"RSS turns 100. They're making a film about their "glory." Let's talk about what that century actually looks like.
1. They fought women's rights. Tooth and nail Golwalkar opposed the Hindu Code Bill, the bare minimum of legal rights for women, and had the audacity to claim it would cause men "mental disease and distress." Protecting men's fragile egos was more important than women's basic dignity. https://cpiml.net/liberation/2013/02/rss-views-women
2. They wanted a Constitution that calls women dogs. Savarkar declared Manusmriti "the most worship-able scripture after the Vedas" and pushed for it as the foundation of Hindu law. The RSS's own mouthpiece, the Organiser, mourned that Manu's laws weren't made the basis of India's Constitution. A text that compares women to dogs. That strips Dalits of their humanity. That is the India RSS wanted. Don't let them forget it. https://publications.cpiml.net/book/utho-mere-desh-%E2%80%93-arise-my-country-real-face-of-sangh-brigades-nationalism/rss-views-on-india%E2%80%99s-constitution https://kashmirtimes.com/opinion/comment-articles/the-unending-discomfort-of-rss-with-the-constitution
3. Their chief blamed rape victims. Mohan Bhagwat said rapes happen in "India, not Bharat." Translation: it's westernisation and women's choices that get them raped. This man said that out loud. As the head of an organisation claiming to represent Indian culture. https://countercurrents.org/2020/10/hathras-incident-and-rss-bjp-defence-of-rape/
4. They think wives are unpaid domestic servants. Bhagwat openly stated that marriage is a contract where the wife is obligated to do housework, and if she fails, the husband should leave her. From the head of an organisation celebrating a century of "culture." https://www.thequint.com/opinion/politics-of-marital-rape-in-india-criminalised-for-some
5. Their ideological godfather advocated rape as a political weapon. Savarkar explicitly argued that Hindu men should have raped Muslim women in retaliation against medieval invaders, calling Hindu chivalry toward Muslim women "suicidal." He put it in writing. His own publisher added a footnote distancing from it, which means they knew exactly how it read. This isn't fringe. This is their foundation. Their inspiration. Their pride. https://cpiml.net/liberation/2013/02/rss-views-women
6. Their women's wing actively fought against women's inheritance rights. For eight decades, the RSS women's wing has opposed Hindu women getting a share of ancestral property. Their own women. Their official position is that women are mothers first, humans maybe later. https://scroll.in/article/821360/eighty-years-on-the-rss-womens-wing-has-not-moved-beyond-seeing-the-woman-as-mother
7. Their own writings praised Hitler. In their own words. In 1939, Golwalkar's foundational RSS text praised Nazi Germany's purging of Jews as "race pride at its highest" and called it "a good lesson for us in Hindustan to learn and profit by." In 1940, he rallied the RSS under "one flag, one leader, one ideology," a slogan lifted directly from Nazi and Fascist parties. The RSS has since tried to quietly bury this. The words remain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashtriya_Swayamsevak_Sangh
8. They did nothing for Independence. They actively helped crush it. While Bhagat Singh was hanged, while Netaji built the Azad Hind Fauj, while millions marched under "Do or Die," RSS had one instruction for its branches: don't "annoy the British." When Netaji's emissary approached RSS founder Hedgewar for support, he refused to even meet him. Savarkar went further and offered the British full military cooperation to crush Netaji's offensive. Then signed his mercy petition as "your most obedient servant, Convict No. 32778." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashtriya_Swayamsevak_Sangh https://thewire.in/history/savarkar-and-his-mercy-petitions-the-facts
9. They rejected the Indian Flag for 52 years. 52 years. The Tricolour was not flown at RSS headquarters for 52 years after Independence. Their own mouthpiece, the Organiser, wrote that the Tricolour would have a "very bad psychological effect" on India. And when activists tried to hoist it at RSS's Nagpur office in 2001, RSS filed a complaint against them. Those activists were tried in court for 12 years and acquitted only in 2013. https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/rss-relationship-with-tricolour-har-ghar-tiranga-opposition
They've spent a century oppressing women, glorifying casteism, drawing inspiration from fascists, betraying the freedom struggle, and rejecting the national flag.
And now they want a film.
Shatak nahi. Sharam karo.(Not a century of glory. Have some shame.)"
