A Welcome Change

The RSS’ chief Mohan Bhagwat’s call for oneness and solidarity during his ongoing tour of the United States should be welcomed if it represents a real change of heart for an organization known for its ideology propounding exclusion of religious minorities. On Saturday while addressing the ‘One world, one humanity faith’ leaders in New York, Mr. Bhagwat declared that “if a Hindu thinks that there should be no Muslims in Bharat, he will not remain a Hindu”. The categorical nature of the statement signals an about turn in the ideology pursued by the organization which is considered to be the largest NGO in the world.

The significance of the announcement lies in the venue—New York—where he spoke, although he had made statements with a similar effect on a couple of occasions earlier in India too. If it implies a new direction for the leaders and cadre of the RSS, it means a lot for an organization which provides the ideological fuel for the current dispen sation at the centre and a vast majority of the states. But critics would be justified in terming it hypocrisy and duplicity if it was meant only for the audiences in the United States which hosts a vast and diverse diaspora from India.Mr. Bhagwat’s declarations heralding a new era will be judged and tested in the days to come in India where Muslims and Christians have found the public space shrinking since the advent of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the citadel of power at the Centre.

The Union cabinet has no representative of the largest minority since 2019. The policy to invisibilise the Muslims has been in full motion since then. The mob lynching of Muslim individuals; bulldozer justice in towns of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan; renaming of towns and cities bearing any semblance with Muslim heritage; launching cases for removal of mosques bearing symbols of shared Hindu Muslim legacy; threat to demolish Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar University in Rampur; and concoction of a variety of ‘Jihads’ (Love jihad, UPSC Jihad, Corona Jihad, Vendor Jihad et al); official promotion of films promoting hate; and strangulation of the FCRA sources for the funding of NGOs run by the two minorities, are widely acknowledged to stem from the philosophy that guides the Narendra Modi government. 

It will be futile to expect changes in the character of an organisation as large as the RSS and its cadres immediately. Change at the top will take years to seep down the layers to the last volunteer. But some change, to begin with, in the popular narrative, must be seen to be believed. Competitive communalism has hurt the people of the subcontinent in no small measure. Pakistan’s coalition government too has taken a small step towards the rec onciliation by revoking the policies based on recognition of the shared legacies of the past by restoring original Hindu names of streets, gardens and localities in Lahore. Simultaneously, a classroom in the Lahore’s historic Aitchison College has been dedicated to former Punjab chief minister Harcharan Singh Brar. The initiatives may be small, the promise they hold for the larger good is undeniable provided they are invested with sincerity.