MARCH 10, 2000 VOL. 26 NO. 9

Reach Out
That is what India's chauvinist RSS must do to become respectable

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For decades, Indian civil servants have been barred from joining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organization. Recently, however, Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee, himself a member of the grassroots movement, urged a lifting of the ban. Because the RSS is a cultural group and not a religious one, said the PM, allowing officials to join it would not dilute the government's traditionally secular character. Vajpayee is being disingenuous. While the RSS was founded in 1925 as a cultural body representing the upper castes, it has all along stressed the religion-inspired ideology of Hindutva, the root of Hindu nationalism. Hindutva holds that all Indians, regardless of their faith, are Hindus because Hinduism is the bedrock of Indian civilization. To state that the RSS has nothing to do with religion is like saying the Young Men's Christian Association is exclusively in the hospitality business.

As the fountainhead of militant Hinduism, the RSS has limited support in India. This fact was brought home to Vajpayee by his coalition allies when they recently declined to back his bid to lift the ban on officials joining the group. The PM would like the RSS to gain wide respectability, not least because it is the parent body of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which heads the nation's coalition government. The PM's aim is laudable. Non-political groupings, including educational institutions and churches, often play a key role in shaping political opinion. But Vajpayee cannot hope to turn the RSS into an acceptable role model without first persuading it to shed its Hindu chauvinism.

The movement has much to gain from embracing other religions. For two decades, India has been facing a social and political crisis created by the steady disintegration of the once-dominant Congress party. In recent years, the BJP has made headway as a credible alternative. Much of the credit for that goes to the RSS, perhaps the most disciplined and efficient grassroots body in the country. Indeed, the BJP-RSS is uniquely placed to fill the vacuum left by Congress. The RSS can do this by championing the cause of the minorities instead of promoting communal violence that it often indulges in. As it begins to attract non-Hindus and lower castes, the organization could do in India what some minority churches, most notably those representing blacks, have done for the civil-rights movement in the United States.

A more moderate, acceptable RSS would also help preserve certain Indian traditions, including the ancient gurukul system, which many Indians associate with a golden age of education. The method involved batches of students living as members of a teacher's family, receiving constant personal attention and instruction. Given India's poverty and its creaky educational system, a state-backed gurukul scheme led by the RSS is worth trying.

Some critics say the RSS could harm the pluralistic nature of Indian society - the country's very essence - by accommodating and embracing minorities. But the rich diversity of such a large nation is unlikely to be threatened by one sectarian organization suddenly turning inclusive. That the RSS should overhaul itself makes much political sense. With the BJP in power, the movement should strive to represent all India - and not just a narrow group of Hindu radicals.