Sanghi who Never went to Shakha - Rahul Roushan

Sanghi who Never went to Shakha by Rahul Roushan got this for my sister Thara, but ended up reading it myself first making it the 32nd of 2021. For many who have born around 1980, like the author, many events, many observations and many emotions in this book will strike a chord with millions who would have undergone similar journeys. 

Rahul was born and brought up in Patna, where he graduated in Mathematics (Honours) from Patna University, before getting his journalism diploma from IIMC in New Delhi, and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Rahul Roushan shot to fame around 2009–10 as the ‘Pagal Patrakar’, the pseudonym he used while writing for Faking News. Back then he was seen just as a founder-editor of the news satire website with no special interest in politics or ideology. Rahul started his career as a television journalist, but took up the path of entrepreneurship post his MBA. He founded the Indian news satire website Faking News, which was later acquired by Network18. Now he is the CEO of OPIndia. He fell in love out of numbers to fall in love with words, and shifted to reading literature and poetry, and therefore was influenced more by stories than statistics. 

This is the journey of a person who hated the word ‘Sanghi’ but ended up happily adopting it as a label. Sanghi who Never went to Shakha is the first book by Rahul Roushan, and like few new authors, he is one who was fortunate to find time to bring out his book during Corona times. Even if you miss the nuances of  narrative, you would get a macro idea of where he is trying to lead us - a shakha. The modern info-war. 

Sanghi literally means someone who is a member of the right-wing RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) or its affiliates, but the ‘liberals’ use the term liberally to deride those who differ with their political and ideological stand, or those who wear Hinduism on their sleeves. This book analyses why Hindutva as an ideology is no longer anathema and what brought about this change. Why did a country that was ruled for decades by people espousing Nehruvian secularism suddenly began to align with the ‘communal politics’ of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)?

The book is the story of this transformation. This is not an autobiography, though it could read like one in parts. It is not even a collection of intellectual essays, though it could read like one in parts. It is the retelling of some historical events and how those events impacted the journey of Rahul Roushan and countless people like him. The book looks at factors like education, media, technology and obviously, electoral politics, which played a key role in this transformation.

In author's words, ‘This book will be of special interest to readers who just want to badmouth me and the book, but I really hope the same people make an earnest effort to also understand what changed India and all those Sanghis who never went to any shakha.’ "

If India has indeed fundamentally changed, it means Indians have changed. People who might not have identified themselves with the RSS earlier are now supporting and voting for Modi, and by extension people are no longer treating Hindutva as anathema. There have been efforts to berate and malign the people who have changed, instead of understanding what brought this change in them.  This book is about that change. 

Secularism means the principle of separation of the state from religious institutions. It advocates that the state shouldn't care about or interfere in religious affairs, basically, religion is none of state's business. However, the Indian stat cares and interferes a lot in religious matters. We have multitudes of laws that revolve around religious identities and even feelings. Interesting the author feels and writes that the "The goddess of justice in courts is supposed to be blind, but in reality, she is staring at religions all the time."

Liberal person is one who supports individual freedom and bats for equal rights for everyone. He is also accommodative of dissenting views. But a liberal in India is willing to be liberal only with people who don't assertively identify themselves as Hindus. This includes Left. 

Leftist has been used globally to refer to a range of people who could be socialists, communists or even anarchists. 

Interestingly many call themselves and others left-liberals, which is the most frequently used oxymoron in the entire world. I have been personally amused by the use of this, as my Right wing supporter friends have called everyone other than themselves by this term. Coming from Kerala, where both are at loggerheads, at least outwardly, I have always wondered how both of them could be same; but can understand where they come from, and liberals elsewhere are accommodative of left as well. 

Hindutva is veritably the definition of Hinduism. It defines the essence of being a Hindu. It defines Hinduness, and that is Hindutva, literally. 

There are Nine chapters , followed by a short note on the RSS, and the chapters are:

1. Ps-loo-ral and kaal-ph  Authors father being a English literature in a government college, wanted him to study in a better school in Patna, and therefore they moved from Bihar Sharif in Nalanda district of the state, as the teachers in this school pronounced plural and Calf as Ps-loo-ral and kaal-ph. Thus begin the resonation of similarities on how parents want kids to have good education, the kind of movies being released, the struggle to watch them, the song books which were more hands, all giving a nostalgia for the growing up days. Yeh tri meri yaari, yeh dosti humaari, Allah ko pasand hai, bhagwaan ko hai pyaari, th song from Daata literlly means the giver. The song reminds of school days, and why it is so easy to be a secular and not a sanghi for a common Hindu, unless they are born in Sanghi families. There is the mention of Khilafat movement and the misunderstanding around it, and the  'lying for harmony' by Sharad Pawar about the Mumbai Bomb blasts of 1993 by inventing an extra bomb blast at a place called 'Masjid Bunder' in Mumbai, which was muslim-dominated, to maintain communal harmony. He himself told that he had lied, and did not want it to become truth, that would later become part of history text books, and people start believing and living in their own web of lies. You may not understand politics, or may not want to, but it affect you, your life, your children. You can choose to be not interested in politics, but you cant choose not to get affected by it. Politics is not just electoral politics, from outside they all might appear similar, but when it comes to the environment they end up creating by the mere virtue of being in power, they trigger some changes directly and some indirectly, some  as a driving force, some as a catalyst, some intended, some unintended. It affects your present, your future, your past, your history, your identity, your roots. 
2. The Congressi Hindu Though Nehru was not a religious person and had no special love for his Hindu identity or for Hinduism, they did not create policies that would strip India of its Hindu identity and consciousness altogether. Party showcased the legacy of the likes of Bal Gangadhara Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madan Mohan Malaviya, Sardar Patel and others as part of their history and ethos. Indira Gandhi did not do or say anything that could be construed as going against Hindu beliefs or sentiments in manner and matters that were common. She wore rudraksha beads, frequented temples and mathas, had Dhirendra Brahmachari as her yoga guru, her public persona was very Hindu, something her grandchildren try to fall back upon even today. A congressi Hindu is essentially some who has a sense of belonging ot the Hindu identity, but doesn't really understand the theological basis or political aspects of that identity. He is ever willing to accommodate and adjust the expanse of the identity, but not elaborate and construct the contours of that identity and not willing to defend it.  1990s were the decade of churn. There were no classes on Hindu religious epics, nor temple on school premises run by Hindus, which were common in schools run by others. Teachers taught that it can be proved, that all the villains were good men. Saraswati Vandana was recited in schools by people of all religion and none would walk out. Onam was celebrated by all alike. Not getting into IIT and seeing the fame of Arundathi Roy, prompted Rahul to get into Journalism. 
3. The  'terrorist' batchmate Thus with move from math to journalism, Rahul moved from Patna to Delhi. As a student of IIMC, after the 9/11 terror attack, they were asked to create a TV report, and so they started talking to people. One person was Shabaz who said, "The US is the biggest terrorist nation in the world, what the US has been doing in different countries is terrorism",  then it did not send any alarm bells that he could be an Islamist. He had left the course mid-way as SIMI (Student Islamic Movement of India) was banned in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks. No one knew where he went after. But he was the first to be arrested in connection with the Jaipur bomb blast, in 2008. He was head of SIMIs legal and Journalism cell. The partition of India was never discussed honestly in popular discourse or school textbooks. The congress blamed it on the 'Divide and Rule' policy of the British and Jinnah's complicity, while the Sanghis blamed it all on Gandhi and Nehru, in addition to Jinnah. The other incidents that took place around the time were the Parliament attack in New Delhi in December 2001 and finally the post-Godhra riots in February-March 2002. Incidentally, all three, especially 9/11 and 2002, were incidents whose impact was magnified multiple times due to live TV. The term 'Islamic terrorists' was frequently used by the US media then, but was stopped because of objections saying it aided in 'Islamophobia'. India rarely used that term in the media then. But now the use of Hindu terror or saffron terror is common. The attack on the parliament is barely considered as some great tragedy or warning for the Indian society, except in formal statement made by the political class. When communal incident is mentioned, no one miss the 2002 Gujarat riots. There is a power of storytelling and he was out to exercise that. 
4. Lessons in journalism The general ideological bias in media narratives is not due to some grand universal conspiracy by the left to control the world, even though some people do believe that such conspiracy exists - but because of the widely held belief that the mass media is hugely powerful and thus this power has to be used 'responsibly'. Hypodermic needle model, is one of the the oldest communication models, also known as 'magic bullet' theory, this model equates messaging through the mass media with medicinal injection. The messages carried by the media are supposed to be like the medicinal fluid in a syringe, which can be injected into a receiver's body and the desired affects can be achieved to almost clinical perfection .Media is supposed be a magical gun that can inject bullets right into a person's head - without killing him - but the person's beliefs and thinking changes according to what was contained in that bullet. There is also something called the 'agenda-setting theory', which effectively argues that the media is not anything like a 'mirror to the society' - an adage often used by journalists or media professionals - but the press and the media actually go on to share the character of a society by altering its thinking and sensitivities. There were rewards for secular journalism and therefore people opted it. Social media encourage tribalism, that had started growing. Blaming Nehru and Gandhi for partition are elaborately created smokescreen to not let you see the real reason-Islamism. Having joined Sahara after specializing in TV Journalism,  then he got into IIM and went to Narendra Modi's Ahmedabad. 
5. In Modi's Gujarat He learnt that it was important to cite data to back up arguments and propose solutions, data might not be readily available, then logical assumptions and research has to be done. IIM Ahmedabad trained him to look for hard data, and mere awesome storytelling was not enough. From 2005-2008, during the IIM Ahmedabad and then pursuing various projects before establishing Faking news, author was bust exploring new ideas and opportunities. India had faced various terror attacks during this period -  Delhi blast in 2005 and 2008, Varanasi blasts in 2006, Mumbai train bombing in 2006, Samjhauta Express bombing in 2007, Jaipur blasts in 2008, Ahmedabad blast in 2008 and the Mumbai terror attacks in 2008.All the terror attacks by Islamic terrorists were conveniently, though rightly too, blamed on Pakistan or Kashmir-based groups, but the debates in the media never hovered around the ideology of radical Islam. While things were changing, the narrative was very much in congress favor until 2010. All these while, Narendra Modi was getting ready for a long innings. Between 2002 to 2007 the image of Modi and Gujarat was controversial. He was even called 'Maut ka Saudagar', But 'Modi means business'; started resonating. Incidentally 4-5 years would see social media expanding like crazy , and many other events took place during this period.  
6. Internet, Anna, 'paid media' The reckless coverage of the terrorist attacks by the channels gave rise to a situation where, on the one hand, the terrorists were completely hidden from the security forces and they had no means to know their exact positions, on the other hand, all these were being watched by the collaborators across the border on TV screens and was being communicated to the terrorists. A belief in nationalist ideology will translate to an idea of responsible journalism where the media actively helps the security forces in their combat operations. An overwhelming number of Indian's are patriotic, with Republic day and Independence day celebrations, and the love for tricolour. Cricket Stock Exchange, Political Stock Exchanges were created. People started relying more and using more of Internet and social media sites, especially since the Arushi case. Ideas that often originated on Twitter were featured in blogs and Facebook posts, and they travelled far. Anna and team started raising voice against corruption. While the BJP tried to 'appease' the Anna movement, even though it painted the entire political class as corrupt, the Congress tried to claim that the Anna movement was some clandestine project by RSS. That did'nt cut ice with most people, as it was not true. They tried to keep political parties away from the movement, thought some of them later joined various parties or created their own. 
7. Hindutva vs the 'Ecosystem' The key element of an ecosystem is interdependence, not alliance or union. It is not rare or unimaginable to see the constituents of an ecosystem attacking each other. This ecosystem is the establishment. It is an entrenched bunch of people and institutions that systematically controls the thoughts and beliefs of the masses. It is often achieved via control on the media and academics. The establishment also aims to control the citizens speeches and actions, so that the status quo is maintained, and counter-thoughts and movements are suppressed. This control is achieved through judiciary, and through advocacy and activism. They are not the government, which come and go; but they remain. It is not supposed to be an organized clique that secretly meets and strategizes how to maintain the status quo, where it enjoys enormous power and privilege to influence public opinion. These models were broadly developed in the European countries in an era that is known as the 'Age of Enlightenment'. Essentially the blueprint of the ecosystem was developed by the colonial rulers of India. In 1835 Macaulay 's view is written in the Minute of Education dated 2nd Feb: ' We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern - a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature and to render them by degree fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population. '  This is the class that went on to become the members of the ecosystem - Indians, who were Indian only in blood and color, but colonizers in their outlook. The Muslim leaders made sure that the ecosystem created by British never trained its guns against Islam - Hindu culture continued to be the primary targets of the 'civilizing mission' of the British and its ecosystem. The murder of Mahatma Gandhi was one of the biggest setbacks to the Hindu politics, or Hindutva politics if one can say so, as it gave a moral excuse to the British-era anti-Hindu ecosystem to continue in independent India with the same mindset and objectives. It also put the Hindus permanently on the back foot, from where they just couldn't assert their rights. Modi sold hope - there will be no corruption, there will be better governance, inflation will go down and obviously, 'achchhe din anne waale hain' - while his detractors sold fear - if Modi wins, India will lose international reputation, Muslims will be disenfranchised and citizens freedom will be taken away. His detractors didn't include just the political opponents, but the entire ecosystem. As the elections drew nearer, the commentary only grew shriller and more desperate. 
8. Making of Modi's India Modi as a brand was becoming stronger, even Hindutva did not prove to be an impediment. Modi was making it clear that while his pitch is for all round development and sabka Vikas he was not moving away from Hindu nationalism. He was normalising one word, one symbol and one belief at a time he was making it easier for people to become sangi's without going to any Shakha. Modi's media strategies also helped. He was communicating  to the people  directly  without  gatekeepers. His opponents  and his supporters  worked overtime  to ensure  Modi supporters  remain loyal. 
9. The sore losers 2.0 It was a party that believed that can win, a party that  took on the challenge head on and a party that concluded  that it needs to work even harder when defeated,  instead of blaming the EVM or people that won. Hindutva  camp will do good by not becoming intolerant like the  'wokes' and copy their 'cancel culture', they don't become  inherently  supremacist and violent with no regard for  personal  liberty. 

Let there be no one who writes 'Memoirs of a Libtard who never went to JNU'.

There is  a short note on RSS in the end  which  concludes with "hopefully, the Sangh and the Sanghis will get to understand each other better  in the future. It is crucial for the continued existence of both.