man can leave his wife, mortgage her or sell her. A wife should never displease her husband. A girl cannot choose her husband. Although it says that both sons and daughters are equal, but lays down that a wife can be superseded in the eleventh year if she bears only daughters. It does not give property rights to women. It discourages widow remarriage though with exceptions. Manusmriti justifies beating a wife for her faults.
Shiv Purana devotes an entire chapter to insulting women which include sinful, no decency, full of defects and representation of Maya. Devi Bhagwatam Purana, Brahma Vaivarta Purana, Bhagvad Purana say that women’s natural qualities are falsehood, craftiness, impatience, greed, impunity, harshness, fraudulence, cruelty. Narada Purana says that women who act on their own will go to hell. Garida Purana says woman is a whore, adulteress, inauspicious, quarrelsome, and lacks chastity. Agni Purana, Matsya Purana, Brahman Purana all lay down that women are not eligible to study Vedas. The Puranas also emphasise that a woman’s eternal duty is to serve her husband whether he is a sinner or saint. Shiv Puran repeats the duties of a wife mentioned in Mahabharata. Son preference is indicated while positing that a man cannot go to heaven if he has no son. Srimad Bhagvatam Purana provides for inheritance only for sons. Widow remarriage is allowed if the earlier marriage was not consummated but there are onerous rules for widows including sati or tonsuring the head, sleeping on floor, eating only boiled rice, not looking into a mirror etc.
These undiluted expressions of male supremacy and treating women as chattel, though not in the least unique to Hindutva or Indian society, is widely infused in today’s society despite many laws being made to curtail social evils. The RSS has never seriously challenged or mobilized people against this patriarchal thinking. In fact, as we will see, it pays lip service to exalted status of women in Hindutva while still prescribing that their primary role is in the home.
Golwalkar and Motherhood
According to the most influential ideologue of RSS, MS Golwalkar aka Guruji, a woman has three roles – as a mother inside the home, as a mother in her society, and as a mother to organize society. He refers to women as ‘matrushakti’, a practice that continues even today in RSS circles.
In the home, he extolls mothers who sing bhajans in the morning, remembering his childhood when he used to wake up in the morning to his mothers melodious singing. He encourages mothers to dress up children as deities, just like his mother used to do, because this inculcates piety in the child. He exhorts women to produce ‘heroes’ that will work for the glory of the nation.
While admitting that most women will not get the time to go out and work in society at large, Golwalkar recommends that at the least women can help distressed women in the neighbourhood or make ‘useful contacts’. “Our womenfolk should not be allowed to develop inferiority complex or a feeling of helplessness. They should be taught that they are the living emblems of Parashakti,” he writes. He also recommends that women can nurture children in their neighbourhood and inculcate pious values in them. All this will be ‘matrushakti’ at work in society.
For organizing society, Guruji has singularly meagre to offer as advice. He repeatedly says that women have to find their own way – posing this as ‘not meddling’ in their affairs. He admits that family comes first and that women have the key role in not only looking after the family but rearing noble pious children. After that, it is upto them how they find time and energy to organize in society. This is practically saying that there is hardly anything women can do in reality.
Women in RSS Affiliates
Whenever the question of women is raised with the RSS or its affiliates, the answer comes that we have the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, an exclusively women’s organisation. Founded in 1936 by Laxmibai Kelkar, with express permission of RSS founder KB Hedgewar, the Samiti primarily imparts physical training for self defence, various vocational skills, and cultural (religious) training. It is modelled on the parent RSS, headed by a Pramukh Sanchalika (chief director) and members known as ‘sevikas’. It is claimed that the Samiti has four lakh members spread in over 4000 locations.
But there is no escaping the fact that the Samiti is just an affiliate organization of the RSS, one amongst many. Its office bearers are members of the Pratinidhi Sabha, which is presided over by the RSS sarsanghchalak (supremo), and his deputy, the sarkaryavah. The Samiti is a subsidiary, meant to mobilise women for the RSS agenda. For example, currently it is working with other RSS affiliates in holding matrutva sammelans (motherhood conferences) to mark the centenary of RSS. In these conferences, as per media reports, the same old principles of mothers’ role in moulding heroes that will dedicate their lives to the Hindu Nation are being propagated and pressed.
Apart from this Samiti, there is another organization called the Durga Vahini, which is the women’s wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a prominent RSS affiliate dedicated to guarding Hindu interests, re-establishing Hindu identity, preserving Hindu holy places, etc. Durga Vahini members, mostly younger women, are directed towards more militant or aggressive work like issues of love jihad, masjid disputes, etc.
There are women leaders and members in other organisations like the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (RSS students wing) or the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (RSS run trade union). The women student members are again schooled in the RSS ideas and may later find accommodation in the BJP, like the chief minister of Delhi. But, as in her case, the limitations of the ideology and the inability to address mass issues remains an albatross around their neck. Women workers in BMS are taught about avoiding confrontation or class struggle, and in the current Modi era, active collaboration with the rulers.
RSS Fails Women
During the Modi era, with increasing importance of women voters, women have acquired an added importance for the regime. But the RSS is ill prepared to either draw in larger sections of women or influence them ideologically because of its regressive understanding about women which prevents more empowering participation. Even today, the RSS fails to address most of the key issues that women face including better employment opportunities, freedom from the cage of patriarchal oppression, end to violence, equal rights and a life of dignity.
It must also be mentioned that many of the extremely brutal and inhuman expressions of patriarchy including dowry and bride burning, sati, child marriage, and violence against women are not on the RSS agenda. Indeed, these are obliquely defended or at the least tolerated for being derived from ancient practices, though in general terms, RSS leaders may talk of venerating women and treating them as goddesses. This is the way RSS navigates through what are thorny issues for them – by deception and doublespeak.
