Amid growing questions on the role of women within the Sangh Parivar, the RSS is looking to elevate women in organisations like VHP, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh.
New Delhi: Ever since it was formed in 1925, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been a male bastion where women are not allowed. However, amid questions being raised about this male dominance from outside the organisation and growing voices from within, the Sangh is now reconsidering the role of women — at least in its affiliated organisations.
Sources say while the entry of women in the parent RSS is “out of the question” for now, the RSS has accelerated the process to include them in positions of power among its affiliates.
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In March, when senior functionaries of the RSS came together for their annual meet, called the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, “there was a discussion on seeking greater involvement of women and giving them posts so that there would be greater participation and improved coordination with the women counterparts”, a Sangh pracharak said.
After months of deliberations, the attempt now seems to be to elevate women to the top of organisations such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), Sanskar Bharati and Seva Bharati.
There is also a growing demand for 50 per cent of the positions in these organisations to be occupied by women.
A senior VHP functionary said that although women were part of the VHP, the need for them to be given leadership roles had been felt for a while, and is being worked on.
Women in the Sangh Parivar
Political opponents like Rahul Gandhi, the youth of the nation, as well as the international community have often raised the question of women’s position in the RSS’ extended family of social and political organisations.
Congress president Gandhi had said at an event in Shillong in January: “The RSS’s ideas are aimed at disempowering women. Does anyone know how many women it has in leadership positions? Zero.”
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had addressed the question of why the Sangh is an all-male organisation in his recent series of talks called ‘Future of India: An RSS perspective’.
Citing RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar’s reasoning, he said: “Hedgewar ji had said that the time is not ripe for women and men to work together. That’s why an organisation — Rashtriya Sevika Samiti — was established for women. A change can only happen if both sides feel this reform needs to happen.”
He added that the times had indeed changed, and that if both sides so desired, the RSS would give consider the matter.
Rashtriya Sevika Samiti
As Bhagwat mentioned, so far, women have been restricted to the all-women body called Rashtriya Sevika Samiti.
Often described as the women’s wing of the Sangh, the Samiti’s office-bearers object to this definition, and claim it works autonomously, only seeking “guidance and inspiration” from the Sangh brass.
One office-bearer pointed out that “when our founder Laxmi Bai Kelkar (also known as Mausiji) approached Dr Hedgewar for women to have an active role in the RSS, they were denied permission”.
The Samiti operates about 4,000 shakhas in the country and has overseas branches too. It says it identifies vulnerable sections of society and tries to work for their upliftment.
Girls at these shakhas learn martial arts like karate for self-defence, while their intellectual training includes oral history lessons on Hindu legends, as well as historical achievements. Their training also includes knitting, sewing etc.
The Samiti also runs schools known as Saraswati Shishu Mandir, where girls from poor and downtrodden families are enrolled.
The body also helps out in areas affected by natural calamities — it trains its sevikas in courses like nursing so that they can be helpful during rescue operations.
Many units are tasked with the responsibility of providing counselling in colleges and educational institutions.
‘It is time’
Dilip Deodhar, an RSS observer and analyst based in Nagpur, said the Sangh-Samiti demarcation was a deliberate attempt to maintain status quo of patriarchy.
“The intention was to not give equality to women,” Deodhar said.
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He recalled that sarkaryavah (general secretary) and later prachar pramukh H.V. Sheshadri was the first senior member of RSS who had thought of linking together the women in the Sangh’s various affiliates, and that too in the final years of his life in the 2000s.
“He laid the foundation of a system so that women working in affiliates could attend coordination meetings — a system that’s in place even today,” Deodhar said.
Deodhar, who has penned 42 books on the RSS, added: “It is time that the RSS gives 50 per cent reservation to women in its affiliates.”
I think there is some welcome glasnost taking place in the RSS, although perestroika may be some time away. Dr Mohan Bhagwat’s recent conclave at Vigyan Bhavan held out promise of an organisation that is changing to reflect contemporary realities. Until such time as the RSS feels women can join it in a more formal sense, the message that could be reinforced to all the people who belong to it or respect its ideology and beliefs is that women should be treated with the utmost respect. That is one core tenet of Hindutva no one could have an issue with.