Mohan Guruswamy - The Sardar Patel statue is part of an attempt to manufacture a respectable genealogy for the RSS
Soon after Narendra
Modi became prime minister, construction began on a colossal statue of Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel, India’s first deputy prime minister, on an inland island
called Sadhu Bet facing the Narmada Dam near Vadodara in Gujarat. Planned at a
cost of about Rs 3,000 crores and to stand 182 meters tall, this Chinese-made bronze statue, when completed, will be the
tallest in the world. There is no doubt that this statue will become a major
place of political worship like Rajghat and the Indira Gandhi memorial in New
Delhi. But beyond tourist commerce there is another reason driving this
project. It is to give the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh a genealogy it does not
have.
Manufactured genealogy
is a recurring feature of our history. Pre-Islamic invaders from Central Asia
like the Hepthalites (White Huns) and Ahir Gatae from the region extending from
Bactria in Central Asia to present-day Xinjiang in China conquered a good part
of northern India and established kingdoms. The greatest of these invaders was
Kanishka, whose realm stretched from Turfan in the Tarim Basin in
Xinjiang to Pataliputra (present-day Patna) on the Gangetic
plain. Kanishka was
of Turkestani origin. These new rulers, some of whom were Buddhists, were
quickly absorbed into Hindu society and were made Agnikula Rajputs (family of
the fire god), others got more extravagant genealogies deriving from the sun
and moon, hence the Suryavanshi and Chandravanshi Rajputs. In this manner the
integrity of the Brahminical varna system – that classifies society into four
sections based on occupation – was preserved.
The Brahmin-dominated
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s government in Maharashtra has embarked on
building another gigantic statue, this one of the Maratha King Shivaji. This is
not without some irony as the varna of the Marathas is even now a contested
issue, with some arguing that they are part of the Kshatriya (warrior)
varna, and others that they have Kunbi peasant origins. This issue was the
subject of antagonism between the Brahmins and
Marathas, dating back to the time of Shivaji.
When it was time for
Shivaji’s coronation in 1674, the Brahmins of Poona baulked, stating that the
Bhonsles – Shivaji’s family – were not Kshatriyas. Legend has it that a Brahmin
priest from Banaras, Gaga Bhatta, on receiving a generous payment, performed
the ceremony. Shivaji’s genealogy now showed that the Bhonsles were a branch of
the highly-respected Sisodias of Mewar, Kshatriyas of the purest Rajput clan.
Whatever might have been his caste antecedents, Shivaji undoubtedly was one of
India’s greatest kings. His achievements did not need a manufactured genealogy.
RSS and the freedom
struggle: The ultra nationalist
RSS is still in search of a genealogy that will connect it to the nationalist
movement that won India its freedom. The truth is that the
contemporary writings and speeches of its leaders have a very different story
to tell. These leaders showed little enthusiasm for the anti-British struggle.
Though the founder of the RSS, KB Hedgewar had an early association with the
Congress and other nationalist movements like Bhagat Singh and
Chandrashekhar
Azad’s Hindustan Republican Association, he left it all behind to found the
RSS.
He also stopped his
followers from the nationalist path. MD Deoras, the third sarsanghchalak
(supreme leader) of the RSS, wrote approvingly of how “Dr Hedgewar saved him
and others from the path of Bhagat Singh and his comrades.” With the death of
Hedgewar in 1940, the RSS lost all interest in freedom. Its new leader MS
Golwalkar drew inspiration from Adolf Hitler’s ideology of race purity.
Paradoxically Golwalkar also admired Jews for “maintaining their religion,
culture and language”.
Golwalkar’s focus was
on religion, racial purity and exclusion. Freedom was to be left to lesser
mortals like Gandhiji and his Congress. He wanted the RSS to be involved only
in “routine work”.
In the words of
Golwalkar: “There is another
reason for the need of always remaining involved in routine work. There is some
unrest in the mind due to the situation developing in the country from time to
time. There was such unrest in 1942. Before that there was the movement in
1930-31. At that time many other people had gone to Doctorji [Hedgewar]. This
‘delegation’ requested Doctorji that this movement [Congress] will give
independence and Sangh should not lag behind. At that time, when a gentleman
told Doctorji that he was ready to go to jail, Doctorji said: ‘Definitely go.
But who will take care of your family then?’ That gentlemen told: ‘I have
sufficiently arranged resources not only to run the family expenses for two
years but also to pay fines according to the requirements.’ Then Doctorji said
to him: ‘If you have fully arranged for the resources then come out to work for
the Sangh for two years.’” Golwalkar’s point was
crystal clear. Dharam (religion) came before dharma (duty).
The Patel project: The BJP leadership is
very keen to project the RSS as a component of the freedom struggle. The BJP
finds it embarrassing that the RSS – to which the top leadership as well as the
overwhelming majority of the cadre of the BJP belong – was not a part of the
freedom movement. The RSS lacks the courage to categorically state that it did
not participate in the freedom struggle because its ideology prevented it from
doing so.
There is the
well-known concocted story of how the RSS tried to lionise Atal Bihari
Vajpayee’s role in the 1942 Quit India movement. This ended in a huge
embarrassment when it was discovered that Vajpayee actually made a confessional
statement disassociating himself from the protest event at his hometown
Bateshwar. In the confession he wrote: “Ten or twelve persons
were in the forest office. I was at a distance of 100 yards. I did not render
any assistance in demolishing the government building. Thereafter, we went to
our respective homes.”
Hence the RSS is
trying to attach themselves the legacy of Vallabhbhai Patel, to get a leg into
the nationalist movement. They forget that it was Sardar Patel who had banned
the RSS in 1948 after learning that its workers were distributing sweets to
celebrate the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
In the run up to the
2014 general elections Narendra Modi displayed his lack of knowledge of
history, or willingness to distort it, by saying that the Congress Party wanted
Patel to be the first prime minister. The fact is that Jawaharlal Nehru became
the president of the Congress in 1946 after Maulana Azad was dissuaded from
offering himself on the basis of the system of rotation that the Congress
informally followed. Patel was never in the run. Given Nehru’s overwhelming
popularity, even if Patel contested, Nehru would have defeated him.
Both LK Advani and
Modi have tried to project that there was a fissure between Nehru and Patel.
The BJP leaders seem to be confused between dissent and dissidence. Dissent is
a genuine difference of opinion, and there were many between Nehru and Patel,
as should be between two independent-minded individuals. Dissidence is a result
of competing ambitions. On this Patel was
clear. He wrote:
“It was, therefore, in
the fitness of things that in the twilight preceding the dawn of independence
he (Nehru) should have been our leading light, and that when India was faced
with crises after crises, following the achievement of our freedom, he should
have been the upholder of our faith and the leader of our legions.” Patel added: “Contrary to the
impression created by some interested persons and eagerly accepted in credulous
circles, we have worked together as lifelong friends and colleagues, adjusting
ourselves to each other’s advice as only those who have confidence in each
other can.”
Now the RSS is trying
to make Sardar Patel its own by attempting to give itself a lineage deriving
from Sardar Patel – the colossal statue is intended to rewrite the Sangh’s
history. But the saffron body will only end up as a parvenu, wanting in
patriotism when it mattered most. But Modi won’t know
all this. History is not his forte, or else he would not think that Alexander
died on the West bank of the Ganga!
https://scroll.in/article/827564/the-sardar-patel-statue-is-part-of-an-attempt-to-manufacture-a-respectable-genealogy-for-the-rssBook review: In the name of the father
RSS tradition of manufacturing facts to suit their ideologyकुमार प्रशांत - तो राष्ट्रीय स्वंयसेवक संघ ने एक बार फिर गांधी से दो-दो हाथ करने का मन बनाया है // Bharat Bhushan: BJP icon SP Mookerjee complicit in raising funds for defending Gandhi's assassins
The music of humanity
Apoorvanand: गांधीजी का आखरी महीना - Gandhiji's Last Month (Pune, October 2; 2015)
Apoorvanand: गांधीजी का आखरी महीना - Gandhiji's Last Month (Pune, October 2; 2015)
The Broken Middle (on the 30th anniversary of 1984)
“I as a German prefer much more to see India under British Government than under any other...I must not connect the fate of the German people with these so-called ‘oppressed nations’ who are clearly of racial inferiority” (Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 747)
Remembering Gehal Singh, who gave his life for communal harmony
B.R. Ambedkar's Pakistan or the Partition of India (Bombay, 1940,1945)
V, D Savarkar and Gandhi’s murder
