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The Foreign Exchange of
Hate IDRF and the American Funding of Hindutva |
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©
2002, Sabrang Communications & Publishing Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai,
India, and The South Asia Citizens Web,
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2. A Brief Outline of the
Hindutva Movement
2.1 The Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh 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. 2.2 Hindutva: The Ideology of the
RSS 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. The RSS claims to be inclusive of
all those who are racially and culturally Hindu and places outside
of the nation all those who adhere to and identify with a different
faith or ethos, thus establishing the idea of a Hindu Rashtra as an
exclusive one where minorities are, at best, second class citizens.
This particular ideology is variously called an ideology of Hindu
pride, Hindu patriotism, Hindu fundamentalism, Hindu revivalism,
Hindu chauvinism, Hindu fascism or Hindutva, depending on who
controls the definition. What is beyond doubt is the exclusionary
and discriminatory nature of the ideology. In this report we use the
term used most often in the mainstream press – Hindutva – which
translates literally to Hinduness or Hinduhood. 2.3 The Hindutva Movement and the Sangh
Parivar While the foundational core of Hindutva is inculcated in the RSS
swayamsevaks (volunteers) through training that begins from
childhood in its local shakhas (cells), the broad based work of
spreading the ideology and its politics is undertaken through a
network of organizations. The RSS (or more commonly, the Sangh) has
created and propagated organizations in every facet of
socio-political life in India—from political parties to children’s
centers, trade unions and militias. These groups are together known
as the Sangh Parivar or the Sangh Family of organizations. In recent
years, the Sangh Parivar has also expanded its operations outside
India and made significant efforts to reach the ‘Hindu’ diaspora,
especially in the US, the UK and the Caribbean. The spread of the Hindutva ideology in India is carried out at
the grassroots level through an army of swayamsevaks deployed by the
Sangh Parivar. The recruitment and ideological 'orientation' towards
Hindutva is done on many levels and fronts: at the grade school
level, or earlier, with Hinduised education, including such
'educational' activities as the holding of Ramayan and Mahabharat
competitions for school children in tribal areas—largely with the
goal of supplanting tribal culture and traditions; with the
'celebration' of Hindu festivals on a grand scale in areas with
large non-Hindu populations; and simultaneously, with the
distribution of anti-minority pamphlets and literature and the
sporadic creation of anti-minority programs such as the grabbing of
minority land or buildings or the promotion of riots and murder. For
these purposes, the Sangh has set up hundreds of smaller
organizations all over the country, all supervised by volunteers
from the Sangh and centrally coordinated, even though each claims to
be independent of the Sangh. While the RSS itself cannot currently accept monetary
contributions for its activities from abroad, each of the
Sangh-affiliated organizations has been designated a 'charity' and
the Sangh actively solicits foreign funding for these organizations.
In other words, given that the RSS has no corporate form and ensures
an ambiguity around its specific location and form, it would be
quite correct to argue that this myriad of smaller organizations
together is what precisely constitutes the RSS. The most visible and active organizations of the Sangh Parivar
are represented below in a necessarily incomplete organizational
chart of the Parivar. Each of these organizations has an equivalent
“sister” organization in the US, which is shown in brackets in the
chart below. The central organizations of the Sangh Parivar
are: Each of these has a US equivalent – Further, Sewa International is the Seva Vibhag’s coordination
body for all international funds and service programs. In India, the
Seva Vibhag operates through hundreds of single purpose
organizations spread across the country. A sample of some of the
prominent Seva Vibhag organizations are listed in the chart below.
2.5
Organizational Structure of the The Sangh Parivar {and the US
equivalents}
2.6.1 Violent
Underpinnings of Hindutva This training is meant for qualifying
and fitting our boys for the game of killing masses of men with
the ambition of winning
victory… Violence has not remained an abstract desire
within Hindutva—there is ample evidence that this essential and
strategic understanding of violence has continuously been practiced
by the Sangh. Numerous government reports have clearly indicted the
Sangh for fomenting communal violence [2].
In each of these communal riots that the RSS fomented and
participated in, the central strategy to greater power is clear. For
the Sangh each religious riots translates to greater polarization
between the majority Hindu community and the minority communities.
Further, riots serve as a basis for the RSS to work with those parts
of the “Hindu” community that are not part of the Hindutva project.
In other words, every communal riot that the
Sangh incites is the basis for both: While this dual process of polarization and
consolidation has been central to the rise to power of Hindutva,
what has changed in more recent times with the ascension of the BJP
to State power, and the growth of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, is
that the communal riot has now transformed into an organized
pogroms, where minority populations, residences, businesses and
institutions are targeted with almost military precision.
2.6.3 Targeted
Violence Against Minorities: Two Recent Examples
Anti-Christian Violence
(1998-2000) After 1998, when the BJP party came to play a leading
role in the government, violence against Christian minorities in
India has significantly escalated [3].
Between January 1998 and February 1999 alone, there were 116 attacks
against the Christian community in India [4],
specifically targeting Christian missionaries, priests, nuns,
schools and churches. Documenting anti-Christian violence in 1999,
the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Center report states:
“Most of these attacks have been
perpetrated by individuals connected to the Sangh Parivar, which
is comprised of rightwing Hindu fundamentalist organisations
including elements from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Bajrang Dal and Hindu Jagran
Manch.”[5]
The Gujarat Genocide
(2002) The Gujarat Genocide of 2002 has been by far the
most elaborate and well-planned pogrom to date. Numerous reports
have documented the massacre of more than 2000 Muslims, the rape,
mutilation and murder of Muslim women, the specific targeting of
Muslim businesses for burning and arson, and the destruction of
Muslim homes leaving in excess of 150,000 Muslims homeless [6].
According to the Human Rights Watch, “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. Collectively, they are known
as the sangh parivar, or family of Hindu nationalist
organizations. … Numerous police reports filed by eyewitnesses
after the attacks have specifically named local VHP, BJP, and
Bajrang Dal leaders as instigators or participants in the
violence.” [7] What is currently unfolding is no longer simply
the processes of polarization and consolidation (though these
continue), but a planned effort at eliminating any semblance of
power that a minority community may have, either economic or social.
Probably there is no better way to understand
the growth of violent Hindu fascism in India than to look at it as
the violent history between two moments in independent India. The
first is the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of peace,
by Nathuram Godse, a prominent member of the Hindutva movement in
1948 and the second is in Gujarat Genocide of 2002, in Gandhi’s
homeland of Gujarat. (This part of the report describes various
aspects of the Sangh and the Hindutva movement in a summary form.
For a more detailed discussion of Hindutva and the Sangh see Appendix
A.
2.4 Constituents of the Sangh Parivar
Figure 1 - Organization Chart of the Sangh Parivar {and the US equivalents}
2.6 The Methods of
the Sangh: From Violent Riots to Planned
Pogroms
Violence is a central strategy in the
Sangh’s rise to political power. Often the Sangh presents its use of
violence as “self-defense” against armed minority gangs—an idea that
is supported by a claim that Hinduism is inherently a tolerant and
peaceful religion. While large numbers of Hindus living all across
India would shun violence just as many others of different faiths
do, Hindutva has, from its inception, been very clear on the
necessity of violence.
2.6.2 The Sangh’s
Participation in Communal Riots
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