New Delhi: Proximity to power, security concerns, “charismatic” leadership, and pushback against traditional power centres in the community — these are some of the motivations behind why Muslims may choose to be a part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), according to a research paper.
Felix Pal, a researcher at Yale University in the US, has conducted an in-depth research and analysis to reach these conclusions, based on several dozen interviews of members of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch — the Muslim wing of the RSS.
Pal, in his paper, titled ‘Why Muslims join the Muslim wing of the RSS’, has asked and attempted to answer the question — “How can Muslims join the RSS, an organisation famously predicated on violence against Muslim communities?”
The author argued that the reasons and motivations of the Muslim members vary, but his paper “challenges the claim that the RSS is winning over Muslim minds”.
“Instead, I suggest that Muslims join for largely instrumental reasons; for material reward and security, but also to rebuke traditional Muslim centres of power and to draw close to the charismatic leadership of Manch leader Indresh Kumar,” Pal wrote in the paper, published in June 2020.
Between 2018-2019, Pal conducted 85 semi-structured interviews with 70 participants, of which 57 were members of the Muslim Rashtriya Manch. The remaining were defectors, public critics of the Manch, and RSS volunteers.
A majority of the interviews were conducted in Delhi, while the rest were spread across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat — often in the cities of Lucknow, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, respectively.
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‘Exaggerated’ claims of Muslim presence in RSS
Pal, in his paper, argued that the claim of the presence of a high number of Muslims in the RSS is “exaggerated”.
“During my time with the Manch, I was told that membership was as high as three million, and as low as 10,000. The latter is much more likely than the former, and it became increasingly clear as I spent more time with the Manch that their membership claims were significantly exaggerated and in some cases simply fabricated.”
Pal wrote that as part of his field work, he attended an event of the Manch in Ayodhya for the construction of the Ram Mandir, which was promised to have 10,000 Muslims attending. However, “less than two hundred arrived on the day, many of whom were journalists, VHP activists and curious locals,” he wrote.
He added that there was “an unusually large contingent of kurta-clad teenage boys”, but very few of them even knew what Manch was and “fewer knew why they were there”— they were merely asked by their Madrasa teachers to be present.
However, of the “albeit very few Muslims” who were in fact signing up to be a part of the Manch — a major chunk happened to be “well-off, high caste Muslim men”, and there is hardly any representation of ‘pasmanda’ or oppressed caste Muslims in the body, Pal wrote.
Pal argued that a section of those he interviewed, joined the Manch due to a “deep frustration with the perceived inability, or disinclination, of traditional leadership… to materially improve the conditions of Indian Muslims”.
This “traditional leadership” includes the Congress as well as the Muslim ulema or scholars.
“There appears then to be some affective benefit gained from teaching a lesson to traditional leadership,” the paper stated.
However, Pal added that many Muslims may share these frustrations and grievances, but not all of them join the RSS. It is primarily three visible reasons that may motivate some Muslims to join the body, Pal wrote.
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Proximity to power, Indresh Kumar ‘charisma’
The first motivation, the paper suggested, is the proximity to power or simply termed “access”.
“The RSS’ proximity to the incumbent BJP government, and its expansive institutional penetration make it a prime candidate for incentivising Manch membership and support,” the paper stated.
The author said that many of the Manch’s members he met enjoyed positions in various government roles such as in the human resource development ministry, or the minority affairs ministry, or positions in the Wakf board and Haj committees.
However, not all Manch members can be accommodated in government jobs, and so for many the incentive is merely the “access”.
One interviewee thought that she could be the Member of Legislative Council if she was part of the RSS, while some others hoped they could get lower level positions in universities and neighbourhood councils.
The author also attributed a section of those joining the Manch as being drawn by the apparent “charisma” of the body’s chief, Indresh Kumar.
“Even the Manch’s fiercest critics that I spent time with refrained from saying anything even remotely negative about Kumar,” Pal wrote.
Kumar was initially an accused in the 2007 Ajmer Dargah blast that killed three people and injured many. However, in April 2017, the National Investigation Agency gave a clean chit to Kumar. The paper said that despite his controversial past, the terror charges haven’t cast a shadow on Kumar’s appeal in the Manch.
Pal wrote that one of the Manch’s members he interviewed even asked him to tell Kumar how “helpful” she had been to his research and how much work she does for the Manch.
“Clearly it is important within the Manch to be seen to be a Kumar devotee,” Pal wrote.
‘If you can’t beat them, join them’
Finally, the paper argued that one of the most pertinent reasons that Muslims who opt to join the RSS cite are safeguarding their security.
“While it is relatively easy to dismiss incentivised membership as lalchi (greedy), or the magnetism of Indresh Kumar as cultish, it is harder to trivialise members motivated through security concerns,” the paper stated.
One of the Manch’s members explained his decision to join the RSS saying, ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’.
The author also interviewed a friend of his, in Uttar Pradesh, who began contemplating joining the Manch, after months of strongly criticising the body. His friend still held the same views as earlier about the organisation, and yet something inside him shifted.
“… If there is ever a problem with the police, maybe the police will be more sympathetic if they know we are associated with the RSS.”
Many, like this individual, were driven by the “impulse of self-preservation in the face of marginalisation”, the paper stated.
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Another useless influenced report published under the cloak of extensive research and analysis. These western universities and their reports on non US and non West European countries are just all packaging biases and lies with some bit of truth to lend the report some credibility
What bias ? Who is biased? Care to elaborate Ms Sunita?
No, because damn the Sunnis and their oppressive reign.
It is facade, go deep. I witnessed some thing in Delhi in 2009. Hindus were dressed up as Sikhs and Muslims to increase reach if RSS . Other processes and analysis is imp to find the truth
From the outset, an hypothesis which could have been pursued in the study was about playing soft influence from within against radical moves hostile to community. A well represented body will eventually have to behave civil to it’s constituent members.
Careful, bias showing through the cracks
Still looking for validation from the West despite such a strong indigenous left liberal intellectual tradition. Strange.