It was in 1998 that the Vishva Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and other Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh organisations were protesting against the screening of Fire, a Hindi film portraying a lesbian relationship between its two protagonists. The protesters argued that the film sought to legitimise and glorify lesbianism.

The Sangh Parivar, since then, has modified its stand on homosexuality and sexual preferences. Six years ago at an a RSS meeting, the joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale had taken a stand on the topic saying that sexual preferences should be considered a matter of personal choice and that references of homosexuality and acceptance of it by the society could be found in ancient Indian history.

The issue came full circle on October 1 this year when RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat took a similar stand on the subject, citing the examples of Shikhandi (a transgender character in Mahabharata) and that of some of the generals in the army of Jarasandha, Krishna's biggest enemy.

He was speaking on the launch of The RSS: Roadmaps for the 21st century, a book written by ABVP's national organising secretary Sunil Ambekar. In one section of his book, the author writes about the media event in which Hosabale had spoken in support of transgender people and against the criminalisation of homosexuality. "If there are differences on such issues in the society, they should be resolved peacefully and through dialogue. There is no need to make such issues flashpoints," Bhagwat said at the book launch.

In his 10 years as the leader of India's biggest socio cultural organisation, the RSS chief has been celebrated for taking the organisation forward on many fronts and moving away from many stated and unstated RSS positions of the past in keeping with the new era. He has often said that the RSS isn't guided by any book and that it can change its position with the changing times.

A year ago, while speaking at another event, Bhagwat had surprised many with his response to a question about the RSS moving away from its former Chief Guru Golwalkar's harsh assessment of the Muslim community and how the organisation now saw Muslims as an important part of the society. Bhagwat's response was in keeping with his earlier statement that Hindutva will cease to exist if it doesn't consider Muslims or any other set of people as part of this country because Hinduism doesn't discriminate against anyone on the basis of religious and other distinctions. However, he had also stressed on how the RSS's permanent belief is that Bharat is a Hindu Rashtra and all those who consider Bharat to be their motherland, are Hindus by culture, if not by religion.

Bhagwat's tenure, first as an RSS general secretary and then as the RSS Sarsanghchalak, has, in some senses, been a period of change for the organisation. His father, senior RSS leaders Madhukar Rao Bhagwat, had played a key role in bringing about an acceptance for Mahatma Gandhi in the Sangh Parivar by explaining that the economic and swadeshi principles talked about by Gandhhi were actually the same as that of the RSS and that it was possible for two ideologies to co-exist when the differences were few and similarities many.

After Bhagwat became RSS general secretary about 20 years ago, Gandhi's acceptability within the Sangh further increased and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's repeated espousal of Gandhian principles has only helped. However, there is silent section within the Sangh Parivar which feels that the wide changes in RSS's beliefs is fraught with danger as it opens the door for ideological deviation in future.

Some in RSS still support the idea of having an honest debate on Gandhi and to bring the "real Gandhi" before the nation. They also feel that Gandhi's principle of complete non-violence and his brand of Sarva Dharma Sambhav (all religions are the same), was responsible for the Muslim appeasement in the country that India has seen after independence.

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