Eat traditional food, shun English, reject caste: Bhagwat's vision for Hindus

Travel is all very well for the modern global citizen, but being ‘Hindu’ starts at home for RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who inaugurated the ‘Hindu Unity Conference’ at Pathanamthitta in Kerala on the morning of Wednesday, 5 February.

You will know arsonists by their clothing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said in 2019, a veiled nod to Muslim citizens of India in his second term in power.

Now, the chief of the BJP’s mothership says equally, a Hindu must be known by their clothing, speech and food habits at home — though Bhagwat did suggest that travel is a given in these times, so possibly there is room to assimilate with locals in the 'when in Rome' style while away from home.

But yes, Hindutva clearly begins at home: “Within the four walls of our house, language, clothing, devotion, food and thought should be our own,” he said, with an example: “In my house, I will speak Malayalam because it is my mother tongue; I will not speak English. In my house, I will be in my traditional clothing.”

This is not, however, to say that one’s religion is a private affair, per the RSS supreme leader. Rather, it is a familial and communal indoctrination by a ritualisation that once belonged more to Abrahamic religions (though Brahmins may have hewed to their caste purity rituals, not every class of Hindu felt that need or pressure).

Now, since dharma is the ‘soul of Hinduism’, the Hindu is being exhorted to practice it not only individually and privately, but ensure weekly family meetings for prayers and bhajans — followed by an evaluation of family values and their alignment to ‘culture’.

“Once a week, everyone in the house should come together at a predetermined time… Come together at a certain time, sing bhajan as per our devotion, eat home-cooked food happily and then speak for 3-4 hours on two topics: (1) Who are we? What are our traditions? What is our culture? (2) Are we following that in our house?” Bhagwat said.

At the same time, there was a smidge of double speak, seemingly, in a continuation of Bhagwat's seeming attempt to rehabilitate the Hindutva image as a ‘gentle strength’ and distance it from the militant fervour of its popular 21st-century avatar.

For, while Hindu society must unite for “its survival” and strengthen itself as a community, said Bhagwat, “The strength, the way it’s used is important. It shouldn’t harm anyone else.”

Elaborating on this contemporary version of Sanatan Dharma, Bhagwat added that ideas not in line with ‘dharma’ must be abolished too, and specified, “As Guru (Sree Narayan Guru) says, casteism and untouchability are not Dharma. They should be abolished.”

Or was that utterance but an example of the situational chameleon that is a travelling Hindu?

For the Hindu Unity Conference is part of the annual Cherukolpuzha Hindu Convention, held by the Pampa river in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district. It is organised by the Kerala-based Hindumatha Mahamandalam, founded by Chattambi Swamikal in 1913 as a reformist organisation to fight untouchability. It also valorises the empowerment of women and marginalised communities.

Of course, this is not the first time Bhagwat has spoken for abolishing the concepts of caste — and even of jaati and varna, which many a Hindutva-bound netizen distinguishes from the ‘colonial’ description of casteism. He has gone on record in 2023 saying that priests — Brahmins, then — created these divisions, and not God.

Then again, there is the small matter of people actually on the ground, within and at the receiving end of the RSS operations with respect to caste — such as former member Bhanwar Meghwanshi, who told a very different story of actual Hindutva practice under Bhagwat’s own leadership in his memoir I Could Not Be Hindu: The Story of a Dalit in the RSS.