Politics
Reservations And RSS: A Historical Perspective
Aravindan Neelakandan
May 01, 2024, 04:47 PM | Updated 04:56 PM IST
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On 28 April 2024, Mohan Bhagwat, all-India head of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) stated categorically that his organisation, right from the beginning, has never opposed reservations.
The anti-RSS camp meanwhile has been quick to dig out statements of various RSS leaders that were allegedly critical of reservation.
So what is the truth?
One of the earliest proponents of reservations was Shahu Maharaj (1874-1922) a descendant of legendary Chhatrapati Shivaji and a Raja under British Government. It was a reservation for non-Brahmins in many of the posts that came under his administration. He also recognised non-Brahmin Jagat Guru or Kshatra Jagat Guru, Sadashiv Patil-Benadikar.
He and Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS shared the dais and he was highly appreciative of Dr Hedgewar’s work. Reservation as representative justice for the entire Hindu society had been not at all a problem for the RSS founder.
In a larger context of the Hindutva of the time, it was 'Hindutvaite' barrister M R Jayakar who became one of the earliest voices asking for reservations for scheduled communities in police forces.
SK Bole who moved the resolution for the opening of all public water bodies to SC communities was a Hindutvaite.
Dr Narayan Savarkar stood in the court to testify in favour of Dr Ambedkar in his Mahad Satyagraha. So the Hindutva ranks were in favour of social emancipation during the times of Dr Hedgewar.
The second all-India leader of the RSS, Madhav Sadasiva Golwalkar or ‘Guruji’ as he was called by the RSS cadre, was more inclined towards orthodoxy initially. However, he was initiated into the spiritual path by Swami Akandananda of Sri Ramakrishna Math who was known for his humanitarian service organisations.
During the lifetime of Golwalkar, he had a fruitful interaction with Dr Ambedkar and Dattopant Thengadi, a promising and upcoming RSS pracharak, who became so close to Dr Ambedkar that Thengadi was his election agent.
Due to these constant interactions with society, Golwalkar transformed from his somewhat pro-orthodox position to a very clear pro-social justice position. Based on the thought of Dr Ambedkar as conveyed to Thengadi, Golwalkar worked on bringing together all Acharyas to declare untouchability as being against the shastras, in 1969.
However, during the times of both Dr Hedgewar and ‘Guruji’ Golwalkar, reservations were not such a burning issue.
It was during the time of the third all-India leader of the RSS, Madhukar Dattatraya 'Balasaheb' Deoras that reservations became weaponised as a tool for creating community vote banks and for playing one community against the other.
So, what was the RSS approach? Padma Sri Ramesh Patange, author and now a senior RSS office bearer was then a young cadre. He witnessed what happened in the meeting of the All India Delegates of the RSS that took place in March 1981.
RSS had and has cadre drawn from all communities. Most of the Gujarat representatives of the RSS were agitated over the reservation issue. But a resolution supporting reservation was coming up in that meeting. Each and every word was intensely debated.
Patange writes:
Many representatives opined that the resolution was hasty, and likely to evoke adverse reaction in a large section of the people. Swayamsevaks from Gujarat understandably were naturally were unhappy. I was intently listening to the discussions. In view of so much opposition from workers, I was worried and felt the resolution would not go through.
Nevertheless, the resolution was passed. Why? It was because of the emotionally and righteously forceful intervention of Deoras:
Sarsanghachalak Balasaheb Deoras was calm but attentive at the meeting. After debate was over, the meeting broke for tea. When the meeting resumed, Balasaheb Deoras said, "I have heard the discussion in the meeting. I have understood that many amongst us are not in favour the of resolution. I request you all to imagine yourself in the place of those for whom the Reservations are meant. Try to enter their minds and see the present condition of those of our brethren, who have been neglected for hundreds of years. Understand their feelings. Then only take your decision." After his speech, there was hardly any discussion and the resolution was passed. The Sangh had officially endorsed reservations.
Patange credits two RSS leaders, Sukhadev Navale and Bhiku Idate for categorically making the RSS stand clear on the issue of reservations.
Navale stated that if one inherits the ancestral property then one also incurs the ancestral debt: ‘Our forefathers have taken a massive loan on our account, we are under obligation to repay it. We can't say that we individually did not perpetrate any injustice on Dalits. We can't claim inheritance in respect of only good things. We would have to accept our heritage along with the debt. There is no escape from it.’
While there may be individual voices in the RSS organisation who may not be comfortable with the present scheme of reservation, the RSS as an organisation has a clear vision.
When in 1989 then Prime Minister V P Singh, purely out of his own personal ambition for power implemented the Mandal Commission, what was the stand of the RSS?
Patange explains:
In 1989, when V P Singh announced acceptance of the Mandal Commission's recommendations, it was followed by a communal and casteist upheaval all over the country. Higher castes were opposed to the Mandal Commission. The majority was of course of the people recommended by Mandal Commission. Based on the arithmetic of votes, all political parties (including the BJP) would support the Mandal commission for obvious reasons.... The RSS had no reason whatever to oppose the social content of the Mandal recommendations. The very objective and ideal of the Sangh is that the standard of life of the common man should grow, he should actively participate in the task of national reconstruction, and he should draw self-respect from being an architect of this country. Therefore, we welcomed the social content of the Mandal Commission report promptly.
However there is a difference between how the Congress as well as the so-called progressives view reservation, and how the RSS views reservations.
For the former, it was a mere political strategy for creating vote banks and a competitive show of communal power of castes. For the RSS, the reservations are the means of empowering the social minorities and marginalised sections of the society so that they become one with the rest of the society in terms of sharing the socio-economic benefits of national development and also become builders of Bharat.
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