Nationalism Vs Communal Fascism in India

Nationalism holds great significance and reverence in the minds of people of a country like India, which has a recent history of great sacrifices in the
struggle against colonial rulers. Like a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing, RSS
and BJP dress up communal fascism as ‘nationalism’ to make fascism seem
respectable; and also to divert attention from their blatant betrayal of India’s own interests both during the freedom struggle and now.
During the freedom struggle, RSS and Savarkar advocated a ‘Hindu nation’,
hatred for minorities, praise for Hitler’s model of nation, and at the same time displayed contempt for the anti-colonial freedom fighters and martyrs. RSS had contempt for the Indian Constitution and the Indian tricolor flag. And today, the BJP Government betrays the interests of Indian citizens by
appeasing MNCs and imposing policies dictated by WTO, IMF, and the US in education, FDI in retail, nuclear liability, pharmaceutical pricing and patents as well as weakening hard won rights for the workers, poor and adivasis It is to hide this naked collaboration British colonialism then and
corporates &imperialists now, that the RSS-BJP-ABVP whip up the bogey
of ‘cultural nationalism’ so that the minorities are portrayed as ‘the enemy of the nation’ rather than the corporate and imperialist forces of the day.

The truth about RSS’ ‘Nationalism’?

Let us see some samples of RSS ideas – in their own words – to understand the features of RSS’ model of ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and ‘Hindu Rashtravad’:

Opposed Freedom Struggle:

The RSS never participated in the
freedom movement against British colonial rule and actively opposed it. They wrote:

  Anti-Britishism was equated with patriotism and nationalism.
This reactionary view has had disastrous effects upon the entire
course of the freedom movement, its leaders and the common people

(M. S. Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts,1996, p. 138)

Betrayed the 1942 Quit India Movement:

In 1942 also there
was a strong sentiment in the hearts of many.At that time too the routine work of Sangh continued. Sangh decided not to do anything directly.

(Golwalkar, Shri Guruji Samagra Darshan, Vol. IV, Nagpur, n.d., p.41)

During the 1942 Quit India Movement – When elected Indian Legislators
were resigning–Hindu Mahasabha & Muslim League were running
coalition govts in Bengal, Sindh, & NWFP and they did NOT Resign.
Further, RSS-ABVP hero Shyama Prasad Mookherjee – who was the
Deputy Chief Minister in Bengal- wrote a letter to the British Governor of
Bengal on 26 July 1942 openly expressing his determination to crush
the Quit India Movement

(Shyama Prasad Mookherjee, Leaves from a
Dairy, OUP, p. 179)!

Opposed the National Flag:

Just on the eve of independence on 14 Aug 1947, RSS official mouthpiece Organiser wrote:

The people who have come to power by the kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour but it will never be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil and a flag having three
colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is
injurious to a country.

RSS Filed Case Against Youths For Hoisting Tricolour At
Its Nagpur HQ:

RSS and BJP Governments order madarsas to record
celebrations hoisting the national flag – to paint Muslims’ patriotism as suspect and needing surveillance. But the fact is that not only did RSS hate the tricolour way back in 1947 – the RSS did not fly the tricolour in its own
Nagpur HQ till 2001, and even filed cases against three youths of the
RashtrapremiYuva Dal for hoisting the tricolour in the RSS HQ on 26 January 2001! The three youths were acquitted in that case in 2013. Only
after this incident did the RSS start hoisting the tricolour in its
HQs, to pre-empt possible questions about their commitment to India. (http://thewirehindi.com/15834/indian-independence-and-rss/)

RSS’ Hindu Rashtra : Modelled on Hitler’s Fascist Germany:

In 1938, when the world was fighting fascism as the greatest threat to humanity, RSS leader Golwalkar was falling in love with fascism:

To keep up the purity of the nation and its culture, Germany
shocked the world by her purging the country of Semitic races –
the Jews. National pride at its highest has been manifested here…
a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by… The
foreign races in Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu culture
and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu
religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment not even citizen’s rights.

(M. S. Golwalkar, We or Our Nationhood Defined, 1938, p. 35 &
pp. 47-48)

RSS Wanted Anti-Dalit, Anti-Women Manusmriti in the place of India’s Constitution:

Sangh ideologues held that Manu was the
“first and greatest lawgiver of the world”, and suggested that the anti Dalit and anti-women Manusmriti, which Dr Ambedkar burned, should be
the Constitution of Independent India!
When the Constituent Assembly of India had finalized the
Constitution of India the RSS mouthpiece, Organizer, in an editorial
on November 30, 1949, complained:

But in our constitution there is no
mention of the unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat. To this day his laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and
conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing.

According to Savarkar, another Hindutva hero:

Manusmriti is that scripture which is most worshipable after Vedas for our Hindu Nation …
Even today the rules which are followed by crores of Hindus in their
lives and practice are based on Manusmriti. Today Manusmriti is
Hindu Law.

(Savarkar, V. D., ‘Women in Manusmriti’in Savarkar Samagar,
Vol. 4 New Delhi: Prabhat Prakashan, P. 416.)

Against Women’s Rights:

Golwalkar led the RSS in opposing the Hindu Code Bill (which was the first but incomplete step towards giving Hindu women equal rights to men), claiming that granting of rights to women would “cause great psychological upheaval” to men and “lead to mental disease and distress” (see Paula Bacchetta, Gender in the Hindu
Nation: RSS Women as Ideologues, p.124).

BJP’s UP CM and Sangh poster boy Yogi Adityanath, in an
article on ‘Matrshakti,’ repeated the Manusmriti norm that women
must always be under the control of the father, husband or son,
Further he quotes some scriptures to say that uncontrolled, free women
who acquire man-like qualities become ‘devilish’ (Navbharat Times,
20 March, 2017)!

Endorsing Wife-Beating:

The RSS women’s wing rationalises domestic violence saying:

“Don’t parents admonish their children for misbehaviour?
Just as a child must adjust to his/her parents, so must a wife act keeping in
mind her husband’s moods and must avoid irritating him.”

(Neha Dixit, “Holier than Cow” The Outlook 28 Jan 2013)

The RSS’ ‘Hindu Rashtra’ dream is a nightmare for democratic India! Reject
this mixture of communalism  and pro-imperialism which RSS-BJP ABVP is trying to sell in the name of ‘cultural nationalism’! Uphold
anti-imperialist nationalism of Bhagat Singh, defend the rights of the people of India, and resist policies dictated by the US, WTO, and corporate lobbies!
See More : Our dream of India and the current situation