IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY, perhaps no organization of the size, sweep, scale, reach and longevity of the RSS, has been so consistently demonized and persecuted for selflessly serving its country and culture. A majority of this vilification and persecution has emanated from sections of the very country and society it serves. This is a travesty of epic proportions.
This vilification is rooted not in informed criticism but enmity. This is why it is almost impossible to find a single honest critic of the RSS. The entire corpus of RSS-criticism is a Himalaya of lies and dishonesty. This attitude of wilful deception directly stems from the macabre Mleccha psyche that declares that all is fair in love and war. In the Sanatana view, love is tenderness, spirituality and submission, and there is Dharma in war as well. The deception persists despite the stated position and practice of the RSS welcoming honest critiques about itself from all quarters.
The century-long history of RSS-baiting unambiguously shows that one of the core goals of this deplorable project is to prevent neutral observers – or people who have no stake in the RSS — from examining what the RSS really is. What attracts millions of people to join it full time or contribute to it with no expectation of reward? What explains its extraordinary durability in the face of ruthless persecution – including the appalling torture and death its members underwent – unleashed by the full might of the Indian state? And what explains the trajectory that has led to its seemingly-miraculous upsurge since the last decade?
The sheer criminality that lies at the heart of RSS-vilification becomes clear by contrasting it with three glaring elements.
The first is the Church organisation.
The Vatican is the world’s largest and oldest criminal organisation. Throughout history, it has toppled empires, caused hundreds of wars across continents, shattered harmonious societies, and liquidated scores of non-Christian civilisations. Yet, this gruesome record, spanning more than a millennium, has not left even a dot of ugly stain on its reputation as a saintly organisation. The reason: its formidable PR machinery. The combined expertise of marketing and PR talent of all the corporates in the world pales in comparison with the prowess of the Vatican, which has elevated PR to an art form. Its effectiveness is all the more diabolical because it occurs silently and it occurs at the highest levels of political power. One of its greatest successes in India is its decadal role in giving the RSS a dirty name and simultaneously painting itself in the colours of love, compassion, and service.
The case of Graham Staines is an eminent example of how the Church PR works. Staines, an Australian Christian fanatic and missionary, was allegedly killed by Dara Singh, a Bajrang Dal activist who waged a courageous battle against rampant conversions of tribals in Odisha. Staines and his wife were spearheading these conversions, which disrupted the centuries-long harmony of tribal societies in the state. Dara Singh was battling on two major fronts: one, to prevent further conversions and two, to bring the converted tribals back to their ancestral Hindu fold. Long story short, Graham Staines and his two sons were allegedly murdered by Dara Singh who could take it no more. The Justice Wadhwa Commission of Inquiry which was tasked with the case gave its verdict as follows: "Ultimately, investigation revealed that the crime was committed by a relative of the victims who was also a Christian." Yet, both the Odisha high court and the Supreme Court sentenced Dara Singh to life imprisonment. What followed was even worse. Graham Staines’ widow, Gladys Staines was awarded the Padma Sri! These outcomes are a classic case of overturning the very conception of justice. And they were achieved precisely through the frightening PR clout of the Church. It deployed sold-out and partisan editors and journalists in the India media to demonise Dara Singh and enlisted Hindu-hating organisations like Human Rights Watch to run a sustained campaign that “Christians are facing persecution in India from Hindu militants.”
The same tragic history repeated itself in the selfsame Odisha in 2008 when Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati was assassinated in cold blood for the selfsame reason: preventing missionary conversions. I’ve recounted this painful saga in detail elsewhere in The Dharma Dispatch. Even in this case, the ill-fated Swami was villainised and Christians, once again, were allegedly under threat in India.
Dara Singh and Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati made it to the headlines and their legacy of selfless service to the Hindu community brought them disgrace and death, thanks precisely to the Church-controlled PR apparatus. The number of unknown and unmourned Dara Singhs and Lakshmananda Saraswatis throughout India runs into thousands if not lakhs.
Apart from grassroots conversions of Hindus, the crab-like clutch of the Church apparatus over the Government poses a clear, long-term threat. It has obtained this grip by cultivating individual politicians across political parties. Nothing else explains why the Church has emerged as the second largest landowner in India. Most of the land given to various Christian organisations were given by the British. In 1947, all these could and should have been nationalised. Now it’s too late. Is it possible to envisage a scenario in which the RSS can launch a campaign for nationalising all these British-donated Church lands?
The second element is the irremediable hostility against the RSS by the Muslim Ulema. Because the topic is well-known, details are unnecessary. But even here, the hold over Waqf land across India, reinforces the same historical truth: of the millennial Abrahamic project of annihilating Sanatana Dharma from the land of its birth.
The third element is the century-long war unleashed against the RSS by the Communists – majority of them, Hindus by birth – now reincarnated as Left Liberals and Wokes, the most loyal concubines of the Church and the Islamic lobby. This will be examined in some detail in the upcoming episodes.
To be continued
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