The RSS .cannot explain why it never participated in the freedom struggle in any meaningful manner ... And yet, it has never tired of preaching lessons in patriotism, especially to Muslims and Christians. The writings by RSS leaders, beginning with 'Guru' M.S. Golwalkar, reek of a hatred of Muslims and Christians, and it is well known that he stopped just short of recommending Hitler's method of dealing with what he called "the problem of the minorities". Writing about the purge of the Jews by Hitler, he affirmed: "Germany has shown how wellnigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the roots, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by" ...
At the Agra camp its 'Sarsanghachalak'. Sudarshan, could not help dishing out the old and familiar views. The Christians must Indianise the church, the Muslims must accept Rama and Krishna as their heroes ...The view was often expressed by Advani during the days of the Ayodhya agitation. This view is hardly different from that of Golwalkar who prescribed the five points needed to be part of the nation of Hindustan. "In this country, Hindustan, the Hindu Race with its Hindu religion, Hindu culture and Hindu language (the family of Sanskrit and her offsprings) complete the Nation concept." And not wishing to leave anything ambiguous he further wrote: "we must bear in mind that so far as nation' is concerned, all those, who fall outside the five-fold limits of that idea, can have no place in national life unless they abandon their differences, adopt the religion, culture and language of the Nation and completely merge themselves in the national race. So long, however, as they maintain their racial, religious and cultural differences, they cannot but be only foreigners, who may be either friendly or inimical to the Nation."
Sudarshan's call to Muslims and Christians is a step in the direction of asking them to adopt the Hindu religion if they wished to be part of the nation. The war cries of the VHP and the Bajrang Dal on the conversions issue, the call by the Prime Minister for a "national debate" on the subject, all fall into place. In fact, even the review of the Constitution was a demand made by Golwalkar barely a few years after it took shape ...
What happened at Agra ... - the reassertion of Hindutva, the "suggestion" to the minorities to "Indianise" (as if they were not Indians), the criticism of the Government's ... policies ... and more importantly the participation by the Union Home Minister - was perhaps an attempt to keep the Hindutva constituents solidly behind the BJP ... The RSS has never strayed from the Hindutva course, and one could even say, never will ...
The BJP has been trying to fine-tune its own views and approach so as not to frighten its political friends .. But Advani's presence seemed to suggest that ... he could jump back on the Hindutva bandwagon. Ironically, the party seems to have also come to the conclusion that to surge ahead electorally it cannot continue to alienate the minorities ... There is a view in the party that if the minority card is played too strongly, it may lose its Hindutva vote bank. And the BJP has been trying to keep the balance, alternately giving the come hither look to the minorities and then wielding the Hindutva stick to beat them with ... The apparently contradictory statements made by Laxman and Advani on the RSS are also being seen as an attempt by the party to keep two options open -pursue the soft and on the surface moderate Vajpayee line or go back to the hard Hindutva line ...
The Prime Minister talked about "building an India of my dreams" ... in New York. And surely, the India of his dreams, as much as the India of Advani's dreams is pretty much like the India of the dreams of Golwalkar and Hegdewar and Sudarshan. (Source: The Hindu, 22 October, 2000)
