Boycott The RSS

We, the undersigned, deplore the fact that an American university is granting unprecedented legitimacy to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) by providing an open, unmediated forum for its spokesman, Ram Madhav. An organization inspired and modeled on the Italian fascists and the Nazis [1], the RSS has been responsible since its inception in 1925 for propagating a politics of hate and violence against non-Hindu minorities [2,3], most recently evident in the massacre of 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat [4], and historically implicated in the assassination of Gandhi in 1948. As an organization, the RSS is elusive and shadowy: it is only open to Hindu males primarily upper caste; it maintains no membership records (thus escaping criminal charges more than once); it has no bank accounts and pays no income tax. Gowalkar, an early political visionary who shaped the RSS, explicitly endorsed Hitlers campaign against the Jews in Germany by calling it a form of "race pride" India should emulate [5]. While we appreciate the role of universities as places where diverse views and opinions should be discussed and challenged, the presentation of any ideology that supports and condones genocide is a complete distortion of the idea of intellectual debate and discourse. Given this context, we urge the South Asia Studies program at Johns Hopkins University and other institutions providing an "open forum" to RSS spokespersons to rescind their invitations and avoid legitimizing the RSS in any way in the future.

As a hardened RSS ideologue, Mr Madhav is on record as a key representative of RSS positions. For instance, his recent warning of the "very grave threat" posed by the rising Muslim population and similar scaremongering against Muslims by his colleagues is very reminiscent of the Nazi-era witchhunt of Jews [6]. While not overtly eulogistic about the massacre of 2,000 Muslims in Gujarat like some of his colleagues [VHP Working President Ashok Singhal claimed the massacre had "the blessings of Lord Rama", while VHP leader Praveen Togadia called the secularists the "impotent fringe" and threatened to "make a (violent) laboratory of the whole country"; see references 7 and 8], he has been at least as steadfast in his defence of the perpetrators [9] and critiqued "softer" stances that his own partymen took on the issue [10]. Besides, following up on an earlier RSS resolution, "Let Muslims understand that their real safety lies in the goodwill of the majority" [11], Mr Madhav recently laid down explicit injunctions for Muslims to prove their patriotism [12]. Given all this, we fail to understand how a campus community may be enlightened by Mr Madhav's views. What can students and faculty learn from one with such "intellectual" credentials?

The fact that Mr Madhav arrives here to communicate the ideologies of the RSS, an organization that has been directly and indirectly associated with training militia-like local groups that play a direct role in initiating or reproducing violence in various states in India, make him a truly disturbing presence on any campus in the United States. No educational organization which gives intellectual standards or historical truth any credence can afford to legitimate an organization like the RSS. The Johns Hopkins e-mail notice for the event describes the RSS as the "pre-eminent nationalist Hindu organization in India." This is a little like describing the Ku Klux Klan as the "premier voice of white America." Just as we would find it unseemly to invite a KKK representative to campus on such a pretext, so too, is it unconscionable to invite the spokesman of the RSS to speak at a University campus with neither opposing viewpoints offered, nor contextual information provided in the advertisement for the talk. The RSS renders all of India's history as a black and white picture of Muslim marauders and oppressed Hindus. Defying all history, it attributes all of India's contemporary problems to medieval Muslim invasions, affirmative steps toward minorities, and high Muslim birth rates. In short, it makes no distinction between historical truth and pure prejudice in its efforts to push its violent political agendas. None of its ideological positions hold up to the bare minimum levels of intellectual scrutiny that all educational institutions routinely demand of students, not to mention educators and intellectuals.

Hosting the RSS necessarily means abandoning all standards --- of ascertaining truths, providing evidence, and making judgments --- that make an educational institution different from prejudiced, fanatical organizations. Everything that the RSS represents throughout its history directly contravenes the policies of diversity and tolerance that most campuses in the United States espouse. We call on you to revoke the invitation to Mr Madhav immediately rather than poison campus communities with the hate-filled, divisive politics that the RSS and Mr Madhav will bring with them and which you might inadvertently promote in the guise of liberalism and openness to multiple views. The decision is not complicated: clearly, none of us support genocide, as the RSS did in Gujarat, 2002, when 2000 human beings were massacred. We hope you will take a stand that will affirm humanity and life rather than sustain organizations that advocate its large-scale destruction.

References:

1. http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/casolari.pdf

2. http://www.sabrang.com/srikrish/hinrole.htm

3. "The Hindu organizations most responsible for violence against Christians are the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council, VHP), the Bajrang Dal, and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps, RSS). According to a former RSS member, these groups cannot be divorced from the ruling BJP party: "There is no difference between the BJP and RSS. BJP is the body. RSS is the soul, and the Bajrang Dal is the hands for beating."
(http://www.hrw.org/press/1999/sep/christians.htm)

4. "The groups most directly involved in the violence against Muslims include the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council, VHP), the Bajrang Dal, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that heads the Gujarat state government. Collectively, they are known as the sangh parivar, or family of Hindu nationalist organizations."
(http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/04/gujarat.htm)

5. Golwalkar, M.S.(1939), We, Our Nationhood Defined, Bharat Publications, p.35).

6. Venkaiah Naidu, the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (political wing of the RSS) said, "It is disturbing that Muslims now form 12.4\% of the population" and that this was "a cause of grave concern for all those who think of India's unity and integrity in the long run." See
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FI15Df02.html
http://newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20040907141014&Title=Top+Stories&rLink=0

7. http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=33391

8. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5905_120559,0008.htm

9. See http://www.southasiamonitor.org/india/2003/aug/ind1.html and
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=30&page=2

10.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/742988.cms

11.http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/03/18/stories/2002031806000100.htm

12.http://www.tippusultan.net/news_index23.html