A recent speech by the RSS Chief Shri Mohan Bhagwat offers a very interesting insight into the evolution of the Sangh’s world view. On the one hand there was the trademark paranoia of threats within and external. On the other hand were glimpses of a forward looking entrepreneurial tradition that draws inspiration from all things great and ancient. At times the two are in conflict. One also sees in the speech of other conflicts between the Individual and the Institutional, between the commonplace and the intellectual. Overall the speech is a sign that even from the Sangh’s perspective economic aspirations of this century outweigh culture polemics of the last century.
The full speech can be found here.
It is worth pointing out that where the Sangh sees challenges be it on borders, economic policies or corruption it betrays a mindset of the Chowkidaar. Alert to the threats but ever paranoid of anything that moves in the dark. There is more rhetoric on the threat, hardly any on the solution. There is much emphasis on individual character traits to resist these threats. Not much emphasis at all on Institutional defenses against these threats. Metaphorically speaking one gets the mental picture of a Chowkidaar helpless against threats with just a “seeti” and a “danda” for defense and all at sea when confronted with anything more sophisticated. This mental picture is reinforced by the fears expressed of “Intellectual Terrorism”.
In stark contrast a different picture emerges when speaking of challenges faced by the Entrepreneur who designed a new prototype calculator but failed to get it mass manufactured in India. With emphasis on Indian traditions of innovation and design followed by multiple anecdotes a picture is painted of a vision of modern India that thrives on knowledge and is not apologetic of the enlightened pursuit of interest (Dharma+Artha). A mental picture of the Philosopher King emerges with the sage counsel that “revolution is myth” and that change is an evolutionary process that calls for patience. That mental picture is reinforced by the call to develop a sense of ownership and a spirit of pan-Indianess that sheds violence and engages with the processes of Democracy.
This blog has long been critical of the anti-intellectualism that has bared itself within the broad movement lead by the Sangh. It is good to see signs of an evolution from the Chowkidaar mindset towards the mindset of a Philosopher King. It is also good to see an evolution from cultural polemics towards economic aspirations. The opportunity exists for the Sangh to steer the broader movement it leads towards an entrepreneurial but conservative Indian tradition.
In the days to come can we expect to see greater emphasis on Institution building and more confidence in engaging intellectually with contrarian schools of thought ?
In closing these excerpts from that speech
The present era is the era of information. The era that would follow this is the era of knowledge and none but India is better placed to lead the world towards the knowledge society. There is no paucity of talent in our country. We keep hearing of management trainees successfully managing vegetable vending chains and making considerable profits. We are successful because we have the twin advantage of having a great knowledge base that we inherited from our great culture and also the benefits of modern education. We have traditional knowledge systems that handed over Vedas down the generations. We also have knowledge system in the realms of agriculture and technology. We have our own jugad technology that is both innovative as well as indigenous.
Filed under: Narendra Modi, Nitin Gadkari, Shveta Chhatra
One reason why RSS has never talked/thought about institutional reforms is because, that was never in it’s main agenda. Sangh’s agenda always remained ‘national reconstruction through individual character building’! Though the building of strong institutions are equally important, sangh always outsourced that job to it’s affiliates, mostly political affiliates like BJS/BJP. That lead to integral humanism etc.. etc.. which all were left midway, uncompleted. So, sangh seems to prefer the role of ‘raja guru’ (king’s philosopher!) who keep a tab on the king on his individual character and morality. And it’s the duty of the king, to think of building institutions that can make the nation strong healthy.
Once again am sorry for leaving the wrong comment on the wrong post, but I guess most of us are deeply stuck in the vagaries of realpolitik at this moment of time to digest the long term philosophical portends of the Sangh.
Having observed the power games and high political drama of the last 10 days in Bangalore from very close quarters I am both dismayed and amused at the way the principal right-wing party of India is drowning in its own cesspool of deception. I will try and post the entire story as a comment sometime tomorrow. Yossarin, thanks as always for providing the platform to the right wing thought process and giving us space to voice our concerns and post our reports.
Tonight (11 PM, 2nd August 2011) am sticking my neck out again to re-iterate my Saturday night report that Mr. Sadanand Gowda has already been chosen as the successor to Yeddy by the powers that be; while the rest of the drama that has been played out for the last 3-4 days is an exercise in futility just to keep the patriarch happy in his last few indulgences.
Yossarin
Sangh has no worth.
So what are you going on & on about.
Use your intellect and get your job done.
Start your party . If it deserves the value, people will associate with it and vote.
Eazy.
RSS is more of a doer than thinker.This comes partly from the belief that bulk of the thinking for us [ Hindus] has already been done for us by our ancestors.Do we have to THINK much or DO more to be MORAL? Refer to Kunti’s advice to her sons, before departing [finally] in to the forests along with other elders at the end of MAHABHARAT war.
” FOLLOW DHARMA AND MAINTAIN A LIBERAL MIND SET”
If we are adequately liberal, we will be able to think our way out of the maze of intellectualisms.Point is,do we follow DHARMA and are we adequately liberal, as enjoined upon by our mother, 5000 years ago? If not, what good is the intellectualism? Intellectualism of the Left libers has not taken them any where, since the times of Marx and Mao.
Late Pt Deendayal Upadhyay was an RSS pracharak, working for BJS.In the fifties, he could forsee the exploitation of the resources that comes from the pursuit of free markets or bonded minds [of the Stalinists or Maoists.]Hence the Hindu way of milking the nature,rather than exploiting it.After 60 years, mankind has come around to this view.We all may perish by 2111, if we don’t follow this.
Was his ” INTEGRAL HUMANISM” an intellectual extercise or a call for action? Acttions based on right choices?
But you have a point.
RSS in 21st century, needs to create and support Think Tanks, like they have done in USA.Think Tanks that exist in and around Delhi are a good starting point.We all need to do more, but away from the glare [ and glamour] of Delhi.
RAMBHAU MHALGI PRABODHINI , is one that RSS has set up in Pune/Mumbai.Long ago, it had MANTHAN.
We need Think Tanks for external/internal security, for Reforms in Judiciary,for Foreign relations,for Agriculture, for R & D [ we must aspire to lead the world in this area from now on] and for host of issues relevant to our times and our aspirations.
In 21st century and beyond [ if there is beyond], RSS and every one else will have to THINK afresh before ACTING.
The Karnataka Saga
Part 1
The drama that unfolded over the last fortnight in Karnataka gave us a few glimpses of the infighting amongst the so called “weak leadership” of the principal opposition party in India today, the BJP. Although I do not fully subscribe to the theory of “weak leadership” and would rather give them the benefit of doubt by invoking the federal structure of the party (unlike the Congress), still one has to concede that the BJP did make a spectacle of itself in the day of 24/7 TV that is hungry for news. It would be fun to narrate the actual chronology of events as they unfolded rather than how most of the media narrated the entire episode (since I was a participant observer in all of it and have a firsthand knowledge; without sounding immodest). But then, that would be too long a comment on Offstumped so I would limit myself to a few highlights.
The Cast: (not necessarily in any order)
Nitin Gadkari: in full control and completely backing Yeddy to the hilt, by helping him orchestrate the entire drama.
Arun Jatley: leaning towards the Yeddy gang and tacitly supporting Gadkari in this battle of wits.
Rajnath singh: ostensibly watching from the sidelines but actually trying to re-discover his long lost friendship with Yeddy.
Venkaiah Naidu: the joker among the pack, outwardly supporting the Yeddy gang but having his own agendas in the party.
Sushma Swaraj: keeping at “arms length” from the events till Sunday night and then jumping into the frame suddenly.
L.K. Advani: sulking all along at the falling moral standards of the party that he has built and openly craving to anoint his protégé to the CM’s post in order to recapture the high moral ground from the gang of carpetbaggers & fixers that have seemingly swept the party.
B.S. Yeddiyurappa: “popular mass leader” surrounded by yes-men who continuously give him visions of superman like invincibility and concoct figures of 150 seats in the next elections.
Anant Kumar: constantly in dreamland believing that the party has wronged him by denying what is rightfully his & has delusions of a huge mass support in the state.
K.S. Eashwarappa: has mellowed down a lot with age (in just 2 years that is) yet always overestimates his own capabilities.
Jagadish Shettar: a wannabe nemesis of BSY with neither the support nor the charisma.
Reddy Brothers: caught between the rock and a hard place so constantly re-assessing their assets and losses.
Sadanand Gowda: still pinching himself in disbelief, “how the hell did my million dollar smile land me here?”
Contd…
The Karnataka Saga
Part 2
The story (as is):
First of all let me clarify that the drama that unfolded in Karnataka was neither “cutting Yeddy to size”, nor “Yeddy v/s high command” as portrayed by most of the media. Instead it was an exercise in cutting Anant Kumar to size and putting him out of the reckoning from the now infamous “Dilli4” gang of Kanchanda’s folklore.
Right from day one Yeddy was backed by Gadkari and was advised on all the drama of delaying tactics in order to gain support and time. Yeddy was never acting alone, in fact he was constantly updating the party president of all the events, so much so that even the set of “central observers” were chosen carefully to help Yeddy weed out the Anant gang.
On Saturday night (as I reported to Offstumped) both Jatley & Gadkari agreed to anoint Sadananda Gowda as the successor after consulting all the “leaders”, so sweets were distributed and everybody in the Yeddy gang congratulated each other.
After having chosen Gowda as the successor, the Jatley-Gadkari-Singh combo let the crisis linger on so that they can prove how unpopular and baseless Anant Kumar was in his own state which weakened the Advani-Swaraj-Kumar gang further.
In fact, Yeddy had offered the DCM post to his rival gang on Sunday night which got a positive response from Eashwarappa but was shot down by the over-confident Anant Kumar who had already convinced Sushma swaraj to enter the fray and bring the Reddy faction to his side. Yeddy then offered 2 DCM posts to both Shettar & Eashwarappa through Rajnath Singh but Anant Kumar rejected that too and proposed “secret ballot” as the only solution
Sushma swaraj who had remained a silent spectator till Sunday afternoon suddenly jumped into the frame after realizing that the Jatley-Gadkari combo was gaining the upper hand. This resulted in the Reddy gang shifting their loyalties from pro-Yeddy to neutral to anti-Yeddy in the space of a few hours.
In a last ditch effort the Patriarch of party, Advaniji dashes a letter to everybody to get rid of Yeddiyurappa and co to save the party but even that has no effect on the eventual outcome.
3 Conclusions:
Anant Kumar is a bad planner; he had almost a month’s time to prepare for the aftermath of the Lokayukta report and yet he had no plan of action to gain the support of MLA’s and party workers. He probably deserves an ignominious burial in the party’s graveyard despite of what Advani ji might think of him.
Yeddy needs more critics in his inner circle to give a frank assessment on his achievements and shortcomings so that he can truly attain his potential as a mass leader
BJP needs to manage the perceptions by better managing the media… I do not want to go into a lengthy argument about “left-liberal” media and its inherent bias towards BJP and its politics, but surely something needs to be done immediately. Why is it that all your shortcomings get highlighted everyday no matter how little or inconsequential they are, where as all your achievements are sidelined amidst all the noise?
“Why is it that all your shortcomings get highlighted everyday no matter how little or inconsequential they are, where as all your achievements are sidelined amidst all the noise?”
Because the BJP needs to learn the one lesson Karunanidhi teaches really really well
get your own goddamned TV channel.
Its high time BJP starts a channel or makes some of the existing channels drop their bias towards them. This point has been raised by BJP supporters from a long time. Why cannot they start a channel or media house that supports BJP when there are channels started by much smaller regional parties in AP and TN.
Wonderful narration of events from Albatrossinflight. Thanks for letting Offstumped and all his readers know the actual happenings.
If you can then keep it coming, we will know the inner democracy and also the filthy (Ananth Kumar types) in BJP.
cheers again
@Albatrossinflight: thanks for the valuable insights. highly appreciated.
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