Dalits and persecuted minorities in India have two types of enemies. The open enemy that stands right before us and threatening. The other one is the closed, concealed enemy coming disguised as our friend and thus killing us with its slow poison of garibi hatao slogans, Marxist jargons, Gandhian charities. Such a disguised Enemy is more dangerous. That is why we say: “Beware of Socialist Brahmins”.
The Hindu Nazis, defending caste and persecution of Untouchables as recommended in the Vedas are our open Enemy. We never had any difficulty in identifying it. As victims of this Enemy from centuries we know it too well. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar had made our task more easy by telling its size, shape, colour, smell. But lately this open Enemy is also becoming a disguised Enemy to confuse and confound the Dalits. Here lies the real danger. It is changing its strategy in keeping with the notorious Hindu hypocrisy. As Dalits are also waking up, it is becoming difficult to fight them with the out dated Vedic weapons. But it is easier to deceive Dalits if disguised in socialist garbs and Marxist Mantras.
The RSS philosophy laid down in its Bible, Bunch of Thoughts, (Rastrothana Parishad, Kempe Gowda Nagar, Bangalore- 560 019, pages 690, price Rs. 25) is very honest in defending caste and the persecution of Untouchables as the slaves of the Hindus. But the very same RSS leopard is trying to change its spots to befriend the lamb.
Faced with a serious internal crisis of Brahmin-Non brahmin and regional fight, RSS is facing the biggest challenge posed by Indira Gandhi who is getting popular with the Hindus. The Shankaracharayas say that in the interest of maintaining the Hindu high caste hegemony, RSS must get closer to Mrs. Gandhi. If she can fool them better with her socialist mantras why not RSS outdo her ? However, “conservatives”‘ like Nanaji Deshmukh and K. R. Malkani, are critical of the RSS turning hypocritical. They want it to maintain its pristine purity as laid down by Golwalkar. But RSS chief Balasaheb Deoras has totally rejected the Golwalkar line. If Mrs. Gandhi can “save” the Hindus, why not support her ? It is this new turn in RSS that resulted in the sacking of Malkani as the editor-in-chief of the RSS official journal, Organiser, (Telegraph Oct. 6) for refusing to support Mrs. Gandhi. He is joining the other Sindhi leader, L. K. Advani, who is fighting his “socialist boss” Vajpayee inside the BJP Even Nanaji Deshmukh effort to stage a comeback into RSS mainstream was foiled by Deoras and was asked to mind his business of Hinduising tribals in the remote district of Gonda, UP. Nanaji effort to create a centralised setup of all voluntary organisations working for Untouchables and tribals and take over its leadership was frustrated by Deoras. Nanaji, a very sad man now, had put up a big show of all these hardcore RSS workers at his Deendayal Research Institute, New Delhi, with this object of capturing RSS. But he was snubbed. There is so much of jealousy & hatred among RSS leaders that each one is trying to “finish” the other. All these indicate that RSS for the first time is undergoing a serious crisis. RSS boys jailed by Mrs. Gandhi during the Emergency hate her intensely. But the leadership made them work for her party in Delhi, Kashmir and MP. This has brought utter confusion in the RSS ranks. Deoras presiding over opening of a RSS temple by Mrs. Gandhi at Hardwar is not liked by many RSS workers. Some honest workers openly say that as long as the Chitpavan Brahmins are allowed to keep the leadership, RSS will have no future. But Deoras and Co. feel that RSS will die if it sticks to the “Vedic Brahmin” image prescribed by Golwalkar. A “Socialist Brahmin” can fool Dalits and OBCs better. One policy towards the Dalits and OBCs and another towards the persecuted mincrities. The latter will get a month-long feast (Nov. 16 to Dec. 16) when through its Vishwa Hindu Parishad, it is launching a country-wide anti-Muslim and anti-Christian riots. A cross-country chariot march carrying portraits of Hindu gods accompanied by an armed battalion of RSS boys will begin on that day. Be prepared.
Be that as it may, the Oct. 2 Delhi workshop which brought together 200 prominent leaders from 53 voluntary organisations running over 4,000 RSS- inspired projects to Hinduise the Untouchables and tribals, is an important landmark. The 3-day workshop (Organiser Oct. 23) has decided to step up its efforts “to love” these two sections, fast slipping out of Hinduism. As regards funds, there was never any shortage. This new tilt in RSS will pose a serious problem to Dalits because it now becomes more difficult to identify the Enemy.
RSS meddling in Dalit affairs is not new. Since the days of the mass conversion of Untouchables to Islam and the RSS- inspired Hindu attacks on Christians, both in South Tamil Nadu, the Hindu Nazis had stepped up the wooing of Untouchables and tribals in a big way. R S S is also very active in tribal areas of Bihar, MP, Maharashtra, Orissa etc. The Christians having won over the tribals by their sincere, selfless service it looked as if the entire plains tribals were slipping out of the Hindu hands just as North-Eastern India’s Mongloid tribes of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram etc .- who do not consider themselves as Indians.
Despite the fact that the Constitution of a “secular” India is itself being used to protect the dominant Hindu religion by withdrawing “reservations” to those Untouchables quitting Hinduism and embracing other religions (except Sikhism), the Untouchables have been steadily slipping out of Hinduism. It is said this is one of the reasons for not publishing the 1981 census figures of scheduled castes, tribes, Muslims, Christians etc. Since number is strength, such a fall in the Hindu population deeply divided into hundreds of jatis, has given nightmares to Shankaracharayas, Maharaja Karan Singhs, Hindu temple leaders — all commanded by the RSS and its scores of front organisations with millions of rupees at their disposal. The Hindu worry is natural because once the Untouchables and tribes slip out of Hinduism and those who are still inside rebel, who is to serve as the full-time, unpaid slaves of the Hindus ? More serious than this is if the Untouchables who constitute the foundation of Hinduism start trembling, the very edifice of Hinduism may collapse. And those standing at the apex of the caste pyramid will be the worst hit in this fall of the Hindu pyramid.
It is this worry that has made all the top Hindus to join hands under the leadership of the RSS to “save” Hinduism by “serving” the Untouchables. But Dalits will not be fooled. Till recently no Hindu ever thought of the Untouchables. They did not even form part of Hinduism- its four-fold caste system. Even now, no Hindu admits them into their temples. It was only very recently, about 50-60 years, since the advent of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar and his ruthless exposure of the Hindu crimes that Hindu leaders like M. K. Gandhi started thinking of them. Not out of love but to ‘save’ Hinduism. Even then their work was confined to mere charity. No body can serve the Dalits un- less the person intending to serve first loves the Dalits. RSS bid to love Dalits, therefore, can never be sincere. In the name of the “Harijan uplift” they want to swindle the millions of rupees collected for this purpose from the Hindu capitalists. Not only such a work will provide jobs to several thousands of Brahmin boys and girls but give them enough publicity in the willing ”national press”. Besides these short-term objectives, the latest RSS decision has some deeper motives :-
- Pump millions of rupees to Hinduise them but at the same time see that the SC/ST reservations schems are scuttled. Encourage the most corrupt and incompetent among them and make them build gangs of hooligans to attack, character- assassinate honest, militant Dalit leaders.
- Recruit Hindu OBCs in a big way into the RSS by sharpening their Hindu hatred against Dalits, Muslims, Christians and thus use OBCs as cannon fodder in violent attacks on them. As long as the OBCs, constituting over 50% of the Hindu population, are in perpetual enemity with the Dalits and minorities, the Hindu upper castes led by Brahmins can remain happy. This is the most vital part of the famous Brahmin dictum of divide and rule
- Since there is every chance of the OBCs joining hands with the Dalits and minorities once the Mandal Commission Report recommending reservations to OBCs is implemented, use every means to scuttle this report. Since the Hindu Nazis do not believe in means but only the ends no-holds-barred effort is being made to sabotage the Mandal Report. The best method is to set up the Dalits to oppose Mandal report saying that once reservations are extended to OBCs, the SC/ST quota would suffer. And Dalits will be too willing to fight the OBCs, who in the rural areas are the natural enemies of the Dalits. As OBCs are not Untouchables, & hence Hindus, & Dalits are Untouchables, and hence not Hindus, there is a perpetual enemity between the two- though the OBCs are also, some times, as poor if not poorer than the Dalits. This serious caste contradiction in the rural side should be fully exploited pitting one against the other.
- By Hinduising the Dalits and tribals, it becomes easy for the RSS to use them against the Muslims and Christians as it did in Meerut, Jamshedpur, Mandaikadu (TN) etc.
- As the Left -movement is getting weaker and the working class may come more and more under the spell of the fascist movements, by fanning language conflicts, it is possible to take them away from class-caste struggle.
- As the country’s Prime Minister herself is getting closer to RSS, it becomes easier to fool the Dalits. These are considered some of the ideo- logical aims of the RSS discussed at the Delhi meeting.
