New Delhi: As part of a larger campaign to "decolonise the Indian mind" and "end Marxist dominance", the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and its sympathisers will be holding a first-of-its-kind colloquium, Lokmanthan, beginning Saturday.
The three-day fest is being organised in Bhopal, and the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government is partnering this programme.
RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha and Sangh deputy Prachar Pramukh J Nandakumar are actively involved in organising the event, which is being billed as a "counter hegemonic movement". It is being seen as part of RSS's strategy to counter discourse domination by the Left. There has been a section in the RSS which believes that the ideological Left, though electorally weakened, still commands a dominant control over the media.
This was evident in recent times whenever the political Right faced ideological challenges from Left liberals — be it award wapsi or the Rohith Vemula and JNU episodes.
"Marxist dominance has defined and seen India from the Western prism in the last one year. Indian intellectuals have never challenged the Western concept of conflict and caste. This is something we would set out to do through such colloquiums,” says Rakesh Sinha, who also heads the think-tank, India Policy Foundation.
Over 500 delegates from across the country will be participating in this programme, including tribal and Dalit leaders, and vernacular artistes.
CK Janu, the tribal leader from Kerala who contested the recent assembly polls in the state in alliance with the BJP, will be participating in one of the sessions at the conclave.
"This colloquium will emphasise on issues which unite us as against the brigade which is trying to destabilise the system," says J Nandakumar, deputy chief of the RSS media department.
Dalit and vernacular literature has found its own bearing in the identity politics of the post-Mandal era. But dominant voices in the movement, however, have either aligned themselves with the Indian Left or have followed an independent stream of thought.
Caste strifes from Haryana to Gujarat and now Maharashtra is nudging the Indian Right to alter its approach to the issue. In the days ahead, the RSS may make a concerted effort towards this end.
As Rakesh Sinha puts it: "Reactionary elements will be rejected from Dalit literature and we will accept positive things."
As for Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, India's syncretic multiculturalism?
That, Sinha feels, “is not the burden of one community or a class".
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