OPINION | From Meenakshipuram to Ramjanmabhoomi: The untold story of RSS’ 1980s transformation

(Image credit: PTI)

(RSSFACTS is a column that demystifies the functioning, organisational structure and ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.) 

As the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) is all set to turn 100 this year on Vijaydashami and one looks back at the defining moments in its journey, one of the least talked about period is early 1980s which laid the foundation for massive expansion of the organisation amongst the Scheduled Castes.

The trigger for Sangh’s massive outreach amongst the scheduled castes was an incident in Meenakshipuram, Tamil Nadu, when more than 800 members of 300 SC families converted into Islam. The new converts also changed the name of the locality to Rahmat Nagar. This sent shock waves across the nation.

An attempt to understand the root cause

The RSS immediately deputed one of its senior Pracharaks (full-time worker) Moropant Pingley to visit Meenakshipuram. According to Mandhar Moroney and Pranjali Kane (Moropant Pingley: The architect of Hindu resurgence; pp 166), Pingley first visited Meenakshipuram and surrounding areas and then spent another six months travelling across the length and breadth of the country to find root cause of such conversions as well as a possible solution to check it.

The RSS leadership entrusted one of the organisations inspired by it, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), to work on it and deputed Pingley to oversee the transformation of the VHP into a new form that could be more impactful and deal with issues like conversions.

Pingley immediately introduced ‘Sanskriti Raksha Yojana’(Plan to protect culture), one of the most effective but least talked about campaigns that brought millions of SCs into the Sangh fold and led to a major repositioning of the RSS and organisations inspired by it as saviour of SC community in India. This obviously had significant socio-political consequences which started unfolding in the later decades and changed the composition of Indian polity too.

Three pillars

Sanskriti Raksha Yojana was structured around three key components-Preventing the Conversion of Hindus; reclaiming those who had converted back to Hindu fold and; uplifting marginalised sections of the Hindu society.

Pingley ensured that this campaign didn’t remain restricted only to the RSS and VHP but he turned it into a people’s movement by roping in prominent personalities from across the country.

According to Moroney and Kane, “Activists, generous donors and revered Gurus dedicated themselves to its daily operations, weaving their efforts into a tapestry of social transformation. Among these influential figures, the Shankaracharya of Kaamkoti took significant steps to cultivate deeper connections. He made personal visits to the homes of Dalits, dismantling physical and social barriers with his presence.”

The momentum created by ‘Sanskriti Suraksha Yojana’ was utilised ingeniously by Pingley into  ‘Ekatmata Yatra’ (Journey of Unity)  that became a trailblazer for many more such ‘Yatras’ in the coming years and built the massive Ramjanmabhoomi movement.

‘Yatras’ to deal with the fault lines

‘Ekatmata Yatra’ was launched in November 1983 on the auspicious day of ‘Kartiki Ekadashi’. Its objective was to address the faultiness within the Hindu society by bringing it together. There were 300 small yatras and 92 mid-sized Yatras  that were carried across the country on three routes- Kathmandu, Nepal to Rameshwaram; Haridwar in Uttarakhand to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and from Gangasagar, West Bengal to Somnath, Gujarat.

In the history of independent India, this was the first major ‘Yatra’ carried out by an organisation on a social issue and it made a decisive impact on Hindus in terms of forging a unity cutting across socio-economic and even political barriers.

An indication of the tectonic shift it brought in socio-political landscape was witnessed in 1983, when Gulzari Lal Nanda, a  veteran Congress politician presided over a meeting in Muzaffar Nagar(Uttar Pradesh) where a Congress legislator Dau Dayal Khanna placed the resolution for building a glorious Ram Temple at Ayodhya.  Prof. Rajendra Singh, who later became the RSS Sarsanghchalak was also present in this meeting. And this meeting led to the launch of a nationwide movement soon that changed not only the social but the political landscape of the country.

These Yatras touched the emotional cord of Hindus across the country as each Yatra had a specially designed rath(chariot) which had a portrait of Bharat Mata and the Ganga Kalash (containers filled with the sacred from the revered rive Ganga). As the Yatra proceeded, this holy water was distributed amongst the crowd. Given the reverence that a common Hindu has for the holy water of river Ganga, these Yatras witnessed massive attendance.

Convergence in Nagpur

The impact of this campaign can be gauged from the fact that these yatras traversed three lakh villages covering over 80,000 kms.  More than 4000 public meetings were held. All the Yatras coming from the three routes mentioned above converged in Nagpur (Maharashtra) on Margashirsh  Ekadashi.  A grand ceremony called ‘Ekatmata Yajnya’ was organised in Reshimbag which also houses the RSS headquarters.

Pingley who was at the helm of these initiatives as a master strategist later also became the chief architect of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement which manifested in a Hindu resurgence that had a defining impact on India and arguably altered the course of history.