Late last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi finally visited the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Smruti Mandir at Nagpur to pay his respects to the organisation’s founder K.B. Hedgewar and its second chief M.S. Golwalkar. And last week, the BJP pushed the controversial Waqf Amendment Bill through parliament with the support of all its allies, including the “secular” Janata Dal (United) and Telugu Desam Party. The two events might seem disjointed but are actually organically connected and are pointers to a grim possibility staring India in the face.

While Modi’s Nagpur visit signifies a truce in the cold war between him and the RSS, the unquestioning support of the JD(U) and the TDP to the Waqf Bill indicates that the BJP has a free run to pursue its Hindutva agenda although it lacks majority in parliament. Those hoping that agenda would be reined in because the BJP is now dependent on allies were proven wrong. As were those who saw the Modi-RSS battle potentially self-destroying the RSS eco-system. The RSS has a way to self-correct and forge ahead in pursuit of its goals.

And there lies a possibility that could change – possibly permanently – India’s socio-political character to Hindutva’s advantage, no matter who or which dispensation rules the country.

Over the past eleven years of the BJP’s rule, attempts have been on to transform India’s polity from liberal-secular to one that is religion-based majoritarian. The BJP government under Modi and his second-in-command, home minister Amit Shah, has focused on implementing the RSS’s core programmes in an aggressive push towards realising the Sangh’s ultimate objective of turning India into a Hindu Rashtra – a nation of the Hindus, by the Hindus and for the Hindus.

Representative image of the RSS. Photo: Suyash Dwivedi/Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Modi government has used the constitutional means of legislative and judicial routes to take away Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370, ban triple talaq, establish the Ram temple in Ayodhya, bring the Citizenship Amendment Act and the Waqf Bill, and lately to push for a Uniform Civil Code.

It has also unabashedly allowed non-state actors, such as the Bajrang Dal, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and fringe organisations that have sprung up all over the country, to unleash a majoritarian culture in the country. The result is mob lynchings in the name of cow protection, forced closure of Muslim establishments, attacks on liberal-secular protagonists, physically or through social media, and hate speeches. A bigoted interpretation of history is being weaponised, claiming Hindu victimhood and baying for the blood of the alleged tormentor, the Muslims in particular.

BJP governments in various states have used bulldozers to illegally demolish homes of Muslims in defiance of Supreme Court directives, and democratic protesters are routinely branded anti-national. The BJP’s chief ministers, ministers, MPs, MLAs and other office-bearers are leading the charge against the minorities.

Changes are lined up in the Income Tax Act, Personal Data Protection Act and the Foreigners Act. 

The journey along the sectarian and communal path that the BJP under Modi has put India on since 2014 appears to have covered a critical distance so that the path now leads straight towards the point of no return called Hindu Rashtra, the nation of the RSS’s dreams where the Hindu writ alone will run. There are very few possibilities left for finding the diversion that can take India back to the values so painstakingly curated and nurtured by the giants of the Independence struggle and subsequently enshrined in the Constitution.

Unless those who care for these values rise to the occasion in time, the monochromatic and monocultural Hindu Rashtra of the RSS appears a fait accompli no matter who rules India. The RSS ecosystem is working to make Hindu Rashtra a reality independent of the BJP. It has been at it for a hundred years, patiently waiting for its turn to control the reins of power in its hands. Before 2014, it functioned insidiously, chipping away at the inherently secular character of Hindus with a programme to slow-poison their minds with communal vitriol. 

Those claiming to be secular slept through this period, especially the post-Independence Congress, virtually allowing the RSS to achieve the much-needed critical mass to launch a two-stage final attack.

File photo of Anna Hazare. Photo: PTI

The first stage began with Anna Hazare’s so-called movement against corruption, with the aid of followers like Arvind Kejriwal, where the RSS played the invisible sheet anchor. It ended with the projection of Narendra Modi as a charismatic Hindu icon who could change India’s fortunes. The people fell for it and put India in the RSS’s lap.

Once in command, the RSS through its political front, the BJP, put its Hindu Rashtra project into top gear. In a country where political sensibilities once forced a Union minister to resign for changing clothes several times on a day of a terrorist attack, a follower of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin – India’s first home-grown terrorist Nathuram Godse – was sent to the country’s Parliament as a lawmaker. No less a person than the Prime Minister was heard talking derisively about India’s Muslims using insinuations and innuendos.

Open exhortations to violence and killings of Muslims have gone unpunished, and instead voices against this and for democracy have been sought to be silenced through coercion and repression. This reign of terror was best exemplified by the public humiliation of India’s top women wrestlers, who were dragged by the police on Delhi’s streets for accusing a BJP MP of sexual harassment. This in a country that had seen massive protests against the brutal rape and murder of Nirbhaya in Delhi a little over a decade ago. 

So, what explains this turnaround in less than a decade?

The only explanation is that the RSS ecosystem had already dug deep into India’s civilisational roots to draft its own construct on them. So, there was a ready crop of supporters, including the seemingly gentle friends or neighbours next door, waiting in the wings to echo the RSS worldview. They now freely support the hate agenda. 

Money, muscle and propaganda were unleashed to strike at the very basis of democracy and Constitution to normalise the most abhorrent of things. Even the Opposition chose to tread cautiously either to save itself from being put behind bars or simply to not antagonise Hindu voters. 

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat addresses a gathering on April 2. Photo: PTI.

And there lies the crux of the matter – the RSS ecosystem has brought the country to a state where not many in the Opposition are willing to take the Hindutva bull by its horns. It’s not just about the BJP’s allies. Not many in the Opposition are willing to stand up for Muslims out of fear of losing the Hindu vote, which they presume is under Hindutva’s influence. This presumption is wrong. Most Hindus are still not voting for the BJP, whose winning percentage hasn’t crossed 38 per cent yet. 

But the Opposition, the Congress in particular, isn’t sure about retaining them if it overtly flash its  secular credentials. That’s why it is appearing on the back foot all the time, preferring to play safe against the BJP’s communal balls and not try and hit them over the boundary. It is gripped by the fear of miscuing the shot and getting caught out. With this strategy, the Opposition can at best draw the match but never win. That’s exactly what the RSS wants. It has clearly played havoc with the Opposition’s mental strength. 

So even if the Opposition comes to power, it poses no threat since it would only be able to pause the Hindutva journey, not reverse it. The RSS ecosystem will always have another day to bat and take it forward from there. If it gets worse still, some from the Opposition themselves might vie with the BJP to corner the Hindutva space. For the RSS, it would be the proverbial ‘the more the merrier’ situation.

Not for nothing do they have the slogan, “Jo Hindu hit ki baat karegaa, wo Bharat par raaj karegaa (Only they who safeguard Hindu interests will rule India).”

Clearly, there is a now-or-never urgency for the Opposition to try and get its act together if it sees this as an ideological battle. It does not have the luxury of time, not even a couple of years, if it is to save India from being permanently communalised. And here’s Rahul Gandhi talking of a 50-year battle. He needs to realise that more than 50 years were lost before 2014 by ignoring the RSS. If the Opposition and other democratic forces don’t begin to decisively take on the RSS in its centenary year, the Sangh will remain here with much greater firepower to celebrate the sesquicentenary 50 years from now, possibly even declaring its own closure since its Hindutva Voyager would have begun its journey into eternity with impunity. 

Vivek Deshpande retired as Associate Editor, The Indian Express.