Since 2015, the vocal chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been delving into the issue of caste albeit from the Sangh’s unique exclusivist worldview. He had begun with calling for an “end to reservations” and made a call for “more integrated reservations for all! Closer to now in October 2022 and then two month ago in February he had declared on the Sant Ravidas (Rohidas) Jayanti that caste as a category should be done away with completely!
Now, last weekend in central India, on April 16, 2023, in Madhya Pradesh’s Burhanpur district, Bhagwat, as reported by IANS, in an apparent reference to religious conversions, said on Sunday that missionaries take advantage of the situations wherein people feel that the society is not with them. He was addressing an event there, where he dedicated to the people the samadhi of Govindnath Maharaj. “We don’t see our own people. We don’t go to them and ask them. But some missionary from thousands of miles away comes and lives there, eats their food, speaks their language and then converts them,” Bhagwat said. The next day he inaugurated the Dr. Hedgewar Memorial Committee’s office building at Saraswati Nagar and address the Sangh volunteers in Burhanpur.
Elaborating on what appears to be a recurrent concern, Bhagwat also said that over the course of 100 years, people came to India to change everything. They have been working here for centuries but failed to gain anything as our roots remained strong thanks to the efforts of our ancestors, Bhagwat said. “Efforts are made to uproot them. So, the society should understand that deceit. We have to strengthen the faith,” he said. Deceptive people raise some questions about religion to waver the faith, he said, adding, “Our society never faced such people earlier so people get sceptical…We have to remove this weakness.” Ironically there is not a mention of either India’s indigenous peoples, Adivasis or caste divisions in his speech.
This at a time when the parliamentary face of the RSS, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made political capital on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s caste (Other Backward Caste-OBC) and further fine-tuned vote-gathering based on these social strata and divisions! Bhagwat’s comments against “missionaries” come at a time when Bishops from Kerala who also proudly claim to be from the more privileged “Brahmin” caste are cosying up to the BJP in preparation for next year’s general elections!
IANS reports that Mohan Bhagwat in Burhanpur, further said, “Even after this, our society doesn’t waver. But people change when they lose faith and feel that the society is not with them.” The RSS chief said that an entire village in Madhya Pradesh became “sanatani” 150 years after they locals got converted to Christianity as they got help from Kalyan Ashram (an RSS-backed “voluntary organisation”). “We don’t need to go abroad to spread our faith as ‘sanatan dharma’ doesn’t believe in such practices. We need to remove the deviation and distortion of the Bharatiya traditions and faith here (in India) and strengthen the roots of our ‘dharma’,” he said.
Bhagwat thereafter also addressed a Dharma Sabha and visited Gurdwara Badi Sangat to pay obeisance. After visiting the gurdwara, he said that Guru Granth Sahib is a source of inspiration for the Hindus.
RSS’ and the Hindu Right’s anathema to the social justice work in education, human rights and education carried out by the missionaries has never been concealed. The propaganda often surfaces during attacks against Christian gatherings and places of worship of Christians.
February 2023: Mohan Bhagwat: There is no caste superiority, illusion has to be set aside
At Sant Rohidas birth anniversary Sunday, Bhagwat says, “everybody is same”, “don’t be misled by caste superiority”; in 2015, his suggestion for review of reservations had led to severe backlash. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has said the “illusion” of caste superiority is misleading and that there are no such differences between people belonging to different castes.
“Whatever the name, ability, and honour of a person, everybody is the same and there are no differences,” news agency ANI quoted the RSS chief as saying at an event Sunday marking the the 647th birth anniversary of Sant Shiromani Rohidas.
Four months before, in October 2022, speaking at a book launch in Nagpur, Bhagwat said “varna” and “jaati” (caste) should be completely discarded, adding that “the caste system has no relevance now. Everything that causes discrimination should go out lock, stock and barrel,” the RSS chief said. Then before that in September of last year while addressing a gathering of religious leaders from among the Dalits and OBCs, in Karnataka, Bhagwat said that “efforts must be made to prevent religious conversions since they take people away from their roots”.
According to the RSS-linked ‘Samvada’ website, which quoted from his speech at that time, he went on to say: “The main problems of Hindu society such as untouchability, differences and inequality exist mainly in the mind. These problems do not exist in the scriptures…These problems have existed in our minds for many generations and their solutions will also take time. We have to slowly work to remove them from our mind.”
In January 2018, addressing stock brokers at the Bombay Stock Exchange (“Nationalism and Ethical Practices in Business”) Bhagwat had said “the ethical practices of the society is reflected in the politics of the country. For example, I don’t want to use caste politics but I am compelled to use it because the society votes based on caste. If I stay in power, only then can I change the system. So if the society changes, the politics of the country will also change, not vice-versa”.
Back in September 2015, Bhagwat’s suggestion for a review of the reservation policy had received a lot of backlash. That was when the Patel stir led by Hardik Patel had peaked in Gujarat.
In an interview to RSS mouthpieces ‘Organiser’ and ‘Panchjanya’, Bhagwat had said, “We should have an integral approach of welfare for all. It is sensible to realise that my interest lies in a larger interest. Government also has to be sensitive to these issues so that there should not be any agitation for them.” He went on propose “a committee of people genuinely concerned for the interest of the whole nation and committed for social equality, including some representatives from the society, [who] should decide which categories require reservation and for how long”.
He had also then argued that the policy of reservations based on social backwardness is not in line with what the makers of the Constitution had in mind.
Unsurprisingly, his comments unleashed strong reactions, putting the BJP on the back foot. This pushed the RSS to issue a statement that “it firmly supports the existing reservation policy enshrined in the Constitution” and that the remarks were “distorted by critics to create confusion about the organisation’s view over the issue”. The BJP also clarified that it “respected 100 per cent the reservation rights of the SCs, STs and other backward castes.”
Reacting to Bhagwat’s remarks, RJD president Lalu Prasad had, in an interview to PTI, said there was a “pattern” behind Bhagwat’s remarks, adding: “That is their (RSS) original thought process. Their psyche is against SC/ST and OBC. What was their inner core came out.”
Related:
13 Questions by Christian Laity answered: Bishop Franco Murakkal ‘Rape’ Case
How the RSS’, Golwalkar, HMS’ Savarkar glorified caste: Devanur Mahadevan