For those who see the Rashtriya Sevak Sangh as a sea of khaki shorts and white shirts, the shift to brown trousers will seem like a remarkable change. The decision to dump the shorts after 91 years was taken at the three-day conclave of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, the highest decision-making body of RSS, held in Nagpur. Although the make-over is being touted as a major change, those familiar with the ideology and internal workings of the organization see no difference because the idea of uniformity, suppression of difference and inequalities between members remains unchanged. Brown trousers might give the organization a slightly modern look and the chances are the RSS cadre might make a deeper impression when they march in numbers and not draw guffaws. The uniform is part of the package and the Maoists, Brown Shirts and the fascists in UK needed uniforms to give the impression of a collective with a common code. The change to brown trousers does not, in any way, alter its core ideology. It s the same orthodoxy, but in a new bottle.
