Ambekar, Sunil (2019), The RSS Roadmaps for the 21st Century, New Delhi: Rupa Publications.
Abhishek
Ever since the Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) got a full majority in the 2014 parliamentary election and formed government, people’s interest in knowing and understanding Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) that roughly translates as National Volunteer Association in English – increased manifold. This is not surprising at all because being interested to know about the ideology and functioning of the ruling party is very obvious. So, when a Swayamsevak (volunteer) is the Prime Minister of the country, people getting interested to know better about RSS is natural.
Although there is no dearth of literature about RSS, it has been a common complaint that the literature available fails to give a clear understanding of RSS’s vision and action. So, along with this rising interest in RSS emerged an ever-increasing disinterest in the available literature about the RSS. The complaint is moreover true because, if you get all the literature and do small search for most of the authors. You will find that most of the literature that had been available in the market published by many known publishers has been written by those mainstream academics that have largely been abhorrent about RSS and its ideology. So instead of telling the reader what RSS is? The simple argument that runs through these books is why there must not be the RSS?
So, the majority of those who wanted to know about RSS found these secondary sources of no use. So, in recent years, there was a growing demand for an insider view. They wanted to know RSS from those who have been associated with RSS. RSS being an ideological movement encouraged its activists and office bearers – in its own terminology responsibility-holders – to learn and write from the very beginning, and this is the reason why you will find an RSS activist more informed about his/her ideas compared to others. But, there is a problem, as most of the literature is written for the activists, in the style that suites the swayamsevaks, so that they can easily connect with them and make most of them. When the same literature goes in the hands of common people, they find themselves unable to comprehend properly.
The Book “The RSS Roadmaps for the 21st Century” fills this gap. The best thing about this work by Sunil Ambekar, a RSS high- ranking pracharak (a word for the RSS full-timers who devote their life for it) who has been National Organizing Secretary of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) since 2003 is that it narrates in very simple but powerful way the Sangh’s 94-year-old journey in less than 250 pages. It starts in the early years of the twentieth-century explaining the background and the formation of the RSS. While dealing with these topics it clears many of the doubts and provides straight forward answers to so many questions that had been and is being raised on the RSS – for example, what makes RSS different from Hindu Mahasabha? What does it mean to be born as an Indian?
The crux of the book is not that it responds well to the allegations being made out at the RSS but the insights that it provide about the future course of action of RSS. Ambekar touches upon many of the contemporary issues – relevant not only for India but to the world. He talks at length about economy and environment. In the second chapter, when he deals about the ideas that shaped Sangh he out rightly says that “technology should never replace human beings” and “the Sangh advocates the use of eco-friendly technologies, particularly those that have an indigenous origin”. He laments that “human greed has caused environmental exploitation to the level of extreme depredation” and further makes a big statement that “Hindutva is an environmental movement”.
Another point that makes this book an interesting read is that it explains the RSS thinking behind many of the initiatives taken by the present government. The best example being the expansion of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML). Lending support to the idea of changing NMML to a museum on prime ministers of India, Ambekar calls that “revamp of existing museums is necessary as many untold histories have to be made known” in a manner to provide answers to many of the questions that have been asked to RSS. The book talks about many issues that have been the headlines in the recent years like live-in relationships, inter-caste marriages, homosexuality, transgender rights and many more. Ambekar has very clear stand on these issues; it may be because being National Organizing Secretary of ABVP, he has experience of encountering difficult questions and answering it in a manner that it is easily understood, especially by the youth. RSS is too big to be explained in a single book; there cannot be a single book explaining it fully. Sangh doesn’t believe in status quo; it believes in syncing itself with the time. It’s impossible to understand Sangh’s ideas, thoughts, and thinking process by reading the books only; you need to practice it. But no doubt, it is the book to start with.
