Sangh Parivar

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Template:Short description Template:Pp-extended Template:Use Indian English Template:Use dmy dates {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Conservatism sidebar Template:Nationalism sidebar The Sangh Parivar (translation: "Family of the RSS" or the "RSS family"Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn<ref>Template:Citation: "The RSS usually calls its network of organisation the RSS family (Sangh Parivar), consciously evoking connotations of warmth, security and emotional attachment beyond ideology and reasoning. The family metaphor is central and highly operational as an instrument of recruitment and cohesion for the movement, which offers a sort of surrogate family to the activists. The family metaphor also refers to the authoritarian and paternalist authority structure which operates within the movement."</ref>) is an umbrella term for the collection of Hindutva organisations formed by, and affiliated to, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary organisation. These include the political party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), religious organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), students union Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), among several others. In total, the Sangh Parivar has over 50 organisations.

The Sangh Parivar represents the Hindutva ideology and movement in India.<ref name="saha">Template:Harvnb</ref> Members of the Sangh Parivar or the supporters of its ideology are often referred to as "Sanghis".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

In the 1960s, the volunteers of the RSS joined the different social and political movements in India, including the Bhoodan, a land reform movement led by prominent Gandhian Vinobha Bhave<ref>Suresh Ramabhai, Vinoba and his mission, Published by Akhil Bharat Sarv Seva Sangh, 1954</ref> and the Sarvodaya led by another Gandhian Jayaprakash Narayan.<ref name="martha">Martha Craven Nussbaum, The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future, Published by Harvard University Press, 2007 Template:ISBN, Template:ISBN</ref> RSS also supported the formation of a trade union, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh and a student's organisation Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and many other organisations like Seva Bharati, Lok Bharati and Deendayal Research Institute among others.

These organisations started and supported by the RSS volunteers came to be known collectively as the Sangh Parivar.<ref name="smith">Smith, David James, Hinduism and Modernity P189, Blackwell Publishing Template:ISBN</ref> Next few decades have seen a steady growth in the influence of the Sangh Parivar in the social and political space of India.

Ideology

Economics

While the BJP governments have been progressively seen to be industry friendly,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the opinions and the views of the Sangh Parivar constituents like Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) find consonance with the known leftist stands on labour rights.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Sangh Parivar, as a whole, even the BJP in its earlier days, has advocated 'Swadeshi' (Self Reliance). Sangh Parivar leaders have been very vocal in their criticism of globalisation especially its impact on the poor and native people. They have been suspicious of the role of international agencies such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Sangh constituents have advocated and promoted decentralised village centric economic growth with emphasis on ecological protection.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Reception

The Sangh Parivar has been described with monikers spanning the spectrum from "patriotic Hindus"<ref>VHP mail: BJP is like 'secular' Cong The Times of India – 1 July 2004</ref> and "Hindu nationalist".<ref name="saha" /> Some have also labeled them "Hindu chauvinist".<ref>Breckenridge, Pollock, Bhabha, Chakravarty 2002:56</ref> While its constituent organisations present themselves as embedded in the traditional ethos of Hinduism, their ideological opponents have characterised them as the representatives of authoritarian, xenophobic and majoritarian religious nationalism in India,<ref name="Bhatt4">Template:Harvnb</ref> These organisations have been accused being involved with Saffron terror.<ref name="Gittinger">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>[1] Template:Webarchive Frontline – 22 Oct – 4 November 2011</ref> Flemish Indologist and Hindutva supporter Koenraad Elst has challenged the critics, in his 2001 book The Saffron Swastika, he wrote "So far, the polemical arrows have all been shot from one side, replies from the other side being extremely rare or never more than piecemeal."<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Social impact

The activities of the Sangh Parivar have had considerable social and religious impact.<ref>Human Development and Social Power: Perspectives from South Asia, By Ananya Mukherjee Reed, Routledge, page 71</ref> And considerable influence over country's educational, social and defense policies.<ref>p. 8, Human Rights Watch, By Fédération internationale des droits de l'homme</ref>

Social reform

In 1979, the religious wing of the Sangh Parivar, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad got the Hindu saints and religious leaders to reaffirm that untouchability and caste discrimination had no religious sanction in the Hindu scriptures and texts.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Vishwa Hindu Parishad is also spearheading efforts to ordain Dalits as priests in temples across India, positions that were earlier usually occupied only by people of "upper castes".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1983, RSS founded a Dalit organisation called Samajik Samrasta Manch.<ref name="Basu">Template:Citation</ref>

The VHP founded a number of educational institutes such as Bharat Sevashram, Hindu Milan Mandir, Ekal Vidalayas and schools in tribal locations.<ref name="Basu" />

Social and political empowerment

The service programs, over the years, have led to the empowerment of the economically and socially underprivileged sections of the society, mostly the tribal, who have long remained politically under-represented. Babulal Marandi belonging to the tribal community, who was the organising secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, became the first Chief Minister of the state of Jharkhand.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Other such leaders of Sangh Parivar who belong to the tribal community include Karia Munda, Jual Oram; both ministers in the Union Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The emergence of the Sangh Parivar in Indian politics has also brought many representatives of the backward classes, who had been victims of social neglect and casteism, to comparatively prominent positions in the government and administration. At the same time, the Sangh has refused to allow said backward classes a share in the national wealth.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

In many villages across India, Dharma Raksha Samitis (Duty/Religion Protection Committees) promote religious discourse and form an arena for bhajan performance. The Sangh sponsors calendars of Hindu deities and provides instruction on sanctioned methods of conducting Ganesh Chaturthi and Navaratri.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

Politics

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which represents the Sangh Parivar in national politics, has formed three governments in India, most recently being in power from May 2014 under the leadership of Prime minister Narendra Modi, re-elected in May 2019 and again re-elected in 2024.

Political opponents of the BJP allege that the party's moderate face merely serves to cover the Sangh Parivar's "hidden agenda" of undiluted Hindutva, detectable by the BJP's efforts to change the content of history textbooks and syllabi as well as other aspects of the education system.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

Such criticism of the BJP arises from the fact that BJP had only 2 seats in the parliament in 1984 and after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 the party gained national recognition, and rose to power in 1998.<ref>BJP#History</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Book – Communalism and Secularism in Indian Politics : Study of the BJP</ref>Template:Full citation needed<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Babri Mosque demolition

According to the report of the UPA instituted Liberhan Commission the Sangh Parivar organised the destruction of the Babri Masjid.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="indianexpress kar sevaks">Template:Cite web</ref> The Commission said— "The blame or the credit for the entire temple construction movement at Ayodhya must necessarily be attributed to the Sangh Parivar".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

It also noted that the Sangh Parivar is an "extensive and widespread organic body", which encompasses organisations, which address and bring together just about every type of social, professional and other demographic grouping of individuals. Template:Blockquote

List of Sangh Parivar organisations

File:Map of the Sangh Parivar.png
Major organisations that make up the Sangh Parivar

The Sangh Parivar includes the following organisations (with membership figures in brackets). They are also categorised. Template:Div col

Political
Occupational and Professional
Economic
Social Services
Exclusively Women
Religious
Regional based
Educational organisations
Socio-Ethnic
News & Communication
Think Tanks
Overseas
Children
Others

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See also

References

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Bibliography

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