Lost Years of the RSS

Lost Years of the RSS is a historical analysis of the events that have shaped the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in its 85 years of existence. Written from an insider′s perspective, this in-depth work critically analyses the major turning points in the history of RSS from the viewpoint of both a follower and an opponent, while digging deep into its socio-political history. Beginning with the political ethnography of the RSS, the book charts the organisation′s growth over time-from the Partition, the first ban, the Golwalkar and Deoras periods, the demolition of Babri Masjid, to the present, when the original principles of the Sangh have been forgotten, leading to the current decadence within the organisation. The author concludes with suggestions for a way forward for the RSS, wherein the lessons learnt from the past can be put to use and the original values can be reinstated. At the heart of the book is the author′s implicit desire to contradict the current media representations of the Sangh and portray the RSS as what it was actually meant to be.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Kumar Ketkar Introduction Original Design of the RSS: An Analysis Political Ethnography of the RSS Other Dominant Tendencies of the Golwalkar Era Withdrawal, Return and Ascent of Deoras The Emergency and Post-Emergency The BJP, the Parivar and Deoras: 1980-85 Catapulting the Hindu to the Centre Stage Road to Political Power and Its Aftermath The Unipolar World and the RSS′ Response The Future, If Any The New Hindutva (Violent) Forces Epilogue: The Problem of Ideologies Postscript: Ayodhya Judgement and Bihar Assembly Elections Appendices Glossary References Index

About the Author :
Sanjeev Kelkar has seen the RSS at close quarters, and at all levels, for the last 43 years. He was brought up in a diehard RSS family in Nagpur. It had close connections with the founder of the RSS, Golwalkar, Deoras and many others. As a part of his social commitment, he left Mumbai for a rural tribal area medical service project and worked there for 11 years. He is best described as an institution builder, an excellent trainer, an educational technologist, a wizard at project management and a gambler with his life. The excellent second-level referral hospital that he created was for him a laboratory to develop models to address the numerous needs of rural health care. He then made the unlikely leap from the rural to the highly complex tertiary care super-specialty practice in CIIMS Hospital, Nagpur. He won an award of Rs. 200,000 for his short essay, ‘Program Proposal for Tuberculosis Control in India in 1995’. Giving up his medical practice overnight, he joined a multinational pharma giant for the next six years. As their education director, he has trained numerous medical postgraduates in diabetes with extraordinary results. Giving up medicine, for the last several years, he has engaged himself in political and literary writing. This book on the comparative study of the leftist–socialist, centrist and particularly the right-wing politics in India is an altogether different interpretation compared to the conventional wisdom. He is presently working on his novel based on his experiences as a medical practitioner.

Review :
Whatever the future, given the RSS’ multi-layered history, this was a story waiting to be told. Mr Kelkar’s intention may be to analyse the history of the RSS as a believer as well as an opponent. But objectivism is easier said than achieved. In Mr Kelkar’s case, the opponent’s viewpoint resembles that of a mother, bitterly disappointed in her child but unrelenting in her support and affection nonetheless. So expect a historical account of a "misunderstood" organization and a loyalist’s take on the way forward.