[Reader-list] RSS and Child Trafficking

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear all

My problem with the RSS is what Nandy says repeatedly, that RSS actually
requires a symbol of hate to exist, which in India is Muslim and Pakistan
mainly, and now also includes Christians (particularly conversions). They
adore interestingly values or idea from their 'sworn enemies',like the habit
of Muslims to congregate when a few or even a single one of them is involved
in a dispute (generally with a member of some other religion or group), or
the ability of some of the brilliant organizations involved in
proselytization, to convert tribals to Christianity. They want to be like
them in these aspects, and hence to defeat the enemy, they want to use the
same tactics as the 'enemy' does.

In other words, the RSS is like the ISI when it comes to taking actions
against their 'enemies'. But the fact is that then I am like the enemy
myself. The question which then comes is simply this: why should the RSS be
right and the ISI be wrong? Can't the reverse be true? Can't both be wrong?
Can't both be right? On what basis do we judge the right and the wrong?

It's ironic, but when Gandhi decided to lead the Satyagraha movement, he
realized that fighting through violent methods would mean that Indians would
have accepted the moral supremacy of the British by fighting through the
very methods which the British wanted them to. It would have been far easier
to suppress a violent agitation or attack by more violent methods, whereas a
movement like 'satyagraha' where the agitators would never fight back, would
attack the very conscience of the British and make them ashamed in their own
eyes, even if their response to it was still violent. Moreover, tired of the
guilt feelings they would have for their own atrocities, as well as of the
consistent struggles mounted against them, they would leave.

Gandhi through this way, not only contributed to the Indian freedom
struggle, but as I remember back, (as Arnold Toynbee said), he also
contributed to the British, by first of all defeating the very system
without accepting its moral supremacy, and more importantly ensuring that
his method was such that when the British left, there was no enemity or hard
feelings left between India and British. Otherwise the relations would have
been strained for so long, for the British rule had impoverished India and
broken its back on many fronts.

What kind of contribution does the RSS wish to make to the nation instead?
The RSS may say that it's saving culture and it's a non-political
organization, but when more than one person is made to sit in a class and
made to undertake an activity which is propagated as 'saving culture', it is
politics. And the RSS can't deny that. And if the ISI also does it (as has
been suspected), then that too is politics. And both have already accepted
the moral supremacy of each other's method, the method of madness, of
violence, of suppressing all dissent voices in the name of protecting one's
culture.

The dislike (not hatred), I have for the RSS stems from the fact that they
are trying to replicate a European-style movement of nationalism, secularism
and religion (Hindutva) in India, where all dissent and diversity is
rejected or modified (to a palatable form), where every decision has to be
bound by their ideology, and where every kind of debate and discussion
accepts the moral superiority of their ideology. They have no faith in the
conscience and the ability of human beings, to improve and change. And of
course, they have no faith in non-violence. Otherwise, even for a movement
like Ram Mandir construction one, there would have been no demolition and
only peaceful protests.

And of course, in this they have the support from the ISI and the like.

Giving alms for mandir or masjid construction or doing social service is not
going to help, what helps is realizing the mistakes of one's own ideology
and the actions done to serve that.

Regards

Rakesh