Sanatan Sanstha and Its Hindutva Designs

The Sanatan Sanstha must be the only Hindu extremist organisation that preaches spirituality along with the stated aim of waging war against the state. It aims at establishing a Hindu rashtra or God’s Kingdom by 2025 for which elimination of all durjans (evildoers) is a precondition (Athavale and Athavale 2001: 25, 31). The Hindu rashtra will not have any place for the Buddhist, Jain, Shaiva, Vaishnava, Muslim and Christian communities. The Sanatan Sanstha has its own constitution ready with no provision for election, no democracy, no judiciary, and an education system promoting the Hindu religion (Athavale and Athavale 1999: 124, 145).

The Sanatan Sanstha came in the news again after arrests of few of its followers and sympathisers in connection with a terror plot and possible involvement in the killing of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar. Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) has arrested seven people so far who are sympathisers of the Sanatan Sanstha. Vaibhav Raut, Sharad Kalaskar, and Sudhanva Gondhalekar were arrested on 10 August following the seizure of an arsenal of arms and ammunition at Raut’s bungalow in Nalasopara (NDTV 2018). The network of Hindutva terrorists did not stop with the Sanatan Sanstha alone. Shrikant Pangarkar, former Shiv Sena corporator from Jalna who has links with the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) was arrested on 19 August based on confessions by Raut, Kalaskar and Gondhalekar. Avinash Pawar, another suspect who also has links with Hindutva groups, was arrested (Rajput 2018). Sachin Andure, who was arrested on 18 August on the charge of being the shooter in Dabholkar case, also has connections with Hindutva groups. These arrests were made after investigation into the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh started to unravel the larger network of Hindutva groups like the Sanatan Sanstha and the HJS.