An RSS Dalit's awakening

Book review of I Could Not Be a Hindu: The Story of a Dalit in the RSS

Bhanwar Meghwanshi’s  I Could Not Be a Hindu: The Story of a Dalit in the RSS is an extraordinary memoir for these troubled times.
 
Beginning with a Dalit youth’s desire to prove his credentials as a “true swayamsevak ” during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, it traces the journey of a brutal awakening to the intrinsic Brahminism of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the author’s subsequent turn to Ambedkarite politics.
 
Mr Meghwanshi’s faith in the RSS received the first jolt when, as a 15-year-old, he travelled by train to Lucknow in October 1990 to participate in the “second