B.L. Bhole, a political scientist at Nagpur University, is quoted in the NY Times about the R.S.S. — the Hindu Nationalists responsible for stoking anti-Muslim hatred in India:
”The R.S.S. can’t attract young middle-class people anymore, so they hope for better luck among the poor,” he said. ”But the basic values the R.S.S. promotes are drawn from the high Sanskritic culture of Hinduism, which seeks to maintain a social hierarchy with Brahmins at the very top. The united Hindu nation they keep talking about is one where basically low-caste Hindus and Muslims and Christians don’t complain much while accepting the dominance of a Brahmin minority.
”The R.S.S. has been most successful in Gujarat, where low-caste Hindus and tribals were indoctrinated at the kind of schools you went to. They were in the mobs led by upper-caste Hindu nationalists that attacked Muslims and Christians. But the R.S.S. still doesn’t have much support outside Gujarat. This is a serious setback for them, and the only thing they can do to increase their mass base is keep stoking anti-Muslim and anti-Christian passions and hope they can get enough Hindus, both upper caste and low caste, behind them.”
