By IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 07 Sep 2015: Even after courting controversies for allegedly targeting India’s education policy in the last one and half years, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has now advised the government to institutionalize war studies. On the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the 1965 India-Pakistan war, an editorial of the latest issue of RSS mouthpiece Orgnaiser said, “Wars are generally remembered as an emotional event, posturing solidarity with our soldiers but not as a systematic discipline of studies.”
According to the Hindutva outfit, Indians never studied the war histories with “objective Bharatiya (Indian) sources,” owing to which there is a “defeatist self-perception” among Indians. Citing the 1965 war against Pakistan, RSS said, “Even after 50 years of the hard fought war in 1965, there are claims and counter-claims about the outcome. This is not because Pakistan says so but for the reason that we are not particular about our war histories. Wars are generally remembered as an emotional event, posturing solidarity with our soldiers but not as a systematic discipline of studies.”
Criticizing the “secular’ ‘pacifists” who “may argue that studying wars is war mongering” RSS reasoned that the study of war has “to be seen as an important exercise in the journey of a nation.”
Maintaining that the Indian history was always looked through a “colonial prism” and Indians learnt “history from the British and the anglicised ‘intellectuals’,” it emphasized the history of Indian wars need to be studied “with objective Bharatiya sources.”
“The reality is from Alexander to Moguls, everyone had faced beatings from some or the other Bharatiya kings. Even those who lost, put up a brave fight against aggression. Whenever we lost it was because of our benevolence, complacency or personal rivalries. We never studied the war histories with objective Bharatiya sources, hence this defeatist self-perception,” added RSS.
Demanding the war strategies to be studied in depth, RSS said, “We may not have only used military strategies for the same but many other instruments were into practice. Sometimes diplomatic tools were more religious and cultural….”
In addition to its argument that war studies to need be institutionalized, RSS also emphasized the role of “local people” in the “capacity building” of a nation. It said, “Our defence considerations are too government centric. Of course, government institutions, including armed forces are most important instruments for defending a nation but unless there is a capacity building and participatory approach within the society, real national defence cannot be assured… With the emerging threats of terrorism, such vigilance is all the more essential.”
To attain strong defence, RSS thinks Indians “need to evolve a strategic culture based on strong institution building in social and academic field.”
“Self-belief that a powerful and prosperous Bharat can only ensure global peace has to be inculcated for which we need to institutionalise war studies,” added the RSS editorial.
Incidentally, Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani reportedly made a presentation on her vision about India’s education policy under the BJP rule to a group of RSS leaders recently during a 3-day long BJP-RSS meet in Delhi between 2 and 4 September. The move triggered uproar with many alleging that RSS was interfering into the national education policy to alter the nation’s history.
BJP came to power at the centre after thumping victory in May 2014 Lok Sabha elections and Narendra Modi became prime minister of the country. The Modi government has since taken several controversial decisions about education and educational institutions such as compulsory yoga in schools and appointment of saffron-leaning academicians at prestigious institutions.
