More extremist factions splinter to form their own
militant outfits, observes Vishal Arora

MUMBAI/PUNE, October 26 (CDN) – The mushrooming of newer and deadlier Hindu right wing groups has become a cause for concern for India’s Christian minority, which has faced severe persecution for over a decade. At an ecumenical meeting held in New Delhi last Saturday, the secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, Archbishop Stanislaus Fernandes, said the rise of fundamentalism was “seriously worrying” the church in India.
The meeting was held to discuss the provision of and demand immediate enactment of a proposed federal legislation to counter religious extremism, the Communal Violence  (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill of 2005. Since the rise of Christian persecution in India in 1998, outfits such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and its youth wing Bajrang Dal, which are linked with the most influential Hindu nationalist umbrella organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), have been perceived as the main persecutors.

For instance, the VHP allegedly incited a spate of attacks on Christians in the eastern state of Orissa’s Kandhamal district, where at least 100 Christians were
killed, 4,600 houses and churches were burned, and over 50,000 people were rendered homeless.

But in the recent past, the names of many new outfits have surfaced – outfits that claim to breakaway factions of the RSS and are a lot more extreme in ideology. The Abhinav Bharat (Pride of India), the Rashtriya Jagran Manch (National Revival Forum), the Sri Ram Sene (Army of god Rama), the Hindu Dharam Sena (Army for Hindu Religion) and the Sanatan Sanstha (Eternal Organization) are among the splinter groups.

These outfits have launched numerous violent attacks on the Christian and Muslim minorities. The Sri Ram Sene was one of the most active groups that launched a series of attacks on Christians and their property in and around Mangalore city in the southern state of Karnataka in August-September 2008, according to a report, “The Ugly Face of Sangh Parivar,” published by the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), in March 2009.

Suspected extremists from the Abhinav Bharat attacked the Rhema Gospel Church in Jabalpur city in the central state of Madhya Pradesh on September 28, 2009, according to the Global Council of Indian Christians. They had earlier attacked Pastor Sam Oommen and his family in the same city on August 3. (Compass Direct News, “India Briefs,” August 21, 2009)

Especially the Hindu Dharam Sena has become a terror for Christians in Jabalpur. Between 2006 and 2008, Jabalpur was plagued by at least three anti-Christian attacks every month, according to The Caravan magazine (March 15-31, 2009).

The Rashtriya Jagran Manch has also violently attacked Christians in the western state of Gujarat and other parts of the country, according to a news website, Counter Currents (October 31, 2008).

What is Extreme? The new groups, formed mostly by former members of RSS-connected outfits, find the Hindu nationalist conglomerate too “mild” to be able to create a Hindu nation – a nation with Hindu supremacy.

The Sri Ram Sene, which is mainly active in south India, was started by Pramod Muthalik after he was expelled from the Bajrang Dal, one of the most radical groups in the RSS family, in 2007 for being an extremist, according to DNA daily (February 12, 2009).

The Hindu Dharam Sena was started by Yogesh Agarwal, former worker of the Dharam Jagran Vibhag (Religion Revival Department) of the RSS, also in 2007 as he felt “the RSS did not believe in violence,” according to The Caravan magazine (March 15-31, 2009). He had earlier launched the Dharam Sena, an offshoot of the RSS, in Madhya Pradesh and neighboring Chhattisgarh state in 2006.

The founding members of the Abhinav Bharat, which was started in Pune in 2006, also believe that the RSS is not militant enough. According to the Outlook magazine, November 24, 2008, its members were planning to kill top leaders of the RSS for their inability to implement the ideology.

The Rashtriya Jagran Manch, also a breakaway group of the RSS founded in 2007, has close links with the Abhinav Bharat. Based out of Goa, a western state with a substantial number of Christians, the Sanatan Sanstha provides the ideological base for Hindu militant groups. It has close links with the Sri Ram Sene and publishes a periodical, Sanatan Prabhat, which spews hate against Christians occasionally.

Media reports warn of tensions due to the spurt in the activities of the splinter groups in the recent past. “The hardliners are now getting into more extreme
activities,” The Times of India daily (October 21) quoted VN Deshmukh, former joint director of India’s Intelligence Bureau, as saying.The most extremist sections are disillusioned with the way the RSS is functioning, said Mumbai-based Irfan Engineer, Director of the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies.

Most cadres were mobilized with the ideology that called for elimination of minorities, mainly Muslims and Christians, he told Compass, adding that many of them were highly disappointed with the way the movement was being led.Compulsions of the coalition era, he said, restricted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the political wing of the RSS, to effectively work towards a Hindu nation when the party was in power at the federal level from 1998 to 2004. A majority of the BJP’s allies in the National Democratic Alliance were not Hindu nationalist.

“One section of the [Hindu nationalist] movement believes in acquiring state power by participating in parliamentary democracy, and the other wants to create a Hindu nation by violent means,” explained Engineer.

It is believed that the divide within the RSS family may deepen even further.Analysts believe that Hindu nationalism is losing relevance in national politics, as evident in the last two successive defeats of the BJP, in the 2004 and 2009 general elections. Consequently, the RSS and the BJP may distance themselves from the hard line ideology or make it sound more inclusive and less militant. Post-2009 elections, the RSS has begun to increasingly talk about the threat China poses to India and the need for development in rural areas, instead of its pet issues like Islamist terrorism and Christian conversions.This will disappoint sections of the highly charged cadres even more and the splintering may accelerate. For the next few years, we will see more new names and new faces but with the same ideology and inspiration, said Anwar Rajan, secretary of the PUCL in Pune.

Splintering or Strategic Divisions?
However, whether the new groups truly have no connection with the RSS or it is a strategy of the latter to evade legal action on other groups is not fully known, said Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer, Chairman of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) in Mumbai.

The CSSS chairman believes the relations between the RSS and the new groups can be compared to the ones between the Maoist (extreme Marxist) rebels and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in India. While the CPI-M distances itself from the Maoists as far their use of violence is concerned, it speaks for the rebels whenever security forces crackdown on them.

The newer rightwing groups surely have the sympathy of the RSS, says Pune-based SM Mushrif, former Inspector General of Police in Maharashtra who has been observing Hindu extremist groups for years.