My previous blog post/s on the issue of caste and liberty were in relation to pretend "Hindus" who believe in the caste system because they can exploit cheap labour.

Hitesh Rangra tells me that believers in Hindutva are not pretend Hindus and actually oppose the caste system. Here's a set of tweets on this subject. Read from the bottom up (this is listed with the most recent first)

sabhlok: @hiteshrangra The discussion is not about "Hindutva" but about pretend "Hindus". I'm glad we both oppose caste.

hiteshrangra: @sabhlok :Sanjeev Jee one fact most of RSS volunteer of RSS and leaders are not even on internet. They believe in working rather than media

hiteshrangra: @sabhlok :- Most of top leader of RSS are from so called lower caste(as we don't believe in caste system).

hiteshrangra: @sabhlok :- Because every time people talk about Hindutva movement they point finger towards RSS.There is nothing like caste exist there

sabhlok: @hiteshrangra Hindutva has a "high" mind (at times) and low, dirty tactics on the ground. I'm talking about all pretend "Hindus".

hiteshrangra: @sabhlok :- There is nothing like caste exist in Hindutva movement. Without knowing organization how can you say like this??

hiteshrangra: @sabhlok :- Hindutva fanatics who can't live without chamars, bhangis and other such slaves? Dear we are one who hate Caste system.

hiteshrangra: @sabhlok :- Please don't malign Hinduism for caste system.It was created by everyone knows whom.

hiteshrangra: @sabhlok :-"if untouchability is not wrong, nothing in the world is wrong"–Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras

hiteshrangra: @sabhlok :- It needs effort from each and everyone.

hiteshrangra: @sabhlok :- We don't believe in caste sir every human blood is red as common component in our blood is Fe(iron) nothing else.

sabhlok: @hiteshrangra Hitesh The caste system is evil regardless of who or when it was started. It is this evil that I invite you to destroy.

hiteshrangra: @sabhlok :-Dear it was Herbert Hope Risley who supported William Jones Aryan Race theory to create caste system.

On the other hand, I do have this extract from my compilation on RSS made a few years ago (see below). [In this context I must add that RSS is not necessarily representative of Hindutva, which is a philosophy with no organisational ownership. It is best associated with the famous Indian atheist, Vinayak Savarkar of the Hindu Mahasabha. Hindutva seems to be a very malleable philosophy, that can be moulded to suit the proponent's beliefs.]

Connivance and promotion of caste system

1. "Although 'hierarchy' and 'discrimination' are criticized by Golwalkar, for example, the idea that people are born into a particular occupation seems to be tacitly accepted: . .. [T]he distinctions in the social order did not imply any discrimination of big or small, high or low, among its constituents. On the other hand, the Gita tells us that the individual who does his assigned duties in life in a spirit of selfless service only worships Gods through such performance (Golwalkar 1966: I07, in Andersen and Damle 1987: 8i, emphasis added). … [T]he leadership of the organization remains distinctly Brahmin (Andersen and Damle 1987: 45)." [Joseph S. Alter, ‘Somatic Nationalism: Indian Wrestling and Militant Hinduism, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Jul., 1994), pp. 557-588]

 

2. "Following the elite, upper-caste base of anushilan, the initial RSS volunteers were Nagpur Brahmins." [Milind Wakankar, 'Body, Crowd, Identity: Genealogy of a Hindu Nationalist Ascetics, Social Text, No. 45 (Winter, 1995), pp. 45-73]  [Source]

Happy to hear from you. I must add this (from my previous notes, cited above):

One good news on the subject of casteism:
4. "NEW DELHI: Ideological chalk and cheese shared dais when firebrand Dalit poet Namdeo Dhasal and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief K Sudarshan came together at a book release function in the Capital on Wednesday.

The internationally renowned poet and Dalit leader is the founder president of Maharashtra's Dalit Panther that has traditionally been at odds with the RSS. The Dalit Panther has for long looked upon the RSS as representing the Brahmanical order. Ironically, Dhasal released a RSS book on Dalit pain at the function." [Dalit leader buries the hatchet with RSS. The Times of India(Sept 1, 2006)]

3. "NEW DELHI: Following up on its radical call last year to train and appoint Dalits as priests in Hindu temples, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has severely condemned the barring of Dalits from a temple in Orissa recently.

An year-end editorial in the Sangh mouthpiece Panchjanya termed as unfortunate the discriminatory attitude of temple authorities at the Jagannath temple in Kerdagarh saying it was "shameful that even in 2006 there are temples where Dalits are disallowed Even God will desert the temple that Dalits cannot enter." [RSS rips into ban on Dalits entering temples. The Times of India (Jan 4, 2007)]