By Pankaj Shah
Lucknow: From ‘casteist Hindu to nationalist Hindu’ – that’s the key social change narrative which the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) plans to roll out in the run-up to its centenary celebrations scheduled to begin on Vijayadashami later this year.
The call, sources said, signals a significant recalibration in RSS’s messaging even as it seeks to bolster its footprints in politically crucial UP and beyond. The shift, sources said, may well be both ideological and strategic, especially in light of the political churn following the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, in which the BJP is said to have taken a hit from the opposition’s Pichhda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak (PDA) poll narrative, particularly in UP where its tally plunged from 62 to 33. BJP’s arch-rival and the principal opposition in UP Samajwadi Party saw its tally soaring from 5 to 37.
A senior RSS functionary said ‘social harmony’ will figure on top of the agenda of Sangh even as it makes concerted efforts to blur caste lines within the Hindu community. This could potentially swing political arc-lights back on BJP efforts to augment its social coalition in the run-up to the high-stakes 2027 UP assembly elections.
Experts said the RSS seeks to re-energise its social engineering project while acknowledging the limitations of the old Hindutva formula. At the same time, the Sangh seems to recognise the potency of caste-based mobilisation that the opposition’s PDA poll narrative tapped into in the 2024 national elections.
This story was originally published in timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Read the full story here.
