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Chapter 4.6.11: Sangh Parivar and the Strategy for Others

The Sangh Parivar is an extremely successful socio-political group covering all aspects of life. Their flagship organization, i.e. the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), is a well-known political party with strong influence over the well-educated-but-less-learned metro population (including the youth). The Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh (RSS) is their ideological fountain, from where all ideas and strategies originate and is, undoubtedly, the most important asset of the Sangh Parivar, and it is, therefore, always in the line of fire of the opposition. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is their religio-activist group with an international appeal. The Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is their youth front and the grooming ground for the future leaders. The Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) is their labor union. Earlier, the Bajrang Dal used to be their outfit for openly violent activism/terrorism, but now many more such organizations have come up; e.g., Shri Ram Sene, Hindu Jagjagran Samiti, the Modi Sena (yes, there are some people in Gujarat who think of Modi as Shri Krishna and of his rivals as Kaurvas), the Shiv Sena (though it is a political outfit, but it mostly operates through openly violent activism/terrorism and is the closest ally of the BJP and a part and parcel of the Sangh Parivar), etc. These organizations work in tandem not only to gain control over the government but also to gain control over the whole society including over the lives of the people and operate under the banner of “Cultural Nationalism” (whatever that means); the modus operandi is consistently conservative touching upon fascism. As an individual, I have the biggest problem with the Sangh Parivar because, amongst all, the Sangh Parivar penetrates the most into the private lives of the individuals; and, unlike the leftists (who are also collectivists), their methods are grossly unreasonable, abrupt, illegal and violent; but, frighteningly, they are also the cleverest and fully dedicated to the negative task of curbing the individual freedom. Their ideology is based on the presumption of man as an inherently irresponsible individual and, thus, the need for the control of society over individuals. They are, indeed, anti-individualists, not only in methods but also in ideology; and they get the biggest support from the business, as did Hitler. Off late, the group has also penetrated well enough into the forces, including police and military, which is the most dangerous development. If we trace the growth of Sangh Parivar, we find that the group has gained mileage only during the last two decades, that is after the Economic Liberalization, which means the group has gained some serious support after the strict controls, especially reflected in the declaration of emergency by Indira Gandhi, have ended, and the business has gained independence. Though the group was active even pre-Independence in the form of a pro-Hindu outfit, namely the Hindu Mahasabha, but, post-Independence, it has grown more systematically with the RSS doing the ground work of increasing the dedicated membership of the group, thereby directly helping the political outfit the BJP. The VHP provides the short-term, heavy-duty stimulus to the political activities of the BJP by playing the ever successful religion card at the times of elections. They played this card most successfully through the “Ayodhya Rath Yatra”, which one event can be termed as the biggest short-term brand builder of the group, especially in the northern and the western part of India. However, the group has not been able to sustain control over North India as the branding exercise was definitely short-sighted, and not enough continuous and consistent ideological efforts were made to consolidate the attracted people. In West India; i.e., Gujarat, the parts of MP proximate to Gujarat and the southern Rajasthan, the parts of Maharashtra proximate to Gujarat, and the southern Rajasthan; the group has gained deep penetration, mostly through the ideological conversion of the people. However, now, it seems, the group has abandoned its extremist, religious outlook and acts contextually in accordance with the ground conditions. Though recently in Jammu they once again successfully used the same strategy of short-term brand building with success, but the circumstances this time were different: First, the movement led by “Amarnath Sangharsh Samiti”, which I would say is more or less an adjunct of the VHP, was being supported by the Indian Army and the NRIs, and, secondly, the disputed land was planned to be used for the sole purpose of accommodating the NRIs in five star comforts during the course of their religious tourism. So, whatever the showcasing, it was actually a property dispute, not a religious dispute, and I don’t think the group pre-planned it as a poll strategy, etc. In states like Chatisgarh, Orissa, Karnataka, etc., they seem to be adopting a different strategy, which I am discussing below by taking attack on the Mangalore pub as a case in study

Case in Study

Only with great effort, the Sangh Parivar has penetrated down south, and they want to consolidate their presence there by converting the masses ideologically. They very well know the power of the violent youth, and they also very well know the propensity of the masses, in general, and men, in particular, in getting vicariously engaged in the showcasing of violence. This is what the group uses very effectively by providing a platform to the people to feel the false pretense of power — of course, nobody is foolish enough to believe in power of votes. However, very few people understand or are interested in gaining the real power — if it wasn’t so, the real power would have laid with the people, not with the politicians. These kinds of attacks, as in the Mangalore pub, is the easiest way to first consolidate the already converted masses and then to extend the appeal to other people. In the system which the group propounds, the message is very clear: The power of a person decides the justice the person gets, and since the women are relatively less powerful, they don’t deserve any justice and/or equal treatment; they need to sit at home in the service of the more powerful man, or else become prostitutes in the service of the powerful men. Any aberration to the above is dealt with very strongly, thus the attack on the Mangalore pub, which incidentally also served the dual purpose of spreading the ideology and giving vicarious feeling of power to the man. This strategy of using violence is not the only strategy which the group adopts, but it is the most effective, especially when it is clubbed with religious overtones.

The Achilles heel of the group is the non-presence of truly brave men in the group. For example, in the terrorist attack in Bombay, a Shiv Sena activist came face to face with one of the terrorist; till the time he didn’t see the gun, he was acting like a roaring tiger, but the moment the gun appeared, he ran back like a beaten dog (and even stopped barking). So, basically these people are extremely timid people, who can only attack in groups with pre-planned police, media and political support, but, without them, they can’t even defend themselves. And this is where the opportunity lies for the opponents. Given the kind of arrangements the Sanghis make before attacking people, it wouldn’t be very difficult for the opponents to get prior knowledge of the pre-planned attacks, and with the prior knowledge, they can defend: The law permits private defense of the person and the property of self and others. If at all, gain political mileage by defending people! © 2009-2015 Ankur Mutreja