Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - Criticisms and Accusations

Criticisms and Accusations

Christopher Jaffrelot, the director of the Center for Studies and Research (CERI) observes that although the RSS with its paramilitary style of functioning and its emphasis on discipline has sometimes been seen by some as "an Indian version of fascism", he argues that RSS's ideology treats society as an organism with a secular spirit, which is implanted not so much in the race as in a socio-cultural system and which will be regenerated over the course of time by patient work at the grassroots. He writes that ideology of the RSS did not develop a theory of the state and the race, a crucial elements in European nationalisms; Nazism and Fascism" and that the RSS leaders were interested in cultural unity rather than racial homogeneity.

The likening of Sangh Parivar to "fascism" by Western critics has been critiqued by Jyotirmaya Sharma as an "attempt by them to depress indian patriotism and unity". And that such "simplistic transference" has done great injustice to our knowledge of Hindu nationalist politics. Belgian scholar Dr Koenraad Elst, points out that such accusations have come mainly from the Marxist academia in India and abroad and that they are less driven by facts than by their ideological zeal. He also criticises the Hindu organisations for being "piecemeal" in their replies to such "polemical" accusations.

The RSS has been censured for its involvement in communal riots in at least six reports by judges who presided over commissions of inquiry:

1. Jaganmohan Reddy report on the Ahmedabad riots 1969
2. D.P. Madon report on the Bhiwandi riots in 1970
3. Vithayathil report on the Tellicherry riots in 1971
4. Jitendra Narayan report on the Jamshedpur riots in 1979
5. P. Venugopal report on the Kanyakumari riots of 1982
6. Report on the Bhagalpur riots in 1989

After giving careful and serious consideration to all the materials that are on record,the Commission is of the view that the RSS with its extensive organisation in jamshedpur and which had close links with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh had a positive hand in creating a climate which was most propitious for the outbreak of communal disturbances. In the first instance, the speech of Shri Deoras (delivered just five days before the Ram Navami festival) tended to encourage the Hindu extremists to be unyielding in their demands regarding Road No. 14. Secondly, his speech amounted to communal propaganda. Thirdly, the shakhas and the camps that were held during the divisional conference presented a militant atmosphere to the Hindu public. In the circumstances, the commission cannot but hold the RSS responsible for creating a climate for the disturbances that took place on the 11th of April, 1979

— Jitendra Narayan