RSS to step up campaign against religious conversions, focus on social harmony
It has also been decided that the RSS would press the accelerator on its campaign to enlist ideologically inclined youths. The process would gain momentum in the coming months
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will step up a campaign against “love jihad” and illegal religious conversion through enticements, while getting women, Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBCs) to be the torchbearers of its “samajik sadbhav (social harmony)” agenda that also overlaps with the Sangh’s larger design of Hindu unity.
This has emerged after multiple meetings that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has held as part of his ongoing Awadh Prant visit in Lucknow.
For organisational purposes, the RSS has divided Uttar Pradesh into six parts - Braj, Meerut (both west UP), Kanpur-Bundelkhand, Awadh, Gorakhpur and Kashi (Varanasi).
Love jihad is a term coined by Sangh’s affiliate Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) to define Hindu women being lured by Muslim men through fake identity to enter a relationship and for being converted to Islam.
It has also been decided that the Sangh would press the accelerator on its campaign to enlist ideologically inclined youths. The process would gain momentum in the coming months. The move holds special significance for two reasons – the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, now about six months away, and the Sangh’s centenary celebrations in September 2025. Special training camps or workshops to introduce youngsters to the Sangh’s ideology and functioning are being held, RSS cadres indicated.
“It has been decided to step up the Sangh’s outreach campaign in rural areas, besides pressing the accelerator on anti-national activities, love jihad and religious conversion through enticements,” said an RSS leader privy to the discussions held in Bhagwat’s presence.
‘Matantaran’ (religious conversion through force or enticements) and love jihad have long been on the Sangh’s agenda but got further impetus since 2017, when a “double engine” BJP governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh have been in power.
The RSS leaders also make it clear that the campaign was not directed against Muslims per se, but against “misguided youths”.
The Sangh has already floated a Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) to connect with “nationalist Muslims”, a process that would continue, RSS leaders said.
Marginalised but numerically dominant and politically important communities have also been on the Sangh agenda. OBCs and Dalits have been the mainstays of the BJP’s phenomenal success in Uttar Pradesh since 2014 when the party successfully did away with the perception of it largely being a party of upper castes and traders.
This change, an RSS cadre admitted, is also being noticed within the Sangh whose cades don’t use their surnames to conceal their caste identity, reflecting Sangh’s larger design on Hindu unity and grooming cadres with ‘nationalistic intent.’
The Sangh and all its 36 affiliates will look to increase women’s participation, especially in creating awareness on various issues central to the RSS thought, Sangh leaders said.
The Women’s Reservation Bill has only recently been passed in both houses of Parliament. The BJP has described the historic decision as one that came about under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a former RSS pracharak.
It is also part of the Sangh’s “samajik sadbhav” (social harmony) agenda. An RSS department with the same name has already begun holding consultative meets on topics like – ‘rashtriyata-samajik sadbhav vimarsh (nationality and social harmony)’ - the title of one such meet held in Lucknow on Sunday.
“A nation is weakened if it lacks social harmony and that is why RSS has been working in this regard,” senior RSS functionary Kripa Shankar said.
“The Sangh has always been of the view that temples, crematoriums and wells should be common for all,” he added, focusing on the need to develop a nationalistic outlook over and above feelings of caste, class and community.