Bajrang Dal

Bajrang Dal
Formation8 October 1984 (40 years ago) (1984-10-08) (Uttar Pradesh)
PurposeMilitant[1] youth wing of Vishva Hindu Parishad
HeadquartersNew Delhi, India
Region served
India
Official language
Hindi
Head
Neeraj Doneria
Parent organisation
Vishva Hindu Parishad
AffiliationsSangh Parivar
Websitevhp.org/bajrang_dal/
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Bajrang Dal (Hindi: बजरंग दल, lit. 'Brigade of Bajrangbali')[2] is a Hindu nationalist militant[1] organisation that forms the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). It is a member of the right-wing Sangh Parivar.[22] The ideology of the organisation is based on Hindutva.[23][24] It was founded on 1 October 1984 in Uttar Pradesh, and began spreading more in the 2010s throughout India,[25] although its most significant base remains the northern and central portions of the country.

The group runs about 2,500 akhadas, similar to the shakhas (branches) of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The name "Bajrang" is a reference to the Hindu deity Hanuman. The Bajrang Dal's slogan is Seva, Suraksha, Sanskar or Service, Safety and Culture. Some of the main goals of the Dal is to build Ram temple at the site of Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya and the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple in Mathura, and also to expand the Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi, which are currently disputed places of worship. The Bajrang Dal opposes Muslim demographic growth,[26] Christian conversion,[27] cow slaughter, and western influence in Hindu culture.[28]

  1. ^ a b [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][excessive citations]
  2. ^ a b Eko, Lyombe (29 April 2016). "Regulation of Sex-Themed Visual Imagery in India". The Regulation of Sex-Themed Visual Imagery: From Clay Tablets to Tablet Computers. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 77–86. doi:10.1057/9781137550989_6. ISBN 978-1-137-55098-9. Retrieved 17 February 2021 – via ResearchGate. The Bajrang Dal (the Brigade of Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god) is a militant, Hindu nationalist organization in India. It is famous for its cow protection activities (i.e., saving cows, which are considered sacred in Hinduism, from slaughter).
  3. ^ Valiani, Arafaat A. (11 November 2011). Militant publics in India: Physical culture and violence in the making of a modern polity. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-230-37063-0. Retrieved 17 February 2021 – via Google Books. In 2002, almost 2,000 Muslims were killed in carefully planned attacks by the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. The state was governed by the BJP in 2002, and some BJP representatives brazenly justified and abetted the violence.
  4. ^ Parashar, Swati (5 March 2014). Women and Militant Wars: The politics of injury. Routledge. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-134-11606-5. Retrieved 13 February 2021 – via Google Books. The Sangh Parivar (literally known as the Sangh family) includes groups such as the Rashtriye Swayamsewak Sangh, the Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. They articulate a militant Hindu nationalist politics, opposing the Muslim 'other'.
  5. ^ Alter, Joseph S. (1994). "Somatic Nationalism: Indian Wrestling and Militant Hinduism". Modern Asian Studies. 28 (3): 557–588. doi:10.1017/S0026749X00011860. ISSN 0026-749X. JSTOR 313044. S2CID 146291615. Retrieved 13 February 2021 – via JSTOR. It would be anathema for the leaders of such militant groups as the RSS, Shiva Sena, and Bajrang Dal, to let a Muslim 'voice' speak to the issue of what is lacking among Hindus, much less turn—even nominally—to an Islamic model of civility to define the terms of Hindu self development.
  6. ^ Anand, Dibyesh (May 2007). "Anxious Sexualities: Masculinity, Nationalism and Violence". British Journal of Politics and International Relations. 9 (2): 257–269. doi:10.1111/j.1467-856x.2007.00282.x. S2CID 143765766. Retrieved 13 February 2021 – via Academia.edu. Amrish Ji, a leader of a militant organisation Bajrang Dal, in a public speech accused Muslims of treating 'Bharat Mata' ('Mother India') as a 'dayan' ('witch') (Amrish Ji 2005).
  7. ^ Jerryson, Michael (15 July 2020). Religious Violence Today: Faith and Conflict in the Modern World. ABC-CLIO. p. 275. ISBN 978-1-4408-5991-5. Retrieved 13 February 2021 – via Google Books. The magazine Tehelka carried out a six-month undercover investigation in 2007 that resulted in video evidence that the riots were organized and supported by Gujarat police and Chief Minister Modi. The video also implicated several members of the Bajrang Dal (a militant Hindu nationalist group) and the BJP (one of India's main political parties).
  8. ^ Jaffrelot, Christophe (2010). Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. Primus Books. ISBN 9789380607047. Retrieved 17 February 2021 – via Google Books. In May–June, the VHP provided itself with an organization, which assembled young Hindu militants, the Bajrang Dal. Its founder, Vinay Katiyar, had until then been a pracharak of the RSS. However, the Bajrang Dal proved to be less disciplined than the RSS and its violent utterances as well as actions were to precipitate many communal riots.
  9. ^ Joshy, P. M.; Seethi, K. M. (15 September 2015). State and Civil Society under Siege: Hindutva, Security and Militarism in India. SAGE. p. 119. ISBN 9789351503835. Retrieved 17 February 2021 – via Google Books. Perhaps the most recent and controversial one emerged in the Sangh family is Bajrang Dal. The VHP was instrumental in the creation of the Bajrang Dal, which is a militant organisation based on the ideology of Hindutva.
  10. ^ Ludden, David (1 April 1996). Contesting the Nation: Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 47. ISBN 0812215850. Retrieved 17 February 2021 – via Google Books. Conspicuous in all coverage of the Rath Yatra were young men holding primitive weapons like bows and tridents. Here it was the young militants of the youth wing of the VHP, the Bajrang Dal, who challenged the BJP elders.
  11. ^ Katju, Manjari (2003). Vishva Hindu Parishad and Indian Politics. Orient Blackswan. p. 52. ISBN 978-81-250-2476-7. Retrieved 17 February 2021 – via Google Books. The local-level activism involving the Bajrang Dal took different forms, ranging from a visible presence and participation in public rituals like Durga pooja and Dussehera, to socio-religious policing. Its aggressive participation in the Ayodhya dispute as a subsidiary of the VHP brought it forward as a militant organisation.
  12. ^ Wilkinson, Steven (2005). Religious Politics and Communal Violence. Oxford University Press. p. 310. ISBN 978-0-19-567237-4. Retrieved 17 February 2021 – via Google Books. In the summer of 1984, Vinay Katiya, an RSS pracharak, formed the Bajrang Dal in Uttar Pradesh as a militant youth wing of the VHP, with the intention of recruiting young underemployed men from the lower castes for militant and daring action in conjunction with the ensuing battle for the Hindu nation that the VHP envisaged.
  13. ^ Hardgrave, Robert L. Jr. (2005). "Hindu Nationalism and the BJP: Transforming Religion and Politics in India". In Dossani, Rafiq; Rowen, Henry S. (eds.). Prospects for Peace in South Asia. Stanford University Press. p. 202. ISBN 978-0-8047-5085-1. Retrieved 17 February 2021 – via Google Books. Construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya might remain the focus of the VHP, but the destruction of the mosque and the violence that followed alarmed many among the BJP's middle-class supporters. Fearing both alienation of major segments in its base of support and domination by the increasingly militant VHP and Bajrang Dal, the BJP once again shifted emphasis in its strategies of pragmatism and mobilization.
  14. ^ Buss, Terry F.; Redburn, F. Stevens; Guo, Kristina (2006). Modernizing Democracy: Innovations in Citizen Participation. M. E. Sharpe. p. 296. ISBN 978-0-7656-2180-1. Retrieved 17 February 2021 – via Google Books. Bajrang Dal. Militant youth organization associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
  15. ^ Lubin, Timothy; Davis, Donald R. Jr.; Krishnan, Jayanth K. (21 October 2010). Hinduism and Law: An Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p. 236. ISBN 978-1-139-49358-1 – via Google Books. The Bajrang Dal is the militant youth wing of the VHP and was formed in 1984.
  16. ^ Bauman, Chad M. (2 February 2015). Pentecostals, Proselytization, and Anti-Christian Violence in Contemporary India. Oxford University Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-19-026631-8. Retrieved 17 February 2021 – via Google Books. The most important of these, in terms of conflict between Hindus and Christians, are the Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, or ABVKA ("All-India Forest-Dweller's Welfare Center," founded in 1952), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or VHP ("World Hindu Council," founded in 1964), the VHP's militant youth wing, the Bajrang Dal, or ("Bajrang Party," founded in 1984), and the political party that became, in 1980, the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP ("Indian People's Party").
  17. ^ Basu, Amrita (30 June 2015). Violent Conjunctures in Democratic India. Cambridge University Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-107-08963-1. Retrieved 17 February 2021 – via Google Books. There was an unprecedented convergence of forces that heightened Hindu nationalist militancy and violence: an active RSS presence within civil society; high levels of coordination between the RSS, VHP, BJP, and militant Bajrang Dal; a cohesive political party; a BJP state government with ties to the bureaucracy and law enforcement agencies; and an NDA government at the center.
  18. ^ Mankekar, Purnima (1999). Screening Culture, Viewing Politics: An Ethnography of Television, Womanhood, and Nation in Postcolonial India. Duke University Press. p. 179. ISBN 0-8223-2390-7. Retrieved 17 February 2021 – via Google Books. Militant organizations such as the Bajrang Dal, with its loyal following among the lumpen proletariat, further widened the class base of right-wing organizations such as the Bharatiya Janata Party, traditionally a stronghold of the urban petite bourgeoisie.
  19. ^ Kochanek, Stanley A.; Hardgrave, Robert L. (30 January 2007). India: Government and Politics in a Developing Nation. Cengage Learning. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-495-00749-4. Distinct from both the RSS and the VHP, the militant Bajrang Dal has been closely associated with the VHP in the movement to "liberate" Hindu holy shrines at Ayodhya and other sites where mosques now stand. The Dal is one of many senas, the armed gangs that have been described as the face of Hindu fascism.
  20. ^ "India" (PDF). Human Rights Watch World Report, 2003. Human Rights Watch. 2003. p. 237. ISBN 978-1-56432-285-2. Retrieved 17 February 2021. The groups most directly responsible for this violence against Muslims included the VHP, the Bajrang Dal (the militant youth wing of the VHP), and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps, RSS), collectively forming the sangh parivar (or "family" of Hindu nationalist groups).
  21. ^ "Inside a far-right Hindu 'self defence' training camp". BBC News. 1 June 2016. Retrieved 15 December 2020. They are conducted by the Bajrang Dal, a militant Hindu organisation that traces its origins from the days of the infamous Babri Mosque demolition movement in the temple town of Ayodhya.
  22. ^ See:
  23. ^ Anand, Dibyesh (2007). "Anxious sexualities: Masculinity, nationalism and violence". The British Journal of Politics & International Relations. 9 (2): 257–269. doi:10.1111/j.1467-856x.2007.00282.x. S2CID 143765766.
  24. ^ Deshpande, Rajeev (30 September 2008). "Bajrang Dal: The militant face of the saffron family?". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2008.
  25. ^ "Dal v state". 3 September 2015.
  26. ^ Anand, Dibyesh (26 October 2011). Hindu Nationalism in India and the Politics of Fear. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-33954-5.
  27. ^ Fernandes, Leela (April 2011). "Unsettled Territories: State, Civil Society, and the Politics of Religious Conversion in India". Politics and Religion. 4 (1). Cambridge University Press: 108–135. doi:10.1017/S1755048310000490. S2CID 144982565. Retrieved 16 February 2021 – via Academia.edu.
  28. ^ Ahuja, Juhi (18 October 2019). "Protecting holy cows". Vigilantism against Migrants and Minorities (PDF). Routledge. pp. 55–68. doi:10.4324/9780429485619-4. ISBN 9780429485619. S2CID 213324283. Retrieved 16 February 2021 – via OAPEN.