Every morning at sunrise, groups of men in military-style uniforms gather together before saffron coloured flags, in all parts of India, to participate in a common set of rituals, physical exercises and lessons. For one hour each day, they are taught to think of themselves as a family with a mission to transform Hindu society. (Andersen and Damle 1) They are the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the largest and most influential organization in India committed to Hindu revivalism. The RSS or National Volunteer Organization, is perhaps the most interesting of any of India's social movements. The growth of the RSS provides a detailed illustration of India's changing face. The purpose of this paper is to provide the read

Brass, Paul R. The Politics of India Since Independence. New York: Cambridge University Press,

Developments in the late nineteenth century created conditions conducive to the expansion of revivalism. Nationalism was beginning to assert itself. The revivalist message, based on traditional Hindu concepts regarding society, was appealing to many Indian Hindus. In pre-independent India, the premier nationalist organization was the Indian National Congress, an umbrella organization that accommodated a variety of interests including those of the revivalists. However, the Congress was not entirely successful in adequately satisfying all groups. Many Muslim leaders felt that Westernized Hindu elite, who controlled the Congress, did not adequately respond to Muslim interests. The same sentiments were shared by Hindu revivalist leaders regarding the Hindu community. The founder of the RSS doubted whether the Congress, which included Muslims, could bring about the desired unity of the Hindu community. As the Hindu and Muslim leaders within these communities continued to feel unfairly represented, they turned to forming other political organizations claiming to represent their respective groups. It would be appropriate to note that there was no cohesive community, either Hindu or Muslim, in India that was united. These communities were divided by many barriers, and developed in each region differently, both politically and socially. What these organizations did represent was a certain aspect of their respective communities that was very defensive in nature.

During this period of escalating Hindu-Muslim animosity, Hedgewar began to develop the intellectual foundations of the RSS. A major influence on his thinking was Vinayak Damodar Sarvarkar's Hindutva, which advances the thesis that the Hindus are a nation. While Sarvarkar's work may have provided Hedgewar with an intellectual justification for the concept of a Hindu nation that embraced all the peoples of the subcontinent, it did not give him a method for uniting the Hindu community. From his youth, Hedgewar searched for a reason to explain India's inability to ward off foreign domination. He was disturbed that a small group of colonial administers could rule a vast country like India with such ease. Hedgewar felt that much of India's ancient territory, referring to Tibet and Afghanistan, had been lost due to a lack of Hindu unity. He believed that independence and national revitalization could be achieved only when the root cause of India's weakness was discovered. Some time between 1924 and 1925, Hedgewar satisfied himself that he had discovered the cause; the fundamental problem was psychological and what was required was an inner transformation to rekindle a sense of national consciousness and social cohesion. Once having created a regiment of persons committed to the national reconstruction, he believed there would be little difficulty in sustaining a movement of revitalization, which of course would include independence as one of its objectives.

http://www.monm.edu/academic/Classics/Speel_Festschrift/spitz.htm

Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism. Colorado: Westview Press, 1987.

Most revivalists argued that Gandhi's efforts in the early 1920s to strengthen Hindu-Muslim bonds by lining up the Congress organization behind the Muslim protest against the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire encouraged Muslim separatism. When he launched his first major non-cooperation movement in India on August 1, 1920, one of the issues was the British unwillingness to satisfy Muslims on the Turkish issue. Gandhi called for a complete boycott of government institutions, while simultaneously including the doctrine of ahimsa as an integral part of the movement. A considerable number of Congress members, including many revivalists, opposed both the objectives and tactics of the boycott. Widespread communal rioting followed the apparent failure of Gandhi's non-

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