One Hundred Years Of... Shadow Dance

The RSS and it shadow outfits have lauded Sufi practices and tapped the Muslims in Kashmir but political parties in J&K allege that they are claiming a bogus association with the Valley

- Ishfaq Naseem

A folded prayer mat and a string of beads rested on a wooden desk in the low-ceilinged hotel room.

On the wall hung a large calendar with an image of Mecca. The room doubled as both office and living space for 54-year-old Mir Nazir, who heads the Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), an affiliate body of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in Jammu and Kashmir. The room's compound walls are covered with barbed wire, with a scissor gate connected to the concrete stairs and policemen allowing entry only after proper frisking.

Nazir makes it a point to offer his prayers there, while also convening meetings on the need to implement a Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

Since Nazir associated with the MRM in 2002 as its convener for Jammu and Kashmir, the organisation has grown to a strength of over 10,000 members. The RSS, which began its work in J&K in 1939, now runs 690 shakhas in the Union Territory and also has samparks (outreach officials) in every district of Kashmir.

The RSS and its allied organisations launched a movement after 1947 to oppose the separate Constitution and flag for J&K under the slogan 'Ek Nishan, Ek Pradhan, Ek Samvidhan' (One Flag, One Head, One Constitution). After The revocation of Article 370, which did away with the flag of J&K and annulled its Constitution, saffron outfits have reached out by tapping the Muslims in Kashmir and lauding Sufi Islamic practices. Several leaders, including the national executive member of the RSS, Indresh Kumar, have been visiting shrines, while the MRM has also organised iftar parties in mosques to draw more people into their ranks.

But all these measures have been described by parties in Kashmir such as the National Conference (NC) and the Congress as attempts to “hoodwink” people and claim a “bogus association” with the Valley, alleging what they have actually done is “communalise the situation and threaten the Muslims into subjugation.”