Birth Rate And Religious Balance: Why RSS Wants Hindus To Have 3 Kids – News18

Last Updated:December 02, 2024, 13:24 IST

What began as a call for a uniform population policy through a resolution passed by RSS in ABKM meeting in 2015 has now escalated into exhortations for Hindus to have three children

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s speech on Sunday in Nagpur appears to be a reminder to Hindus about their seemingly diminishing influence. (PTI File)

For nearly a decade, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has been expressing its concern over India’s shifting demographic balance, pointing to the declining growth rate of the Hindu population and the steady rise in the Muslim population, or at least about Hindus having a lower population index. Even as statistics point out that total fertility rate (TFR) among Muslims has dropped, however, it is still higher than the TFR among Hindus.

What began as a call for a uniform population policy through a resolution passed by the RSS in the Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal (ABKM) meeting in 2015 has now escalated into exhortations for Hindus to have three children — a sign of the Sangh’s growing unease.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s speech on Sunday in Nagpur appears to be a reminder for the government to impose a policy and to Hindus about their seemingly diminishing influence. His recent statements, including the advice to Hindus to have at least three children, apparently suggest a shift from demanding state intervention to now advocating for community-level solutions. This reflects the Sangh’s acknowledgement of the limitations of policy alone in addressing demographic anxieties.

“Diminishing population is a matter of concern. It is so because the Loksankhya Shastra says that if we go below 2.1, then that society perishes, no one will destroy it, it will perish on its own,” Bhagwat said. He urged Hindus to have at least three children, so that the “society can survive”.

Bhagwat’s assertion is a step forward from the Sangh’s old demand for a ‘comprehensive population policy’ through which there can be regulation and also a religion-specific balance over the population index.

RSS FLAGS ALARM ON ‘HIGHER’ MUSLIM GROWTH

Almost nine years ago, the Sangh passed a resolution after its national executive meeting in 2015. The resolution, titled ‘ABKM 2015 – Challenge of Imbalance in the Population Growth Rate’, stated: “The Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal is of the opinion that the severe demographic changes brought forth by the analysis of the religious data of Census 2011 highlight the necessity of the review of population policy. Vast differences in growth rates of different religious groups, infiltration and conversion resulting in religious imbalance of the population-ratio, especially in border areas may emerge as a threat to the unity, integrity and cultural identity of the country.”

“Although Bharat was one of the early countries in the world to announce as early as in 1952 that it will have population planning measures, it was only in 2000 that a comprehensive population policy was formulated and a population commission was formed. The policy aimed at achieving a stable but healthy population by the year 2045 by optimising the fertility rate to the ideal figure of 2.1 total fertility rate [TFR],” it said.

The growth in the Muslim population was mentioned in the resolution. It also reflected the growing unease in the Sangh structure over the population data in the country. “The rate of growth of the Muslim population has been much higher than the national average, in the border districts of Border States of the country like Assam, West Bengal and Bihar, clearly indicating the unabated infiltration from Bangladesh,” the RSS said in its resolution.

“It is also a fact that the infiltrators are usurping the rights of citizens of these states and are becoming a heavy burden on the already scant resources apart from creating socio-cultural, political and economic tensions. The religious imbalance of the population in the North Eastern states has assumed serious proportions,” added the Sangh.

HINDUS NEED TO ‘RECALIBRATE’

The RSS has always been upfront in speaking about its ideological causes, most of them deemed ‘pro-Hindutva’, as the opposition bloc often describes it. But the Sangh’s statements define its actions as well. Days after the BJP achieved a resounding victory in Maharashtra, Bhagwat, while addressing a programme in Nagpur, called for survival strategies for the Hindu population. It also shows that the Sangh continues to focus on and revolve around its ideological causes.

Far from being confined to election strategies and post-election calculations of forming the government, the RSS views and analyses the demographic trend as an existential challenge to India’s cultural and civilisational ethos.

This perhaps explains Bhagwat’s urging of Hindus to recalibrate their priorities in the face of what he perceives as an unequal demographic contest. The Sangh’s concern about the shift in demographic data in India is probably rooted in its vision for the nation to remain a “Hindu Rashtra”, albeit culturally.

HINDU GROWTH RATE SLOWS DOWN

Data from successive censuses over the past few decades and multiple other national and international surveys have shown that the growth rate of the Hindu population is slowing. Even though the Muslim population has also been decelerating, it still continues to grow at a comparatively higher rate than Hindus.

These figures have prompted the Sangh to push for a uniform population policy, which is primarily aimed at bringing all communities under the same regulatory framework, particularly in states where the Muslim population is perceived to have almost outpaced the Hindu growth rate.

WHAT DO THE STATISTICS SAY?

According to Pew Research Centre statements over demographic trends of religious groups in India and population statistics by World Population Review, Muslims make up approximately 14.2% of India’s population, as estimated data of 2024 says. Hindus continue to remain the majority at around 79.8%. However, over the decades, India has witnessed a modest increase in the share of Muslims, growing by around 4% since 1951, while the share of Hindus declined by almost the same amount.

This shift is largely attributed to the varying fertility rates among religious groups. However, the gap has significantly narrowed in recent decades.

The reports also say that Muslims in India, who traditionally have had higher fertility rates than Hindus, have also seen their average fertility rate drop sharply, from 4.4 children per woman in 1992 to 2.6 in 2015.

In comparison, Hindu women’s fertility rates declined from around 3.3 to 2.1 over the same period.

SANGH’S WAY OF DEALING WITH DEMOGRAPHIC ANXIETY

The critics, however, dismiss these narratives as “communal”, “alarmist” or “fear-mongering”. The RSS meticulously frames its position as a cultural imperative rather than a political one.

The Sangh, through its documents and speeches, argues that the demographic trend will have broader implications for India’s societal fabric, from representation in governance to preserving traditional and cultural identities.

At the same time, the RSS also faces the challenge of reconciling these propositions with its ideas and efforts of promoting economic development and women’s empowerment. Larger families are generally seen to be conflicted over aspirations for upward mobility.

Apart from such speeches, the demographic push is now also evident in the RSS’s grassroots campaigns. Through its vast network of shakhas, the Sangh also emphasises traditional family values, while imbibing the idea of “population balance” into its cultural outreach.