COMMENTARY
in 2016 in connection with the Dabholkar
Sanatan Sanstha and
Its Hindutva Designs
Sanghamitra Prabal
The Sanatan Sanstha has always
been ignored for being a small
bunch of fanatics. However, the
threat that it poses is highlighted
once again after the arrests
of a few of its followers and
sympathisers in connection
with a terror plot and possible
involvement in the killing of
rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.
Even earlier, the members of
Sanatan Sanstha were caught
making bombs, openly advocating
arms training, and waging war
against the state. What more
evidence does the centre need
to ban the organisation?
Sanghamitra Prabal (sanghmitraprabal@
gmail.com) is a political commentator based
in Mumbai.
Economic & Political Weekly EPW OCTOBER 13, 2018
T
he Sanatan Sanstha must be the
only Hindu extremist organisation
that preaches spirituality along with
the stated aim of waging war against the
state. It aims at establishing a Hindu
rashtra or God’s Kingdom by 2025 for which
elimination of all durjans (evildoers) is a
precondition (Athavale and Athavale 2001:
25, 31). The Hindu rashtra will not have any
place for the Buddhist, Jain, Shaiva, Vaish-
nava, Muslim and Christian communities.
The Sanatan Sanstha has its own constitu-
tion ready with no provision for election,
no democracy, no judiciary, and an educa-
tion system promoting the Hindu religion
(Athavale and Athavale 1999: 124, 145).
The Sanatan Sanstha came in the news
again after arrests of few of its followers
and sympathisers in connection with a
terror plot and possible involvement in the
killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.
Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS)
has arrested seven people so far who are
sympathisers of the Sanatan Sanstha.
Vaibhav Raut, Sharad Kalaskar, and
Sudhanva Gondhalekar were arrested on
10 August following the seizure of an arsenal
of arms and ammunition at Raut’s bunga-
low in Nalasopara (NDTV 2018). The net-
work of Hindutva terrorists did not stop
with the Sanatan Sanstha alone. Shrikant
Pangarkar, former Shiv Sena corporator
from Jalna who has links with the Hindu
Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) was arrested on
19 August based on confessions by Raut,
Kalaskar and Gondhalekar. Avinash Pawar,
another suspect who also has links with
Hindutva groups, was arrested (Rajput
2018). Sachin Andure, who was arrested
on 18 August on the charge of being the
shooter in Dabholkar case, also has connec-
tions with Hindutva groups. These arrests
were made after investigation into the killing
of journalist Gauri Lankesh started to un-
ravel the larger network of Hindutva groups
like the Sanatan Sanstha and the HJS.
Two Sanatan Sanstha Sadhaks, Virendra
Tawde and Samir Gaikwad, were arrested
vol lIiI no 41
and Govind Pansare murder cases, respec-
tively. Tawde, who is an ENT specialist, has
been charged with planning the murder
of Dabholkar, but Gaikwad was released
on bail later. If we could recall, a few
more incidents of terror activities are
linked to the Hindutva organisations. A
bomb explosion happened in Nanded in
April 2006 at the house of a Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist and
a similar explosion took place in February
2007 in the same city which killed two
(India Today 2008). In 2008, the Malegaon
blast involving Sadhvi Pragya Singh and
Shrikant Purohit took place. In the same
year, theatres in Thane, Vashi and Panvel
had low intensity blasts. Two of the per-
petrators, Ramesh Gadkari and Vikram
Bhave, were convicted and given 10 years
of imprisonment by the court (DNA 2011).
Recently Gadkari, who is out on bail,
was conferred with “sainthood” by the
Sanatan Sanstha (Sanatan Prabhat 2018).
The Sanatan Sanstha was also linked to
Margao blast in Goa that killed two of its
own members in 2009 (Hindu 2009).
These early incidents were the signs of
the silent emergence of Hindutva terror
across the country. It appears that organi-
sations like the Sanatan Sanstha not
only supported the terror activities but
also participated in them and funded
them without any qualms. It is a sign of
prevalent Hindu majoritarian common
sense that the investigative agencies and
the centre were hesitant to accept that
the Hindutva organisations were involved
in terror acts. This angle was largely ig-
nored then. The Goa and Maharashtra
governments had been making pleas to
ban the Sanatan Sanstha since 2008 but
the centre did not find “sufficient” grounds
to do so (Hafeez 2016). It was a Congress-
led union government that neither cracked
down on such organisations nor in-
quired about their funding. The country
then, by and large, was convinced with
the narrative of “Islamic terror,” a term
that was coined in the 1990s. For the
large majority, the terror, bomb blasts
and riots were only associated with Mus-
lims. This singular obsession with “Islamic
terror” has destroyed many lives of inno-
cent Muslim youths and their families af-
ter being falsely implicated in terror acts.
17
COMMENTARY
On the other hand, invisible protection
from the state was a booster for the San-
atan Sanstha that aggressively started
preaching its ideology and openly parti-
cipating in debates on news channels.
But slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant
Karkare exposed the operations of Hin-
dutva terror for the very first time in the
investigation of the Malegaon blast
which changed the entire narrative
about terror activities in India.
Sanatan Sanstha Cult
The Sanatan Sanstha and the HJS were
established in 1995 against the backdrop
of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayo-
dhya by frenzied Hindutva mobs. A doc-
tor and hypnotherapist by profession, Jay-
ant Athavale, who established both the
Sanatan Sanstha and the HJS, first start-
ed preaching a mix of pseudoscience,
spirituality and religious mysticism.
Athavale who is from Sion, Mumbai did
research in hypnotherapy between 1971
and 1978 in England along with his wife
Kunda. He practised as a clinical hypno-
therapist at Sion during 1978–1990 before
founding the Sanatan Sanstha. Ashutosh
Prabhudesai, a psychiatrist from Goa,
was said to have helped the couple to de-
sign and spread Sanstha’s spirituality
theory. The organisation has its primary
base in Goa, Maharashtra and Karnata-
ka. After gaining confidence that their
spiritual teachings have attracted enough
followers, Athavale inculcated bellicose
ideas of the Hindu rashtra among the
followers. Though in the infant stage,
the organisation started coaching self-
defence and training in arms in 1999.
The followers were told that the arms
training was necessary to teach a lesson
to evils in society. It is needless to say
that this evil includes Muslims, Chris-
tians, and even the police and the army.
“Only five per cent battle will be at the
physical level. Therefore it is necessary
that five per cent Sadhaks should take
arms training. God will provide the arms
through somebody,” the Sanatan Sanstha
preached them. It further encouraged
them to use a gun. “It is okay to not have
practised firing. The target will be cor-
rectly aimed if one fires bullet by chant-
ing God’s name” (Athavale and Athavale
2001: 49). The organisation floated
18
Dharmashakti Sena to teach self-defence
to its followers. There are pictures availa-
ble to prove how the followers, dressed
in military uniform, were learning “self-
defence.’’ Its mouthpiece Sanatan Prab-
hat on 16 August 2005 printed a photo
of Athavale in a military uniform appeal-
ing followers that
the formation of a Hindu rashtra is inevita-
ble to prevent India from getting divided
into pieces in the hands of secular forces
like Congress. (Sanatan Prabhat 2005)
On the other hand, the Sanatan San-
stha kept its “righteous” face intact to
attract nondescript people from all
sections, especially women. Despite its
belief in Brahminical values and the
Chaturvarnya system, the Sanatan San-
stha has managed a huge following from
intermediate castes and Other Back-
ward Classes. It has written a number of
books on how men and women should
wear clothes, how to wear ornaments, how
to celebrate Hindu festivals, how to wor-
ship god, etc. The organisation has
defined its own gods, as they believe
that the present images and idols of
Hindu gods are not appropriately de-
signed. The images of gods created by
the Sanatan Sanstha would fulfil the de-
sires. These images were seen by their
Sadhaks in dreams after achieving a par-
ticular spiritual level. The Sanstha has a
solution for everything, from hairfall to
sexual problems, which can be resolved
with hypnotism. In the book Laingik Sa-
masyanvar Swasammohan Upchar (Solu-
tion to Sexual Problems through Self-
hypnotism), Athavale has claimed to
have “cured” one person from impotency
and another gay man was “converted”
into a “straight” man (Athavale 2014:
17–41). The organisation entered into
the households of common people to sell
camphor, incense sticks and harmless
religious literature. They definitely gained
sympathy from the common people for
being polite, humble and having no ap-
parent nuisance value. In a country like
India, any spiritual guru gets more num-
ber of followers, especially among wom-
en, than any political leader. The sat-
sangs are a way for ordinary women to
freely socialise with men in the society.
The Sanatan Sanstha is no exception to
this. It got many women followers who
OCTOBER 13, 2018
willingly agreed to stay in its ashram
parting ways with families. They
snapped all ties with parents and disap-
peared in the ashram never to return. A
few such parents have come together
and filed a public interest litigation in
the Bombay High Court demanding a
ban on the Sanatan Sanstha.
However, the cult did not lose its focus
from the original aim of the Hindu rashtra.
A book titled Love Jihad was published
by the HJS in 2011. Along with the conspir-
acy theory of how Muslim youth lure
Hindu girls into marriages, convert them
to Islam forcefully and make them “baby
producing machines,” the book has pro-
duced a “rate card,” claiming that Muslim
boys are getting paid to marry Hindu
girls. The cash reward differs on the ba-
sis of caste and region, for example, a
Muslim youth marrying a Sikh girl is
paid the highest amount (`7 lakh), fol-
lowed by Punjabi and Gujarati girls (`6
lakh), Brahmin girl (`5 lakh), Kshatriya
girl (`4.50 lakh), Gujarati Kachhi, Jain,
Marwadi girls (`3 lakh), backward and
Scheduled Castes girls (`2 lakh) and the
lowest rate (`1.50 lakh) for a Buddhist
girl (Shinde and Gauda 2011: 9).
In Sanatan Prabhat, dated 9 June
2013, one Charudatta Pingle of the HJS
has given a road map of the Hindu rash-
tra. The report says,
Police are biased towards Hindus and
forgive crimes of Muslims. Do not forget
atrocities committed by the police against
Hinutvawadis. Prepare a list of those police-
men from now. The first action would be
against them during the revolution. We will
not be able to form the Hindu Rashtra with-
out defeating the police and army.
It has further said that the Sanatan San-
stha should create its own army of four
lakh Sadhaks trained in arms as well as
sadhana or jaap. The organisation is con-
fident that it can fight 30 lakh soldiers,
police and paramilitary forces (Sanatan
Prabhat 2013: 3).
Differences with the RSS
Arguably the extremist organisations like
the Sanatan Sanstha have emerged after
being disillusioned with the RSS. Like the
RSS it too believes in militaristic training
and taking an extreme or sometimes
ridiculous stand on the Hindu religion.
But the Sanatan Sanstha is openly against
vol lIiI no 41 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

elections, democracy and the Indian
Constitution, and has no direct interest
in electoral processes whereas the RSS is
busy enjoying political control. At this
point, both the organisations differ with
each other. The Sanatan Sanstha has
already declared that all the political par-
ties and its leaders are enemies of Hindu
rashtra (Sanatan Prabhat 2013). It has
clearly differentiated itself from the RSS.
In one of the news in Sanatan Prabhat,
Jayant Athavale was quoted as saying
the RSS has 40 lakh volunteers but because
they do not perform saadhana (spiritual
exercise), over the last 68 years, they
have taken the nation to a new low, step by
step, across all spheres. On the contrary,
over the next five years, HJS will get 4 lakh
sadhak-karyakarte (spiritual activists).
These activists will perform sadhana and
start a religious revolution to establish a
Hindu Rashtra … in the next three years.
Which means, eight years from now,
in 2023, we will establish a Hindu nation.
(Haygunde 2015)
This is where the Sanatan Sanstha
differs with the RSS. At a subtle level,
differences between the likes of the
Sanatan Sanstha and the RSS has an un-
dercurrent of tussle between two Brah-
min subcastes, namely Chitpavan and
Karhade. This tussle reflects in the frater-
nal differences bet ween RSS Hindutva
and Savarkarite/Hindu Mahasabha Hin-
dutva. The origin of the Sanatan Sanstha
can be traced back into V D Savarkar’s
thoughts on Hindutva and the making of
a Hindu rashtra.
The ultimate goal is to achieve a Hindu
rashtra. But, the methods they have cho-
sen are different. The Sanatan Sanstha’s
ideology is not different from that of the
RSS but it has camouflaged it with spiritu-
ality, religious mysticism and the prom-
ise of cleansing the society of all “evildo-
ers.” This is the reason why Sanatan San-
stha keeps talking about corruption in
Hindu temples. It helps them in building a
“clean” and “righteous” image among
people. These techniques helped the or-
ganisations to reach larger masses despite
having a narrow Brahminical ideology.
Nevertheless, the RSS does not want to
be overshadowed by the Sanatan San-
stha. On several occasions, the RSS has
disowned the Sanatan Sanstha and criti-
cised its methods. On the other hand,
Economic & Political Weekly EPW OCTOBER 13, 2018
the Sanatan Sanstha has criticised the RSS
and BJP after the recent round of arrests
of its sympathisers (Haygunde 2015).
But at the same time, the Sanatan Sanstha
seems confident that the present BJP gov-
ernment will protect the organisation.
Hindutva Designs for
Western Maharashtra
It is instructive to see the activities of
these hard line Hindutva groups in
western Maharashtra to see how they
complement the Sangh Parivar. The
western part of Maharashtra up to
Belgaum in Karnataka has been system-
atically radicalised by Hindutva elements
for over 15 years. Western Maharashtra
is a rich sugar belt with the legacy of a
cooperative movement. The coopera-
tive movement helped the social uplift-
ment of farmers as compared to other
regions of Maharashtra. The milk dair-
ies, sugar factories, cooperative banks,
educational institutes and engineering
colleges were all started because of the
cooperative movement in the region. It
was once a stronghold of the Congress
and later the Nationalist Congress Party
led by Sharad Pawar. This region has
been a source and pivot of anti-caste
social revolutionary movements and
progressive activism.
This was the part of Maharashtra which
the RSS could not penetrate for a long time.
However, Hindu extremist leaders who
were disillusioned with the RSS, formed
their own organisations and started infil-
trating some parts of western Maharashtra.
However, the background of hard line
Hindutva leaders who parted ways with
the RSS raises the question whether the
RSS itself entrusted them with a respon-
sibility of concentrating on western Maha-
rashtra. Manohar alias Sambhaji Bhide
who was associated with the RSS start-
ed his own organisation Shiv Pratish-
than Hindusthan in Sangli in 1984, a dis-
trict of western Maharashtra. He has
successfully managed to mobilise the
youth, especially from the Maratha com-
munity, towards Hindutva. In the guise
of telling stories of Shivaji Maharaj,
Bhide has inculcated hatred towards
Muslims. But he seems to be protected
because of the admiration he receives
from political leaders, including Prime
vol lIiI no 41
COMMENTARY
Minister Narendra Modi (Firstpost 2018).
Bhide has been accused of engineering
the Sangli riots and also the recent Bhima
Koregaon violence that took place on
1 January 2018 (Gangan 2018). Another
leader of Samasta Hindu Aghadi, Milind
Ekbote from Pune is also an accused
of the Bhima Koregaon violence and
23 other criminal cases. Ekbote has
been radicalising youths in Pune and
surrounding areas. Hindu Rashtra Sena
leader Dhananjay Desai is under arrest
with charges of killing a Muslim engi-
neer, Mohsin Shaikh, who was return-
ing from work in Pune in 2014. Desai
is known for his hooliganism and Hin-
dutva activities.
The Sanatan Sanstha has its main
ashram in Goa and Panvel but has attract-
ed many followers from western Maha-
rashtra. Its mouthpiece Sanatan Prabhat
has a special edition for western Maha-
rashtra. These organisations believe in
twisting history and narrating false sto-
ries about historic monuments, spread-
ing hatred about Muslims and Chris-
tians, using Shivaji Maharaj and Samb-
haji Maharaj’s name to attract youths,
openly talking about a Hindu rashtra,
with no hesitation in unfolding its plans
about terror activities. When attempts to
create Hindu–Muslim rift did not work
in Pune and surrounding areas, systematic
fissures were created among Maratha
and Dalit communities by narrating a
false history of Bhima Koregaon.
These activities are suitable for the
RSS’s ideology and there are grounds to
believe that the RSS might be supporting
them in various ways. However, if they
are found to be linked with any contro-
versy, the RSS easily disowns them.
Demand for Ban
The motive of the Sanatan Sanstha is quite
clear now that it is working towards form-
ing a Hindu rashtra and does not dither
to adopt violent ways for that. Creating a
parallel system to the existing one is a
grave threat to the country. The Sanatan
Sanstha has always been ignored for
being a small minority of fanatics. But
the police and the government are not
probing the financial support, fund-
raising and dealing of lands on which
the two main ashrams reside in Goa and
19
COMMENTARY
Panvel. The Sanatan Sanstha has shown
the audacity to start an armed battle
within the state. They have created an
atmosphere of hatred among Hindus
that led to the killing of rationalist Nar-
endra Dabholkar, writer M M Kalburgi,
communist leader Govind Pansare and
journalist Gauri Lankesh. Members of
the Sanatan Sanstha are caught making
bombs, openly advocating arms training
and waging war against the state. What
more evidence does the centre need to
ban the organisation?
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vol lIiI no 41 EPW Economic & Political Weekly