Both Bharat Mata ki Jai and Vande Mataram are slogans that originated during our freedom struggle and these were supplemented at different stages by other slogans like Jai Hind, Mera Bharat Mahan and so on. The RSS did not have any particular role in formulating these slogans but it now wants to misappropriate these slogans. Bhagat Singh went to the gallows shouting the slogan Inquilab Zindabad (long live the revolution), coined by Hasrat Mohani, and that slogan became more popular than Bharat Mata ki Jai. Was that slogan less patriotic than Bharat Mata ki Jai? Or was Bhagat Singh not a patriot?

Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) President Simranjit Singh Mann asserted: “Sikhs don’t worship women in any form. Hence, they can’t chant this slogan.” He further added: “According to the BJP, one who doesn’t say ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ is not a patriot and can be tried for sedition...Sikhs should say “Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh.”

Hitler used nationalism to evoke patriotism in Germans and bolster his Nazi party. The current war-cry of the Hindutva fanatics led by the RSS are modelled almost on similar infamous slogans of the Nazi party, like “Wir sind Deutsher” (We are German), “Deutschland uber alles” (Germany above all), “ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer” (one people, one government, one leader). These slogans find reflection in the RSS. Hitler had his bugbear in Jews, the RSS has in Muslims and other “aggressors” who came and settled down here.

RSS chief (sarsanghchalak) M.S. Golwalkar, in his Bunch of Thoughts (p. 435), denounced the Constitution of India for giving equal rights to all, and copied the Nazi slogan in his “one country, one state, one legislature, one executive” demand.

The Hindutva protagonists, more so the Hindi zealots, have been active in India for many years. In 1965 they tried to impose Hindi on non-Hindi- speaking States leading to virtually a revolt in Tamil Nadu. The Union Government was then forced to retract and declare that the use of Hindi would be voluntary. Both Hindi and English remained official languages and Hindi also did not become the national language. Incidentally, there are roughly 1635 mother tongues and 122 languages in India.

The renewed assertion of Hindi and Hindutva today is no doubt due to the RSS-guided BJP’s ascension to power, leading our country towards a Hindutva hegemony negating our democracy.

The RSS was formed in 1925 by K.B. Hedgewar after the Nazi party was set up in Germany in 1923. He was the man who coined the word Hindutva in 1923 in his pamphlet ‘Essentials of Hindutva’. RSS guru M.S. Golwalkar, who took over the RSS after Hedgewar, had great regard for the Nazi party’s anti-Semitism. In his book, We, or Our Nationhood Defined, he admires Germany in the following words: “Germany has also shown how well-nigh impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the roots, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by.”

Vakavaka Pakapaka wrote:Are Pappu, Soonya, Sibal, Titsa, Jagan, Maran, Raja...... anti-nationals?