Analysis | Why it'll be difficult for BJP to convince Christians that Golwalkar's thoughts are obsolete

Compulsions of politics seem to have forced the BJP in Kerala to dismiss as irrelevant 'Vicharadhara', the work of the RSS's second sarsanghchalak M S Golwalkar and the man reverentially referred to in right wing circles as 'Guruji'.

It was BJP's state general secretary M T Ramesh who said that 'Vicharadhara' ('Bunch of Thoughts') contained what Golwalkar said in the 1940s and 50s and was, therefore, not relevant today.

Ramesh was responding to Kerala PWD minister P A Mohammad Riyas's dare. The young CPM leader had said that if the BJP leaders were so eager to befriend the Christian community would they be bold enough to disown 'Vicharadhara'.

'Vicharadhara', a collection of Golwalkar's speeches that lays down RSS beliefs and objectives with an ideologue's precision and clarity, had identified Christians along with Muslims and Communists as India's three "internal threats".

'Vicharadhara' finds fault with Christians on three main grounds. One, they are not devoted to India as their holy land is in a foreign country. Two, they have been in cahoots with the British ever since the 1857 revolt. Three, they indulge in sly and forced conversions of native populations. Golwalkar, at one point in the book, even calls Christian missionaries "bloodsuckers".

Breeding prejudice
Even if they try, BJP leaders will find it hard to persuade Christians to ignore Golwalkar's speeches as too old-fashioned for our times. This anti-Christian prejudice, as articulated by Golwalkar in 'Vicharadhara', continues to nourish the RSS thought process.

It was last week that RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat revealed that the RSS revulsion for Christian missionaries is still steaming hot. While addressing the opening ceremony of Seva Sangam of Rashtriya Seva Bharati in Jaipur, Rajasthan, on April 7, Bhagwat said Hindu spiritual gurus had done more service work in southern parts of India than Christian missionaries.

Like Golwalkar in 'Vicharadhara', Bhagwat said Christian missionaries undermined Indian culture. "The Missionary practice always tried to circumscribe the efforts of Indian culture," Bhagwat said. "Many underprivileged tribal communities were disallowed from practising their cultures during the colonial period. Even after gaining independence, these communities did not receive recognition in society due to the absence of government documentation," he said.

This distrust comes from 'Vicharadhara', in which Golwakar is far more bitter. "Do we not know the heart-rending stories of how they annihilated the natives in America, Australia and Africa? Why go so far? Are we not aware of the atrocious history of Christian missionaries in our own country, of how they carried sword and fire in Goa and elsewhere?," Golwalkar says.

No mercy for Stan Swamy
If an RSS worker can be considered a piece of handicraft, then Golwalkar is the craftsman who inlaid in him a loathing for Christianity and Christian missionaries. It is this innate prejudice that could have prompted the Narendra Modi dispensation to behave in a shockingly merciless manner with the old and suffering Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy.

The 84-year-old Parkinsons-afflicted priest, who worked for the tribals and the underprivileged, was jailed for allegedly hatching a conspiracy with the Maoists to bring down the Modi government. It is now established that Swamy's computer was hacked and files were deviously inserted to implicate him in events and correspondences he had no inkling of.

The old ailing priest was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and dumped in the overcrowded Taloja jail in Navi Mumbai at the height of the COVID pandemic. Without any medical attention, Swamy's Parkinsons quickly advanced to such a stage that he required a straw to drink water. Even this straw was denied to him.

Pope Francis is listening
Soon, after eight months in jail, he contracted COVID and died a painful death on July 5, 2021. Swami's death had caused moral outrage across the world, and was seen as emblematic of BJP's utter disregard for the Christian community.

"The treatment of Father Stan Swamy was part of a larger anti-Christian offensive by the right wing forces in India. It is not as if the major Church denominations in Kerala are ignorant of this," a senior priest of the Syro-Malabar Church told Onmanorama on the condition of anonymity.

This February, the Vatican News website, founded by Pope Francis himself, had reported about the prayer protest taken out by Christian organisations in New Delhi.

The website quoted John Dayal, the spokesperson of the All India Catholic Union, as saying that "some 350 Christians are in jail in Uttar Pradesh alone for practising their faith, and that hundreds of tribal Christians were forced out of their village in Chhattisgarh."

When Father Stan Swamy died, Vatican News had put out a detailed and moving obituary.

Evidently, the Pope knows what is happening in India. "This could be why Pope Francis is reluctant to visit India though Prime Minister Modi had met him and extended an invite way back in 2021," the Syro Malabar priest said.

North Indian offensive
United Christian Forum (UCF), a human rights group based in New Delhi, in a memorandum submitted to the President of India on February 22 this year had expressed "grave concern over 597 incidents of violence committed against Christians from 21 states in India."

It beseeched the President to urge the Union and State governments "to protect the rights and freedom of the Christian community to practise its faith, run its educational institutions and live with dignity throughout India, as its safety has come under severe threat". Most of these violent incidents are related to conversions in tribal areas of Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.

Senior BJP leaders Onmanorama contacted said if at all such things were happening, these were the work of fringe elements with no links with the Sangh Parivar. Fact: A BJP leader was arrested for his involvement in the attack on Sacred Heart Church at Banglapara in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district on January 2 this year.

Christmas worse than fossil fuel
Unlike M T Ramesh, the RSS has not found Golwalkar's anti-Christian writings dated. The year's first issue of Organiser, the RSS mouthpiece, had as its cover story a frontal assault on Christmas and New Year celebrations in predominantly Christian countries.

Here is how the report begins: "At a time when the world is discussing the issue of Climate Change and food crisis, majority of people are unaware of the fact that in only ten to twelve days, from December 24 to January 4, when Christmas and New Year (According to the Gregorian calendar) is celebrated, irreparable damage is done to the environment. On the one hand, when many people in Africa sleep without having their proper meals; on the other hand, millions of tons of food are wasted in the US, the UK, Italy, France and other countries during the New Year celebration."

For the RSS, it is as if Christmas is as bad as fossil fuel, and New Year is as devastating as war.

The huge money spent in the name of Hindu ceremonial rituals are conveniently forgotten. For instance, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao had made gold offerings worth Rs 5.5 crore to various Hindu temples in 2017 alone. This is a state where nearly 14 per cent of the population live below the poverty line. It is in this atmosphere of persecution and prejudice that the BJP has reached out to Christians in Kerala.