Each year, on August 15, India officially celebrates Independence Day. Pakistan celebrates its own Independence Day, the day before, on August 14. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (national volunteer corps) celebrates this day as Akhand Bharat (Undivided or Greater India) Day.
India is constitutionally a secular republic. But, practically, it is a majoritarian Hindu state.
Narendra Modi is a cherished staunch RSS stalwart. The BJP tries to meticulously comply with the RSS agenda. The Citizenship Amendment Act, abolition of disputed Jammu and Kashmir statehood, renaming of Moghal icons (museums, gardens, etc), are obvious examples of the BJP’s subservience to the RSS.
India’s prime minister Modi carefully chose the day to inaugurate the new hexagonal parliament. The inauguration (May 28) coincides with completion of Modi’s fourth year of his second term as prime minister and his ninth year in office. May 28 also marked the 140th birth anniversary of the RSS’s ideologue, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, The day before, May 27, was the 59th death anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister. Symbolically, the inauguration pulls the curtain down on the Nehruvian era and heralds the Hindutva epoch visualised by Savarkar in his prolific writings.
Savarkar and MS Golwalker are the two most prominent ideologues of the RSS. Savarkar erected the superstructure of his philosophical colosseum on the foundation of an ensemble of 19th century nationalist writings. Golwalker, the second supreme leader of the RSS, added to Savarkar’s musings. In 1938, Golwalker wrote:
To keep up the purity of the nation and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races[…]Race pride at its highest has been manifested here […] all the constituents of the Nation idea have been boldly vindicated in modern Germany, and that too in the actual present, when we can for ourselves see and study them a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by[…] (Angana P. Chatterji, Thomas Blom Hansen and Christophe Jaffrelot (eds), Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is Changing0 India, p. 160)
The Nazi lesson for India was, they [non-Hindus] may stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, [… not even citizen’s rights (Golwalker, MS, We, or Our Nationhood Defined, Nagpur, Bharat Prakashan, 1938).
Savarkar, in his writings, did not say a word against Nazis. Savarkar even recommended fierce violence against vulnerable “enemies” like women, children, and minorities. In 2004, the Grade X textbook on Social Studies in Modi-ruled Gujarat state, commented “ Hitler lent dignity and prestige to the German people’ (Rao, Shrenik, Hitler’s Hindus: The rise and rise of India’s Nazi-loving nationalists’, Haaretz, 14 December 2017 ). Bharatiya Sanskriti (Indian culture) schools teach Hindu ethnic pride coupled with hatred of the non-Hindu. Example of a hateful question: Which tyrant got Guru Gobind Singh’s two sons buried alive for refusing to give up Hinduism? (Answer. Moghal ruler Aurangzeb).
By tortuous logic all good things are attributed to Hindu icons that fought against Muslim rulers. For instance Kapil Kumar explained that caste hierarchy and untouchability originated in India because of Turks. The Turks introduced commode to India. Hindus who refused to convert to Islam were forced to clean them. Thus they became untouchable. Even Western icons of science and philosophy are shown to be inferior to ancient Hindu philosophers (Tanika Sarkar, Chapter 8 How the Sangh Parivar Writes and Teaches History.
Kumar , Kapil 28 November 2017 Pages 151–174, August 2019)
RSS Chief Mohin Bhagwat says:`India will again become Akhand Bharat in 15 years’ not 25 years as predicted by byAkhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad, president, Swami Rashtriya Pari (of Mahanirvani Akhara) (TimesNowDigital dated April 2022).
Hinduism will be transformed into Hindutva with extremism as its core and the theocratic caste system will be revived. The Akhand Bharat dream will be hard to achieve because of caste-ridden Hindu society. The Hindutva philosophy is based on distorted history, myths and overarching binaries.
Golwalker , who shaped the organisation for over three decades said at a press conference in Delhi on August 24, 1949 that Pakistan was an “uncertain state”. As an oft-repeated view, he said: ‘As far as possible, we must continue our efforts to unite there two divided states. . If Partition is a settled fact, we [the RSS] are here to unsettle it…’
RSS leader Indresh Kumar, patron of the RSS-backed Muslim Rashtriya Manch, spoke at an event in Dadar Kumar predicted that after 2025 people from India could settle and start businesses in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi, among other cities in neighbouring Pakistan. He mused: `There was no Pakistan before 1947. Till 1045 AD, the area was called Hindustan. It will become Hindustan again after 2025. You can start looking to settle or start a business in say Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi or Sialkot after 2025’.
Kumar boasted about the dismemberment of Pakistan via the creation of Bangladesh. `Delhi has ensured that Bangladesh has a government favourable to us.’
It pooh-poohed those who drafted Indian Constitution s without banking on Manusmriti. Through its English mouthpiece, Organiser, it said on Nov 30, 1949: “But in our constitution, there is no mention of the unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat. Manu’s laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of (Athens). To this day, his laws excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means nothing.” Critics of the RSS say Manu’s laws are primarily violent edicts targeting women and Dalits.
On March 10, 2000, RSS chief K.S Sudarhsan said: ‘throw away the outdated Indian Constitution which speaks of British legacy.’ On 20 June 2016, Sangh Pracharak K. N. Govindacharya said: ‘We will rewrite the Constitution to reflect Bharatiyata’.
The BJP and RSS want an empire with subjects with no Muslim minister or MP or MLA.
Even now Muslims are underrepresented in the Indian parliament.
In India, a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, the Constitution will be based on Manusmriti and Vedic laws. India will be renamed Bharat or Hindustan. A majoritarian rule will be established and no member of minorities will be allowed to lead the nation. The tricolour will be discarded and the saffron flag will be adopted. Saying ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and singing the original version of “Vande Matram” will be made compulsory.
According to Sangh’s family members like Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, Christians and Muslims will be sent to the countries ruled by their respective religions Amit Shah called Bengalis “termites’.
Despite Akhand Bharat rhetoric the Citizenship Amendment Act allows return of only the Hindus from neighbouring countries to India. Those Muslims and Christians who want to stay will undergo ‘Ghar Wapsi’ or proselytisation. Even if ‘Soft Hindutva’ is adopted, Muslims will face severe discrimination and oppression.
Pakistan will be considered an enemy state and Bangladeshi infiltrators will be evicted by force.
The education system will be completely saffronized and Sanskrit will be declared the national language. If not, Sanskrit will be made compulsory for all Indians to learn and read ancient Hindu mythological texts.
Hinduism will be transformed into Hindutva with extremism as its core and the theocratic caste system will be revived.
As per Manu’s laws, women will be divested of rights. A patriarchal system will rule society, such as while performing namkarm and jatkarm (rituals), Vedic mantras are not to be recited by women, because they lack strength and knowledge of Vedic texts. Women are impure and represent falsehood.
All the sectarian reservations will be abolished. The special social, cultural and economic rights given to religious minorities will be abolished.
‘Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act’ will be imposed throughout the country and beef will be completely banned. As outcasts, Dalits will be considered slaves, and raping of Dalit women will not be considered a criminal act.
The Akhand Bharat dream will be hard to achieve because of caste-ridden Hindu society. The Hindutva philosophy is based on distorted history, myths and overarching binaries.
