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The RSS

Dr. Hedgewar, propounded the idea that national unity would only come about if it was declared that all non-Hindus in India, such as Muslims and Christians, do not form a part of the nation. M.S.Golwalkar the second supreme leader of the RSS wrote in his book "We or Our Nationhood Defined" published in 1938, "German race pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races-the Jews. Race 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 Hindusthan (i.e., the land of Hindus) to learn and profit by." The pamphlet-like book has so many laudatory references to Hitler and his theories of racial supremacy that it became embarrassingly uncomfortable for the RSS to continue its publication and was soon withdrawn from circulation.

It is believed a RSS member assassinated Mahatma Gandhi
On the 30th of January 1948, within less than a year of the Indian independence, Nathuram Godse, a Hindu zealot from the western Indian state of Maharashtra, shot and killed Mahatma Gandhi at a prayer meeting in Delhi. Nathuram Godse was a prominent member of the RSS and a close associate of its founder Dr. K. B. Hedgewar. Just before the assassination, however, Godse "left" the RSS and joined another Hindu supremacist group Hindu Mahasabha.

RSS was never officially implicated and convicted in the murder of Mahatma Gandhi because, among other reasons, Nathuram Godse could not conclusively be proven to be an RSS member. This apparently bizarre conclusion was possible because of RSS' non-existent membership roster and the absence of any internal documented proceedings of Sangh activities or meetings. At the time of the assassination, the Sangh did not even have a constitution-this was after twenty three years of its public existence!

Godse himself had stated before the Court: "I have worked for several years in RSS and subsequently joined the Hindu Mahasabha..." (Godse, Gopal: "May it Please Your Honour: Statement of Nathuram Godse")

The RSS banned from entering politics after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948 floated the BJP (it's political wing). The BJP today forms the Government at the centre and under whose patronage and political protection the RSS carries out its hate campaign against Christians. According to a statement made at the BJP website "Bharatiya Janata Party is today the most prominent member of the family of organisations known as the "Sangh Parivar". And RSS has always been dubbed "communal", "reactionary" and what not by its detractors. .... The RSS, along with millions of people, did not approve of Gandhiji's Muslim appeasement policy - starting with support of the Khilafat movement..."

The Sangh and its offspring organizations such as the BJP have successfully used the name of Rama as a ploy to garner Hindu votes and drum up anti-Muslim hatred. In addition to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the RSS, Jana Sangh (now known as BJP), and VHP or Vishwa Hindu Parishad have been implicated in numerous communal riots all over India. RSS now has two other important offshoots Bajrang Dal (a militant auxiliary of VHP) and Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, the organization targeted to include the tribals in its fold.

RSS mobilizes workers into its different fronts. Other than the BJP, the Sangh mentors its cadres for its education front Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Industry-based cadres are sent to organize the labor front, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), and the more gray-haired and often rich workers from the business world move into the powerful well-financed religious wing, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) or the World Hindu Council. Although very much in the fray of capturing unions through electioneering (and hooliganism), both ABVP and BMS claim to be non-political.

The RSS, it's political wing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the well-financed religious wing, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), and Bajrang Dal (a militant auxiliary of VHP) together call themselves the 'Sangh Parivar' (United Family), commonly known as the 'Sangh'.

The Bharatiya Janata Party - BJP

In 1951, RSS floated the Jana Sangh, its political wing, now known as the BJP, to counter the rising public hatred resulting as a fallout of RSS' involvement in Gandhi's assassination. It also wanted to have its voice heard in the first Indian elections of 1952.

The Rama movement of 1990-92 culminated in the forcible demolition, by Sangh militants, of the mosque on December 6, 1992, and consequent massive communal riots that claimed thousands of lives all over India-especially in North India and Bombay.

The BJP managed to worm its way into a short-lived coalition government in U.P. in 1995, paving the way for a big win in the 1996 elections. In early 1997, after a long impasse, BJP and Mayawati-Kansiram's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP, a splinter party of "lower castes") forged another coalition government in the state where a power sharing deal was cut-the small contingent of Mayawati's party would be given the chief ministership for the first six months, BJP would then have its own chief minister, and so on. In late 1997, however, BSP withdrew its support but the BJP managed to hang on to power in U.P. by means of massive "horse-trading" and use of muscle-power and money.

Vajpayee and other BJP leaders still support the long-promised Rama temple on the demolition site.

Vajpayee became the Indian prime minister in 1996 for 13 days his minority government resigned rather than face a vote of confidence on the floor of the parliament.

The BJP got only two seats in the 1984 elections. This was taken as a proof that moderate policy of Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee would not work and secularism and Gandhian socialism were not a political 'mantras' for it. The RSS also stressed its hegemony at this hour of crisis in the BJP. The BJP now totally reversed its policy adopted in 1980 and reverted to its original communal ideology. Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was replaced by Mr. Lal Krishna Advani who adopted militant attitude and retrieved the original Jan Sangh political discourse. The BJP bosses were convinced that they could win the hearts of hard core Hindus. Thus the BJP put question mark on the Nehruvian concept of secularism under the leadership of Mr. Advani. Who maintained that the Nehruvian secularism was not only influenced by the Western concepts but also amounted to appeasement of minorities. While rejecting the Nehruvian concept of secularism, Mr. Advani propounded his own concept, the 'positive' secularism, and he defined 'positive' secularism as justice for all and discrimination against none.

The BJP leadership further intensified the confrontation on the issue of Babri masjid- Ramjanambhoomi controversy in the post-Shah Bano agitation period. The controversy was fully exploited to consolidate the Hindu votes. In 1989 general election the BJP reaped the harvest by capturing 89 Lok Sabha seats as against mere two seats in 1984 elections.

The BJP tried to meet the challenge by further intensifying the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation and Mr. Advani announced his 'Rath yatra' which, the Times of India described as blood-yatra as more than 300 small and big riots took place during its course. Advani was then arrested in Bihar by the government of Laloo Yadav at the instance of Mr. V.P.Singh and as a result his government fell. The blackest day in the history of the BJP since its formation was the demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6th December 1992, followed by the Bombay riots of December 1992 and January 1993. The BJP demolished the mosque despite its assurances to the contrary in the National Integration Council and its affidavit to the Supreme Court that 'kar seva' would not amount to demolition of the mosque.

According to Mihir Meghani in her book "HINDUTVA: THE GREAT NATIONALIST IDEOLOGY" an excerpt of which is found on the official BJP website states -
"In the history of the world, the Hindu awakening of the late twentieth century will go down as one of the most monumental events in the history of the world. Never before has such demand for change come from so many people. Never before has Bharat, the ancient word for the motherland of Hindus - India, been confronted with such an impulse for change. This movement, Hindutva, is changing the very foundations of Bharat and Hindu society the world over."
"Hindus are at last free. They control their destiny now and there is no power that can control them except their own tolerant ethos. India in turn is finally free. Having ignored its history, it has now come face to face with a repressed conscience. The destruction of the structure at Ayodhya was the release of the history that Indians had not fully come to terms with. Thousands of years of anger and shame, so diligently bottled up by these same interests, was released when the first piece of the so-called Babri Masjid was torn down."
"It is up to the Muslims whether they will be included in the new nationalistic spirit of Bharat. It is up to the government and the Muslim leadership whether they wish to increase Hindu furor or work with the Hindu leadership to show that Muslims and the government will consider Hindu sentiments."