(^124) "Presenting" the Past
its office bearers, and they held training camps in their areas. The camps
"trained volunteers in Indian games, physical exercises, shooting practice
with airguns, and also classes in Savarkar ideology."^56
In 1925 the RSS started organizing, promoting, and demonstrating the
"Hindu strength." Their founder, Hedgewar, "had delved deep into past
history" and resolved that the "past blunders" should not be repeated. The
country that had attained commanding heights in the past "found itself
defeated and disgraced at the hands of a handful of foreign invaders."
"Several grave defects had crept into our national being and corroded our
internal strength," making the country easy prey for the invaders. "With
the basic Hindu weakness continuing to plague us even after Indepen-
dence," Hedgewar knew that "an overall Hindu morale alone could prove
an effective antidote to all such anti-national challenges," and sought "to
strengthen the same."^57
The Swayamsevaks came to stand "for the all-round progress of Bharat-
avarsha [India] by strengthening the holy Hindu Dharma, Hindu San-
skriti and Hindu Samaj."^58 Such a task, quite conspicuously, "requires
stout and steady hearts which shall remain unshaken amidst adversities
and temptations. It is to mould such inspired lives that the Sangh lays
utmost stress on day-to-day samskars, day-to-day inculcation of all those
qualities of head and heart which go to foster strength and competence in
the individual to march on the path of lifelong dedication."^59 This lifelong
dedication includes continual physical preparation, military discipline,
ideological indoctrination, and religious fervor. The RSS leader calls out,
"Let those ancient embers of devotion lying dormant in every Hindu heart
be fanned and joined in a sacred conflagration which shall consume all the
past aggressions on our motherland and bring to life the dream of Bharat
Mata reinstated in her pristine undivided form."^60 As a result of this rigor-
ous organization and indoctrination, the RSS has become what Golwalkar
called an "unconquerable, invincible fortress" whose gusto, bravado,
enthusiasm, and heroics attract the victims of socioeconomic problems
and lead them on the path of hatred, violence, and racial or communal
arrogance.^61
The RSS is also joined in this "cultural revival" by militant groups such
as Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal. The first Shiv Sena movement, inaugurated
on June 19, 1966, in Bombay, arose directly from urban unemployment,
demanding jobs for Maharashtrians in Bombay, where they were (and
continue to be even today) a minority. This original project, created by
Bal Thackeray, was basically chauvinistic rather than religious and cam-
paigned for the expulsion of immigrant workers so as to make place for
the "sons of the soil." They took on the communists because the strikes of
the latter jeopardized their employment prospects, and attacked Muslims
for being agents of Pakistan and for having come to usurp jobs from young
Maharashtrians. The Shiv Sena incited terrible pogroms against Muslims
tina meador
(Tina Meador)
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