By Shamsul Islam / News Click

A leading figure in the Hindutva eco-system presently, despite his Congress past, the chief minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma —true to his background training at the RSS –‘boudhik shivirs’ (ideological training camps) has resorted to a the trademark Hindutva obfuscation

“The Bajrang Dal is not associated in any way with the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.”

This was spoken, not while addressing some Hindutva zealots or election meeting but in a meeting of Assam Assembly. He was responding to an adjournment motion on arms training during a Bajrang Dal camp in the state earlier in 2023.

Let us compare this claim of Himanta with the documents in the RSS archives. The central publication house of the RSS, the Suruchi Prakashan, published a book in Hindi, Param Vaibhav Ke Path Par (The Road to Great Supreme Glory) penned by a senior RSS ideologue, Sadanand Damodar Sapre in 1997 giving details of more than 40 organizations created by the RSS for different tasks. The BJP as a political organization figures prominently in it, clubbed with the ABVP, Hindu Jagaran Manch, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal, Durga Vahini, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch and Sanskar Bharti.  The preface of the book itself declared that,

“Without the knowledge of the different kinds of activities of the Sawyamsevaks (the volunteers of the RSS) the introduction of the RSS is incomplete. Keeping this in mind it has been attempted in this book to produce the brief information about the diverse activities of the Sawyamsevaks. This book covers the organizational status till 1996…We believe that this book will prove to be of use for those who want to understand the RSS with the Swyamsevaks.”

[Sapre, Sadanand D., Parm Vaibhav Ke Path Per, Suruchi (RSS central publication house), Delhi, 1997, p. 7.]

Bajrang Dal is a rogue child of RSS: A peep into the RSS Archives

This book described in detail the process of creation of VHP, Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini by RSS (Pages 20-24). According to it, “under the guidance and prompting of worshippable Guruji (MS Golwalkar, the then Supremo of RSS)” VHP was founded in a meeting of Hindu saints held at Sandipani Ashram in Bombay (now Mumbai) on August 29, 1964. While discussing the activities of VHP as an appendage of RSS, Sadanand Sapre made it clear that Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini were founded in order to organise Hindu youth both males and females. According to the description till 1996 Bajrang Dal and Durga Vahini had 2700 and 1100 units respectively spread over whole of the country.

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