Americans should engage with RSS, US scholar writes in Wall Street Journal
Updated: March 22, 2023 16:39
By RSSFACTS Web desk
US based publication Wall Street Journal has recently published a column written by American academic and scholar Walter Russell Mead in which he has made some interesting observations about Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
In his column titled ‘India’s BJP’s is the world’s most important party’, Mead wrote “RSS activists have played a significant role in efforts to fight caste discrimination…After an intensive series of meetings with senior BJP and RSS leaders, as well as some of their critics, I am convinced that Americans and Westerners generally need to engage much more deeply with a complex and powerful movement.” The column was published in the print edition section of Wall Street Journal on March 21, 2023. Later it was published online also.
Mead further added, “From a fringe of mostly marginalized intellectuals and religious enthusiasts, the RSS has become perhaps the most powerful civil-society organization in the world. Its rural and urban development programs, religious education and revival efforts and civic activism, staffed by thousands of volunteers from all walks of life, have succeeded in forming the political consciousness and focusing the energies of hundreds of millions of people.”
Mead, who is a distinguished Fellow at Hudson Institute and teaches foreign affairs at Bard College in New York, mentions that he also met the Sarsanghchalak(Chief mentor) of the RSS Dr. Mohan Bhagwat and carried a positive impression. “ Mohan Bhagwat, the spiritual leader of the RSS, spoke to me about the need to accelerate India’s economic growth, and disavowed the idea that religious minorities should suffer discrimination or loss of civil rights,” wrote Mead.
The WSJ columnist emphasised, “The invitation to engage with the BJP and RSS is one that Americans can’t afford to reject. As tensions with China rise, the U.S. needs India as both an economic and political partner. Understanding the ideology and the trajectory of the Hindu nationalist movement is as important for business leaders and investors seeking to engage economically with India as it is for diplomats and policy makers wanting to put the strategic relationship on a stable footing.”
