This latest volume from A.G. Noorani can be termed a masterpiece as he has completely and absolutely un- masked the RSS, with all possible facts and documental backgrounders. In fact, I would say it’s a must read for all those of us who are apprehensive with the latest round of eerie build-ups hitting the country, what, with the Right – Wing Modi -led government to be ruling the country, once again.
In fact, this volume carries extremely vital facts to the political layers and the long term strategies and plans and master plans of the Right Wing , which will be ruining the very fabric of our country. To quote from it – “India is battling for its very soul …The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS)is the most powerful organization in India today; complete with a private army of its own, unquestionably obeying its leader who functions on fascist lines on the Fuehrer principle…The RSS is at war with India’s past. It belittles three of the greatest builders of the Indian State- Ashoka, the Buddhist; Akbar; the Muslim ; and Nehru, a civilized Enlightened Hindu. It would wipe out centuries of achievement for which the world has acclaimed India and replace that with its own narrow, divisive ideology.”
In this volume, Noorani has traced out the entire history of the RSS, right from its formation in 1925, to this present times. And with that he has exposed the RSS and its strategies and double or triple speak.
After reading this volume, you would well grasp what dangers lie ahead; now with the RSS in direct control of governance of this country. To quote N oorani, “This book shows that the RSS is much more than a threat to communal amity. It poses a wider challenge. It is a threat to democratic governance and, even worse, a menace to India, the India which the nation strove to establish. It poses a threat to its values. In the last few years India has been battling for its very soul.” To quote Noorani still further – “The intensification of Hindutva has acted, as intended by its followers, to divert attention from the fact that almost half the population of India is at or below poverty line and is denied even the most basic rights and amenities. Instead of working towards providing these rights and amenities to the tribals and the Dalits, the focus has been shifted to the irrelevant question of the right to convert. The hype surrounding the issue of which Indians are indigenous and which are foreign, basing this identity on the false premise of whether they follow a religion which indigenous to the subcontinent or is west Asian in origin, has led to the most inhuman and unethical behaviour on the part of groups claiming to defend Hinduism and is directed towards those labelled as Muslims and Christians.”
In fact, this volume starts with a very apt and hitting comment made by Dr B. R. Ambedkar – I quote him from this volume – “If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will , no doubt, be the greatest calamity for this country…Hindu Raj must be prevented at any cost.”
And there is this particular quote of Pandit Jawharlal Nehru on its back cover flap – “ It would appear that the declared objectives( of the RSS) have little to do with the real ones and with the activities carried on in various forms and ways by people associated with the RSS. These real objectives appear to be completely opposed to the decisions of the Indian Parliament and the provisions of the proposed Constitution of India. The activities according to our information, are antinational and often subversive and violent.” This is what Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru conveyed to RSS chief, M.S. Golwalkar, 10 November 1948.
