Shankaracharya-Yogi Adityanath row, silence over temple demolitions reveal how Parivar is ruthlessly, selectively using religion to feed its hunger for power
The use of religion in politics has long been a matter of avoidance in India's Constitutional scheme of things. But the defiant ecoystem of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has always held this much-venerated principle of modern statecraft in contempt and has doggedly and indefatigably pulled and pushed religion into India's politics.
However, was it aimed at making politics subservient to religion, as the RSS always seen to be doing ('Dharmasatta ka rajasatta par ankush' — 'the moment when religious authority curbed political power'), or was that just a transient phase of trickery to capture political power and then milk religion to the hilt, to perpetually control political power without letting religion to gain a position of pre-eminence?
A careful look at many incidents during the past 11 years of Narendra Modi’s regime clearly exposes the Sangh Parivar's real intent of using religion to grab and stay in power, and then make it subservient to the political elite.
RSS's hypocritical stance
The ongoing face-off between Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand of Jyotish Peeth and the Uttar Pradesh government at Varanasi, over the former being prevented from taking a holy bath in the Ganga on the auspicious occasion of Mauni Amavasya, demonstrates the Sangh Parivar's hypocritical non-adherence to its own stand on religion being a supreme institution to guide every activity in the nation's life.
The manner in which the Swami was humiliated, and his supporters and disciples were roughed up, shows that the RSS itself doesn't consider religion, sadhus and sants to be beyond or above the state's legal authority and that such people of religion must submit to the authority of the state even in matters of religion.
And no less a person than a Shankaracharya, too, is not an exception to this pre-eminence of the state.
It may well be argued as a counter that this matter is between Shankaracharya and the Uttar Pradesh government, and that the RSS has nothing to do with it. But, as the original script-writer of a religion-based political order, the RSS can neither qualify to be absolved of it nor can it wash its hands of it.
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Also, having shown itself as a charioteer of the Hindu religion, the RSS has forfeited the right to turn its face away from the seriousness of the Shankaracharya episode.
It is as if the RSS would speak up only for "sarkari" sadhus and sants sanctified by the RSS
Moreover, the Shankaracharya wasn't demanding anything that wasn't available to many others. As he rightly said, he wasn't asking for anything unallowable, since red-carpet access to VIPs to specially designated areas of the Ganga ghats was seen during the Kumbh mela.
Clearly, the RSS silence on the Avimukteshwaranand episode only amplifies its hypocrisy on the primacy of religion and sadhus and sants. It is as if the RSS would speak up only for "sarkari" sadhus and sants sanctified by the RSS.
Political exploiters
To be sure, the RSS ecosystem has carefully nurtured a parallel band of such sadhus and sants, some of whom are known to enjoy political patronage and all the five-star luxuries that accompany it.
It is pertinent to note here that other Shankaracharyas, too, have unequivocally backed Avimukteshwaranand on this and some other issues in the past too. As such, the RSS and its ecosystem's bid to suppress the voices of Hinduism’s topmost religious authorities clearly exposes its real face as the political exploiters of Hinduism rather than being the saviours of the religion.
Avimukteshwaranand has refused to toe Modi or Yogi government's line on many issues and has often criticised them in a very hard-hitting manner. And, on most counts, his criticism has been well-founded and has hit the government where it hurts the most, be it cow-slaughter or demolition of temples in Ayodhya and Varanasi for tourism purposes.
Deafening silence
The RSS's silence has been particularly deafening on the demolition of several old temples to create five-star tourist ambience in Varanasi and other places. The height of its hypocrisy came when a centuries-old temple was bulldozed and flattened, allegedly to create parking space for the RSS Keshav Kunj towers in Delhi.
The Shankaracharya had also raised the issue of Hindu religious norms being flouted when Modi performed the consecration puja in the newly-built Ram temple in Ayodhya. He had argued that Hindu shastras don't permit consecration of idols in an incomplete temple and that it was being done in a hurry to serve BJP's electoral politics, ahead of the 2024 general elections.
He had, like many others, also said that the consecration must be performed by a couple and not a single individual. It was an audacious and irreverent attempt by the political elite to also subsume the religious gurudom within itself, thus clearly making it subservient to itself.
Anyone else doing this would have made the heavens fall for the RSS. Just contrast this with the RSS's contemptful view of Pandit Nehru's dignified decision to stay away from the consecration ceremony of the Somnath temple.
Imagine anyone else or any other organisation challenging a religious guru of the stature of Avimukteshwaraanand. All hell would have broken loose by now.
The RSS that raises issues of propriety and piety of Hindu cultural traditions and practices now and then chooses to be a mute spectator when such issues are raised against its own governments by Hindus who didn't conform to the RSS Hindutva-based order.
Also read: RSS centenary: Historian explains why distorting the past is deeply problematic
Now, right-wing trolls are foul-mouthing Avimukteshwaranand and are also seeking proof of his being a Shankaracharya.
Imagine anyone else or any other organisation challenging a religious guru of the stature of Avimukteshwaraanand. All hell would have broken loose by now.
Politics over Hinduism
But is the RSS cherry-picking on Hindu religious practices and institutions' position of pre-eminence in India's statecraft its newly-developing trait? The answer is, "no" .
The RSS had anticipated this long ago and had hence been building its own super clout on religious matters by raising an organisation like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and many other Hindu fronts. Today, VHP holds enormous sway over, and has decisive stakes in, the traditional Hindu religious institutions like temple trusts and Akharas. And, as earlier said, it has also raised its own flank of loyal band of so-called sadhus and sants.
Also read: Jyotirmath Shankaracharya blasts RSS chief for 'politically convenient' view on restoring temples
Avimukteshwaranand and others of his ilk forcefully asserting their authority could actually be seen as a developing revolt by the traditional Hindu religious institutions against this virtual takeover of religious authority by the RSS eco-system.
Far from being the self-proclaimed torch-bearer of the Hindu cause, RSS has become a virtual religion itself. The likes of Avimukteshwaranand will have to either wallow in its glare or be dumped unceremoniously. At the end of the day, it is politics that is riding roughshod over religion, rather than religion retaining any moral authority to rein in the political.
Sooner than later, like all other institutions, government or otherwise, Hinduism The Religion seems set to be made well and truly subservient to Hindutva The Political.
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