The History, Ideology, and Organisation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the post-colonial India, 1948–1991

Abstract

This thesis explores the postcolonial history of the Sangh that marked its ascendancy from a marginal paramilitary organisation in the late 1940s to the apex organisation of the Hindu Nationalist movement with a dense network of branches, cadres, and subsidiaries by the 1990s. This thesis gives precedence to the Sangh’s dynamic and malleable character to elucidate its survival and expansion in these five decades, which goes beyond the existing academic arguments that focus on factors external to the Sangh (the socio-political developments of the 1980s) and its ideological puritanism to explain the ‘rise’ of Hindu Nationalism in the late 1980s. Thus, this thesis argues that the Sangh’s dynamism, marked by its ability to act as an organisation that is cultural and political, Brahminical and caste-conciliatory and, violent and welfarist simultaneously, was the result of a distinct turn under the leadership of the Sangh’s third chief, M.D. Deoras. Deoras framed Hindu nationalist politics in the language of civic nationalism, allowing the Sangh to expand its narrow cultural Hindu nationalism to include civic ideas of constitutionalism, democracy, social welfare and caste emancipation. While the RSS showed a readiness for change even during the first two decades of its postcolonial history, Deoras’s ideological interventions amplified its tendencies to engage itself with contradictory political discourses and figures. By complicating the relationship between civic and ethnic nationalisms, this thesis not only enriches the expanding literature on Hindu Nationalism in India but also contributes significantly to the understanding of how organisations on the far right have been able to survive and thrive under democratic structures.