| From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 43, Dated Nov 01, 2008 | | | CURRENT AFFAIRS | | it shakhas | | Saffron Techies The RSS is now expanding its ideological bandwidth through special camps for software professionals, discovers SANJANA in Bengaluru  | | Illustration: SUDEEP CHAUDHURI | IT'S 8AM on a Sunday morning. At a public ground in Sahakarnagar, Bengaluru, swayamsevaks (volunteers) from the RSS file out, their shakha (meeting) concluded. Queries about something called an Information Technology (IT) milan which is to be held in the same ground in half an hour are answered enthusiastically. "They will assemble here on time. They are also part of our Sangh and discipline is very important," says a swayamsevak who only identifies himself as Arun from Vasanthappa Block, RT Nagar, (a colony in North Bengaluru). Before he leaves, he gives me the phone numbers of four swayamsevaks living near my house who will put me in touch with the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, the women's wing of the RSS — IT milans are only for men. Arun's suggestion notwithstanding, I was never turned away from milans. Most milan members were willing to accommodate questions about their work and activities. I was, after all, a potential member — for the Sevika Samiti, if not for the milan. IT milans are shakhas or camps organised for IT and IT-enabled service professionals, by the RSS, the right-wing Hindu fundamentalist organisation. Part of the extended Sangh Parivar, IT milans signal the RSS' intention "to organise IT workers across the country towards contributing to the larger agenda of building a Hindu Rashtra." A concept that has been in the making for six years, IT milans have started to appear with considerable speed in the last three years. They now exist in several cities across India with significant IT activities, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, Faridabad and Kolkata. In Bengaluru alone, there are 46 IT milans located in different residential areas. IT milan members work with leading companies such as Infosys, Tata Consulting Services, Cognizant Technologies, Siemens and Kyocera. In terms of the internal organisational structure of milans in Bengaluru, every milan has a mukhyashikshak (principal teacher) and a karyavaha (organiser); the milans are then organised into 16 valays (local area organisations), with a valay karyavaha (in-charge) and four khands (sections). An RSS full-timer, M Suresh Nayak, is in charge of overseeing all IT milans in Bengaluru and ensuring that the milans' membership drive remains on full throttle. While not all milan members are swayamsevaks with years of experience and engagement with the RSS ideology, key organisational roles are assigned to only those with over 10 years of experience within the Sangh. Many, like Manoj Desai, the valay karyavaha of Amruthanagar, who oversees the functioning of two milans in his area, have been with the RSS since their childhood. Says Desai, "IT milans have been conceptualised keeping in mind busy IT professionals who cannot attend daily RSS shakhas — milans take place on Sunday mornings for an hour, usually between 8 and 9am in different areas." Another departure from the daily RSS shakha is the relaxed dress code — milan members are not asked to wear trademark RSS khaki shorts. What happens in IT milans? Besides the routine RSS flag-hoisting and prayers, discussions are held every week on a topic chosen by the boudhik shikshak (ideological teacher) in the milan. After a brief presentation by the shikshak, discussions follow. In the milans I attended, discussions ranged from the disturbing collapse of Nepal as a Hindu rashtra to the real story behind Christian conversions and the attacks on churches, to JC Bose (an Indian scientist who is considered to be the father of wireless communication) and the need for pride in the nation's real achievers. Discussions in milans are coloured by the Sangh ideology; the email lists as well are filled with opinion pieces by Sangh ideologues such as Tarun Vijay, V Sundaram and Shreerang Godbole. "Since they are IT professionals, there is a chance that they may not have time to focus on issues around them. Besides, it is important to grasp the real perspective on different issues. We want them to feel proud of our country and its achievements and not look at Western countries as a model," says Nirmal Kumar, mukhyashikshak at the JP Nagar milan. When I asked a mukhyashikshak at a different milan about the unequal roles assigned to men and women within marriages and why women were asked to follow their husbands, I was directed to the Sangh Parivar official website that explained the science of the caste system and marriage laws. This is how it explains the 'natural' subordination of women: "Birth is not accidental. Depending upon the mood and thought level of the husband at the time of conception, souls in the range of similar thought-frequency enter into the sperm cells. That's the moment when each of the sperm cells become alive, with one soul each. (This is like a radio system. We hear the frequency we tune to.)... Then all of them rush towards the ovum to conceive. ....But out of millions only one gets the chance!! This depends upon the female. The woman's psychosomatic body will allow only that sperm soul to conceive which matches the impression she has of her husband on her psychosomatic makeup. That is why for good progeny the wife should be tuned to her husband, coloured by her husband, she should have adherence to her husband." BESIDES IDEOLOGICAL indoctrination and integration into the Sangh Parivar, IT milans also provide the Sangh people and resources to channel into regular activities. A special door-to-door fundraising drive held in Bengaluru over a month in 2007 reportedly raised Rs 20 lakh for the Vanavasi Kalyan Kendra, a Sangh organisation that deals with "tribal welfare activities across India." This year as well, a similar drive will be held to raise funds for a different Sangh organisation or activity. "We don't just collect money, we ensure that we give donors information about the cause. That way, more people hear about the great social work that is happening across India. Unlike missionary NGOs, we don't tell the press about the work done by the RSS. We avoid publicity and try to reach ordinary people directly," says Debashish, a swayamsevak in the Amruthanagar milan. Debashish, who originally comes from Orissa and has been with the Sangh since his childhood, talks in detail about the mission that used to be run by Graham Staines in Orissa. "Though there are hardly 60 people in that leper camp, look at the publicity they got," he said, coming dangerously close to contradicting the proposition that Staines was burnt alive on charges of converting thousands to Christianity. For now, IT milans in Bengaluru are working towards a Sanskrit camp that will be held in the month of November – an occasion that they hope will bring together around 2,000 people. Says Anant, another IT milan member, "We are still growing, there are a lot of people that we need to connect within IT orga - nisations in Bengaluru. The process may be slow since it is developed on personto- person contacts, but I feel we are on the right track. Just see how much we will have grown two years from now."• |
