www.sacw.net | April 17, 2005
Issues in Secular Politics,
April 2005
RSS AND THE GENDER QUESTION
Ram Puniyani
One always wondered as to why the patriarch of Sangh combines, the
plethora of organizations pursuing the goal of Hindu Nation, RSS, is
an exclusively male organization. While one hears quite a bit about
Uma Bharati's, Sushma Swaraj's currently and one heard about Vijaya
Raje Scindia and Sadhvi Ritambhara in the recent past, one knew that
even they could not enter the hallowed precincts of the controller of
Hidnutva politics, the RSS itself. We were enlightened about this
recently by none other than the RSS Supreme dictator (Sar
sanghchalak), Mr. K. Sudarshan himself.
While talking at a function (March 21, 2005) meant to release the
Video CD on, Rashtra Sevika Samiti's founder, Laxmibai Kelkar, he
pointed out that women are barred from RSS as Indian society did not
accept, and does not accept even now, young boys and girls working
together because it could have consequences (!) on the society. One
does not know which Indian society Mr. Sudarshan is talking about with
all the co-ed schools and women and men working together in most of
the spheres of society, but it is not difficult to guess these
consequences, which he is talking about! Keeping women out of RSS is
not a minor matter for RSS, as it reflects its own ideological
understanding at deeper level. That Indian society does not accept men
and women, working together is a make believe mirage meant to hide RSS
ideology, its foundation in patriarchal value system.
The first RSS supremo, Dr. K.B Hedgewar, was approached by Laxmibai
Kelkar in 1936 with a request to be permitted to join the organization
as she wished to get the lathi (baton) training for women's self
protection. RSS is specialist in imparting this training to its
volunteers. Faced with the dilemma of giving permission to a woman in
the exclusively male outfit, keeping in mind the ideology and
functioning necessities of RSS, he prompted her to form Rashtra Sevika
Samiti, rather than permitting her to join RSS. The functional reason
for this is that the highest rung in RSS ladder, the Pracharaks have
to take a vow of celibacy (Brahmacharya) and with women also becoming
part of the same organizations the consequences may not be to the
liking of RSS founders. And this is what Dr. Hedgewar was afraid of
and this is what Mr. Sudarshan is also scared of.
The other and deeper reason had to do with the ideology of RSS, which
is rooted in male domination, the commitment to the hierarchy of
gender. On one hand RSS was planned as the controller of the Hindutva
movement, so this has to be naturally by the males. This also gets
reflected in the names for this organization, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak
Sangh (sangh) and Rashtra Sevika Samiti (samiti). The latter is a body
subordinate to RSS, and in its name the word swayam, 'self', 'being'
is missing. This is not an accidental omission. It reflects that men
control the 'being' of woman.
This was the time when parallel to the ideas of National movement and
other progressive movements, women had started their forays into
national and social life on equal footing. While one presumes there
was a good presence of women in national movement, they were
conspicuous by their absence in organizations like Muslim League and
Hindu Mahasabha. This was also a time when Ambedkar was burning Manu
Smiriti on the ground that it laid the provisions for slavery of
Shudras and women. It is no accident that Manusmsiti and laws of Manu
were eulogized by the Hindutva ideologues. Rashtra Seviaka Samiti was
instructed to be on the subordinate ground. As ideologically RSS
was/is rooted in the feudal hierarchies of caste and gender, the tasks
of samiti were outlined, as presented in one of the pamphlets of the
samiti, "due to western impact, women were struggling for equal rights
and economic freedom - There was every risk of women becoming non
committed to love, sacrifice, serviceÖThis unnatural change in women
might have led to disintegration of family the primary and most
important unit for imparting good samskars ('Gender in Hindu nation',
Paula Bachetta, p.8).
This was reflective enough of the agenda of the samiti. All the Sangh
ideologues have stuck to this in different languages. This ideology in
due course affirmed that primary role of women is that of mother, and
in raising the children, giving them good smaskars
(another name for indoctrinating the children with Brahminical
values). Later there were other organizations where women got
associated with sangh, BJP Mahila Morcha and Durga Vahini are the two
othe major one's amongst these. The sample of this ideology comes to
fore times and over again. In the wake of Roop Kanwar sati (burning of
women on the funeral pyre of their husbands) incident, when Parliament
was debating a new legislating to ban Sati, Viajayaraje Scindia, BJP
vice president, took out a procession to parliament with the slogan
that committing sati is not only the glorious tradition of Hindu women
but it is also their right. One wonders why the leader of this
procession herself did not exercise her right after the death of her
husband!
Another of their outpourings, which is most representative of this
ideology, was the interview given by Mridula Sinha, the then chief of
BJP Mahila Morcha. (Savvy April 1994) In this interview she defended
the dowry system, went on to uphold the wife beating, opposed women's
equality apart from advising the women that they should not go out to
work unless it is a dire economic necessity. Her thrust in the
interview was to equate the women's struggle for equality as being
equivalent to opting for a life of 'loose morals'!
The similarity of RSS attitude to women and that of Taliban or other
Islamic fundamentalist streams on one hand and Hitler's advice to
women on the other is so starkly similar. Islamic fundamentalists
prohibit the women from going outside for work and also hide behind
sharia to curtail women's rights. Hitler articulated this most
blatantly when he said that German women's greatest glory is in
motherhood and that women's world should revolve around Kitchen,
Church and Children.
While RSS and its celibate pracharaks may come with a more
sophisticated language of respect for women, place of women in Indian
tradition to selectively highlight some exceptions to the oppression
of women, their present agenda is to dish out the patriarchal
impositions in more subtle and clever language, but surely women's
movement for equality, has definitely made good strides to see the
real goals of Hindutva ideology and to reject it through and through.
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