BJP and the RSS

THE EMERGING HINDUTVA FORCE - The Ascent of Hindu Nationalism: Prakash Louis; Indian Social Institute, 10, Institutional Area, New Delhi-110003. Rs. 150.

THE RISING threat of the Hindu forces and many attempts to analyse it, have fallen into the trap of treating the issue only on the basis of the stated positions of the leaders belonging to the BJP or those heading various other outfits controlled by the RSS. A section of the political observers also tends to treat the BJP as just another political party and in the process begin to look for conflicts between some of its leaders and the core of the RSS.

A fallout of this understanding is so common in the comments that appear in the media, particularly when Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee is seen as attempting, forever, to strike a balance between the ``hardliners'' in the RSS on the one hand and the liberals within the BJP as well as the allies in the ruling combine on the other. That even those known in the media circles to belong to the category of perceptive journalists too are victims of such an understanding is indeed a cause for concern.

Prakash Louis, in this book, has done a clean job by way of tracing the history of the BJP to the days of the founding of the RSS and the ideological roots of the Hindutva platform, substantiating each of the points with evidence from the writings of Golwalkar and Hedgewar. And in doing so, the author has laid bare the truth that the BJP as a party or such outfits as the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, are all organs that serve the RSS and its agenda to render India into a theocratic state.

The basic thrust of the book is to establish that the resurgent Hindutva agenda, with all the trappings of leading the nation to a state of civil war, is not just a phenomenon coming to the fore in the aftermath of the tragic denouement of December 6, 1992. Instead, as the author establishes in a systematic fashion, it is the culmination of a long drawn campaign initiated seven decades ago with the founding of the RSS. And this, certainly must help those who chose to look at the BJP as just another party and hold the idea that the ``compulsions'' of leading a coalition and remaining in government will force its leaders to give up their Ayodhya agenda.

The author also deals with, in an elaborate fashion, the BJP's position on the issue of liberalisation and the opening up of the economy to market forces. Presenting the conflict between the BJP's economic initiatives after having come to power and the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, the author, however, fails to explain in any way the implications of this. And the details or information he presents in this chapter are only prosaic or even pedestrian. Louis fails, and miserably indeed, in drawing any conclusions like, for instance, the implications of the double speak - the BJP Government being opposed by another arm of the RSS or for that matter the RSS itself - could be that the ruling and the opposition space in the polity was being occupied by the Parivar itself.

Similarly, it is somewhat strange that he seeks to place all the blame for the opening up of the economy and the worsening condition of the common masses (once again, the author has not put in any rigorous efforts to substantiate that the economic reforms have only worsened the conditions of life) on the BJP-led Government alone. It is strange because the fact remains that the reforms process was initiated by the Congress(I); it is another matter that the BJP had shown so much enthusiasm in supporting Dr. Manmohan Singh's resolution in Parliament.

Yet another aspect where the author fails to muster facts and depends, instead, on merely the shrillness of his tone and tenor is where he simply stresses the anti-Dalit character of the Hindutva movement. Indeed, the Hindutva ideology as formulated by Golwalkar did have an overdose of the Brahmanical order. But then, there is no way that any contemporary observer of the BJP's ways can deny the extent to which the party had gained the confidence of a section (and not very small indeed) of the Dalits too.

These shortcomings are too glaring to be glossed over in this otherwise well researched work by the author. The book will be of use, particularly, for those who are not familiar with the wide net of outfits of the Sangh Parivar.

V. KRISHNA ANANTH

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