Education
Religious political parties and their welfare work: relations between the RSS, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Vidya Bharati schools in India
The pressure to modify the curriculum to reflect “Hindutva” ideology in Indian schools
Authors:
P. Nair
Publisher:
International Development Department, University of Birmingham, 2009
This paper examines the relationships between various political and religious forces in India in order to obtain a better insight into their cooperated roles in furthering the “Hindutva” (a doctrine that holds that the Indian nation is defined by Hindu culture) agenda.
The study finds that:
- the RSS (the Indian social organisation under study) reflects the aspirations of a section of the Hindu community by responding to perceived threats to Hindu culture and seeking to sustain the supremacy of the Hindu upper castes
- some of the RSS’s organisational offshoots have adopted militant and communally exclusive tactics, but many are involved in the provision of social welfare services, including a network offaith-inspired schools
- the BJP (the political party under study) is one of several organisations through which the RSS promotes the idea of a “Hindu Rashtra” (India belongs to Hindus alone) nation
- the BJP was formed to advance the political ambitions of some RSS members, and has acquired access to power at the national level through its coalition strategy
- there is a familial relationship between the BJP and RSS’s schools, which seek to groom young minds towards the concept of a Hindu nation, but it has currently a somewhat fractious relationship with the RSS
- as a result, the BJP will have to address the contradictions that arise from its relationship with the RSS and the place of the “Hindutva” agenda in its political platform, in order to maintain its political support
- similarly, the national and state ministries dealing with education must deal with the pressure to modify the curriculum to reflect “Hindutva” ideology in both government and RSS’s schools
