DC Edit | Actions Must Match Words Of RSS Chief

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statements in New York that a Hindu who believes Muslims should be driven out of India cannot remain a Hindu is not immediately at variance with a tradition of the right-wing organisation, for it has made similar noises pregnant with possibilities of multiple interpretations. What is important is how the RSS and the Government of India which is ideologically connected to it practise it back home.

Taken together, Mr Bhagwat’s statements celebrate what is Indian and has been established in the thought processes of most Indians: unity in diversity. The RSS chief does not see diversity as an exclusive proposition but complementary as he explains the idea. Diversity is a decoration of our innate unity and has to be protected, he said while speaking at the Faith Leaders’ Conference, which brought together speakers from Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam.

Mr Bhagwat was at his philosophical best when he explained the concept: “As I protect my own specific nature, I have to protect others as well. Diversity is the rule of nature. Unity is the truth behind nature.” He explained his thesis in the words of the sages who have advised their disciples for ages that all paths are leading to the same goal. Mr Bhagwat also recalled the fact that India had historically provided shelter to people of different denominations who could not find safety elsewhere, almost echoing Swami Vivekananda’s speech at the World Parliament of Religions more than a century ago.

Those who have watched the RSS closely know that the organisation does not uphold principles of diversity. It has always espoused the theory of cultural nationalism which, according to it, is Hindu. Bunch of Thoughts, a compilation of the speeches of M.S. Golwalkar, the most vocal face of the RSS in its history, had listed the Muslims, the Christians and the Communists as the internal enemies of the Indian nation, in that order. He has his own reasoning to label them so, but that does not quite square with what Mr Bhagwat has told the world from the US.

The founding fathers of India were quite convinced that India is a union of several cultures and the country can survive and succeed only if they approved of each other, making a celebration of each of them. The Constitution embodied that spirit when it made every effort to reflect India’s diversity and provided for measures to protect them. The RSS, however, never supported the fundamental principles of the Constitution, including federalism.

The Sangh and its affiliates, governments included, have been looking for the possibility of dividing the people on religious lines, and not help them find common cause; the latest being the controversy over ‘Vande Mataram’. If the RSS has come to a better understanding of the idea of India other than what it has held all through the nearly 80 years of India’s Independence, then it must be welcomed.

Mr Bhagwat had once advised his cadre not to go in search of a shivling under every Muslim place of worship but that has not yet stopped the trend. It remains to be seen how his nuanced position that India belongs to people of all religions will be taken by the RSS cadre. The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in its eating and nowhere else.