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‘Why don’t they resist?’: RSS chief on how Hindus should react to caste divide
The comments on caste come also at a time when election is underway in BJP-ruled Bihar, where caste has played a big role in determining political fortunes
Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the ruling BJP's ideological parent body RSS, has urged people not to be divided by caste “in national matters”, and blamed politics for it.
"Who asked Hindus to be divided? Why don’t they resist? Politicians divide us, but why don’t we say that we are one as a nation?” he said during an in-house question-answer session of the RSS in Bengaluru, Karnataka, where the organisation is facing increased scrutiny.
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Bhagwat's comments on caste come also at a time when an assembly election is underway in BJP- and JDU-ruled Bihar, a state where caste has played a big role in determining political fortunes. The BJP claims to position itself as party across castes, thus seeking to counter the caste-based “social justice” narrative of parties such as the main opposition RJD in Bihar.
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“Politics comes and divides us,” said Bhagwat, “Politicians come and say ‘you are of this caste, he is of that'. Don't go with him. Why cannot I answer that 'I don't recognise caste in this matter; it is a national matter.'”
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“We need to get ourself educated and reformed in the matter of unity,” he added, referring to the Hindu community, which he has defined as “everyone in India”, including Muslims and Christians.
He said the RSS has been against caste divisions since its inception in 1925. Critics of the RSS say it does not seek to annihilate caste but only remove it from the narrative to suit its vision of a “Hindu nation”.
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To a question about the RSS's vision for the next two decades, Bhagwat, who recently turned 75, said, “We want to unite, organise, impart qualities to the entire Hindu society, so that they will create a prosperous and strong Bharat, which will impart dharma knowledge to the world, so that the world becomes happy, blissful and peaceful.”
“We are preparing Hindu society for that,” he added, “Ours is this singular vision... After we fulfill that vision, we don't want to do anything else.”
“Organising the entire Hindu society, is our task. We'll finish (that task), and the organised society will do the rest,” he explained, then putting it succinctly again: “Our mission, our vision, is an organised, strong Hindu society.”
