I Could Not Be Hindu: A Book Review
Ajsal EA
The rosy picture of larger Hindu unity and harmony has been one of the proudest proclamations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), ever since its advent. Camouflaging the caste-based fissures and conflicts is still a strategy to keep the dalits in its hold as a significant vote bank. The existence of the caste structure and untouchability within the organisational structure of the RSS, at the same time, is a less discussed matter. These require more attention at a time when dalits are discriminated against and used as pawns in the Sangh’s communal politics. I Could Not Be Hindu: The Story of a Dalit in the RSS (2020) is an eye-opening, gritty chronicle by and of activist Bhanwar Meghwanshi, a dalit who joined the RSS at the tender age of thirteen, allured by their hefty nationalism. Meghwanshi later espoused Ambedkarism and turned out to be a harsh critic of the RSS. The book offers an insider’s view of RSS’s organisational structure and the place of dalits in it, making it a crucial text.
The incompatibility of the dalits within the caste structured Hindu ‘varnashrama’ is a known fact. However, the RSS cannot remain blind towards dalits in its rhetoric of a ‘larger Hindu unity’ and its objective of the Hindu Rashtra. They needed to induct Dalits into their cadres in order to patronise the Hindu Rashtra guardianship. Meghwanshi’s testimony reveals the Sangh’s hypocrisy regarding the issue of caste and how they maintain social hierarchies intact within its own organisational structure. The author recalls how he was enticed to the RSS as a schoolboy and took part in the first Kar Seva of 1990. He explains how the Sangh indoctrinated young minds with uber nationalism and hatred towards Muslims and Christians. The Sangh’s “catch them young” formula and other kinds of cultural appropriation succeeded eventually in attracting a substantial amount of cadres into the organisation.
Meghwanshi, who grew within the RSS up till the position of the District Office Chief, later realised the hollowness of the ideas and notions of ‘Hindu unity’ and ‘equality’ claimed by the RSS. The author’s rational and logical thought process made him raise questions and observe the desertion of higher castes and leaders while travelling to Ayodhya for the first Kar Seva. He strongly wished to commit himself for the Sangh as a full-time pracharak. However, his desire was dissuaded by his superiors citing his dalit identity. They contended that a dalit in the role of a pracharak would weaken the unity of the Sangh and invite unnecessary challenges.
It’s explained in the book that the author realised the resilience of caste within the Sangh through a shocking incident. The touring leaders of the RSS refused to eat food from his home, citing a busy schedule and later threw away the food packed from there — making him realise the hypocrisy of the RSS regarding the question of caste and their oft-claimed ‘Hindu unity’.
Being a Dalit means a ‘lesser’ Hindu in the hierarchies of the RSS and its Hindu Rashtra. Meghwanshi’s pleas about this discrimination to the higher leadership of the Sangh went unheard. He left the Sangh recognising the ill-treatment of dalits and became a vociferous critic of the Hindutva forces since then. He later became an Ambedkarite and associated with the Mazdoor Kisan Shakthi Sangathan (MKSS) in the Right To Information (RTI) movement and several other civil society movements.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has always tried to attract dalits to its fold, inciting Hindu identitarian nationalism and hatred towards other religions. However, its organisational structure was not aimed at its elimination, but rather at reinforcing social hierarchies. In fact, as political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot has observed, that the Sangh emerged partly as a reaction against dalit mobilisation and anti-Brahmanism. Their inclusion into the RSS then became a stronger motive to weaken dalit assertion and anti-Brahmin sentiment. However, the Sangh never dismissed the caste system. Instead, it kept it as an insidious force for its political maneuvers.
Meghwanshi’s story reveals the entrenched caste inequalities and the Brahman-Bania supremacy within the Sangh, which continues to designate dalits and adivasis as ‘untouchables’. Meghwanshi, with the precision of an ethnographer, notes down the insidious dynamics of caste in the Sangh. This hard-hitting critique emerging from an angered, former karsevak dismantles the illusion of equality and unity within the Sangh and their Hindu Rashtra. His poignant tale exposes the dalits’ role as mere foot soldiers in the communal polarisation and consequent riots executed with the benediction of the RSS leadership at Nagpur. This is definitely an informative and evocative chronicle, which offers a sharp critique delegitimizing the egalitarian claims of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Ajsal E A is a student of Integrated Masters in English Studies at IIT Madras. Read his article ‘Ramayana and BJP: The Subtle Art of Propaganda’ here.
Published this year by Navayana, I Could Not Be Hindu: The Story of a Dalit in the RSS is a memoir written in Hindi by Bhanwar Meghwanshi and translated into English by Nivedita Menon. Its on sale on the publisher’s website.
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