Note: This article discusses about the RSS ideology, its rise in UK & its impact on peace & security of the world.
It is late February afternoon on a seemingly normal day in New Delhi, the Indian capital. The people live their everyday lives as usual and children are returning home from a long day at school, but a strange tension engulfs the air. Suddenly all attention falls upon the BJP leader Kapil Mishra as on 23 February (3–4 pm) he along with his supporters reached a protest site at Maujpur Chowk starting the New Delhi riots. What followed was a weeklong reprisal campaign against Muslims which included senseless beatings, eviction from homes, and even killings. The climax reached when known RSS members stormed into a mosque damaging it and planting an RSS flag on top surrounded by mobs of extremist Hindus chanting anti-Muslim slogans, all this very closely reminiscing what had transpired in Nazi Germany as legions of SS and Hitler Youth fell upon the Jewish people.
This is the RSS, an organization whose roots originate from taking inspiration from the Nazi Party back in the 1930s and evolved into an extremist Hindu supremacy organization that has been directly and indirectly responsible for many crimes against many genocidal crimes perpetrated against minorities within India. From the very start, the RSS had made its stance clear by outright rejecting the “Secular” Constitution and National Flag of India demanding that India officially declares itself to be a Hindu state and returns to purity by driving out the undesirables.
India under Modi and ideology export
As Modi rose to power in India (2014), speculations arose that India was about to be transformed from a secular to a highly radicalized society. These speculations arose due to Modi’s affiliation with RSS and methods adopted to gain political/populist favor. These methods largely revolved around exploiting the new waves of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment among many regional leaders. Unsurprisingly over the years Modi has passed many Anti-Muslim policies (Both in Indian-occupied Kashmir & India proper) and had slowly started to influence societal perception towards minorities. As a result of constant but gradual brainwashing, India has now transformed into an extremist society with barely any semblance of secularism and democracy as Hindu supremacist RSS and BJP continue to tighten control over state organs.
Examples of these actions by the Indian government and extremist elements are countless at this point, most prominent being Gujarat NRC, CAA, abrogation of acts related to IIOJK, Babri mosque, beef lynching, etc. But the story does not stop here, as it seems Modi’s extremist ideology has spilled out of India and is being exported to the Middle East and Western Europe (the UK being most prominent). The RSS mindset surfaced in the Middle East when blasphemous content was shared by Hindu RSS followers on Middle Eastern social media and the issue escalated again when two BJP leaders remarked negatively on Islam and the Prophet (PBUH). India was caught off-guard on both occasions and diplomatic efforts had to be launched for damage control and protecting economic interests. Despite all that, it seems the ideology spill over has continued.
RSS ideology spill over in the UK
In recent months the United Kingdom has experienced multiple protests and riots, the cause of which can be traced to RSS-affiliated Hindus who chant anti-Muslim slogans and attempt to disrupt the prayers in Muslim community Mosques. The difference in Indian disruptive activity can be felt just by looking at a few statistics, in the 2011 London riots out of 2710 suspects only 24 were of Indian origin as most British Indians had stayed away from the violence. However, in the 2022 Leicester violence, British Indians were the primary suspects which is a direct result of the Hindu supremacist and RSS ideology spill affecting Indian and Hindus living abroad.
Within this example, Hindu extremists in Leicester came out in the hundreds, marching through the streets & chanting away outside the local mosque and provoking the Muslim community. What’s worse is that Muslims have strongly negligible trust in the UK police as its representatives have been observed making excuses to downplay the attacks. Moreover, the unwillingness of community leaders to recognize & condemn likely Hindutva radicalization is also very disturbing and points toward the UK’s attempts to suppress the issue as India remains an economic and geopolitical partner (Even if it means sacrificing community peace at home). It is high time that the world recognizes Hindutva as a terrorist ideology and a danger to peace as a whole, otherwise, another fascist power will rise to dangerous heights just as Nazi Germany did when it was ignored by the allies up until 1939.
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