In early January 2016, I went to meet MG Vaidya, a popular ideologue of the Hindu nationalist behemoth Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in Nagpur. Ninety-three-year-old Vaidya is small, and age seems to have further shrunk him. But surprisingly fit and articulate for his age, Vaidya said he would be quite happy to see his 23-year-old grandson marry a Muslim woman: "I would in fact bless the couple with an inaam – a prize of ten-thousand rupees."
Vaidya has been associated with the RSS in Nagpur, which has also served as the organisation's headquarters, since 1932. Over eight decades, he has been shaped by the RSS ideology and has also helped shape it. He became its first prachar pramukh (head of publicity) in 1994, a post he held till 2008. He continued, informally, to influence important decisions even after that. In 2009, he successfully lobbied in getting the present sarsanghchalak (Chief), Mohan Bhagwat, selected for the top job. On most issues of importance, Vaidya's opinion – always final – is not very different from the official RSS position.
I was amused that Vaidya had given a bit of personal touch to our otherwise stiff conversation. To test the limits of his liberalism, I asked if he would be happy if his granddaughter marries a Muslim man. He shot back, "Haan, par baaki dharmon ko maanta hai ya nahi" (yes, but only if he believes in all religions). But for all that, he insists that India must have a uniform civil code (UCC): "If Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs can come under the Hindu Marriage Bill, why can't Muslims and Christians?" When I argued that implementing the UCC was maybe a little less easy than he made it sound, he responded, unequivocally: "No, it can definitely happen."
Soon after, we discussed Bhim Rao Ambedkar, the architect of India's constitution and the biggest hero to the Bahujans, the non-upper caste Hindus. Why doesn't the RSS, I asked Vaidya, talk about Ambedkar's criticisms of Hinduism? In 1956, after being convinced that there was no hope for the lower castes in the four-fold varna system, Ambedkar converted to Buddhism, coincidentally in Nagpur. Vaidya said, "Ambedkar did us a great favour by remaining in the Hindu fold. He didn't become a Muslim or a Christian or a communist." I tried quoting Ambedkar, who had said that the only real way to eliminate caste was through an all-out attack on the scriptures, but Vaidya turned brusque: "No, I haven't read anything of that sort."