Mohan Bhagwat in New York: Universal Oneness or Majoritarian Agenda ?

Authored by Dr Shamsul Islam, a retired Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi, author and academic known for his research on Indian nationalism, communalism, Hindutva, and historical narratives.

SUMMARY:

This opinion piece examines the RSS’s ideological record through its writings and historical positions, arguing that its vision of Hindutva raises concerns about majoritarianism, caste hierarchy, minority rights, gender inequality, and India’s democratic-secular character, while questioning the rhetoric of “Universal Oneness.”

Background:

According to press reports, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Supremo Mohan Bhagwat will address an estimated 5,000-plus Indian Americans at Madison Square Garden in New York City on August 29, 2026. The renowned conscience- keeper of democratic-secular-egalitarian values in the USA, Pieter Friedrich, has rightly reminded us that it was in 1939 that Nazis had filled the same Madison Square Garden in New York under the façade of ‘Americanism’. On August 29, the largest terror outfit in the world, RSS, shall fill the same arena under the motto, 'Universal Oneness Celebrations' as part of RSS centenary global outreach.

It would be a sad day for the city of New York that an organisation which is vehemently opposed to democracy, humanism, egalitarianism, multiculturalism, equality within Hinduism, and world peace were allowed an unquestioned narration. RSS is the biggest threat to the world is vouched by critics, but its own official records. Out of hundreds of proofs, a few crucial facts from RSS archives and records of activities are being shared in 3 parts.

1. ANTI-HUMANITY
2. ANTI-HINDU
3. ANTI-DEMOCRATIC-SECULAR INDIA

1. ANTI-HUMANITY

• RSS’s design of Hindus ruling the world

This sinister organisation is working overtime to establish hegemony of ‘Hindus’ over the world. Its two most important theorists, VD Savarkar (1883-1966) and MS Golwalkar (1906-1973), whom RSS follows religiously, chalked out this design in the first half of the 20^th century itself. Savarkar ended his bigoted work ‘Hindutva’ (1923) with the following warning:

“22 crores of people [population of India at that time], with India for their basis of operation, for their Fatherland and for their Holyland, with such a history behind them, bound together by ties of common blood and common culture, can dictate their terms to the whole world. A day will come when mankind will have to face the force.”

— V.D. Savarkar, Hindutva, VK Kelkar, Poona, 1923, p. 128

Golwalkar, under whose tutelage Mohan Bhagwat and PM Modi were groomed as RSS leading cadres, rephrased the same warning on behalf of Hindus to the world in his controversial book ‘We or Our Nationhood Defined” (1939) in the following words:

“The Race Spirit has been awakening. The lion was not dead, only sleeping. He is rousing himself up again and the world has to see the might of the regenerated Hindu nation strike down the enemy’s hosts with its mighty arm. The star has risen and is steadily climbing up the firmament. At no distant date the world shall see it and tremble with fear or dance with delight…And Race Spirit calls, National consciousness blazes forth and we Hindus rally to the Hindu Standard, the Bhagwa Dhwaja [saffron flag], set our teeth in grim determination to wipe out the opposing forces.”

[Golwalkar, MS, We or Our Nationhood Defines, Bharat Publications, Nagpur, 1939, pp. 12-13]

• The Indian Diaspora is divided on a communal basis

Shockingly, Bhagwat shall be preaching ‘Universal Oneness’ despite causing dangerous fractures amongst the Indian diaspora, which includes Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, Animists and those who do not believe in any religion. Its international wing is named ‘Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh’, thus having no regard for people of Indian origin who are not Hindus.

This anti-India attitude has given rise to deep religious divisions within the ranks of the Indian diaspora in the USA and other foreign countries where RSS is active. RSS's design to organise Hindus abroad only is already causing serious religion-based fissures, leading to violence among the Indian diaspora in many cities of the world. This foolish act of RSS, in fact, gives strong stimulus to followers of other religions of the diaspora to say goodbye to Indianness and organise themselves on a religious basis.

RSS celebrated the Holocaust & planned to execute it for cleansing Indian Muslims & Christians

The most prominent ideologue of the RSS, MS Golwalkar (known as Guru Golwalkar in the RSS fraternity), who became RSS Supremo in 1940 and who is credited by the present Indian PM to have groomed him into a political leader, declared:

“If, as is indisputably proved, Hindusthan is the land of the Hindus and is the terra firma for the Hindu nation alone to flourish upon, what is to be the fate of all those who, today, happen to live upon the land, though not belonging to the Hindu Race, Religion and culture?”

— M.S. Golwalkar, We Or Our Nationhood Defined, Nagpur, 1939, p. 45.

It would be like the Jews under Hitler and Mussolini. Thus, Golwalkar glorified the Holocaust in the following words:

“German Race pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by purging the country of the Semitic races—the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by." [Ibid. –pp 34-35]

Golwalkar, finally, following in the footsteps of Hitler, arrived at the following solution for the minority “problem” in India: Muslims and Christians who were declared to belong to foreign races,

“From this stand point, sanctioned by the experience of shrewd old nations, the foreign races in Hindusthan [sic] must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment not even citizen’s rights. There is, at least, no other course for them to adopt. We are an old nation: let us deal, as old nations ought to and do deal, with the foreign races who have chosen to live in our country.” [Ibid. pp. 47-48]

• RSS rolls out racist project of producing ‘Aryan’ babies in India

According to RSS, Nazism is to be followed not only for cleansing of Muslims and Christians but also for producing the ‘Aryan’ babies as was done in Germany under Hitler. RSS has officially shared the information that one of its offshoots, Garbh Vigyan Sanskar (Uterus Science Culture), following the Vedic preaching and experiments in Germany, is conducting live trials in many parts of India for producing ‘fair’ and ‘tall’, ‘customised’ perfect babies. According to Dr Hitesh Jani, convener of the Arogya Bharati (health wing), another outfit of RSS, which is part of the project,

“Parents apparently have small, dark babies because they are impure, but purification is fortunately a simple, protocol-driven process tied to the lunar calendar. Prospective parents should consult by astrological schedule and watch what they ingest, hear and think.”

[‘Ayurvedic eugenics: The RSS health wing promises designer babies like Germanic heroes. The fairness cream industry must be quaking.’ The Indian Express, Delhi, May 9, 2017. Link: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/ayurvedic-eugenics-rss-health-wing-ideal-babies-4646657/]

• Neo-Nazi mass murderer of Norway, Breivik’s linkages with the RSS

Neo-Nazi mass murderer of Norway, Anders Behring Breivik, glorified Indian ‘Hindu Nationalists'. He opened Pandora’s Box when he declared the “Hindu Nationalist” movement of India as a key ally in a global struggle to bring down democratic regimes across the world. Just before he went to massacre a large number of people in Norway on JULY 22, 2011, he released a “manifesto” of 1,518 pages, of which 102 pages dealt with the glorification of the Hindutva movement of India. It declared support for “Sanatana Dharma movements and Indian nationalists in general.”

[ ‘Norwegian mass killer's manifesto hails Hindutva: Goals of Indian Hindu nationalists were identical to Justiciar Knights, Anders Breivik claimed’, The Hindu, December 4, 2021. Link: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/norwegian-mass-killers-manifesto-hails- hindutva/article2293829.ece]

1. ANTI-HINDU

• RSS demands promulgation of the anti-Sudra and Hindu women scripture, Manusmriti, discarding the democratic-secular constitution of India

Those who believe that RSS wants the cleansing of Muslims and Christians only know half of the reality. The project of the Hindu nation demands sub-human existence for Sudras (Dalits) and Hindu women. In fact, RSS wanted this Constitution to be replaced by the Manusmriti or Manu Code (laws of Manu), which is notorious for its derogatory and inhuman references to Sudras, Untouchables and women. The Constituent Assembly of India finalised the Constitution of India on November 26, 1949. The RSS was not happy. Its organ, Organiser, in an editorial on November 30, 1949, complained:

“But in our Constitution, there is no mention of the unique constitutional development in ancient Bharat. Manu’s Laws were written long before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day, his laws, as enunciated in the Manusmriti, excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits, that means nothing.”

By demanding promulgation of the Manu Code in independent India, the RSS was simply following its mentor, philosopher and guide VD Savarkar who declared:

“Manusmriti is that scripture which is most worshipable after the Vedas for our Hindu Nation and which, from ancient times, has become the basis of our culture, customs, thought and practice. This book, for centuries, has codified the spiritual and divine march of our nation. Even today, the rules which are followed by crores of Hindus in their lives and practice are based on the Manusmriti. Today, Manusmriti is Hindu Law.”

[Savarkar, V.D., ‘Women in Manusmriti’ in Savarkar Samagar (collection of Savarkar’s writings in Hindi) volume IV, Prabhat, Delhi, 2000, p. 416.]

• For RSS, Casteism is synonymous with the Hindu nation

Faith of RSS brass in Manusmriti, naturally, leads them to believe in Casteism too, which gave birth to the debased practice of Untouchability. For RSS, Casteism is the essence of Hindu Nationalism. Golwalkar did not mince words in declaring that Casteism was synonymous with the Hindu Nation. According to him, the Hindu people are none other than,

“The Hindu People, they said, is the Virat Purusha, the Almighty manifesting Himself. Though they did not use the word ‘Hindu’, it is clear from the following description of the Almighty in Purusha-Sukta [in the 10th book of Rig Ved] wherein it is stated that the sun & the moon are His eyes, the stars and the skies are created from his nabhi [navel] and Brahmin is the head, Kshatriya the hands, Vaishya the thighs and Shudra the feet.[Italics as in the original text] This means that the people who have this fourfold arrangement, i.e., the Hindu People, are our God. This supreme vision of Godhead is the very core of our concept of ‘nation’ and has permeated our thinking and given rise to various unique concepts of our cultural heritage.”

— M. S. Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, pp. 36–37.

What kind of Hindutva civilisation the RSS and Hindutva camp want to build by enforcing the laws of Manu can be known by having a glimpse of the laws prescribed by Manu for the lower castes, Untouchables and women. Some of these dehumanising and degenerated laws, which are presented here, are self-explanatory.

A selection of Laws of Manu denigrating Dalits/Untouchables

1. For the sake of the prosperity of the worlds, the divine one caused the Brahmana, the Kshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra to proceed from his mouth, his arm, his thighs and his feet. (I/31)

2. One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Sudras, to serve meekly even these (other) three castes. (I/91)

3. Once-born man (a Sudra), who insults a twice-born man with gross invective, shall have his tongue cut out; for he is of low origin. (VIII/270)

4. If he mentions the names and castes (jati) of the (twice-born) with contumely, an iron nail, ten fingers long, shall be thrust red-hot into his mouth. (VIII/271)

5. If he arrogantly teaches Brahmanas their duty, the king shall cause hot oil to be poured into his mouth and into his ears. (VIII/272)

6. He who raises his hand or a stick shall have his hand cut off; he who, in anger, kicks with his foot shall have his foot cut off. (VIII/280)

8. A low-caste man who tries to place himself on the same seat with a man of a high caste shall be branded on his hip and be banished, or the king shall do so, and cause his buttocks to be gashed. (VIII/281)

As per the Manu Code, if Sudras are to be given the most stringent punishments for even petty violations/actions, the same Code of Manu is very lenient towards Brahmins. Shloka 380 in Chapter VIII, bestowing profound love on Brahmins, decrees:

“Let him never slay a Brahmana, though he have committed all (possible) crimes; let him banish such an (offender), leaving all his property (to him) and (his body) unhurt.”

A selection of Laws of Manu demeaning Hindu women

1. Day and night woman must be kept in dependence by the males (of) their (families), and, if they attach themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under one’s control. (IX/2)

2. Her father protects (her) in childhood, her husband protects (her) in youth, and her sons protect (her) in old age; a woman is never fit for independence. (IX/3)

3. Women do not care for beauty, nor is their attention fixed on age; (thinking), ‘(It is enough that) he is a man,’ they give themselves to the handsome and to the ugly. (IX/14)

4. Through their passion for men, through their mutable temper, through their natural heartlessness, they become disloyal towards their husbands, however carefully they may be guarded in this world. (IX/15)

5. (When creating them) Manu allotted to women (a love of their) bed, (of their) seat and (of) ornament, impure desires, wrath, dishonesty, malice, and bad conduct. (IX/17)[i]

[The above selection of Manu’s Codes is from F. Max Müller, Laws of Manu, LP Publications, Delhi, 1996; first published in 1886. The bracket after each code incorporates the chapter/number of code according to the above edition.]

The reproduced parts of the Manu Code above need no further elaboration and commentary. They are too glaringly venomous, Fascist and degenerated against Untouchables who are referred to as Sudras by Manu. Perhaps this was the reason that the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, who contributed immensely to the growth of totalitarian ideas in Europe in the 20th century, fell in love with this work.

It is to be noted here that a copy of the Manusmriti was burnt as a protest in the presence of Dr BR Ambedkar during the historic Mahad agitation on December 25, 1927. Dr Ambedkar called upon Dalits to commemorate December 25 as the Manusmriti Dehen Diwas (Manusmriti burning day) in future. In fact, Brahmanism as the basis of the RSS world-view, is the original Fascism in the history of human civilisation.

[https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/manusmriti-dahan-divas-protest-staged-at-collectorate/article30396588.ece]

• Golwalkar’s dehumanised take on improving the breed of Kerala Hindus

RSS, which claims to be the largest world organisation of Hindus, is, in fact, working overtime to establish the hegemony of the North Indian Brahmanical order over the Hindu society in South India. The RSS brand of Brahmanism treats South Indian Hindus as inferior racially. In its world-view North Indian Brahmins are the superior lot in comparison to the rest.

And RSS does it brazenly. Golwalkar was invited to address the students of the School of Social Science of Gujarat University on December 17, 1960. In this address, while underlying his firm belief in the Race Theory, he touched upon the issue of cross-breeding of human beings in the Indian society in history. He said:

“In an effort to better the human species through cross-breeding, the Namboodri Brahmanas of the North were settled in Kerala, and a rule was laid down that the eldest son of a Namboodri family could marry only the daughter of Vaishya, Kashtriya or Shudra communities of Kerala. Another still more courageous rule was that the first offspring of a married woman of any class must be fathered by a Namboodri Brahman, and then she could beget children by her husband. Today, this experiment will be called adultery, but it was not so, as it was limited to the first child.”

[M. S. Golwalkar cited in Organiser, January 2, 1961.]

• Inside RSS: Males are Volunteers and Women are Servants

RSS, founded in 1925, was to be an exclusive male organisation whose cadres were to be known as swayamsevak or volunteers. The RSS top brass made its intentions clear of treating women as of lower status than males when it decided to start its women wing, Rashtr Sevika Samiti in 1936. Its nomenclature made it clear that women members were not called as swayamsevak or volunteers but Rashtr Sevika (maids for the nation) or female servants of the nation; the Hindu nation. This identity of women in the Rashtr Sevika Samiti as servants was not only a technical issue but an outcome of RSS’s attitude towards Hindu women, which glorifies the subservient role of women in society. These are Rashtr Sevika Samiti members [who, according to its website, number around three lakh] only who pledge to maintain ‘faithfulness/virginity’, remain ‘modest’, ‘steadfast’, and not fall prey to ‘immorality and evil habits’. The RSS male swayamsevaks make no such commitment. [https://sevikasamiti.org/Prarthana]

Mohan Bhagwat misses no opportunity to emphasise the subservient role of the Hindu woman. While addressing leading RSS cadres at Indore, India, a stronghold of the RSS, the RSS leader declared that Hindu women should restrict themselves to doing household chores as per the ‘social contract’. According to him:

"Theory of contract, theory of social contract, a husband and wife are bound by a contract which says 'you (woman) look after the household chores and satisfy me, I (man) will take care of your needs and will protect you', and until she delivers her duties without fail, he keeps her on the contract and if she fails to honour the contract, he disowns her…”

[‘'Women meant to do household chores': another shocker from RSS chief’, NDTV, Delhi, January 06, 2013. Link: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/women-meant-to-do-household-chores-another-shocker-from-rss-chief-509519]

1. ANTI-DEMOCRATIC-SECULAR INDIA

• RSS is not for an inclusive India but an exclusive Hindu nation

It was formed in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (known as Doctorji in the RSS fraternity), Balakrishna Shivram Moonje, his mentor and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the theorist of the idea of Hindutva. Hedgewar was in the Indian National Congress (INC) but left it as he was against all religious communities joining the anti-British freedom struggle led by MK Gandhi, which treated people of all religions as part of the Indian nation and stood for an inclusive independent India. A biography of Hedgewar published by the RSS describes that he parted with INC because, “Gandhiji worked constantly with one eye on Hindu– Muslim unity…But Doctorji sensed danger in that move. In fact, he did not even relish the newfangled slogan of ‘Hindu– Muslim Unity’.

[Seshadri, H. V. (ed.), Dr. Hedgewar, the Epoch-Maker: A Biography, Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1981, p. 61.]

• RSS’s hatred for democratic-secular India

The RSS, contrary to the principles of democracy, constantly demanded that India be ruled under a totalitarian regime. Golwalkar, while delivering a speech before the 1350 top-level cadres of the RSS in 1940, declared,

“RSS, inspired by one flag [saffron], one leader and one ideology, is lighting the flame of Hindutva in each corner of this great land.”

[MS Golwalkar, Shri Guruji Samagar Darshan (collected works of Golwalkar in Hindi), Bhartiya Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd., Volume I, p. 11.]

• RSS, a cultural organization worships arms

RSS claims to be a cultural organisation and the largest organisation of the Hindus of the world. But it is the only cultural-religious organisation on this earth which worships armaments as a Hindu festival. The RSS was founded on Dussehra (Vijay Dashmi; festival celebrated as the day of the victory of God Ram over Ravana). On this day, the RSS holds its biggest programme of the year, which is also a celebration of its founding day. The most important part of the celebration is the ''shastr pooja" (worship of the arms) by the Supremo of the RSS. [ii]

[‘RSS Festivals: Discover the six key celebrations and their significance for the Sangh’, link: https://organiser.org/2024/08/18/251909/bharat/rss-festivals-discover-the-six-key-celebrations-and-their-significance-for-the-sangh/]

• Highly decorated Indian Police officer on RSS terrorism under Modi rule

There are instances of honest senior officials who dared to bring in public domain the RSS’s terrorist activities. How RSS spread hatred and terrorised minorities of India in less than a year of Modi's first term as the PM (2014-19) of India was described in detail by one of the most decorated cops of India, Julio Ribeiro, former ambassador to Romania and recipient of the Padma Bhushan, a prominent national award, in the following words. Petrified as a Christian, he wrote on March 17, 2015:

“Today, in my 86th year, I feel threatened, not wanted, reduced to a stranger in my own country. The same category of citizens who had put their trust in me to rescue them from a force they could not comprehend have now come out of the woodwork to condemn me for practising a religion that is different from theirs. I am not an Indian anymore, at least in the eyes of the proponents of the Hindu Rashtra.

“Is it a coincidence or a well-thought-out plan that the systematic targeting of a small and peaceful community should begin only after the BJP government of Narendra Modi came to power last May? ‘Ghar wapsi’, the declaration of Christmas as ‘Good Governance Day’, the attack on Christian churches and schools in Delhi, all added to a sense of siege that now afflicts these peaceful people.

Christians have consistently punched above their weight — not as much as the tiny Parsi community, but just as noticeably. Education, in particular, has been their forte. Many schools, colleges, and related establishments that teach skills for jobs have been set up and run by Christians. They are in much demand. Even diehard Hindus have sought admission in such centres of learning and benefited from the commitment and sincerity of Christian teachers. Incidentally, no one seems to have been converted to Christianity, though many, many have imbibed Christian values and turned ‘pseudo-secularist’.

“The Indian army was headed by a Christian general, the navy more than once, and the same with the air force. The country’s defence forces have countless men and women in uniform who are Christians. How can they be declared non-Indians by Parivar hotheads out to create a pure Hindu Rashtra?

“It is tragic that these extremists have been emboldened beyond permissible limits by an atmosphere of hate and distrust. The Christian population, a mere 2 per cent of the total populace, has been subjected to a series of well-directed body blows. If these extremists later turn their attention to Muslims, which seems to be their goal, they will invite consequences that this writer dreads to imagine.”

— Julio Ribeiro, “As a Christian, suddenly I am a stranger in my own country,” The Indian Express, March 17, 2015.

What happened to the Gujarati Muslims when Golwalkar’s favourite RSS student, Modi, ruled the state would be clear from the following words of an editorial in a prominent English daily of India, Hindustan Times,

“Daughters were gang-raped in front of their fathers and then had their heads bashed in. Their fathers were doused with petrol and set on fire. Their property was looted. Their businesses were destroyed. And the police stood by and did nothing.”[Hindustan Times, New Delhi, March 21, 2002.]

• For RSS, Indian Muslims and Christians are ‘internal threat’ number 1 and 2 respectively

In fact, the ‘Holy’ book for the RSS cadres, Bunch of Thoughts, has a long chapter titled as ‘Internal Threats’ in which Muslim and Christian citizens of India are described as threats number one and two respectively. This chapter opens with the following statement:

“It has been the tragic lesson of the history of many a country in the world that the hostile elements within the country pose a far greater menace to national security then aggressors from outside.”

[Golwalkar, M.S., Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996, p. 177.]

While treating Muslims as ‘Internal Threat’ number 1, Golwalkar goes on to elaborate,

“Even to this day, there are so many who say, ‘Now there is no Muslim problem at all. All those riotous elements who supported Pakistan have gone away once and for all. The remaining Muslims are devoted to our country. After all, they have no other place to go, and they are bound to remain loyal….It would be suicidal to delude ourselves into believing that they have turned patriots overnight after the creation of Pakistan. On the contrary, the Muslim menace has increased a hundredfold by the creation of Pakistan, which has become a springboard for all their future aggressive designs on our country.” [Ibid. pp. 177-78]

While deliberating on the ‘Internal Threat’ number 2, he says,

“Such is the role of Christian gentlemen residing in our land today, out to demolish not only the religious and social fabric of our life but also to establish political domination in various pockets and if possible all over the land.”

— M.S. Golwalkar, Bunch of Thoughts, Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996, p. 193.

• Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism denied the status of independent religions

RSS regards followers of Islam and Christianity as immigrants or foreigners and demands their cleansing as these two religions are declared to be foreign religions. However, RSS has no respect for Indian religions like Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism, as these are not treated as independent religions but part of Hinduism. Guru Golwalkar set the agenda by declaring that, “the Buddhists, the Jains, the Sikhs are all included in that one comprehensive word ‘Hindu’.” [Golwalkar, MS, The Spotlights, Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1974, p. 171.]

• Prominent RSS ideologue Nana Deshmukh, who justified the 1984 Massacre of Sikhs, conferred the highest national award by the Modi government

RSS claims to have always stood for the Hindu-Sikh unity. It occasionally expresses its gratitude to Sikhism for saving Hinduism from the Muslim aggression. However, it must be noted that RSS does not treat Sikhism as an independent religion which discarded Casteism and Brahmanical hegemony but as part of Hinduism. So far as the 1984 genocide of Sikhs in India is concerned, RSS blamed Sikhs for their fate. Nana Deshmukh, a prominent whole timer and ideologue of the RSS [now deceased] circulated a document titled ‘Moments of soul searching’ on November 8, 1984, justifying this horrendous genocide. Nana Deshmukh, in this document, presented the justification of the Sikh genocide by arguing:

1. The massacre of Sikhs was not the handiwork of any group or anti-social elements but the result of a genuine feeling of anger among Hindus.

2. Deshmukh did not distinguish the action of the two security personnel of Indira Gandhi, who happened to be Sikhs, from that of the whole Sikh community. According to his document, the killers of Indira Gandhi were working under some kind of mandate of their community.

3. Sikhs themselves invited these attacks.

4. He glorified the Operation Blue Star and described any opposition to it as anti-national. When Sikhs were being killed in thousands, he was warning the country of Sikh extremism, thus offering an ideological defence of those killings.

5. The Sikh community as a whole was responsible for the violence in Punjab.

6. Sikhs should have done nothing in self-defence but showed patience and tolerance against the killer mobs.

7. These were Sikh intellectuals and not killer mobs, which were responsible for the massacre. They had turned Sikhs into a militant community, cutting them off from their Hindu roots, thus inviting attacks from the nationalist Indians. Moreover, he treated all Sikhs as part of the same gang and described attacks on them as a reaction of the nationalist Hindus.

8. Shockingly, ‘Moments of Soul Searching’ was not meant for the Indian state or killer squads but demanded by the victim Sikhs.

• Nana Deshmukh was awarded ‘Bharat Ratna’ (the Jewel of India), the highest national award

As if it was not enough injustice to the martyrs and survivors of the 1984 massacre, on the eve of the 2019 Republic Day, RSS-BJP rulers of India bestowed the highest national award Bharat Ratna (the gem of India) on Nana Deshmukh. Indian Prime Minister Modi, praising Deshmukh, said, “He personifies humility, compassion, and service to the downtrodden. He is a Bharat Ratna in the truest sense.

Please confront the present Führer of the biggest terror outfit, RSS, who is visiting the USA, Canada and the UK with these facts. Use this opportunity to expose the criminal Hindutva project of RSS, which is emerging as the centre of evil forces which want to destroy Humanity and Peace. This dossier is also for enlightening those who are concerned about the rise of Neo-Fascism and Nazism.

[i] The above selection of Manu’s Codes is from F. Max Müller, Laws of Manu, LP Publications, Delhi, 1996; first published in 1886. The bracket after each code incorporates the chapter/code number according to the above edition.

[ii] [‘RSS Festivals: Discover the six key celebrations and their significance for the Sangh’, link: https://organiser.org/2024/08/18/251909/bharat/rss-festivals-discover-the-six-key-celebrations-and-their-significance-for-the-sangh/]