Hindutva Unlearnt

Sujata Anandan November 20, 2000 00:00 IST Hindutva Unlearnt -0001-11-30T00:00:00+05:53

When rss pracharak Madhuri Deshpande knocked at the door of the Karkares in the posh Deccan Gymkhana area of Pune, she thought she had come home. This had to be a household sympathetic to the rss—the ajoba (grandfather) had been a rss pracharak, grandmother Karkare's brother even gave up marriage and the whole ground floor of his home in the upmarket Dharampeth area of Nagpur to run a shakha of the rss. Obviously, there was no need to acquaint the Karkares with the abc of Hindutva. But still, the rss, which is currently on a door-to-door campaign to drive home their aims and objectives among believers and non-believers, came calling on the Karkares.

But Deshpande was in for a shock. The young boy whom she targeted for her indoctrination did not have the patience. He was more interested to continue with his game of cricket. "You need not tell me about the rss ideology. I am a great supporter of the Shiv Sena." With that he dashed away to play cricket. Even before Deshpande and her team could get over this shock, the younger members of the household, mostly female, made a...