RSS – Roots and Wings of Authoritarianism
Savera
ELEVEN years of rule of the Modi government has seen a drastic and dangerous erosion of democracy in India. This is not confined to just the electoral system but to all round dismantling of democratic rights, further marginalisation of under-privileged sections, institutional capture by the Sangh Parivar, hollowing out of Constitutional and statutory bodies, destabilising of State governments and their architecture, and the vitiation of society by violence and intimidation emanating from the toxic ideology of Hindutva. A democracy should ensure that governments reflect the needs and aspirations of the working people, the deprived and the socially oppressed. But under BJP reign, India has become not only become one of the most economically unequal countries but also a society where the labouring people, the poor and the wretched have become marginalised while the thin layer of corporate super-rich are nakedly wielding power. How has this happened? And, why?
While the answer to these crucial questions is complex and will involve lengthy analysis, one of the key factors is the ideological roots of the present ruling party and its mentor, the RSS. The Prime Minister and many of his colleagues in the government, as also several chief ministers and governors of states are all RSS members and were earlier pracharaks (full time organisers). They are imbued with the RSS thinking and they are implementing it relentlessly, either openly or surreptitiously. The people did not vote for this ideology, but it is now in power and deciding the fate of the country.
INSPIRATION FROM FASCISM
After its formation in 1925, RSS leaders were heavily influenced by the rising tide of fascism in Europe. The primary source of this influence was BS Moonje (or Munje) who visited Italy in March 1931 and not only met the Italian dictator Mussolini but visited various institutions and organisations associated with the National Fascist Party in Rome. He was a close friend and mentor of Dr, KB Hedgewar, the founder of RSS. He particularly impressed by the way the Italian fascists indoctrinated youth through their organisations, the Baililla and he Avantguardisti including their military training, the songs, the uniforms, etc. All these are recorded in his diary and other papers preserved at the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (renamed as Prime Minister’s Museum & Library by the Modi government), and quoted by Italian researcher Marzia Casolari. Moonje writes: “The idea of fascism vividly brings out the conception of unity among people…India and particularly Hindu India need some such institution for the military regeneration of Hindus….Our institution of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of Nagpur under Dr, Hedgewar is of this kind …”
While Moonje became a conduit to one of the characteristics of fascism – militarised organisation and indoctrination of youth – the most influential ideologue of RSS, MS Golwalkar was deeply impressed by Nazism. In his seminal book ‘We, or Our Nationhood Defined’ he refers to Hitler’s targeting of the Jews in glowing terms: “German race pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic Races – the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.”
Note that this is published in 1939, when the first big pogrom against the Jews (Kristallnacht) has already taken place in November 1938, in which hundreds were murdered, 1400 synagogues burnt, 7000 Jewish business destroyed by Nazi stormtroopers across Germany, Austria and Swtzerland. Golwalkar held up the Nazi attack on Jews as an example for Hindus in India who suffered from a languishing ‘race pride’ that he criticises before referring to Germany. In this he is drawing upon another strand of fascism – the supremacist view and, serving that, the hatred towards other communities. The RSS is imbued with this line of thinking and thus also towards a political system that allows for this to be given full play. Hence the targeting of Muslims through various laws as also through the police and other agencies.
The incendiary mix of militarism, race pride, violence against minorities, and the striving for a theocratic Hindu Rashtra are all anathema to the spirit of democracy enshrined in India’s Constitution. This hostility towards the Constitution, and many of its tenets has been repeatedly expressed by the RSS historically.
HOSTILITY TO CONSTITUTION
The RSS started denigrating the Constitution right after it was passed by the Constituent Assembly in 1949. Organiser (RSS mouthpiece) wrote in an editorial on November 30, 1949: “But in our Constitution, there is no mention of the unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat. Manu’s Laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing.”
In his book Bunch of Thoughts, Golwalkar lamented: “Our Constitution too is just a cumbersome and heterogeneous piecing together of various articles from various Constitutions of Western countries. It has absolutely nothing which can be called our own. Is there a single word of reference in its guiding principles as to what our national mission is and what our keynote in life is?” He is indicating that Manusmriti should have been the basis of the Constitution. The contents of this ancient book are well known – it lays down the most heinous and brutal punishments on shudras (the working people) and women for transgressions while glorifying the exploitative chaturvarna system. Democracy, as enshrined in the Constitution, would be finished in this nightmarish vision.
UNITARY GOVERNMENT
Golwalkar repeatedly wrote that the federal system promulgated by the Constitution, with sharing of powers and responsibilities between the Union and the States, was bogus and useless – it should be replaced by a unitary system with one Legislature. He writes in Bunch of Thoughts: “The only way out is to be courageous enough to declare a unitary type of Government by suitably amending the Constitution. The country is one, the people are one, and therefore let us have only a single Government, a single Legislative Authority. The country may be arranged into various zones from the point of view of administrative convenience. The zones may be few or many, that doesn’t matter. The executive authority may be distributed, but the legislative authority should be one. There are some who say that many provinces and provincial legislatures are necessary to satisfy the demands of democracy. I have not been able to understand what connection there is between democracy and having many legislatures. One Central Legislature for the whole of the country should satisfy the demands of democracy.”
He explains that the whole country’s people are to be homogenised by having a unitary government: “We are one country, one society, and one nation, with a community of life-values and secular aspirations and interests; and hence it is natural that the affairs of the nation are governed through a single state of the unitary type. The present federal system generates and feeds separatist feelings. In a way, it negates the truth of a single nationhood and is, therefore, divisive in nature. It must be remedied and the Constitution amended and cleaned so as to establish Unitary Form of Government”.
Golwalkar rails against the electoral system too, using the panchayats as an example. He writes: “These days the slogan of Panchayat-raj is often heard. But the whole system has become perverted. However, these distortions will have to be corrected. Well meaning and socially conscious persons in each field should be encouraged to come together and exert their influence so as to give a clean and effective rural base to the entire national edifice. Stipulating that elections to Panchayats shall be unanimous, or that there shall be no elections at all, would be a very useful step in this direction. Electoral rolls and rules of elections may be suitably modified so as to ensure such a healthy and purposeful structure at the base. If need be, the Constitution also may be suitably amended”.
Incidentally, it is noteworthy that RSS itself follows a fascistic organizational form, with an unelected supremo (sarsanghchalak) at the top, assisted by a general secretary or CEO (sarkaryavah) and others. Various bodies exist that the RSS claims are elected, like the Pratinidhi Sabha but they are implementing and coordinating bodies not real decision making ones.
The seeds of what the Modi government is trying to do are clearly visible in all this. One Nation, One Election is just the beginning of the process of ultimately having only one election for the central legislature, and later one can do away with having that election too, by collecting some ‘selfless and sacrificing’ persons together to run the country. The posting of unknown RSS members as chief ministers and other officials is part of the administration needed to be done from the Centre.
SUBVERSION FROM WITHIN
With this ideological base to stand upon, it is small wonder that the BJP is ruthlessly dismantling the structures of democracy in the country ever since it came to power in 2014. Here are some salient features (more details can be found in earlier issues of Peoples Democracy):
Assault on Democratic Rights: Various rights of workers are being snatched away through the notorious Labour Codes and via state-level laws. These include right to organize and protest, as also various economic rights for protection against exploitation. Big business is applauding these measures, even as it exults in concessions offered to them through tax cuts and incentives. The right to freedom of expression is under severe attack as anybody – a common person, a media body, or an organization – who criticises the governments or their functionaries is threatened or harassed, or even tied down in false cases invoking draconian laws like the UAPA, NSA etc.
Sabotaging Election Mandates: There have been at least 11 instances where BJP has grabbed power at the state government level even after losing elections. This is done through diverse means including horse trading, splits in parties, using governors to disqualify or otherwise help, etc.
Partisan Governors: BJP government has appointed its retired leaders or RSS functionaries as Governors to various states with a clear direction to obstruct, interfere and disrupt the functioning of state government if it is run by an opposition party. Bills are kept pending for months causing even the Supreme Court to express dissatisfaction with this style. Governors function as political activists contradicting State governments, holding enquiries, questioning decisions, etc. As mentioned above, they also assist in toppling governments.
Judiciary Interference: In 2018 some Supreme Court judges went public against the way the apex court was being run in terms of distribution of cases to benches and other matters, which appeared to indicate government interference in its functioning. There have been many instances of judgements favouring the government on crucial issues that experts felt had a feeble logic or reasoning, like the Ayodhya judgement.
Institutional Capture: Various central agencies like the CBI, ED, etc. have been turned into ‘caged parrots’ acting purely on the whims of the ruling party and its home minister. Laws like the UAPA and PMLA are used to harass opposition politicians and other critics. Remarkably, politicians who join the BJP are soon let go and cases or charges are dropped, earning the BJP the epithet of being a ‘washing machine’.
Sabotage of Parliament: Repeatedly, the government has used its brute majority in Lok Sabha to prevent Opposition from raising important issues, curtail debates, disallow motions and generally browbeat any critics. The floor of the House has been turned into a propaganda vehicle alone, especially for the Prime Minister. Important Bills are passed in a hurry, often lumping them together with others, or in some cases, smuggling them in with Finance Bills, as in the case of Aadhaar related legislation. Parliamentary Committees have mostly become dysfunctional and scrutiny of functioning is non-existent.
Subservient Constitutional Bodies: Various key institutions like the Election Commission, RBI, Vigilance Commission, Information Commission that are essential to the upholding of Constitution and its principles have been hollowed out and converted to appendages of the government. RSS/BJP affiliated people have been appointed to key positions, the functioning has been constrained and moulded to dovetail with the government’s partisan interests.
RESISTANCE WILL GROW
The 2024 Lok Sabha election threw up a challenge to this authoritarian drive of the BJP/RSS. BJP’s seats reduced to 240 from 303 it had won in 2019. One of the key factors behind this was the fear among people that the BJP was planning to change the Constitution, a fear that arose from BJP’s slogan ‘abki bar, char sau paar’ (this time, more than 400 seats). Defence of the Constitution thus became a concern for the common person, especially because it is associated with Bhimrao Ambedkar. Dalit communities saw the threat of Constitutional change as a threat to the legacy of Ambedkar. This goes to show that the Constitution and its pillars – democracy, federalism, secularism – are highly cherished by people despite being abused and tarnished over the years, especially by BJP/RSS. These forces of authoritarianism must also remember that the last attempt to strangle democracy – the Emergency of 1975-77 – ended with a resounding defeat for its progenitor Mrs. Gandhi.
