The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s ‘Struggle’ for Democracy: Hindu Nationalism, Propaganda and the Internal Emergency of India

Through an analysis of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS’) propaganda literature, this article examines how the RSS transformed a moment of political crisis into a foundational episode to legitimise its brand of organisational and ideological politics. Central to the Sangh’s retelling of the Emergency ‘history’ were two narratives: first, the cultivation of symbolic capital by publicising endorsement for the Sangh from Jayaprakash Narayan; second, the production of a narrative counter to the public and academic history of the resistance against the Emergency to frame the RSS and its members as the principal defenders of democratic freedoms and constitutional values. This article argues that the RSS used propaganda as memory-making in the aftermath of the Emergency to refashion its public image, reposition its ideological commitments and enter the arena of high politics with a legitimacy it had never had before.