‘Nobody knows what I know’: how a loyal RSS member abandoned Hindu nationalism

This Guardian Long Read follows Partho Banerjee, a former high-ranking member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India's Hindu nationalist organization, who wrote a rare insider's critique titled 'In the Belly of the Beast.' Banerjee was raised in the RSS by his father Jitendra, who sacrificed his academic career and financial stability for the organization's cause, leading the family into poverty while working as a secretary for the RSS's political wing in the 1950s. Despite his mother's Congress party sympathies and distaste for the RSS, Partho joined at age six and was quickly identified as leadership material, rising to become a regional education officer and joint secretary of the student wing by his teens. The account details the RSS's sophisticated recruitment and indoctrination methods, where Banerjee would carefully study potential recruits' family situations before gradually introducing RSS ideology, avoiding political topics initially while building trust and community bonds. He describes how the organization targets less educated, vulnerable youth who lack critical thinking skills, with an estimated 90-95% of members being 'practically brainless idiots' who follow orders without question. The daily shakha meetings combined physical exercise with Hindu cultural education, excluding Western influences and promoting traditional gender roles while fostering anti-Muslim sentiment. Banerjee's transformation began in the late 1970s through exposure to his mother's secular influence, reading Rabindranath Tagore's poetry, watching films by directors like Satyajit Ray, and conversations with leftist friends. He left the RSS in 1981, moved to the United States for his PhD, and was shocked to learn about the 1992 Babri Mosque demolition, realizing the organization was implementing the Hindu nationalist vision he'd been taught. His subsequent book exposed the RSS's inner workings, leading to estrangement from his father and the organization. Banerjee argues that the RSS's strength lies in creating a vast network of unquestioning followers who cannot think critically, while mainstream media avoids discussing the organization's fascist history and connections to figures like Hitler and Mussolini. He contends that under Modi's leadership, the RSS-BJP has created conditions resembling Aldous Huxley's vision of totalitarianism, where people live in a prison whose walls they cannot see.