Gender in the Hindu Nation: RSS Women as Ideologues [1 ed.] 8188965022, 9788188965021

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Gender In the Hindu Nation

feminist fine print is a moderately priced, handy new series that offers two, three or four core essays on a single issue, from a critical feminist perspective. The essays may be single-authored or have multiple authorship depending on the issue, its significance within India and South Asia, and its theoretical and political implications.

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Gender in the Hindu Nation ASS Women as Ideologues

Paola Bacchetta

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Ii

UN LI MITED

Gender in the Hindu Nation was first published in 2004 by

Women Unlimited (an associate of Kali for Women) K-36, Hauz Khas Enclave, Ground Floor, New Delhi- 110 016 C 2004, Paola Bacchetta

ISBN: 81-88965-02-2 Cover design: Visual Vibe

All rights reserved

Typeset at Print Services, B-17 Lajpat Nagar Part 2, New Delhi 110 024, and printed at Pauls Press, E 44/11 Okhla Phase II, New Delhi 110 020

Contents

1. Hindu Nationalist Women as Ideologues

Tbe Sangh, the Samiti and their differential concepts of the Hindu Nation 2. •All Our Goddesses Are Arm~. n Religion, resistance and nwenge in the life of a militant Hindu nationalist woman

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3. Communal Property/Sexual Property On n!presentations of Muslim women in a Hindu nationalist discourse

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1

Hindu Nationalist Women as Ideologues The Sangh, the Samiti and their differential concepts of the Hindu Nation 1

IN an earlier phase of scholarship on Hindu nationalism, women sometimes surfaced as symbols or as victim-bodies whom 'communalist'2 males saw as part of their mission to protect or avenge. Today, since women have been more widely recognised as militants in 'communal' violence, it is often assumed that they act on the basis of their male counterparts' ideology. Here, I hope to dispel that notion for women have created, and their activism is supported by, a speci~cally feminine Hindu nationalist discourse. In what follows, I unravel one such discourse, that of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti (hereafter the 'Samiti'), and view it in comparison with that of its male counterpart, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (hereafter the 'Sangh'). The focus is on a thematic which for both is highly gendered, the 'Hindu Nation'. This dismantling and comparative process has several functions: it should disclose the constitutive and thematic elements, of course; it should also reveal the differential modes in which men and women appeal to their own gender and are called upon to insert themselves into the same 'communal' conflict; finally, it should foreground internal mechanisms whereby Hindu nationalist discourse is fractionalised (here, along· gender lines, but similar operations work to reach other sectors of society) while retaining unity enough to achieve ultimate common objectives. The discursive unity is provided by a framework elaborated by the Sangh-the Samiti ideologues frame their own construction process within its context. They use some (but not all) of the same symbols and signifiers, and create some of their own. They are, indeed, profoundly related; yet, the two discourses simply canhot be reduced to one. Between them there are zones of 2

Hindu N•tlon•ll•t Women •• Ideologue•

convergence, of non-antagonistic divergence, and of complementary difference; and there are points of antagonistic difference. The convergence is perhaps most evident. It can be explained by what Nicole Claude Matthieu refers to as the direct mediation of women's consciousness by men.~ Here, Samiti ideologues reproduce elements of the Sangh's discourse in their own words, without modification. Areas of non-antagonistic divergence and complementary difference can be understood in terms of Gramscian modes of refraction.• Here, the Sangh's discourse, which occupies the dominant position in relation to that of the Samiti's (socially, politically and in its more extensive elaboration), is imperfectly assiµillated by it, and imprecisely reprcxluced. Other divergences are the result of the Samiti's thematic expansion, horizontally, into areas unexplored by the Sangh, reflecting the separate concerns of women and men, and their differential locations within a gender asymmetrical society. The antagonistic points are more difficult to understand. I attribute them to the Samiti's creative use of structural and subjective factors, and the Sangh's attitudes of acceptance, fgnorance and sometimes devalorisation of the Samiti's discourse. By structural elements I mean the organisations' positions within their interrelations: each is somewhat autonomous, has developed somewhat separately, although the Samiti is technically subordinate to the Sangh. They also position themselves within the Hindu symbolic: it encompasses a range of representations of each gender that ideologues can draw upon, and to which diverse interpretations can justifiably be assigned. Despite this potential, the Sangh's ideology leaves little space for women-actors to 3

GENDER IN THE HINDU NATION

exist, and so the Samiti, in order to craft a Hindu nationalism which women can relate to, is obliged to exit the realm of the Sangh's discourse at some points. It is not surprising, then, that most of the antagonisms originate around questions of feminine and masculine identities, even if they extend into other domains. Briefly, then, what I am arguing is that because of · these differences, when women and men struggle for what they collectively call a 'Hindu Nation' they do not necessarily have exactly the same entity in mind. This will be the subject of the rest of the essay, but first, a few background notes are necessary in order to contextualise my discussion. The Sangh and the Samttl: some hlstorlographlcal notes

Until recently, the Sangh was perhaps most known outside India for its implication in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Today, it is notorious for its role in the wanton demolition of a sixteenth century mosque, the Bahri Masjid in Ayodhya, in December 1992. The Sangh was founded in 1925 in Nagpur, Maharashtra, in a context of 'Hindu-Muslim' riots, the national movement for independence, and low-caste protest movements (which historically have been prominent in Maharashtra). The founder and first Sarsanghchalak (Supreme Leader), Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgevar, played a key role in provoking 'communal' riots in the area.s He was also a peripheral member of the youth group of the Congress which functioned as an umbrella for a range of nationalisms. He left, following disagreements on goals and tactics. The Congress advocated an all-inclusive, secular Indian nation, and 4

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Gandhian ahimsa (non-violence). In contrast, Dr. Hedgevar and his mentors envisioned a Hindu Nation and favoured violence. Their main enemy was not the British, but rather Indian Muslims. Dr. Hedgevar belonged to the most privileged four per cent of his society: he was an Andra (not Chitpavan) Brahmin,6 middle class and English-educated. Initially, he recruited young men almost exclusively from that milieu,7 thus alienating low-caste activists. They reac! .t:S Hindu nationalism as a Brahmin plot to divide Muslims and low-caste Hindus in order to re-establish Brahmanical hegemony. On at least one occasion, Muslim and low-caste Hindu activists together physically attacked Dr. Hedgevar at a public meeting." The Sangh defines itself as a 'cultural', not. a political, organisation. Despite its benevolent self-designation, one of its main activities from inception has been imparting para-military trainil)g and ideological indoctrination. Today, it comprises over three million core members (swayamsevaks) who meet daily in shakhas (neighbourhood cells). It has over 37,000 local headquarters concentrated mainly in north and central India. Due to an aggressive recruitment campaign, it is spreading in the south (Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu), and has diasporic branches in 47 foreign countries; it is perhaps South Asia's largest international, micro-nationalist organisation ever. The Sangh's structure is rigidly hierarchical, with power flowing from the nation to region to state to city, and thence to the neighbourhood level. Leaders are appointed, not elected. It has had four Sarsanghchalaks in all: Dr. Hedgevar (1925-40), Madhavrao Sadashiv Golwalkar 0940-73), Balasaheb Deoras (1973-94) and 5

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Rajendra Singh who was appointed in 1994 by Deoras due to his failing health. Until Deoras, each served a life term and appointed his successor on his deathbed. Each has oriented the Sangh in his own mode: Dr. Hedgevar gave it its structure, goals and technique; ·M.S. Golwalkar was its main ideologue; Deoras,. who was trained personally by Dr. Hedgevar, shifted th~ Sangh away from its previous avant-garde style towards 'mass' recruitment. In nominating R. Singh, he translated his aspirations into practice: Singh is the first non-Brahmin, nonMaharashtrian Sarsanghchalak, and is from south India where the Sangh is presently attempting to expand. Around itself, the Sangh created its Sangh Parivar (network of affiliates or 'family organisations'). They include professional unions (for teachers, students, workers, industrialists, journalists, etc.) and issue-oriented organisations (cow protection, temple 'reconversion', and so on). It founded two political parties: the Jana Sangh (now defunct), and the present Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It has always had some presence in the Congress Party and engages in electoral politics in Kerala through its 'Hindu Front'.9 These offshoots have allowed it to intervene in nearly every public domain, while retaining legitimacy in milieux where political ambition is associated with immorality, ~md spiritual goals with morality. The Sangh defines its goals in spiritual terms: to 'unify' Hindus, and 'build' their 'character' in order to 'resurrect' the Hindu Nation. In this, it translates Brahmanical notions of spiritual self-realisation to the material plane and modifies them to fit its Hindu nationalist schema. In Brahmanism, realisation involves peeling back the layers of maya (illusion) which blind the individual to his 6

Hindu N•tlon•ll•t Women •• Ideologue•

unity with the One. However, for the Sangh, each Hindu is supposed to peel back the layers of maya that blind him to his 'essential' Hindu nationalist 'self in order to 'resurrect'· the Hindu Nation. The relationship between the self and the Nation are inscribed in the name: National (Rashtriya) Self (Swayam) Helper or Worker {Sevak) Organisation (Sangh). The term used for the self here is Swayam, the material-self-acting-in-the-world, as opposed to brahman or atman, the spiritual S/self in Brahmanism. 10 The Sangh owns publishing companies, a distribution network and bookshops. It publishes in English, Hindi and many regional languages; the genres include political treatises, essays, biographies, journalistic pieces, short stories, etc. Recently, with its shift towards 'mass' orientation, it has developed more accessible forms such as posters, postcards, inland letter cards and comic books. The Samiti was the Sangh's first family organisation. It was created in 1936 in Wardha, Maharashtra, in close geographical proximity to the Sangh. The founders were Dr. Hedgevar and Lakshmibai Kelkar, who became the first director (Pramukh Sanchalika). Its stated goals are to make women conscious of their 'divine identity', 11 and to prepare them for the Hindu nationalist cause. The two organisations are 1parallel', but 'different' because women's 'field' is different from men's.12 These notions are reflected in its name, its ideology and activities. The name contains initials identical to the Sangh's (RSS), but in it the term swayam (selO is absent. The justification is that a man's self is individual, while a woman's "implies not only the individual self but also family, society, nation, religion and culture".13 The "development of a man is the development of an individual", 7

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while the "development of a woman is the development of the whole society". 14 Here, women's self is relational and merged in other (always bi-gendered) entities. In contrast, the male self is unitary, monogendered, not dependent on relations. There is a subtext to this, located in horizontal extensions of the theme. That is, the Samiti constructs elaborate models for the feminine self-acting-in-the world throughout its publications. In that sense, the nominative absence of 'swayam' represents a certain concession, but also disguises a non-concession by the Samiti to the Sangh. In its texts, the Samiti provides two divergent explanations of its founding; in both it assigns principle agency to Lakshmibai Kelkar. In an undated but post-1978 English language publication, it traces its origin to opposition to the Indian left and liberal women's movements of the 1930s. It explains that "due to western impact women were struggling for equal rights and economic freedom .. .. There was every risk of women being non-committed to love, sacrifice, service.... This unnatural change in the attitude of women might have led to disintegration of family (sic), the primary and most important unit of imparting good samskaras."15 It goes on to state that L. Kelkar was introduced to the Sangh via her swayamsevak sons. She was interested in the Sangh's "way of working based on individual contact, mutual love and voluntary discipline" .16 Finally, she meets Dr. Hedgevar and proposes that she form the women's wing. Dr. Hedgevar, "gifted with divine vision, was convinced and he conceded to the proposal provided V. Mausiji accepted all the responsibility" .17 Here, it is the potential of Hindu femininity to stray into feminism which renders the Samiti necessary. 8

Hindu Natlonmllat Women aa ldeologuea

In contrast, a 1989 Hindi language text cites L. Kelkar's increasing awareness of the sexual exploitation of Hindu women and the need to fight back, as the motivation. 1K It names two cases: in one, defenceless women orangepickers lose their chastity to middlemen to whom they are in debt; in another, a woman is sexually harassed on the streets while her husband and passers-by take no action. L. Kelkar links these instances to the abduction of Sita by Ravana in the Ramayana. She concludes that Hindu men cannot prevent outrages on Hindu women, so women must learn to defend themselves. Then she discovers that her sons know how to wield a latlli. She asks thell) to teach their sister and herself its use. They decline, saying they have vowed never to impart such knowledge to a non-Sangh member. So she asks them to arrange for her to meet the Sarsanghchalak.. Finally, after much insistence, she does meet Dr. Hedgevar. She tells him that women are exploited, defenceless, and asks if they can join the shakhas to learn self-defence. He refuses, but agrees that she can found a women's wing. This version adds that L. Kelkar had wanted the Sangh to include women. It attributes this need to Hindu women's oppression by ('unconscious') Hindu men and the failure of Hindu men, including family members, to protect Hindu women. The double explanation illustrates the performative nature of the discourse, in the sense of Bakhtin, 19 and its potential for fractionalisation. Each version reflects a different representation of gender relations in space and time, and the class and contexts of the Addressees. The English language text speaks to middle class women, whose class privilege provides a certain protection in the public space. Theirs includes the English language 9

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discursive space which the Samiti constructs as providing an exit for women from the 'Hindu Community'. When the text appeared the present wave of the Indian feminist movement, which has a long history, was on the rise. In response, retrospectively, the Samiti represents the women's movement of the 1930s as 'western', and thus the wrong path for Hindu women. They are supposed to act in solidarity with Hindu men. The Hindi version targets lower and lower-middle class women: it discusses male violence, women's vulnerability and Hindu male failure to protect. Its Addressees live those conditions; it proposes a solution which relies on their own agency. The link by analogy to Sita inscribes a positive symbolic meaning to the situation such that it exceeds in'dividual and collective experiences. The text appears at the height of the current Indian feminist movement. Though it condemns feminism elsewhere in Hindi texts, the Samiti does not mention it in its account of the founding. In practice the Samiti has borrowed issues (dowry, health), adopted slogans (including in the Ramjanmabhoomi campaign) and modelled some of its projects on feminist ones {income-generating ventures, work in slums, etc.). Here, it selectively appropriates elements but conveniently effaces all trace of its sources, perhaps because the feminist movement is its most threatening competitor. The Samiti's major ideologue is L. Kelkar. She occupies a position similar to M.S. Golwalkar for the Sangh. She and Dr. Hedgevar agreed that the Samiti should not be an exact "imitation" of the Sangh.20 He told her that he "knew nothing" about women,21 and that L. Kelkar should determine "the basic principles and philosophy of women's life in Bharat". 22 It was to reflect "women's 10

Hindu N•tlon•ll•t Women •• Ideologue•

worldview, her nature, her life ideals" which "in Bharat is quite different than that of men". 23 This accord on the notion of separate gendered concerns has contributed to the Samiti's relative ideological autonomy. A biographical rendering of L. Kelkar is complicated by the Samiti's reconstruction of her in hagiographic terms, as a born saint in the sense of de Certeau, 24 and by the lack of other data. Yet, an analysis of the representations, as I have attempted elsewhere,25 in and of itself tells us much about her and the Samiti. Briefly stated, the Samiti puts forth that she comes from a Nagpur-based politically alert Chitpavan Brahmin Date family with Tilak-ite leanings. She was "conscious" of the national movement, and "defended Hinduism" at the English-medium school she attended. 26 At age fourteen, her family arranged her marriage to a wealthy Chitpavan Brahmin lawyer, Purushottoma Rao Kelkar, and that brought her to Wardha. She was unhappy in his conservative, apolitical, joint family. Nearby was Mahatma Gandhi's Sevagram Ashram, a centre of activities for independence, but her in-laws confined her to the home. The Samiti underscores her struggle to gain permission to be politically active. 27 It attributes her success to her perseverance and righteousness, and holds her up as an example for sevikas to emulate, thereby diverging from notions of the young wife's ideal submission. L. Kelkar's husband died in 1932 leaving her with eight children, 28 including two daughters from his earlier marriage. 29 Through financial and emotional difficulties, she maintained her Gandhian activism until she founded the Samiti. There is no clear statement in the literature as to why she switched from one form of 11

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nationalism to another, but sever.ii texts mention that she met Or. Moonje (Dr. Hedgevar's mentor, who told her of the orange-picker's dilemma), much before 1934. If so, it is not unlikely that she was exposed to Sangh ideas earlier than Samiti founding nam1tives suggest. Today, the Samiti has about one million members,.ll> called sevikas, located in at least 16 states in India-' 1 as well as in the diaspora, with concentrations in the same areas as the Sangh. The earliest were recruited among the women family members of the swayamsevaks, and such women stili hold a disproportionate number of highly-placed posts. Yet, when the Sangh shifted towards 'mass' recruitment it encouraged the Samiti to similarly expand its membership downwards, including outside the Sangh's confines.·i2 This is a partial reversal of the previous mode of recruitment, for now it makes inroads into villages by sending sevikas in to establish seemingly apolitical cultural programmes for women: puja and cookery classes, etc. They develop trust among village mothers thus paving the way for their sons to be organised by the Sangh. Similarly, the Samiti recruits among women in bastis (urban slum'i) where it has created income-generating programmes. It'i internal structure is analogously rigidly hierarchical and hased on geographical divisions. However, relationally, it is subordinate to the Sangh. The highest office, the Pramukh Sanchalika, also exists in the Sangh, and it, too, is located below the Sarsanghchalak. In all, there have heen two Pramukh Sanchalikas. L. Kelkar was succeeded at her death in 1978 by Tai Apte, a Chitpavan Brnhmin, the widow of prominent Pune Sangh leader Vinayakmo Apte, and a niece of Lokmanya Tilak. Significantly, both women took up their posts in 12

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widowhood, and thus when physically (if not emotionally or spiritually) independent of an individual male counterpart. While widows do not necessarily play such roles in upper caste Hindu milieux, 33 in both instances the natal family backgrounds were supportive on such questions. Pune had been a centre of political activities, including women's reform movements, over the past two centuries,· and many Chitpavan Brahmins were among its leaders. The Samiti valorises women whom it can construct as ascetics dedicated to the nation. This includes the post of pracharika (preacher, organiser, corresponding to the Sangh's pracharak) for women who wish to remain single and celibate, and dedicate themselves full time to the organisation. The Samiti's basic unit is, similarly, the shakha which meets daily, or in some areas, weekly. As in the Sangh, shakha members are divided into four categories: children, adolescents, adults and the elderly. They receive ideological indoctrination, paramilitary training (lathiwielding, archery, karate and sometimes rifle shooting), and play games devised to build "strength, courageousness, muscular development". :l4 Many of these are identical to the Sangh's and involve physical fighting. National training camps are held annually to perfect their skills. Since 1945, there have been triennial all-India conferences. The Samiti offers tutorial classes, discourses on selected Sanskrit texts, patronises the arts, and provides free medical care to poor wmren.3'i It has a history of intervention in the public space:"' To cite just a few examples: it ran an underground network, organised above-ground demonstrations and hunger strikes, courted arrest, and put forth "fiery orators" in the Praja 13

GENDER IN THE HINDU NATION

Parishad movement in Jammu of 1951-53:-\7 It publicly protested the book Red Flows the Ganges (because of its unacceptable portrayal of the Rani of Jhansi) until it was banned in India in 1977. 38 It has continually organised boycotts of Muslim-owned businesses. 39 Other activities are its local celebrations of the organisation's five "national festivals" to "remind people ... of (our) glorious past (sic) with its relevance to the present".1rovinces and Berar, 1919-1947", in Mushintl Hasan (ed.), Communal and Pun-Islamic Trends in Colonial India (New Delhi: Manohar, 1985), pp. 237-39. ousbt (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1987), p. 206. "Ibid., p. 207. 60 Golwalkar, Nationhood Defined, p. 33. 61 Ibid., p . 18. 62 Ibid., p. 67. ~lbe notion of the Vedic period as a Golden Age is attributed co William Jones and H.T. Colebrook of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 64 Umberto Silva, Ideologta e Ane del Fasctsmo (Milan: Gahriele Mazzotta Editore, 1973), pp. 64-6. 57 Ibid.,

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GEUDER IN THE HINDU NATION 6s Golwalkar,

Nationhood Defined, p. 9. pp. 58, 9, 10. 69 Joseph Dunner (ed.), Dtctionary of Polttica/ Science (London: Vision Press, 1964), p. 180. 70 Golwalkar, Nationhood Defined, p. 10. " Ibid., p . 11. 72 Romila Thapar, Ancient Indian Social Hi.~lory: Some Interpretations (New Deihl: Orient Longman, 1978), pp. 4-23. 73 Kelkar, Strivtshayak, lecture I. 7 ~ Ibid. ~ Samiti, Deep Stambb: Rasbtm Sevtka Samtti Akbtl Bharatiya Trayopdesh Tratvarsbik Sammelan 1986, Pune, 1986, p . 47. 76 Ibid. n Samiti , Pratah: Smarantya Mabtlaaen (Nagpur: Sevika Prakashan, 1990), pp. 30, 52-..4, 63. 78 Sarniti, Prr!face, p . 4. 79 Golwalkar, Naltonhood Defined, pp. Cr9; see also an unsigned anicle entitled, "British MotiV6 in Planting the Aryan Invasion Theory", in Organiser, August 19, 1990, pp. 53-4. Ill Golwalkar, Nationhood Defined, pp. (ra. 111 Ibid. 112 Miller (ed.), Blackwell Encyclopaedia, pp. 20~. 83 Ibid., p . 206. 84 Leila J. Rupp, "Mother of the Volk: Images of Women in Nazi Ideology", in Stgns: A journal of Women, Culture and Soctety, vol. 3, nc. 2, 1977, pp. 362-79. llS Ibid. , p. 365. 116 David Kingsley, Hindu Goddesses, Visions of the Dtvtne Femtntne in the Hindu Tradition (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1987), p . 181. 117 David Kingsley, 7be Sword and the Flute: Kalt and Krishna (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), p . 81. llll In 1936 he became a student of Swami Akhandananda, a disciple of Ramakrishna. The Swami died in 1937. The Swami requested that he never cut his hair and Golwalkar faithfully complied. This is popularised in a Sangh comic book; see Swanand, Sbrl Gurujt Qaipur: Gyan-Ganga Prakashan, undated), p . 21. ~Ibid. ,

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Lynn Gatwood, Devi and the Spouse Goddess (New Delhi: Manohar, 1985), p. 173. 911 Ibid., p . 174. 91 Ibid. 92 Anderson and Damle, Brotherhood, p. 30. 93 D. D. Kosambi, Myth and Rea/tty (Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1962), p. 86; Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, Sexual Metaphors and Antmal Symbols in Hindu Mythology (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1981), pp. 77-1~9; Gatwood, Devt, p . 2o6; Kingsley, Goddesses, p. 5. '"' Golwalkar, Thoughts (1980 ed.), p. 588. ~Ibid. "Men with lhe Capital 'M'" is the title of a chapter in the book (pp. 570-88). 96 Andrew Parker, et al. (ed