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Unravelling RSS’s women wing, Rashtriya Sevika Samiti’s election strategy

Wed, 29 May 2019 13:20:40 +0000

Now that the 2019 general elections have come to an end, with an unexpected landslide victory of the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), we have tried to analyze the role of its parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in BJP’s massive victory.

There have been multiple debates and discussions on news channels over the strategy adopted by the BJP and RSS. Earlier, there were reports of RSS sending around 80,000 volunteers in nine states during the last three phases of the election. But what stands out this time, is the Sangh’s strategy to deploy its women volunteers in urban as well as rural areas to mobilize and influence women, albeit implicitly.

The women’s wing of RSS, Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, has been actively involved throughout the elections and has played a crucial role in the positive results. Though their work wasn’t publicized much, it is a strategy worth studying! We have found that the women’s wing was directed by the RSS leaders to handle the women voters, conduct meetings and discussions with them, while not directly telling them to vote for a particular political party. A RSS member along with his wife, who is a part of the women’s wing, on condition of anonymity, gave us an insight into their organisation’s strategy pertaining to women voters.

Directive of RSS to the women wing:
The Rashtriya Sevika Samiti were given special instructions this time. Giving details on the instructions, the woman member said, “Before the campaigns, the members of the women’s wing were given some tips on talking to the women voters. We were even provided with specialised and specific data that cannot be collected by the common man.”

While describing the instructions given to them, another woman member, again on the condition of anonymity, told us, “We were directed to hold small unofficial meetings in one household after every 10 to 12 households. Further, we were told to create awareness among women about their voting rights and appeal to them to take the decision in the best interest of the nation. However, we were advised not to directly appeal to them to vote for the BJP.”

Although the women’s wing didn’t explicitly request the women voters to vote for BJP, their meetings were designed to hint towards the Modi government and its policies. They discussed the various schemes launched during Modi’s regime such as ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’, ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana’, ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ among others.

It is significant to note that the women’s wing was also directed to visit the Muslim-dominated areas and speak to the Muslim women. However, they were advised to not enter into any scuffle with the residents.

Approach towards the urban women voters:
The woman member told us that the meetings were unofficial and were held over tea where general discussions on the welfare schemes used to take place. She then described the manner in which they used to appeal the women voters- “We are the citizens of this democratic nation and we have the right to vote. How should we exercise this right then? We then used to leave this question on them and start discussing women-specific schemes. We used to further tell them that irrespective of the religion or caste you belong to, we all will survive only if our country is secured. Who keeps our nation safe? Who is paying attention to the the needs of the women? They all then used to give one common answer (hinting at BJP).”

Further, during the evening, women used to gather in the nearby park and hold discussions on various welfare schemes. The discussions also included the Modi government’s fearless attacks on the terrorists, air strikes and surgical strikes.

Despite the Election Commission’s (EC) directive to not use the defence forces in the election campaigns, there is certainly no possibility of curbing such small scale discussions, irrespective of the huge effect they might have had.

Approach towards the rural women voters:
In what could be a very clever move, RSS strategically deployed its women voters in those rural areas where toilets were built under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Making the beneficiary women a precedent, the other women voters were shown how they will also benefit from these schemes and how a bright future awaits them. This way the existing as well as the potential beneficiaries were influenced.

Approach towards the Muslims women voters:
The women’s wing was advised to go to the Muslim neighbourhoods in groups for maximising the impact of these visits. The woman member said, “If only one person speaks then it is less effective. However, if an entire group is together making an appeal, people tend to listen.”

However, they were strictly told to not enter into any religious or communal discussions. Instead, they used to just appeal them to vote for the nation’s security.

Unravelling Rashtriya Sevika Samiti’s strategy:
While the strategy may appear to be very simple, but it has proven to be a very smart move by the RSS.

Firstly, the women wing, on the directions of the RSS, adopted a very safe approach of not naming any particular party so as to make itself appear as a neutral body working for the benefit of the target audience as well as the nation. The women voters were just made aware about their rights and the importance that it holds for our country’s future. Simultaneously, the ideology of RSS was also promoted.

Secondly, the meetings were given a very unofficial angle in the form of general discussions so as to not make it look like a propaganda. The discussions surrounded over the welfare schemes and then were smartly diverted to the Uri and Balakot air strikes.

Thirdly, every discussion would start with the appeal of voting in national interest. In the course of the discussion, even the target audience might have failed to notice the effect it was having on their thinking.

Thus, the RSS has played a crucial and influential role in the massive victory of the BJP, apart from it being the ‘citizens choice’. However, the concerns about unemployment, rising petrol prices, poverty, agrarian distress and many other things continue to prevail. Are we then entering in the sequel of ‘acche din’? Time will tell!

(The translation from the original in Hindi is by Bhumika Jain)

Original in Hindi:
RSS की चुनावी रणनीति: सेविकाओं ने संभाली थी महिला वोट की कमान

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Eighty years on, RSS women’s wing has not moved beyond seeing the woman as mother

Sat, 12 Nov 2016 05:51:39 +0000

A three-day training camp of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti opens in Delhi with talk of matri shakti – but only within the confines of a family.

For a snapshot of how the all-male Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has kept its women’s wing relegated to a domestic role and away from all issues of gender justice, visit the three-day training camp of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, which was inaugurated by the organisation’s chief, Mohan Bhagwat, at Chhatarpur in Delhi on Friday.

In his speech, Bhagwat made no mention of gender justice or self-choice for women, instead stressing on “matri shakti”, or woman power, and “kutumb prabodhan”, or the awakening of family values – showing that the women’s group has not been allowed to change even a bit by its male counterpart since its formation eight decades ago in 1936.

“Till India’s matri shakti turns active and comes forward, India will not be able to achieve its potential and pristine glory and act as a guiding force to the world,” Bhagwat told hundreds of sevikas, as the members are called, from across the country.
In his hour-long speech, the RSS chief made authoritative pronouncements on the woman’s central role of imparting sanskar (values) to children and, thereby, strengthening society and the nation. “Our kutumb vyavastha [family system] has caught the attention of the world,” he said.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at the Rashtra Sevika Samiti training camp in Delhi on Friday.

This was the ideological position in 1936 too when Lakshmibai Kelkar set up the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, at the behest of RSS founder Dr KB Hedgewar. The group was, in fact, the first branch of the RSS, which now heads a parivar of members operating in different civil and political spheres.

Initially, Kelkar was not in favour of forming a separate front for women. She approached Hedgewar with a request to open the all-male RSS shakhas (branches) to women members. The RSS chief, however, was against this idea of joint shakhas, and as a compromise helped Kelkar set up the Rashtra Sevika Samiti.

But since the RSS has always focused on the mobilisation of chauvinistic Hindu men and hardly ever attached any importance to formal organisational work by women, the group led a low-priority existence and worked on the basis of its male counterpart’s ideology.

Patriarchal belief

This conformist character that the group has sought to deepen all these decades becomes obvious the moment one talks to its office-bearers.

On November 9, at a press conference called to announce the training camp, Rashtra Sevika Samiti general secretary Seetha Annadanam vociferously defended the exclusion of women from RSS shakhas. “Our culture does not permit joint shakhas for men and women,” she said. “That is why we have separate shakhas for them.”

Annadanam, in fact, appeared so tied to patriarchal family interests that, while replying to another question, she stood against allowing Hindu women a share in the ancestral property of their parents. “There should be a balance between women’s rights and our traditions, and this should be done on the basis of shastras,” she said. “Otherwise, it would split our families and pit brothers against sisters.”

She made an equally controversial statement in an interview to the Indian Express, published earlier in the day. “There is nothing called marital rape,” the newspaper quoted her as saying. “Marriage is a sacred bond. Coexistence should lead to bliss. If we are able to understand the concept of this bliss, then everything runs smooth.”

It is, therefore, no surprise that the Rashtra Sevika Samiti within the RSS framework of sanskar, is largely restricted to the Sangh’s traditional base of Maharashtra and nearby areas. Eight decades after it was founded, it continues to hold to the formulations of former RSS leader MS Golwalkar, as mentioned in his book Bunch of Thoughts, that women are predominantly mothers who should rear their children.

This article was first published on Scroll.in

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