Seva Hi Paramo Dharma: Humanitarianism and the RSS

Malini Bhattacharjee is an Assistant Professor at Azim Premji University’s School of Policy and Governance, and she will be visiting Ahmedabad to speak on Seva Hi Paramo Dharma: Humanitarianism and the RSS - The rise and increasing dominance of Hindu nationalism has so far been captured mostly by studying strategic political tactics. However, what role do humanitarianism and seva play in the mobilisation strategies used by the RSS at times of natural disaster? Dr Bhattacharjee’s latest book, Disaster Relief and the RSS: Resurrecting 'Religion’ Through Humanitarianism highlights this rarely seen aspect of the RSS's engagement with humanitarianism as a more ‘benign’ and creative form of mobilisation. Using the idea of ‘seva’ as a political construct, she will explore the ‘compassionate’ dimensions of RSS politics instead of the common ‘confrontational’ dimensions.