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\nA man rides his bicycle past volunteers of the Hindu nationalist organization RSS taking part in celebrations to mark Dussehra in Mumbai, India Oct. 11, 2016. (Shailesh Andrade\/Reuters)<\/span><\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/div>\n Joanna Slater<\/a><\/p>\n September 21 at 7:44 AM<\/span><\/div>\n NEW DELHI \u2014 The strident Hindu nationalist organization that helped propel Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power is attempting a makeover to soften its image ahead of next year\u2019s national elections.<\/p>\n The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, held an unprecedented three-day event this week in the heart of New Delhi, where its leader explained its views to critics and adherents alike.<\/p>\n Founded in 1925, the RSS is the backbone of the Hindu nationalist movement and the progenitor of India\u2019s current ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent most of his career as an RSS organizer. The group is known for its dislike of publicity and its influence at the highest levels of India\u2019s government.<\/p>\n In three consecutive lectures this week, Mohan Bhagwat, the leader of the RSS, attempted to counter criticism that he heads a chauvinistic and divisive organization \u2014 and instead said his group supported a vision of India that encompasses religious minorities as well as RSS critics.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe in an India which includes everyone and does not exclude anybody,\u201d Bhagwat said.<\/a> \u201cFor the sake of uniting society, no one is a stranger to us, not even those who are opposed to us.\u201d<\/p>\n The event is part of a continuing campaign by the RSS to move from the fringes of public debate in India toward the mainstream. Among the audience in the cavernous conference hall were not only RSS members but diplomats, journalists and activists skeptical of the RSS.<\/p>\n The unusual outreach event came as the RSS has faced increasing criticism from India\u2019s opposition parties. Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Indian National Congress, last month likened the RSS<\/a> to Egypt\u2019s Muslim Brotherhood, saying the RSS was trying \u201cto change the nature of India\u201d and \u201cwants to capture its institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the Modi government, dozens of people \u2014 mostly Muslims \u2014 have been assaulted and sometimes killed<\/a> by self-styled \u201ccow protection\u201d squads seeking to punish people who harm cattle. Members of groups affiliated with the RSS have also boasted of their ability to attack Muslims with impunity<\/a> and claimed Muslims who marry Hindus are engaging in \u201clove jihad.\u201d<\/p>\n Bhagwat sought to distance the RSS from such incidents. Vigilante violence is a crime and should be punished, he said. He also claimed that the RSS vision of a \u201cHindu rashtra\u201d \u2014 a Hindu nation \u2014 does not exclude Muslims.<\/p>\n \u201cThe day it is said that Muslims are unwanted here, the concept of Hindutva [Hindu-ness] will cease to exist,\u201d Bhagwat said<\/a>.<\/p>\n The RSS operates chapters across India where its male members meet in parks and participate in daily quasi-military drills. (They used to wear a uniform of khaki shorts and white shirts, but have since allowed members to wear pants<\/a>.)<\/p>\n In 1948, the Indian government briefly banned the RSS after a former member assassinated India\u2019s revered independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. It currently has dozens of affiliated groups operating under its umbrella, including a women\u2019s wing, a labor union and a farmer\u2019s union. Its members have worked to elect BJP candidates across the country.<\/p>\n A senior RSS official said on the sidelines of the first-of-its-kind event in Delhi that the aim was to deliver an \u201cundiluted and unpolluted\u201d version of the organization\u2019s views to its growing membership.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has got nothing to do with the opposition,\u201d said Manmohan Vaidya, a joint general secretary of the RSS. \u201cWe have a message and a view and we wanted to communicate it directly.\u201d<\/p>\n The outward goal is to \u201cportray the RSS as a more benign organization,\u201d said Walter Andersen, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University and the co-author of a recently released book on the group, which he says has about 2 million members.<\/p>\n The RSS is slowly changing some of the fundamental elements of its rhetoric, said Badri Narayan, a professor at the University of Allahabad who has studied the group\u2019s long effort to expand its reach. \u201cWe have to see how much they are going to implement these new ideas in action,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Saba Naqvi, the author of a book on India\u2019s ruling Hindu nationalists, said she was struck by the effort even if she found some of the content hypocritical or inaccurate. \u201cMany of us would say, \u2018Okay, they\u2019re lying,\u2019 but that\u2019s not the point,\u201d she said. \u201cThe point is they\u2019re coming out and saying something and they don\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Other critics noted that Bhagwat continued to expound a vision in which everyone born in India is considered Hindu by virtue of certain shared \u201ceternal values\u201d \u2014 regardless of whether they practice another faith or identify themselves differently.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a bully tells you that I want to make you my own, one needs to [be] on guard,\u201d wrote Apoorvanand, a professor at Delhi University who uses only one name, in the Print.<\/a> \u201cOne way of integrating the other is to devour it \u2026 this is the not-so-hidden message from the chief of the RSS.\u201d<\/p>\n On the last day of the event, Bhagwat acknowledged that his statements would be met with skepticism.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need not believe all that I have said during the last three days,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cBut I believe firmly that once you understand the [RSS], you will want to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n world<\/p>\n world – worldviews<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Today’s WorldView newsletter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/pre>\n