Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) (pronunciation: [rɑːʂˈʈriːj(ə) swəjəmˈseːvək ˈsəŋɡʱ], lit. "National Volunteer Organization"[4] or National Patriotic Organization[5]) is a right-wing charitable, educational, volunteer Hindu nationalist non-governmental organization.[2][1] RSS states that its ideology is based on the principle of selfless service to India.

The RSS was founded on Vijayadasami Day, 27 September 1925 as a social organization to provide character training through Hindu discipline, to unite the Hindu community [6] in overcoming caste-based divisions, to counter British colonialism in India, and to suppress Muslim separatism.[7] It proclaims its ideal as upholding Indian culture and civilizational values more than anything else.[8]

Since its foundation it has espoused a Hindu nationalist agenda.[3] The organization initially drew inspiration from European right-wing groups during WWII.[7] RSS volunteers participated in various political and social movements including the Indian independence movement.[1] Gradually the organization grew to become an extremely prominent Hindu nationalist group in India.[7] By the 1990s, allied organizations had also established numerous schools, charities and clubs to spread its ideological beliefs.[7]

It was set up as an alternative to the politics of mass anti-colonial struggle.[9] It has been criticised as an extremist organization and as a paramilitary group.[10][11] It has also been criticised when its members participated in anti-Muslim violence [12] and has since formed militant wing Bajrang Dal.[7][13] Along with other extremist organizations the RSS was involved in a wide range of riots, often inciting and organizing violence against Christians[14] and Muslims.[3]

It was banned during the British rule,[7] and then thrice by the post-independence Indian government — first in 1948 when Nathuram Godse, a former RSS member,[15] assassinated Mahatma Gandhi;[7][16][17] then during the emergency (1975–77); and after the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992. The ban imposed in February 1948 was withdrawn unconditionally in July 1948.[18] The ban during 1975-77 was a part of the illegal suspension of individual and collective human rights during the emergency. After Indira Gandhi lost the elections, the new government withdrew restrictions on human rights. The ban in 1992 was lifted in the absence of material evidence for supporting a ban.[19]

Contents  [hide] 

1 Historyo 1.1 Foundingo 1.2 Indian independence movemento 1.3 Activities during partitiono 1.4 First ban and the acquittalo 1.5 Decolonisation of Dadra, Nagar Haveli and Goao 1.6 Role during the 1962 Sino-Indian War and 1965 Indo-pak Waro 1.7 Movement against the Emergencyo 1.8 Participation in land reforms

2 Structure

o 2.1 Sarsanghchalakso 2.2 Shakha

3 Mission 4 Affiliated organizations 5 Social service and reform 6 Relief and rehabilitation 7 Court Rulings on RSS

o 7.1 The State of Madhya Pradesh Vs Ramshanker Raghuvanshio 7.2 State of Karnataka v. Ranganathacharya Agnihotrio 7.3 Others

8 Reception 9 Criticisms and accusations

o 9.1 Involvement with riotso 9.2 Religious violence in Odishao 9.3 Involvement in Babri Masjid demolition

10 Photo gallery 11 References 12 Bibliography

o 12.1 Sourceso 12.2 Bookso 12.3 Publications

13 External links

HistoryFounding

An RSS volunteer taking the oath in full uniform

Keshav Baliram Hedgewar

RSS was founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, who was a doctor in the city of Nagpur, British India.[20] Hedgewar as a medical student in Calcutta(now known as Kolkata) had been a part of the revolutionary activities of the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar striving to free India from British rule.[21] He had been charged with sedition in 1921 by the British Administration and was imprisoned for one year.[22]

Hedgewar was educated by his elder brother. He then decided to study medicine in Calcutta, West Bengal. He was sent there by B. S. Moonje in 1910 to pursue his medical studies. There he lived with Shyam Sundar Chakravarthy[23] and learned the techniques of fighting from secret revolutionary organisations like the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar in Bengal. He is said to have joined Anushilan Samiti and he had contacts with revolutionaries like Ram Prasad Bismil.[24]

Previously he was involved in such type of revolutionary activities, this fact has been disclosed by so many writers viz. C. P. Bhishikar,[25] M. S. Golwalkar,[26] K. S. Sudarshan[27] and Rakesh Sinha.[28]

After completing his studies and graduating, he returned to Nagpur, inspired by the armed movement. In his memoirs, the third chief of RSS, Balasahab Deoras narrates an incident when Hedgewar saved him and others from following the path of Bhagat Singh and his comrades.[29] Later he left the revolutionary organisations in the year 1925 and formed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

A rare group photo of six initial swayamsevaks taken on the occasion of a RSS meeting held in 1939[30]

Since Hedgewar was primarily associated with the Hindustan Republican Association, he adopted the full constitution of erstwhile HRA and implemented it forcibly in his newly established organisation RSS later on. The RSS first met in 1925 just after two months of Kakori train robbery in a small ground of Nagpur with 5-6 persons on Vijaya Dashami. After the formation of the RSS, Hedgewar kept the organisation away from having any direct affiliation to any of the political organisations then fighting British rule.[31] But Hedgewar and his team of volunteers, took part in the Indian National Congress, led movements against the British rule. Hedgewar was arrested in the Jungle Satyagraha agitation in 1931 and served a second term in prison.[22][21][32]

During ppWorld War II]] RSS leaders openly admired Adolf Hitler.[33] Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, who became the supreme leader of the RSS after Hedgewar, drew inspiration from Adolf Hitler's ideology of race purity.[34] RSS leaders were supportive of the Jewish State of Israel, including Savarkar himself, who supported Israel during its formation.[35] While Golwalkar admired Jews for maintaining their "religion, culture and language".[36]

M. S. Golwalkar

Atal Bihari Vajpayee first swayamsevak to become Prime Minister of India.

Indian independence movementThe RSS portrayed itself as a social movement and refused to consider itself a political party, and did not play any role in many of the efforts in Indian independence movement.[37] When the Congress passed the Purna Swaraj resolution in 1930, Hedgewar asked all the RSS branches to

hoist the Indian flag and organize lectures on the need for independence. [38] However, the RSS emphatically rejected Gandhiji's willingness to cooperate with Muslims in the Anti-British struggle.[37] In 1934, Congress passed a resolution prohibiting its members from joining RSS, Hindu Mahasabha or Muslim League.[38]

Golwalkar did not want to give the British any excuse to ban the RSS.[39] When the British Government banned military drills and use of uniforms in non-official organizations, Golwalkar terminated the RSS military department.[39]

Activities during partitionThe Partition of India affected millions of Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims attempting to escape the violence and carnage that followed.[40] Noted Gandhian and recipient of the highest civilian award in India, Bharat Ratna, Bhagwan Das commended the role of the "high-spirited and self-sacrificing boys" of the RSS in protecting the newly formed Republic of India, from a planned coup to topple the Jawaharlal Nehru Administration in Delhi.[41][42]

First ban and the acquittalFollowing Mahatma Gandhi's assassination in 1948 by a former member[17] of the RSS, Nathuram Godse, many prominent leaders of the RSS were arrested and RSS as an organisation was banned on 4 February 1948. A Commission of Inquiry into Conspiracy to murder of Gandhi was set and its report was published by India's Ministry of Home Affairs in the year 1970. Accordingly Justice Kapur Commission [43]  noted that the "RSS as such were not responsible for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, meaning thereby that one could not name the organisation as such as being responsible for that most diabolical crime, the murder of the apostle of peace. It has not been proved that they (the accused) were members of the RSS." [43]:165

RSS Leaders were acquitted of the conspiracy charge by the Supreme Court of India and following an intervention by the Court, the Indian Government agreed to lift the ban with condition that the RSS adopt a formal constitution. The second Sarsanghachalak, Golwalkar drafted the constitution for the RSS which he sent to the government in March 1949. In July of the same year, after many negotiations over the constitution and its acceptance, the ban on RSS was lifted.[20]

On 15 January 2000, The Statesman carried a story about the RSS that depicted the RSS as the killer of Gandhi.[44] Subsequently the Delhi unit of the RSS filed a criminal case of defamation against author of the article A. G. Noorani along with the cartoonist and the Managing Director of the publishing house. When two of the accused did not respond to the Court summons, non-bailable warrants were issued in their name by the Court.[45] On 25 February 2002, Noorani wrote an unconditional apology to the court in which he regretted writing the defamatory article against the RSS. On 3 March 2002, The Statesman also published an apology regretting the publication of the article.[46][47]

Decolonisation of Dadra, Nagar Haveli and Goa

After the independence of India, RSS was one of the socio-political organisations who supported and participated in movements to decolonise Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which was at the time ruled by Portuguese colonists. In early 1954, volunteers Raja Wakankar and Nana Kajrekar of the RSS visited the area round about Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman several times to study the topography and also to get acquainted with locals who wanted to switch from being a Portuguese colony to being an Indian union territory. In April 1954, the RSS formed a coalition with the National Movement Liberation Organization (NMLO), and the Azad Gomantak Dal (AGD) for the liberation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.[48] On the night of 21 July, United front of Goans, a group, working independently of the coalition, captured the Portuguese police station at Dadra and declared Dadra as free. Subsequently on 28 July, volunteer teams of the RSS and AGD captured the territories of Naroli and Phiparia and ultimately the capital of Silvassa. The Portuguese forces which escaped and moved towards Nagar Haveli, were assaulted at Khandvel and were forced to retreat till they surrendered to the Indian border police at Udava on 11 August 1954. A native administration was set up with Appasaheb Karmalkar of NMLO as the Administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli on 11 August 1954.[48]

The liberation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli gave a boost to the movement against the Portuguese colonialism in the Republic of India.[48] In 1955, RSS leaders demanded the end of Portuguese rule in Goa and its integration into India. When Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru refused to provide an armed intervention, RSS leader Jagannath Rao Joshi led the Satyagraha agitation straight into Goa itself. He was imprisoned with his followers by the Portuguese police. The peaceful protests continued but met with severe repressions. On 15 August 1955, the Portuguese police opened fire on the satyagrahis, killing thirty or so civilians. [49]