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RSS: A journey of 83 long years
By Arun Anand

New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which has got a new chief in Mohan Bhagwat, has travelled a long way since it was born in a middle class house in Nagpur in 1925 to mould the Hindu way of thinking and influence the national struggle for independence.
The organisation has remained controversial all these decades. From 1947 to 2009, successive governments banned it thrice. Its critics term the RSS ideology of “Hindutva” communal, conservative and revivalist.

Here are some interesting facts about RSS, which believes in staying away from the media glare:

* RSS was founded by a former Congress worker, Kesava Rao Baliram Hedgewar (known commonly as Doctorji in RSS circles), on Sep 27, 1925 at his residence in Nagpur, where it is now headquartered. The objectives for setting up the RSS were to unite Hindus and to uplift them, leading to the birth of a Hindu rashtra (nation).

* The name RSS was selected officially April 17, 1926. That year the RSS started its daily meetings called “nitya shakha” where volunteers, known as “swayamsevaks”, met every day.

* The “shakha” continues to be the basic unit of the RSS organisational structure, which along with its allied organisations is widely referred to as the Sangh Parivar. “Shakha” is from where RSS gets its volunteers.

* RSS calls these volunteers “swayamsevaks”. Anyone is free to come and join RSS meetings, which are generally held in neighbourhood parks. There is no official membership. Anyone who has come to a shakha even once is treated as a ’swayamsevak’

* According to RSS estimates, till the end of January 2009 there were 43,905 shakhas running in 30,015 places; weekly shakhas were being held in 4,964 places and monthly meetings took place in 4,507 locations all over India. There is no official count of its “swayamsevaks”.

* The first RSS chief was K.B. Hedgewar (1925-40). M.S. Golwalkar, also known as “Guruji (1940-73), was the second RSS chief followed by Balasaheb Deoras (1973-94), Rajendra Singh or “Rajju bhaiyya” (1994-2000) and K.S. Sudarshan (2000-09). Mohan Bhagwat is the sixth RSS chief.

* Within RSS circles, its chief is known as the “sarsanghchalak”. The term was coined in 1929. RSS chief is nominated by his predecessor. The general secretary is “sarkaryavah”. He is elected by an executive council for three years. These two are the most powerful positions in the RSS.

* RSS is exclusively for males. But it has a women’s wing, Rashtriya Sevika Samiti.

* When it was born, RSS was dominated by Maharashtrian Brahmins. Over the decades, it began to accept people from all segments of Hindu society.

* Till 1936, RSS was active only in Maharashtra. In the next decade or so, it established its presence in northern India through volunteers who decided to work full time for expanding the organisation. It now has a pan India presence.

* In 1948, RSS was banned in independent India for the first time following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. The government suspected that the RSS played an active role in the killing. The ban was lifted in 1949.

* RSS was banned twice later: during the ‘emergency’ rule of 1975 and after the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992.

* In 1949, RSS set up its first frontal organisation – Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) to work among students. This was followed in 1952 by Vanvasi Kalayan Asharam to work among tribals. In 1952, it actively supported the formation of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) by Shyama Prasad Mukharjee. BJS merged into the Janata Party in 1977 and was reborn as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980.

* In 1955, it started the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, now one of the biggest trade unions in the country.

* In 1963, RSS participated in the Republic Day parade in Delhi. Around 3,000 “swayamsevaks” took part.

* In 1964, the Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP) was set up to unite Hindu religious leaders. It played a leading role in the campaign to build a temple for Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya that led to the razing of the Babri mosque and helped the BJP to grow dramatically.

* From 1998 to 2004, while the BJP ruled India, the RSS flirted with power, but with disastrous consequences for its organisational base. It tried to dictate BJP’s agenda, resulting in hiccups in their relations.

* After the BJP’s defeat in 2004, the RSS decided to maintain a safe distance from party politics. Mohan Bhagwat, the new RSS chief, was one of the strongest advocates of this line.

 (see the following letter)

The Marxists are playing the game for RSS very well, it seems. Why do we need trusts for church property?
Who asked for that? Has it craeted any problem at all? Joseph Pulikkunnel might have asked for it. But who cares about him? When Christians were being murdered in Orissa, did he utter a word? I saw his interview in an RSS web site about the so called property. 
What is wrong if the bishop controls the property of the church? After all it is church’s property and the bishops have every right to do that. Bishops are not hereditory and they administer it only with the help of others. Worldwide, it is the same. But what is special about it in Kerala? The claim that the pope owns the property is a blatant lie. The Pope never ever interfered in church property or its administration.
The opponents can say that the temples are administered by the Devaswom Boad and some old masjids by Waqf Board. The temples were there for hundreds of years. They were mostly established by the kings or land lords, not by the ordinary Hindus.
But the church property is the creation of the church members. If they have no objection for the bishop to administer it, who has?
Also, there is another clever move. the Devaswom Board administers only temples. It does not administer the huge wealth of NSS or SNDP, SN Trust etc.
The law commission want to control churches, colleges, hospitals etc. Virtually the church will be controlled by a trust appointed by the corrupt politician. We know the corruption and fight in Devaswom board.
When the church is controlled by the government, the church officials will not set up new churches or colleges. They cannot set up missions. So effectively conversion can be stopped. Sangh parivar will be thrilled.
How are these churches and colleges were built? With the sacrifices of the church members. Even the self financing colleges are doing a good thing for the community. If the Christians have not set up them, these students will go and study in other states. The mentality that it is ok to go to other states and no colleges should come up in Kerala is simply not acceptable.
The same Marxists suffocated all new industry. So there are no industry in Kerala. They interfere in education. Now the education standards in Kerala is worse than other states. No Keralite wins all India examinations. If some wins, they might have studied in other states.
We all know what the license raj had done to indian economy. When it was freed from the bureacracy, Indian economy surged. The Marxists are trying to suffocate and control the church now.
Who knows they may be sharing the agenda of the BJP and Sangh parivar to throttle Christian church.

Another thing, has the church got that much property? We can say that the churches, colleges and hospitals are property. Are they? Who will sell it? Are they sellabel things?

The colleges and hospitals serve all people. It may be administered by the church, but it is common property.

The church could not amass as much wealth as some living gods in such shoter periods. The Marxists too have huge wealth.

Now there is an election soon, the Marxists should be shown the right place.

(P Thomas, NY)

Canonical papal control over Church properties in Kerala will be a new imperialism repugnant to the secular character and sovereign authority of ‘ We the People of India’, opined Justice (Rtd.) V R Krishna Iyer here.
Apparently with the approval of the ‘Christian High Command’ a pastoral letter is in circulation in chapels and other biblical institutions criticizing a few Bills of the Law Reforms Commission, Kerala which advocate hundred percent secular reforms in the Christian, Islamic and Hindu theological rituals, said the noted jurist, who is the Chairman of the Commission, in a statement.
Urging the Bishops to withdraw the pastoral letter, Justice Iyer said the vast properties of the Church in the State were the product of parishioner’s contributions and naturally the management of the estate must have democratic dimensions giving a voice to the Christian parishioners.
This was the basis of one Bill objected to by the Bishops who now enjoy the power over the properties and ultimately it is claimed that the Pope controls the Bishops on the basis of Canonical Law.
In India, law making is not left to Vatican but to the constitutional agencies under the authority of our sovereign suprema lex.
” Further, it was also relevant to note that the Christian Trust dimension recommended by the Commission was at the instance of many representations made by sincere Christians. That is why leading thinkers like Justice K.T. Thomas, former judge of the Supreme Court, and Dr M V Pylee, former Vice Chancellor of Cochin University, great Christians and believers, have fully supported the Commission’s recommendations,” Justice Iyer noted.
The second objection raised was to a bill recommending state grants for any Indian family below the poverty line and conforms to the family norm of not having more than two children.
No limitation whatever is put on the number of children nor is there any restraint on the rights of every child whatever be the number, which belongs to every Indian child Christian or non Christian.
The disqualification prescribed for violation of the family norm of not having more than two children prescribed by the Bill, was only for claiming grants and benefits allowed specially by the Bill for families conforming to the mentioned family norm, he pointed out.
The third Bill recommended is wholly out of humanitarian and compassionate considerations rooted on the basis of the humanist compassionate provisions of the Constitution (Article 51 A) that Euthanasia be given support by the State and not confined to any particular religion or community.
” You may agree or disagree but Euthanasia has nothing to do with Christian number of children is beyond the Commission’s comprehension. Family planning and Euthanasia are matters of national concern, not chapel or Church indoctrination. The Commission has taken a benignant view and it is improper and unfair to accuse it as propaganda of the Marxist Government interfering with Christian religion,” Justice Iyer pionted out.

Hindu American Foundation’s Annual Report Welcomed by Members of U.S. Congress.

The Hindu American Foundation is a 501(c)(3), non-profit, non-partisan organization promoting the Hindu and American ideals of understanding, tolerance and pluralism.www.HAFsite.org.

Washington, D.C. – Hindus in several regions throughout the world face daily acts of persecution and even terror, according to the most recent human rights report released in Washington, D.C. today.  Nine countries, where rights abuses are considered the most rampant, are listed in the 150-page report compiled and released annually by the Hindu American Foundation (HAF).  A bipartisan chorus of ranking members of the U.S. Congress and leaders of prominent non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) immediately endorsed the report.
 “As a staunch advocate for persecuted religious and ethnic minorities, I commend the Hindu American Foundation for its critical work monitoring, documenting and revealing human rights violations,” said Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) in a statement released to the Foundation. ”Our work to combat the abuses detailed in this report is
far from over and I will continue working with the Hindu American Foundation to protect basic human rights.”
Bangladesh and Pakistan saw the most egregious human rights abuses according to the report and garner specific censure.  In Bangladesh, nearly 300 acts of murder, rape, kidnappings, temple destruction and land grabs targeting Hindus were recorded over the nine months of reporting available to the Foundation.  The practice of enslaving
children as bonded laborers continues unabated in Pakistan, and forced conversions and systematic persecution of Hindus has caused the continued decline of their population from 30% to around 1% over fifty years.
“That the most fundamental human rights to life and liberty are denied to people globally solely because of their faith is as unacceptable as it is undeniable,” said Samir Kalra, Esq., member of the Foundation’s Executive Council and editor of this year’s report.  “The annual HAF report bears witness to the plight of millions of Hindus and other minorities while encouraging dialogue on this issue that is too often ignored.”
As in year’s past, the Foundation distributed a preliminary version of the report, entitled Survey of Human Rights on the Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora 2008, to congressional offices on Capitol Hill following up outreach efforts that continue throughout the year.  The HAF Director of Public Policy, Ishani Chowdhury will follow up with legislators advocating that appropriations of humanitarian and military aid be conditioned on real improvements in the human rights situation in recipient countries.  Pakistan, as the recipient of the most U.S. aid out of countries listed in the report, is set to receive over $1 billion in aid in 2009 alone.
“As the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Terrorism and co-chair of the House Caucus on India and Indian Americans, I have seen how the growth of radical Islam impacts the well-being of the Hindu population, and the threat to the peace-loving people of these nations,” said Representative Ed Royce (R-CA).  “This report importantly documents the plight of persecuted Hindus throughout South Asia and reports like this are important in documenting these human rights abuses.”
Malaysia again came in for censure in the annual report for the continued detention of non-violent Hindu activists belonging to the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) under draconian laws, and for the systematic treatment of Hindus as second-class citizens under Islamic laws.  Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago and India’s state of Jammu
and Kashmir are among the regions included in the report. “Where violations prevail, a constant disregard for basic human rights often leaves the oppressed and persecuted to suffer in silence,” said Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) after examining the report. “The Hindu American Foundation’s tireless advocacy to promote awareness and action on behalf of Hindu minorities across the globe serves as a leading example for those who value human rights and freedom.”  

A Former Nun’s Memoirs Rock India’s Catholic Church 

By Madhur Singh 

After 26 years as a nun, Jesme Raphael gave up her robes and walked out of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, the Catholic order in Kerala, India, that had been her home for three decades. Two years later, Raphael, now 53, has come out with her memoirs, Amen: An Autobiography of A Nun, cataloging lurid details of bullying, sexual abuse and homosexuality in the oldest Catholic women’s order in the idyllic coastal state in southern India. Shocking as it is, the book is only the latest in a long series of accusations and scandals afflicting the Catholic Church in the state with the largest population of Christians in India. 

“All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss [1 Corinthians 16:20],” Raphael quotes a priest as telling her, after she confronted him with allegations that “he kissed almost everyone who went for one-on-one meetings.” In other episodes, she tells of a forced lesbian encounter, being forced to strip in front of a naked priest who then masturbated, and being accused of being mentally unstable on complaining to her superiors. (See pictures about young nuns in the U.S. who have taken their vows.) 

Since the book’s release on January 30, publishers DC Books have already sold all 3,000 copies, and a re-print has been ordered. The Catholic church is miffed. “There is no dearth of anti-religion people in Kerala society,” says Dr Stephen Alathara, deputy secretary of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council. “They are using this for their anti-social, anti-church activities.” In 1957, Kerala elected the world’s first democratically elected communist government, and it has been under communist rule since the last state elections in 2006. 

A spokesperson for the Syro-Malabar order of the Catholic Church, Father Paul Thelakkat, adds that Raphael’s allegations stem from “some wounded feelings” which Raphael should have raised with the church instead of “maligning the life of religious nuns”. He goes on to add that Raphael’s allegations are “not especially serious”. “The church never claims there’s no sin within the church,” he says. “We’re not angels, we’re human beings of flesh and blood, so some omissions and failures can happen. But the church is perennially on a path of renewal and reformation, we’re trying to deal with these problems and such allegations.” 

There has been no shortage of them in recent months. On February 11, Sister Josephine, a nun in the Daughters of Mary congregation in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala’s state capital, was found dead in her room in an apparent suicide. Members of the congregation said the 38-year-old nun had been under treatment for depression. After news of the incident spread, a crowd gathered around the house and shouted slogans alleging that harassment had led Sister Josephine to kill herself. The police had to intervene, and an inquiry into the case was later ordered. Six months earlier, on August 11 last year, 23-year-old Sister Anoopa Mary had been found hanging in her room in St Mary’s Convent in Kollam, north of the capital. In what was purportedly her suicide note, she had said she could no longer withstand the senior nuns’ harassment. Her father, a cook in the local Bishop’s house, charged that sexual exploitation had led his daughter to take her life. The convent has denied the allegations, though a court investigation is still ongoing. 

See pictures of Pope Benedict XVI visiting America. 

Read TIME’s cover story, “The Secret Life of Mother Theresa.” 

Recently, there have been expulsions and other disciplinary action in response to other cases of misconduct within the Church. In June last year, a nun in a Christian hospital was expelled after a video of her having sex with a driver was circulated over mobile phones and the Internet. In October, Pope Benedict XVI had suspended a bishop in the coastal city of Cochin after his adoption of a 26-year-old woman as his daughter raised questions. The bishop has denied any wrongdoing, and said he adopted the woman out of fatherly love. But the church took him off all duties and instituted an inquiry. 

“Such problems have been there in almost all convents [in Kerala],” says Joseph Pulikunnel, a veteran Syrian Catholic social reformer who edits Osanna, a magazine aimed at Kerala’s Catholic community. “The convents are closed to the public, we don’t know what is happening inside.” He says India’s Catholic church, which accounts for 70% of all denominations among India’s 25 million Christians, owns vast properties across the country, including over 30,000 educational institutes and 6,000 hospitals. In Kerala, the Church runs 60% of the private educational institutes. The state’s near 100% literacy — a singular case in a country where the average adult literacy rate is just about 60% — is thanks largely to the church’s zealous missionary activity. Yet, critics claim this gives the church a high degree of political and economic power. Church reform activists also say the affairs of the Catholic church — to which 60% of Kerala’s Christians belong — should be brought more directly under the control of Indian authorities to make its workings more transparent. As of now, church affairs are under the stewardship of the Pope. (See pictures of spiritual healing around the world.) 

In recent months, the church has been more forthcoming about the problems it faces. Sathyadeepam, Kerala’s Catholic weekly, released a report in January that said almost 20% of the region’s nuns — the church says there are about 45,000 — feel “insecure or unaccepted” in their convents. Cases of nuns speaking up like Raphael are still rare, but there may be an avalanche building up due to the changing social scenario. Earlier, girls from disadvantaged families embraced the vows, finding that life in a convent, while hard, saved them from the worst of deprivation. But once in an order, they found it difficult to complain or leave. “They simply had nowhere to go,” says Pulikunnel, “If they quit the convent, they’d be thrown out penniless, and their families wouldn’t take them back.” 

But times have changed. Churches around the world have been coming to grips with legacies of quiet abuse, and Indian society, too, has evolved. There is no longer a stigma attached to giving up the robes and returning to the laity. There are plenty of well-paying jobs — nursing has proven particularly attractive for Kerala women as it is seen as a passport to a foreign job and big bucks — and many youngsters are not up for a lifetime of celibacy and a religious vocation. Although figures have not been collated, activists claim a steady decline in the number of young people taking the vows, or, like Raphael, renouncing their vows. 

But to stem the rot that has set in, the church will first have to admit the real nature and extent of the problem. If Dr Alathara’s reaction is anything to go by, that candor is a long way off. When asked about the numerous allegations of sexual abuse in the church, he says, “[Alleging sexual abuse] is an old tool of hitting at the ecclesiastical society. It’s nothing new. It happened 2,000 years ago too.” Father Thelakkat’s reaction is somewhat similar — though he doesn’t deny Raphael’s allegations, he refuses to acknowledge their seriousness either: “The incidents may be true, but they are isolated cases.” Clearly, it’s time to connect the dots, and see the bigger picture. 

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-04/the-bobby-jind
al-racism-puzzle