Mohan Bhagwat’s diversity comment shows RSS’ homogenisation plans

Speaking at a public meeting in Talit, Purba Bardhaman district, on February 16, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat trotted out a homily on diversity that was full of all the old chestnuts, while also making a call for Hindu ‘unity’.

Bhagwat began by claiming that India had always respected and embraced divergent views and pluralism. ‘Indian civilisation is ancient and accepts the plurality in the world. Every community has its own character. Hindus know it and accept that. They know that the pluralist character is actually a manifestation of unity,’ Bhagwat told the gathering.

In historical terms, this position would be difficult to sustain, but that is not the focus of this article. What is moot is the RSS’ position on matters like pluralism and diversity. Was Bhagwat marking a change in the RSS’ position? Clearly not.

After making a plea for diversity, Bhagwat reverted to the old Sangh position. ‘The culture created our identity as “Hindus”’. “Hindu” is not people from a particular community or religion. … Those who felt they couldn’t remain within this harmonious society, made their own country. Those who didn’t leave the country accepted that nature of Indian society,’ he iterated.

It’s not hard to read the barely concealed subtext: The identity of Indians is constituted by Hinduism because our culture is Hindu and that is what defines us. Therefore, all Indians are fundamentally Hindu. The argument is not just one of a timeless essence that cannot be resisted, it is also about recent history and culpabilities. Thus, the Muslims are solely responsible for Partition (an astounding claim), by which they have created their own country. Of course, being Muslim is a monolithic identity (as being Hindu is, too, as seen above, since every Indian is culturally Hindu) therefore, those who ‘chose’ to remain in India are also adherents of the ‘two-nation’ theory in a kind of reverse sense.

That is, they have accepted that those opting for Partition constitute a different people, but by opting to stay in India, they have chosen to be Indian in the RSS’ sense of the term — culturally Hindu, whatever their religion may be. This segues easily into the idea that all Indians must accept the ‘culture’ that created the Indian-Hindu identity. The argument for diversity and plurality is easily exposed as being an argument for Hindu ascendancy in a country reduced to a dead uniformity.

The point is, however, that there are no monolithic communities of faith in India. The Hindu and Muslim ‘communities’ are not historically monolithic communities at all. They are both riven by sectarian loyalties, most critically, as also to language, region, social practices, and, in the case of Hindus, to caste belonging.

The Sangh project is double-edged: first, to vilify and distance Muslims and other minorities as unleavened blocs, setting up an inimical and antagonistic relationship between them and the majority; and, second, to iron out all the differences between Hindus of various kinds to create a unity that can then be weaponised to create a Hindu rashtra, in which minorities will be allowed to survive on sufferance.

Since these unities and uniformities are chimeras, the Sangh parivar project remains unfinished, even though in the past decade or so, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been successful in creating a communalised bipolarity, mainly in the Hindi heartland and western India. The very nature of the project is so flawed that as it advances in one region, it is pushed back in another.

Bhagwat indicated on his 10-day West Bengal tour, ending on February 16, that the RSS will push for an expansion of operations. While the West Bengal unit has set itself the task of doubling the number of branches, which stands at 6,000, by this year, Bhagwat has reportedly made it clear that branches should intensify ground-level activities. Bhagwat’s speech itself hinted at a Hindu consolidation perhaps with a view to the state elections next year.

It is known that whenever the RSS hits the campaign trail, the BJP gains electorally. How this will play out in West Bengal is unclear given that the BJP has already achieved a high degree of Hindu consolidation, garnering 38.15% of the vote in the 2021 Assembly elections and 38.73% in the 2024 general elections.

The problem with a strategy of Hindu consolidation countrywide lies precisely in the Sangh parivar’s blindness to India’s diversity and plurality. Mouthing platitudes about this subcontinental variety, while clinging to the same playbook will not help forge ahead in this unconquered eastern frontier.

(Suhit K Sen is author of ‘The Paradox of Populism: The Indira Gandhi Years, 1966-1977’.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.