By J.P. Yadav
Q: Are Muslims allowed in the RSS?
RSS chief: No Brahmin is allowed in the Sangh. No other caste is allowed… No Muslim is allowed, no Christian is allowed, no Shaiva.… Only Hindus are allowed.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday asserted that a Muslim or Christian can be admitted to the Sangh if they shed their “separateness” and come as a “Hindu”, a term he defined as a “son of Bharat Mata”.
“People with different denominations, Muslims or Christians, any denominations, can come to the Sangh, keeping their separateness out,” he said at a public Q&A session in Bengaluru.
“Their speciality is welcome, but when you come inside a shakha (congregation of RSS cadres), you come as a son of Bharat Mata, a member of this Hindu society.”
The Sangh has been accused of injecting a convenient ambiguity in its concept of “Hindu”, defining it as a cultural and nationalist term and not a religious one, thereby including everyone with Indian ancestry.
Such a definition allows the Sangh to sidestep allegations of being anti-minority even when championing a “Hindu Rashtra”, and to downgrade Muslims and Christians to “denominations” within Hinduism.
Bhagwat was speaking a day after delivering a talk on “100 years of Sangh journey” in Bengaluru as part of a series of lectures on the subject across the major cities.
He said Muslims and Christians do come to RSS shakhas but are not counted as holding a separate identity and are not asked who they are.
This story was originally published in telegraphindia.com. Read the full story here.
