Appendix A Hindutva:
The Growth of Violent Hindu Nationalism
This appendix provides detailed support and
elaboration of the descriptions and arguments in Part 1 of this
report. Accordingly, it follows in large part, the same structure as
Part 1 of this report. We cover the following ground in this
appendix:
1. Hindutva, the RSS and the
Sangh Parivar 2. The Sangh Parivar: The Institutional
Infrastructure of Hindutva 3. The Effects of Hindutva: Violent
Pogroms and the Destruction of the National
Fabric
A.1 Hindutva, the RSS and the Sangh
Parivar
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, or the
‘Sangh,’-- literally ‘National Volunteer Corps’), was started in
1925 for ‘propagating Hindu culture.’ As an organization, the RSS is
elusive and shadowy—it is only open to Hindu males – primarily upper
caste, it maintains no membership records; it has resisted being
registered with the government of India as a public/charitable
trust; it has no bank accounts and pays no income tax.
The RSS advocates a form of Hindu nationalism,
which seeks to establish India as a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation),
and rejects the notion of a composite Indian identity brought about
by a synthesis of different cultures and faiths. This particular
ideology is variously called an ideology of Hindu pride, Hindu
patriotism, Hindu fundamentalism, Hindu revivalism, Hindu
chauvinism, Hindu fascism or Hindutva. What is beyond doubt is the
exclusionary and discriminatory nature of the ideology. The last
mentioned – Hindutva (Hinduness/Hinduhood) – is the term most
popularly attached to this ideology and will be term of choice in
this appendix.
This exclusionary and discriminatory ideology
is built around a complex and ingenious definition of “who belongs”
or “does not belong” to the Indian nation. Probably the most
explicit characterization of the question of “belonging” is outlined
by the second sarsanghchalak (supreme leader) of the RSS, M. S.
Golwalkar. He writes: The foreign races in Hindusthan [India]
must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to
respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea
but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e.,
of the Hindu nation and must loose (sic) their separate existence to
merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly
subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no
privileges, far less any preferential treatment — not even citizen's
rights. There is, at least, should be, no other course for them to
adopt. We are an old nation; let us deal, as old nations ought to
and do deal, with the foreign races, who have chosen to live in our
country.”[53]
Golwalkar’s
commentary on who belongs to the Hindu Nation, apart from its open
fascist overtones, is peculiar because it contradicts the popular
understanding of Hinduism as a religion. Instead, it frames Hinduism
as a culture and Hindus as a race who adhere to a Hindu culture. In
this peculiar but brilliant redefinition lies the specificity of
Hindu fascism. It is unlike most of Euro-American fascism – whether
it be Nazi Germany and its notion of Aryan purity or neo-fascist
movements such as the KKK or BNP – which are all biologically
defined ideas of racial purity. Hindutva’s cultural basis seems to
remove it from such standard forms of fascism. However, the equation
of race with culture – as in Golwalkar’s “Hindu race and culture” –
introduces a notion of purity through the back door. Lochtefeld
(1996), analyzing Savarkar, the man who preceded Golwalkar and the
first Supreme Leader of the RSS, unpacks this redefinition as
follows:
Savarkar [who first expounded on the Hindu Nation]
defined a Hindu as anyone regarding India as a fatherland and holy
land, and to this day these remain the litmus test. This defines the
Hindu nation on cultural criteria—as a people united by a common
cultural heritage—and from the start Hindutva proponents have
insisted that the word ‘Hindu’ refers to a cultural rather than a
religious community…. One must look at who this definition excludes.
Savarkar’s definition of a Hindu is plastic enough to include
everyone in a notoriously polyform tradition, but the condition that
one regard India as the Holy Land largely excludes both Muslims and
Christians. This definition equates Hindu identity and Indian
nationalism, meaning that religious minorities are not only
‘aliens’, but because of their ‘extraterritorial loyalties’ (to holy
lands in Arabia and Israel), they are also potential traitors.”[54]
The ingenuity of tying culture and race together
is that it makes possible a definition of a “pure” nation where none
is otherwise possible. India, per se, is a fascinating melting pot
of races and cultures. Even distinctions such as white and black as
available in the US (though those are also mostly spurious) are
entirely impossible in India. By defining belonging through a
territorially contained notion of culture, it becomes possible to
denote some minorities as within the ambit of “the Hindu” and others
as outside it. A large number of minorities – Sikhs, Buddhists and
Jains, for instance are objects of integration. So also, Dalits and
tribals (adivasis) though historically oppressed by upper caste
Hindus are in this definition not excluded from the nation. The idea
here is to redefine these minorities as “Hindu” – where a certain
specific upper caste Hinduism (Sanatan Dharma), is the hegemonic
pure form and all others are at varying distance from this purity.
In contrast, Muslims, Christians, Parsis and Jews, are clearly
defined as outside the fold of the Nation, not because they have not
been part of India for centuries but because their cultural
signifiers are seen as lying external to the territorial nation.
The definition of “pure” is what aligns Hindutva with
classical fascism of the Nazi kind. Golwalkar is clearly inspired
and convinced by the Nazi experiment of attempting to purge a land
of all those who don’t fit into a definition of German-Aryan purity.
He writes:
German national pride has now become the topic
of the day. To keep up the purity of the nation and its culture,
Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic
races — the Jews. National 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. [55]
Today, the political leadership of the Sangh
spends some marginal effort at denying any relation to Nazi Germany
but does little to explain the distinction between its ideology and
that of Nazi Germany.
In terms of ideology then, the Sangh’s
brand of fascism is simultaneously indigenous and imported. Clearly
their broad ideas of purity and exclusion are not very different
from Nazi Germany. However, the peculiar conflation of culture and
race does make this brand of fascism unique.
A.2 The Sangh Parivar: The Institutional
Infrastructure of Hindutva
Institutionally, given
that the RSS is itself an organization that is secretive and without
specified membership, its visibility is low. It functions primarily
through a broad range of organizations that exist in every aspect of
sociopolitical life in India – what is referred to as the Sangh
Parivar (Sangh family) of organizations. However, before we
explicate this visible structure of the Sangh Parivar and its chief
constituent organizations, we need to pay some attention to the
minimal aspects of what is visible as the RSS.
A.2.1 The Role of the
RSS Shakha
The core unit of the RSS is referred to
as a shakha (cell). The shakha is a place for swayamsevaks
(volunteers) to come together for physical and ideological training.
These shakhas operate in large numbers of neighborhoods in India
(and are now spreading across the US), and produce a constant stream
of 'volunteers' who become the foot-soldiers for the Sangh's
projects and organizations. Here too, specific links can be drawn
between European fascism and the RSS. B. S. Moonje, the mentor of
the founding father of the RSS, Hegdewar, visited and met with
Mussolini and was granted permission by Mussolini to observe and
understand the nature of the fascist organizational structure[56].
Moonje played a crucial role in molding the RSS along Italian
(fascist) lines. The deep impression left on Moonje by the vision of
the fascist organizations is confirmed by his
diary.
The idea of fascism vividly
brings out the conception of unity amongst people... India and
particularly Hindu Indians need some such institution for the
military regeneration of the Hindus: so that the artificial
distinction so much emphasised by the British of martial and
non–martial classes amongst the Hindus may disappear… Our
institution of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of Nagpur under Dr.
Hedgewar is of this kind, though quite independently conceived. I
will spend the rest of my life in developing and extending this
Institution of Dr. Hedgewar all throughout Maharashtra and other
provinces. [57]
Moonje’s central concern while looking at
Italian fascism was, as he says, with the aim of “developing and
extending this Institution.” Thus the RSS cell structure of shakhas
(cells) grew with some clear similarity to the cell structure of
Mussolini’s National Socialists, also borrowing with it the core
ideas of physical training of youth and militarism. Moonje’s diaries
are very explicit in acknowledging the centrality of violent
militarism to the RSS strategy.
This training is meant for
qualifying and fitting our boys for the game of killing masses of
men with the ambition of winning victory with the best possible
causalities (sic) of dead and wounded while causing the utmost
possible to the adversary. [58]
The swayamsevaks generated at the Shakhas are
seamlessly tied into the Sangh Parivar infrastructure. Swayamsevaks
go on to direct and run, projects of every size and shape – from Bal
Vihars (Children’s centers) to opening up new shakhas, from student
politics (through the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) to
paramilitary operations (through the Bajrang Dal). The Sangh
permeates every aspect.
A.2.2 The Sangh Parivar and Its
Constituents
At the national level, swayamsevaks
emerge to direct and run its most important institutions – the BJP,
the VHP, the BD and the Sewa Vibhag. Each of these institutions also
have an equivalent organization in the US – the RSS has its image
mirrored through the HSS, the BJP in the OFBJP, the VHP in the VHP
of America and its student wing – the HSC, the BD in Hindu Unity and
finally the Sewa Vibhag in IDRF. Below is a brief description of
each – the Indian organization first, followed by its US equivalent
as well as a summary chart.
- RSS –Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh: The core fount of Hindutva Ideology.
- HSS: The Hindu Swayamsevak
Sangh is the US equivalent of the RSS. HSS is
registered as a tax-exempt charity in the US, and like the RSS
in India, is one of the main proponents of Hindutva in the US.
According to one of its flyers, “HSS is started in the USA and
other parts of the world to continue what RSS is doing in
India.”[59]
The RSS website states that the primary purpose of the HSS is to
protect the children of Hindu parents from the “vicious
propaganda and corrupt conversion techniques of Christians and
Muslims”[60].
Note the central concern of diasporic life in this definition is
the possible “impurity” of Christian or Isamic influence. Much
like the RSS branches in India, HSS also holds physical training
exercises and camps, where the Hindutva doctrine is expounded.
The structure of the RSS is duplicated in the US, with the
Sanghchalak being the highest office bearer in the US.
- BJP: The Bharatiya Janata
Party: This is a political party that participates in
electoral politics. It is currently in power in the Indian state
of Gujarat, which recently witnessed some of the most gruesome
violence against Muslims. At the center in New Delhi, it is the
leading member of a coalition that is currently in
power.
- OFBJP—Overseas Friends of
BJP: This is the BJP support
group in the US. While it cannot monetarily support the BJP
directly from the US, many OFBJP functionaries work with other
Sangh operations in the US to propagate Hindutva. In addition,
it works to mobilize opinion in Washington D.C and invites BJP
leadership from India to the US to meet with the Indian
Diaspora.
- VHP—Vishwa Hindu
Parishad: It was formed in 1964 with the explicit purpose
of forming an aggressive and an activist wing to promote Hindutva.
The first general secretary of the VHP, S.S. Apte, made its goals
clear as follows: “It is therefore necessary in this age of
competition and conflict to think of, and organize, the Hindu
world to save itself from the evil eyes of all three” [all three
being Christianity, Islam and Communism]. [61]
Since its formation, the VHP has played an aggressive and
agitational role in India. It rose to prominence for spearheading
from the early 1980s onwards the Ram Janmabhoomi movement that
ultimately led to the violent take over and destruction of a 16th
century Babri mosque in Ayodhya, India. This mobilization that
lasted the better part of a decade was a watershed event in terms
of creating new levels of polarization between Hindu and Muslim
communities in India. More recently, its international working
president, Mr. Ashok Singhal, called the carnage against Muslims
in Gujarat a ‘successful experiment’ and warned that it would be
repeated all over India [62].
In other words, the VHP, is the core political mobilization unit
that is used to create and spread conditions of religious
intolerance and violence.
- VHP— America : This is the
US counterpart of the VHP in India, and is active at two levels
– as the VHP of America chapters in large parts of the North
East and the South with the primary function of support work for
the Sangh in India among the professional Indian diaspora and as
a student organization called the Hindu Student Council
(HSC) with significant presence on prestigious American
university campuses. Its work within the professional Indian
diasporic community is essentially both ideological and fund
raising. Though it claims to be independent of the VHP itself,
this claim is at best a legal/technical claim. In real terms it
works actively and in close cooperation with VHP, India. For
instance, VHP America’s biggest event to date in the US was the
World Vision 2000, a conference organized in Washington D.C. The
guest list for that event included nearly every potential
luminary in the VHP India hierarchy – from Ashok Singhal to Uma
Bharati and Vijaye Raje Scindia. In addition, the VHPA promotes
fund collection for a range of Sewa Vibhag activity in India.
[63]
The HSC in contrast works primarily
with second generation Indian Americans with a project of
bringing them under the influence of Hindutva. It does this
through multiple levels of ideological work – by organizing mass
meetings and readings on campuses on a narrow range of Hindu
thought, that is ideologically a perfect fit for Hindutva, (such
as Gita readings) and for those who wish to get more involved as
a gateway to larger Hindutva operations in the US.
- Bajrang Dal is the
paramilitary wing of the VHP, and was started in 1984 to provide
muscle and manpower to the VHP agitations. The Bajrang Dal
regularly organizes arms training camps for its members, where it
teaches them the use of firearms and trishuls (tridents).
According to one of the participants, the training is imparted in
order to teach them “how to beat those who do not respect
Hinduism.”[64]
Bajrang Dal has been at the forefront of recent communal attacks
against Christians in the tribal regions, against artists and
intellectuals and against Muslims in Gujarat.
- HinduUnity.org, a website run from the US claims to be the official
website of the Bajrang Dal. This site is a virulent hate-filled
site that has already once been yanked by a web-hosting service
Addr.com because of the spiteful vitriol that it publishes, and
its frequent calls to violence against Muslims. A typical
passage from the Website under the pop-up window called Hindu
Force is given below as a sample:
“Revenge on Islam must become the sole aim of the
life of every Hindu today. Islam has been shedding Hindu blood
for several centuries. This is something we should neither
forget nor forgive. This sinister religion has been striking at
Hinduism for just too long. It is time we resist this satanic
force and kick it back into the same pit it crawled out of.”
- Sewa Vibhag: The Service
Wing of the Hindutva Movement is the RSS’s most incoherent
structure. However, in its very incoherence lies its ingenuity.
The service wing operates through hundreds of organizations spread
across the country – many different names and functions – all
presented as if they were entirely independent organizations. This
proliferation of Sewa Vibhag projects as independent organizations
gives an impression of seeming incoherence. However, it is also
the most inconspicuous way of placing swayamsevaks distributed
across the country and creating entry points for them to do their
ideological work. Often it is difficult to place an organization
as an RSS Sewa Vibhag operation. It takes systematic matching of
organizational trustees with other known RSS operations to
establish the links. However, while this is true for a large
number of RSS Sewa Vibhag operations, the role of the Sewa Vibhag
as an entry point to do the core ideological work of the Sangh
creates some long term patterns and institutions. For instance,
education offers an effective cover for ideological work and the
remaking of identities. Thus many Sewa Vibhag operations are
crafted as educational activities. Following such patterns it
becomes possible to identify Vidya Bharati as an RSS operation.
Similarly, it becomes possible to identify a whole range of
organizations that work with tribals (adivasis) as RSS operations
because the adivasis are an important target constituency for the
RSS. As these multitude of projects are what is the object of
funding from the US, in a sense, these organizations of the Sewa
Vibhag that do the core work of spreading the ideology of the
Sangh are an extremely critical part of this report. Thus two more
appendices – F and G – attached to Part 3 of this report (Funding
Hate?) are on the Sangh’s work in tribal (adivasi) areas and on
the Sangh’s educational work.
- India Development and Relief Fund
(IDRF): IDRF is the US based funding arm of the Sangh
and primarily funds the Sangh through its Sewa Vibhag
operations. It is directly connected to Sewa International, the
part of the Sewa Vibhag that coordinates international Sewa
activity. Sewa International itself operates as the equivalent
to IDRF in the UK.
A.3 The Effects of Hindutva: Violent
Pogroms and the Destruction of a Multicultural
Society
Violence is a core aspect of Hindutva. It has
never been shy of advocating violence for the achievement of its
goals of a Hindu Rashtra. It depicts ‘Hinduism’ as constantly under
threat from external/foreign forces (of Islam, Christianity and
‘Secularism’), and hence, portrays violence against Muslims,
Christians and advocates of pluralism in India as a form of
‘self-defense.’ This, self defense is further positioned as the
process of regeneration of Hindu manhood. This twin trope of
self-defense and a lost manhood that is in need of recovery are part
of the daily rhetoric of Hindutva. This psychological justification
of violence is under girded by a more open strategic and essential
appreciation of it – some of which we have already recorded in this
appendix – whether it be Golwalkar’s open appreciation for the
efforts to “purge” the German nation of all Jews by the Nazis, or
Moonje’s hope that the RSS would create conditions of a “military
regeneration of Hindus”, and prepare “our boys in the game of
killing masses of people.” Here violence is clearly both essential
to purge the nation of all that it does not desire, and strategic in
Golwalkar’s goal to ensure that the minorities live in fear and seek
no privileges.
There is ample evidence that this essential and
strategic understanding of violence is central to the Hindutva
project. Numerous government reports have clearly indicted the Sangh
for fomenting communal violence:
“If the Jaganmohan Reddy
Commission on the Ahmedabad riots (1969) and the Madan Commission
on the Bhiwandi riots (1970) exposed the Unified Front tactics of
the RSS and its political wing, the Jan Sangh, ancestor of the
BJP, Justice Vithayathil’s report on the Tellicherry riots (1971)
censured the RSS for ‘rousing up’ communal feelings and for
’preparing the background for the disturbances’. Justice Jitendra
Narain’s Report on the Jamshedpur riots (1979) censured the RSS
supremo M.D Deoras personally for the communal propaganda that had
caused the riots. The RSS had held a conference there ‘only four
days before the Ram Navami festival (when the riots erupted) and
the speech delivered by Balasaheb Deoras contributed their full
share in fomenting these communal feelings’. The RSS had created
‘a climate for these disturbances’. The report of Justice P
Venugopal of the Madras High Court, on the riots in Kanyakumari in
March 1982, found the RSS guilty of fomenting anti-Christian
feelings: ‘It has taken upon itself the task to teach the minority
their place and if they are not willing to learn their place,
teach them a lesson. The RSS has given respectability to
communalism and communal riots and demoralise (sic)
administration.’ ” [65]
With a history of inciting and conducting
violent campaigns going back to the partition of India and Pakistan,
for the RSS violence is part of a strategy of breaking the back of
an integrated multi-religious society and creating polarized
communities of Hindus, Muslims and Christians. In a recent film on
the RSS – “Men in the Tree” – filmmaker Lalit Vachani records a
series of critical interviews with former RSS members – D. R. Goyal
and Purshottam Agrawal. Both men speak openly of how it was part of
their work as RSS swayamsevaks to create and spread rumors that
would produce conditions conducive for a communal riot. The gradual
but continuos polarization of the religious communities through
violence is a fundamental fact of the Sangh strategy.
As Hindutva has grown more and more powerful and
gained State power over the years, its strategic use of riots to
polarize religious communities has slowly began to transform into a
process of fundamentally destroying and displacing minority
communities. In other words, over the last decade religious violence
in India is no longer cases of Hindutva cadre fighting a Muslim or
Christian right wing forces cadre on the streets but has
increasingly become organized pogroms to eliminate and reduce
minority communities to rubble. The recent Gujarat riot is a case in
point.
A.4.1 From Riots to Pogroms: Gujarat
2002
On February 27, 2002, a train carrying Hindu
activists was set afire in Godhra, a city in the western Indian
state of Gujarat, allegedly by a Muslim mob, resulting in the death
of 58 people.
The following excerpt from the Human Rights
Watch report describes what followed:
“Between February 28 and
March 2, thousands of attackers descended on Muslim
neighbourhoods, clad in saffron scarves and khaki shorts, the
signature uniform of Hindu nationalist groups, and armed with
swords, sophisticated explosives, and gas cylinders. They were
guided by voter lists and printouts of addresses of Muslim-owned
properties-information obtained from the local municipality… The
groups most directly involved in the violence against Muslims
include the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council, VHP), the
Bajrang Dal, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) that heads the Gujarat state government”
[66]
Over 2000 people were killed,
and more than 100,000 were rendered homeless—around 90% of the
victims were Muslims. In addition, reports from women’s groups state
that hundreds of Muslim women were gang-raped by the Hindutva mobs
and then burnt. [67]
The State government, headed by the BJP—the parliamentary
arm of the Sangh Parivar, was strikingly ineffective in controlling
the rioters, and has also been accused of complicity in the violence
by several Human Rights groups [68].
Instances of direct support of the Hindu rioters by the police and
the administration have also been documented. What gives much
credence to the accusation that the Gujarat State government
actively participated in the riots, is a well documented story in a
leading news magazine – Outlook India – where a minister of the
State cabinet informed the press of a meeting on the evening of
February 28th at the residence of the chief minister Narendra Modi
where State administration officials were instructed not to stop the
Hindu backlash that was coming. [69]
Many
independent fact-finding missions have verified the central role
played by the different Sangh Parivar organizations in orchestrating
the violence:
“In testimony after
testimony, people identified by name members of the Bajrang Dal
and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad involved in inciting and committing
violence. The fact-finding team spoke with women activists and
victims in the camps about their views on the growing polarization
between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Both sets of people
linked it to the aggressive agenda of the Sangh Parivar -
particularly the Bajrang Dal, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and, in
some cases, the Shiv Sena. In the rural context, women directly
linked a rise in tension with the establishment of local units of
the Bajrang Dal and the VHP. They spoke of meetings organized by
these groups, and the arms they distributed at these meetings.
Many believe that the tension has really escalated in the last six
months.” [70]
Everything about Gujarat points
in the direction of a pogrom. There is evidence that the
distribution of arms was an on going activity. The material used in
the violence, apart from the swords and trishuls was some variety of
a chemical solvent which could not have been procured spontaneously.
Voter lists and the specific targeting of Muslim businesses and
homes is another clear indication of the organized nature of the
violence. Even at the time of writing this report, eight months
after the pogrom began, many Muslims remain homeless and are unable
to return to their homes because of the fear that they will be
killed.
A.4.2 The Confidence to Kill Without
Cover
If Gujarat is a stark testimony that the
Sangh’s violence has reached the fascist proportions that Moonje and
Golwalkar had in mind, then the complete confidence of the Sangh
that it can carry out violent campaigns without any fear is also
indicated by its targeted violence against individuals. The best
case to illustrate this would be the continuos targeting of
Christian nuns, priests and Evangelists by the Sangh activists.
Human Rights Watch, New York published a report on anti-Christian
violence in India in September 1999 [71]
and also indicted the Sangh Parivar for their role in fomenting
ethnic hatred against Christians:
Attacks against
Christians throughout the country have increased significantly
since the BJP began its rule at the center in March 1998. They
include the killings of priests, the raping of nuns, and the
physical destruction of Christian institutions, schools, churches,
colleges, and cemeteries. Thousands of Christians have also been
forced to convert to
Hinduism.
Frontline, a mainstream newsmagazine, recorded
over 50 incidents of violence, targeted against a specific
individual or institution, in an organized effort to push Christian
missionaries out of India [72].
These specified and directed attacks against individuals and
institutions are equally important to note as organized mass
violence because they are indicative of the fact that the movement
has reached a point where it feels the confidence to undertake such
violent campaigns without even the cover of a presumed communal
riot.
A.4.3 Hindutva’s First Indian Act: The
Murder of Gandhi
Probably there is no more a
poignant way to underscore the issue of Hindutva’s definition as a
violent movement than the murder of Mahatma Gandhi by a prominent
Hindutva activist Nathuram Godse. On January 30 1948 Mohandas
Karamchand Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram Godse. Inspite of the
fact that the RSS disassociated itself from Godse, the then
government of India banned the organization. That the RSS’s
denial of any involvement with Gandhi’s murder is false, is clear
from many associated facts.
- Godse’s successful attempt
to kill Gandhi was not the first but the sixth attempt on Gandhi’s
life by the Hindutva movement [73].
The thesis that Godse was an exception and a misguided young man
marginally associated with Hindutva, fades in light of this
history of attempts from within the movement.
- Further, the reaction to the
murder of Gandhi within the RSS, was one of open elation – where
RSS swayamsevaks were on streets celebrating. Clearly the
sentiment was an openly available one within the Sangh. Sardar
Patel, the first Home Minister of India, confirmed this in a
letter to the RSS supreme, M.S. Golwalkar in a letter dated
September 11, 1948, he wrote [74],
“As a final result of the poison, the country had to
suffer the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji. Even an
iota of the sympathy of the Government or of the people no more
remained for the RSS. In fact, opposition grew. Opposition turned
more severe when the RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets
after Gandhiji's death.”
- Years later, Gopal Godse,
one of the co-accused in the Gandhi murder case and Nathuram
Godse’s brother, confirmed that both he and his brother were
actively involved with the RSS at the time of the assassination.
In an interview in 1994, he stated [75]:
“All the brothers were in the RSS. Nathuram,
Dattatreya, myself and Govind. You can say we grew up in the RSS
rather than in our home. It was like a family to us. Nathuram had
become a baudhik karyavah [intellectual worker] in the RSS. He has
said in his statement that he had left the RSS. He said it because
Golwalkar [the RSS Supremo] and the RSS were in a lot of trouble
after the murder of Gandhi. But he did not leave the
RSS.”
A movement, that began its work in a newly
independent India, with the murder of an apostle of peace and
respect for all communities, has today surfaced in its open and
naked form – as a fundamentally fascist movement.
53. We or Our Nationhood Defined, Golwalkar, 1939,
pp. 47-48
54. James
G. Lochtefeld (1996) New Wine, Old Skins: The Sangh Parivar and the
Transformation of Hinduism, Religion 26, 101-118
55. We or Our
Nationhood Defined, MS Golwalkar, 1939
56. M Casolari, (1993) Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the 1930s: Archival
Evidence, Economic and Political Weekly, Jan 22, 2000
57. M Casolari, (1993) Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the 1930s: Archival
Evidence, Economic and Political Weekly, Jan 22, 2000
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59. http://www.idrf.org/flyers/balvihar/html/hss.htmll
60. http://www.rss.org/rssstor.htm under the subtitle
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61. The Organiser, Diwali Special,
1964.
62. ‘We’ll repeat our Gujarat experiment’ Indian
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63. James G. Lochtefeld (1996) New Wine, Old Skins: The Sangh Parivar and the
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64. Bajrang Dal activists take up arms, The Times of
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65. A
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66. India:
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67.
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68. See for
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69. A Plot From The Devil's Lair, Manu Joseph, S.
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70. How Has The Gujarat Massacre Affected Minority Women?
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Citizen’s Initiative, Ahmedabad, April 16th,
2002
71. Anti-Christian violence on the rise in India: New
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72.
A
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30 - Feb. 12, 1999
73. Tushar Gandhi, http://www.mahatma.org.in/murderattempts/attempts.jsp?link=ld&id=1&cat=murderattempts
74. A
Law Unto Itself, AG Noorani, Frontline, Volume 15 (17), Aug
15-22, 1998 http://www.flonnet.com/fl1517/15171170.htm
75. Frontline,
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Labour, AG Noorani, Leftword Books, 2000 p. 30 http://www.sabrang.com/gujarat/rssbible.htm
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