Ashutosh
The Indian Express, October 13, 2014
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi made statements eulogising
Mahatma Gandhi at the Madison Square Garden in New York, I was struck by his
audacity and confidence. One can interpret the event in two ways. One, the RSS
has formally surrendered to the man whose memory it has tried to erase from the
minds of Indians; and second, this is another attempt by the Sangh to
appropriate Gandhi and his legacy to gain legitimacy for its ideology and
occupy the space vacated by a demoralised Congress.
The RSS has always had a complicated relationship with
Gandhi. Its leadership has hated Gandhi from the core, but has had no option
but to praise him in the public domain, especially after his assassination. The
RSS, in its thought and action, is the opposite of Gandhi, who espoused
non-violence as a way of life and used it as a political tool to earn freedom
from Britain. Ahimsa was so close to his heart that when Congress workers burnt
a police thana in Chauri Chaura, he called off the movement, despite strong
protests by Jawaharlal Nehru and prophecies by others that Gandhi would be
finished. The RSS detests ahimsa and calls it “impotency” and, in its
convoluted sense of history, blames non-violence for “foreign invaders” ruling
the Indian subcontinent. Ahimsa, according to the RSS, has made this country
weak. The RSS chief, M.S. Golwalkar, has termed Gandhi’s ahimsa as a “great
betrayal” perpetrated over Indians. “They have committed the most heinous sin
of killing the life spirit of great and ancient people,” he wrote in Bunch of
Thoughts. Violence is part of the RSS ideology. It formally worships arms. Modi
has continuously been talking about Gandhi, but he has not mentioned a word
about Gandhi’s biggest political experiment, ahimsa.
Gandhi was the undisputed leader of the freedom struggle and
Modi praises him no end. It is ironic that the ideology he represents has no
respect for the independence movement led by Gandhi. In Golwalkar’s words, “The
movement led by the Congress has had more disastrous and degrading effects on
the country. Most of the tragedies and evils that have overtaken our country
during the last few decades and are even today corroding our national life are
its direct outcome.” Golwalkar wrote the said words in 1966, so one can’t blame
him for writing in a huff. Golwalkar, who was the longest-serving
sarsanghchalak of the RSS, was loathe to accept that Gandhi wanted Hindu-Muslim
unity as the fundamental element in his struggle to attain freedom. The evil
Golwalkar refers to is Muslim influence in society.
The RSS was born as a reaction to Gandhi’s call to support
the Khilafat movement in 1919, which the conservative Hindutva forces saw as an
attempt to appease Muslims. The truth was that Gandhi saw in the Khilafat
movement an opportunity to unite Hindus and Muslims and resist the divisive
politics of the British empire. The RSS viewed the riots that took place in
Pune in 1923 as a direct result of Muslims being emboldened by Gandhi’s
support. It was convinced that a strong, militant Hindu organisation was needed
to counter the resurgence of Muslims. A bitter Golwalkar wrote: “Those who
declared no Swaraj without Hindu-Muslim unity have perpetrated the greatest
treason on our society.” The use of the word “treason” was no accident. The
emergence of Jinnah had sharpened his logic; the division of India and the
birth of Pakistan in the name of Islam gave credence to the RSS narrative in
the eyes of its supporters. And this narrative reached its logical ascendency
when Gandhi sat on fast unto death raising the demand that Rs 55 million, which
was due on India, be handed over to Pakistan, despite Pakistan’s military
attack in Kashmir. The government of India finally succumbed to this pressure.
According to Christophe Jaffrelot, this was the immediate
reason for Gandhi’s murder. Nathuram Godse pulled the trigger, but the RSS has
always denied any involvement. However, it always refers to the ghastly act as
“Gandhi vadh” in its internal communication, which is a sacred act like Raavan
vadh or Meghnad vadh in the Ramayan. Gandhi’s secretary Pyarelal has written in
his memoirs, “Members of the RSS at some places had been instructed beforehand
to tune in their radio sets on the fateful day, Friday, for the good news and
sweets were distributed by members at many places”.
The RSS claimed that though Godse had been its member, he
had quit the organisation long before the assassination. The RSS claim was
based on Godse’s statement in court, where he said he had not been in the RSS
since 1934. But his brother and co-accused, Gopal Godse, had a different story
to tell. In an interview to Frontline in 1994, he said, “Nathuram Godse had
become the intellectual chief in the organisation. He said he had left the RSS.
He said it because after the assassination of Gandhi, Golwalkar and the RSS,
both were in deep trouble. But he never quit the RSS.” The RSS has no
membership record and it is impossible to verify Godse’s claim.
After the Gandhi assassination, the RSS was banned,
Golwalkar was arrested and the RSS continues to face questions about its role
in the murder. So, with Modi praising Gandhi, it will be pertinent to ask him
and the RSS a few questions: one, has the RSS shunned violence and accepted
ahimsa as a core value? Two, has the RSS discarded Golwalker’s words and
accepted Gandhi’s formulation of Hindu-Muslim unity? Three, has it forgiven
Gandhi for accepting the division of India? Four, has the RSS accepted that the
killing of Gandhi was not a vadh but a criminal act and Godse was rightly sent
to the gallows? I am convinced that the RSS will not have affirmative answers
for any of the above, as that will be against the basic premise for its
existence. Politics is a different ballgame and Modi is a master in the game of
politics. So, the debate will continue.
(The writer, a former journalist, was an Aam Aadmi Party
candidate from Delhi in Lok Sabha elections)
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