MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Last week, a Hindu nationalist group celebrated its centenary and its remarkable trajectory. It was once banned for its association with the killing of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. Now its ideology dominates India, all the way up to and including the prime minister. NPR's Diaa Hadid reports.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
DIAA HADID, BYLINE: More than 1,000 men in khaki pants, white shirts, black hats marched in step, bamboo canes at the ready. It was all part of the centenary celebrations that were held last Thursday in the central city of Nagpur, birthplace of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: The RSS forms around the idea of martial discipline and the primacy of Hindus in India.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: It emerged during tensions between Hindus and Muslims, tensions that boiled over into communal violence as departing British rulers divided South Asia into two countries in 1947. Millions of people fled across new borders, Muslims to Pakistan, Hindus and Sikhs to India.
(SOUNDBITE OF WEAPON FIRING)
HADID: Some Hindu nationalists were furious with Mahatma Gandhi because he protected Muslims who stayed in India, even as many Hindus were attacked and chased out of what became Pakistan. And an enraged Hindu nationalist, Nathuram Godse, shot and killed Gandhi. This is from the archives of British movie tones.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: The whole world was shocked by the news of Gandhi's assassination.
HADID: The RSS was stigmatized for decades over Gandhi's murder because Godse was once a follower of the group. Godse's family insists he never left. The group's fortunes began to turn in the '90s after it led a movement demanding the removal of a medieval mosque, claiming it was built on the birthplace of the beloved Hindu deity, Lord Ram.
KALPANA PANDE: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: Kalpana Pande (ph) of the RSS women's wing remembers performing street plays to raise attention to the cause.
PANDE: (Singing in non-English language).
HADID: She says she never imagined that a temple to Lord Ram would be built in her lifetime.
PANDE: We never thought. (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: But that's what happened. Mobs, including RSS followers, tore the mosque down. The episode tapped into...
NILANJAN MUKHOPADHYAY: A deep-seated resentment towards Muslims.
HADID: Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay has long written about the RSS. He says, the RSS allowed ordinary Hindus to feel that...
MUKHOPADHYAY: Having such a feeling is not politically incorrect.
HADID: He says that boosted the fortunes of the political party linked closely to the RSS. That Hindu nationalist party is called the BJP, and it's led by Narendra Modi, who once dedicated years of his life to the RSS. He's led India for over a decade, winning three back-to-back elections. And last year, he inaugurated a Hindu temple where that medieval mosque once stood.
SABA NAQVI: The era of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most successful era that they have lived through.
HADID: Saba Naqvi writes on the RSS. And she says the group has consolidated power of the bureaucracy, the media, academia.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
HADID: And it's heavily influenced Bollywood, which now releases movies like "The Kerala Story" that depict Muslim men as extremists who seek to impregnate Hindu women.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE KERALA STORY")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, non-English language spoken).
HADID: On the ground, the rise of the RSS and its associated political party, the BJP, has been linked to incitement against Muslims. Critics say that incitement has fomented violence by Hindu extremists, including the murder of Muslim men over claims like transporting cows to slaughter.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MOHAN BHAGWAT: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: At the centenary celebrations last week, Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS chief, or sarsanghchalak, said engaging in vigilante violence isn't correct.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BHAGWAT: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: But a few miles away on the outskirts of Nagpur, a Muslim activist says the RSS chief speaks nicely but ignores Hindu extremists.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: So it's strategically.
HADID: He requests that we not use his name, fearing retribution. He says since the RSS came to power, Hindu extremists have burnt verses of their holy book and called for boycotts of their businesses.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Muslim communities in fear.
HADID: In fear. A former RSS insider says the group understands...
SUDHEENDRA KULKARNI: For the BJP to remain in power, they have to keep on creating this atmosphere of demonizing Muslims.
HADID: Sudheendra Kulkarni was an aide to a former prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayeei. He belonged to the BJP, whose ideology aligns with the RSS. Kulkarni says at the peak of the RSS' power, perhaps its greatest weakness has been exposed, the desire to cling to it even at the expense of India's social fabric.
Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Nagpur. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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