Page 170 - Islam and Far Eastern Religions
P. 170
168
The aggressive Hindu na-
tionalism took form in the
1920’s and spread across India
in the 1930’s with the militants
trained in the Shakhas. This or-
ganization is still very much ac-
tive to the present day. It is esti-
mated that there are 300,000
shakhas across India and 50 -
100 youth are being trained at
any given time in each shakha,
or in other words, they are re-
ceiving a radical and aggressive
nationalist indoctrination. 72
A poster belonging to the fascist
RSS party. RSS leaders Hedgewar These figures suggest that there
(left) and Golwarkar (right)
are currently at least 30 million
fanatical Hindu militants ready
to carry out the most merciless activities. Considering the number of mil-
itants who went through the Shakha training over the years it becomes
evident that this number is likely much higher at the present time.
The leaders of the RSS were also quite supportive of Hitler’s racial
policies in addition to those of Mussolini’s. One of the leaders of the RSS,
Hedgewar, stated that national unity could only be achieved in the ab-
sence of non-Hindus like Muslims and Christians, because according to
him, non-Hindus could neither understand, practice, nor appreciate
Hindu traditions, culture or ideology. Hedgewar’s distorted perspec-
tives became even more radical under the leadership of the RSS’s second
president, Madhavrao Sadashivrao Golwalkar. “We or Our Nationhood
Defined”, published by Golwalkar in 1938 contained many favorable ref-
Islam And Far Eastern Religions