Understanding RSS

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Organizations are very often conceptually mediated as we understand and value them in a variety of, and often diverse, ways. RSS has been quintessential part of Indian intellectual semiosis (the making of meaning) for decades and has played a critical role in Indian social and intellectual life. Ironically, plagued by the distorted views, RSS has persistently struggled amid the barrage of unqualified representation and misconstrued illustration.

Dr. Rakesh Sinha, in this study cogently and convincingly provides the factual narratology on RSS. Tracing from pre- Independence phase to its continued significance in contemporary times, the book is a brilliant assortment of Dr. Sinha's writings.

An in-depth historiographical account of an archetypical organization like RSS is not always straightforward and unproblematic endeavor. It is invariably laden with meticulous and painstaking research, independent of discursively shaped understandings and views. Having the ontological sophistication to catalog the accurate entity of RSS, Dr. Sinha methodically structures the book to dispel numerous ill-conceived conflation of falsification and fabrication, intentionally weaved by pseudo intellectuals about RSS for decades to discount its contribution to Indian political body.

Dr. Rakesh Sinha is an eminent thinker who has been credited for articulating alternative ideas on secularism, nationalism and decolonization. An academic at University of Delhi, he did his masters from Hindu College and was awarded gold medal for being a topper of University of Delhi in Political Science. He did his PhD on ideological and organizational transformation of CPI(M). He wrote the biography of Dr. K.B. Hedgewar, the RSS founder, which is considered to be the most authentic account on his life and mission.

The author of more than ten books, Dr. Sinha has earned prestigious awards like B.C. Pal Award (2000) and Deendayal Upadhyaya Award (2017). He has been leading India Policy Foundation (IPF) as its Honorary Director. He has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the honorable President of India (2018).

Dr. Sinha's forthcoming work, RSS Role in India's Struggle for Freedom, will be published early next year.

To uncover the 'truth of history' is captivating and enlightening, but eventually equally tricky and provocative. Isaiah Berlin said in the Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy's View of History that "History is more than just factoids, but its complexity makes it difficult for us to learn exactly why things happened the way they did."Modern relativism and postmodern contemplation scrutinizes the 'truth' of history. This book in its attempt at understanding RSS considers how every historian, restricted by the political and cultural expediency ascertains and sometime stealthily buries the truths about the past.

The truth of history presents a journey through variety of historical rationalizations and versions and has to prudently appraise the account of the past. History is the narrative drawn from various sources and sometimes 'history' is the story as seen and validated by those in power. This bewilderment or a false certainty about the truth of history allows many to make statements about the past that can be fallible, devoid of confronting the implication that what is talked about is not historical truth but truth claims about the past'. History, in that case, is not merely a recounting of facts, a keeping of the record of what happened when. History, therefore, needs to be considered as what Raymond Williams calls a "keyword," that helps to serve accurately an illustration of the problematical correlation between signifier and signified. We, therefore, have an option amid two standpoints: "Either we can treat history as an impenetrable fog, or we can figure out how to use history while accepting that each day might reveal more and we may have to update our thinking" Isaiah Berlin. This book is an attempt in the pursuit of truth about the archetypal organization - Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and central to my epistemology is the notion that causal explanations in history are often designed to provide a veneer to hard and sometimes uncomfortable truths. This collection of articles published over the span of years is an attempt to succinctly put forth the empirical evidences which punctures the myth interlaced by Congress and Left intellectuals to discredit RSS.

**Contents and Sample Pages**