There has been a lot of discussion in the Constituent Assembly on whether the country is to be unitary state or federation of states. The result of that discussion is the state of affairs that we see today. Which of the two views is in vogue in the country today is to be seen.
The various states in this country, which came into existence after the reorganization of the states in 1956, are the states that exist today. State reorganization was not acceptable to the RSS. For that we have to see what Golwalkar had in his mind as an important theorist of the RSS. He opposed state restructuring in his book ‘Bunch of Thoughts’. (Chapter XVIII, pp. 222-24). He emphasized that the country should not be divided into states or it should not be a federal state.
The RSS wants India to be a unitary state, not a Union of States. and the BJP today is moving in that direction. There is no clarity in the constitution on whether the country is to be run as a unitary state or a federal, a federation of states. This means India is not federal as the U. S. A. That connotes the states do not have as much freedom or autonomy. It is said to be more unitary.
From the very beginning, the RSS had taken a stand that the country should be a unitary one. And this vision is reflected in the thoughts of the then RSS chief M. S. Golwalkar. In his book, Bunch of Thoughts, he deals with the issue of Indian states’ nature. In the chapter, ‘Wanted a Unitary State’ he emphasizes the need for a unified or unitary state. He emphasized that India should not be a union of states. States should not have separate rights. He writes, “… the most important and effective step will be to bury deep for good all talk of federal structure of our country’s constitution, to sweep away the existence of all ‘autonomous’ or semi-autonomous ‘states’ within the one state viz .., Bharat and proclaim ‘One country, One state, One legislature, One Executive’ with no trace of fragmental, regional, sectarian, linguistic or other types of pride being given a scope for playing havoc with our integrated harmony. ” (p. 227)
He goes on to say that India should be declared as one country, one state, one legislature, one executive without any territoriality, language or any other kind of subjugation which would not jeopardize our unified structure. ” This is his vision of unitary state. Golwalkar did not wanted to admit distinctions in this country which are based on religions, Muslims, Christians and others or whether there are racial distinctions as Aryans, Dravidians, castes as Brahmins, non-Brahmin (Bahujans). Or Adivasis. Commenting on this realty he said, ‘Because these diversities do not show the unity of the country. The British government is responsible for exposing these differences. ‘ (P.223) That is to say, the caste distinction that exists here,the distinctions and the separate existence of all the religions which are Muslims and tribals, is to be invalidated.
The RSS is still doing this and the BJP is working to make that vision a reality. Today, the power of Modi, BJP is actually the power of RSS and therefore whatever decisions are taken are according to the views of the of the RSS. Golwalkar has stated in his book that Kashmir need not have a separate status and as per that directive, BJP government has taken steps to create a unitary state by abolishing Article 370, destroying the separate existence of Kashmir and dismissing the concept of Union of States. The views of Golwalkar are being brought into reality.
*Destroying the rights of states*
This government has launched a campaign to reduce the autonomy to whatever degree it is in the constitution or rights of the states.
1. GST means levying a tax for the country. This is an attack on the economic rights of the states.
2. The powers of the states relating to agriculture have been removed by bringing agriculture in concurrent list.
3. This type of same civil law is also in a roundabout way.
4. The new education policy is also taking away the rights of the states.
The move is to reduce the powers of the states. Opposition or dissenting political parties will oppose it, so the BJP is aggressively trying to come to power in all the states and RSS is firmly behind the BJP for this. A unitary state in the views of RSS means one country, one religion, one culture, one language etc. And that is the moto behind this move.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin speaking at a seminar on the Center-State Relations organized by the CPM, at Kannur (Kerala) on 9th April 2022. He said, “The centralization of rights that is taking place today was not so even during the British rule. Even our constitution makers have not given so much power to the Center. This means the central government is taking over much more power today than the centralization of power is in the constitution and thus this government is bringing the states under its complete control. ”
This seems to be moving towards the actual implementation of unitary form of the government. This is being done to realize the concept of Hindu Rashtra of the RSS. Those who raise their voices like Chief Minister Stalin need to come forward for saving India from the growing grip of the RSS. And secondly, because of this, all demands of the people will have to be made to the anti- federal government.
All the demands for social justice, the majority of the people will be at the mercy of RSS as it will be in the role of owner, in the commanding position. A united country will be country that runs on the orders of those who dominate the social structure or social hierarchy, the caste power that exists! Unitary rule will be rule of top most caste but RSS does not say so explicitly. To some extent that is the state of affairs today in India!
Nagesh Chaudhari is editor of Bahujan Sangharsh, from Nagpur. He has written books on RSS, Hindu Nationalism, caste system and recently his published book is ‘RSS, Caste System and Hindu Nation. (English)
