Lighthouse: RSS and its ways to influence Tamil Nadu

One of the foremost strategies of the RSS is to take over temples and its management through penetration into the temple committees

Tamil Nadu has been on the radar of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for a while, more intensely since the passing away of influential leaders like Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi. The National Council meeting of the RSS was held in Coimbatore for the first time in the state in the organisation’s 92-year-old history in March 2017. This meeting of Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS), the highest decision-making and policy formulation body of the RSS, was inaugurated by Mohan Bhagwat himself. Tamil Nadu and Punjab are two states which have been resisting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) strongly due to their insistence on preservation of their distinct identity. The RSS, which found it difficult to organise rallies or demonstrations in Tamil Nadu under the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa’s regime, conducted its route march in Chennai after a gap of 16 years in January, 2017. Today, there are nearly 2,200 shakas operating currently in Tamil Nadu and 600 shakas have been established in the last few years alone. There are 100,000 shakas operating today throughout the country. This figure indicates an increase of nearly 100 % during the period between 2010 and 2020.

Volunteers of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. (Representational image/HT Archive)

There are also front organisations like Hindu Munnani (Hindu Front) and associate political parties like Hindu Mahasabha which are also quite active at the grassroots. Shakas are a regular feature in rural areas of Tamil Nadu, especially in the Coimbatore-Nilgiris zone. The RSS leadership in Tamil Nadu believes that the growth of organisation would automatically impact on the voters’ mobilisation in favour of the BJP. The RSS is responsible for coordinating sympathetic private school & college managements and select private universities with strong affiliations to the organisation in Tamil Nadu under common socio-cultural and religious grouping with a long-term strategy of political functions for the BJP. These institutions are part of the ideological and political lobbying network with the presence of powerful RSS members on board who hold high positions in the Union government and other critical national institutions, including the Reserve Bank of India.

There are increasing numbers of students’ scholarships available for the organisation and party members studying in the colleges and universities. The RSS is also active at the grassroots with the networking of influential north Indian traders and business community along with the facilitation of ration cards & voter identity for the vast number of migrant labour from North in metropolis and big cities in Tamil Nadu. All these networking happen in the name of hosting nationalist and religious events in the semi-urban and urban areas as well as by organising weekend get-togethers of influential business persons/groups.

The donations for temples and financing of rural religious festivals are increasingly becoming common. The RSS local units are advised to identify temples longing for financial support and organise activities to engage the local community, especially the women.One of the foremost strategies of the RSS is to take over temples and its management through penetration into the temple committees. There is a concerted campaign by the RSS and its affiliate organisations in the state against the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) of the government of Tamil Nadu.

This is a twin headed policy drive for RSS and BJP in the state with mutual benefits of organisational growth and political outreach for the party. The strategy includes the politics of provocation like saffronisation of poet-philosopher Thiruvalluvar and adoption of celebrated deity Murugan as part of its propaganda machinery which are desperate acts to absorb the popular attention of the masses. Religious chants were liberally mixed with the election campaign during the Assembly Elections 2021 by the BJP, including the Prime Minister himself during his election campaigns in Tamil Nadu.

There is a special focus to draw more women’s support and the RSS is directly involved in organising Lakshmi Pooja on full moon days and on special occasions through its local units in different parts of the state. Vinayaka Chathurthi and Krishna Jayanthi festivals are slowly being surrendered to the initiatives of RSS in Tamil Nadu like elsewhere in the country. Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS chief did find a cause to join the Pongal festival in Tamil Nadu in January 2021 with state assembly elections only a few months away. RSS is also trying to absorb local deities and cults as part of its new drive to thrust a dominant Hindu paradigm as well as distort the local beliefs and indigenous practices as though they have no roots. There are also reverse attempts by generating Tamil identity such as Tamil Divine Society (Tamil Deivega Sangam) initiatives as a mask to cover the saffronisation of Tamil Hindu society as well as to defy its image as a north-centric politico-religious outfit.

BJP’s attempts to gain greater influence in Tamil Nadu politics through caste and communal politics will continue as core strategies in the near future. Despite the presence of a strong Dravidian movement and social bases, RSS and its affiliates will continue to engage and conduct politics in Tamil Nadu with an assurance of power at the Union remains unchallenged.

Prof.Ramu Manivannan is a scholar-social activist in areas of education, human rights and sustainable development through an initiative “Multiversity”