Rss 360°

by Ratan Sharda

  Naga freedom fighter Rani Ma Gaidinliu, founder of Harake Conference was invited to the World Hindu Conference in 1979 in Prayag (Allahabad). She was overwhelmed and she pointed out how Naga leaders had fought the British. “Her organisation represented three major tribes of the Nagas. Harake means pure faith.” Bharatiya Janjaati Samskriti Manch (Indian Tribal Cultural Forum, also known as ITC) was formed soon after which worked hard to enlighten the tribal brothers about their ancient heritage and their own methods of worship. Saraswati Shishu Mandirs were set up in 1981 in Nagaland and Manipur. Till then, the only education they were receiving was from Christian missionaries where Bible was taught in local language or in government schools which offered ‘secular’ education that resulted in their ignorance about their own culture, traditions and practices. Medical centres by Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram were also started.

  Translations of Ramayan, Bhagwad Gita, Buddha and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s lives were released by the ITC forum in Khasi dialect in Meghalaya, while Adi Research Centre was started in Arunachal Pradesh. Karbi tribals rediscovered their Vaishnav roots and traditional poojas and yagyas. Karbis now trace their ancestry to Bali and Sugriv, Tiwas trace theirs to Sita and Mishmis of Arunachal Pradesh to Rukmini (hence Krishna). In year 1988, a Christian principle of Aizwal College talked about Ram Katha in tribal customs. Vidya Bharati encouraged studies in local tribal languages. Today, there are more than 200 schools in this region. Apart from this, Ram Krishna Mission and Vivekananda Kendra have been doing exemplary work as also many other Hindu organisations. All this has hindered the tide of Christian conversions and also strengthened nationalist feelings amongst various tribes and local population.

  Years back, the RSS and VHP fought to remove Muslim encroachers on the tribal lands in Cachar ranges of Assam and fought against Church designs on cremation grounds of Karbi and Anglong tribes. All this also went a long way in strengthening the morale of local people and push back the attempts to brow beat them into accepting other religions. ABVP campaigned aggressively to declare Sardar Tirot Singh as a Khasi freedom fighter and finally the Meghalaya government recognized his contribution and declared his birthday as a holiday.

  During all these activities, Hindu activists and missionaries have faced immense hardships and hurdles from leaders of the Church, including threats of murder. Even the locals – some of whom have also lost their lives – who offer shelter to these workers are threatened directly or through extremists. This has been recorded by me from personal conversations of prachaaraks who have returned back from there. But, movement carries on with grim determination.

  In Madhya Pradesh, the game of missionaries was first exposed by the Niyogi Commission established by state’s Congress government in 1951. Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram was established in 1952 and has grown from strength to strength with genuine social support system for tribals through various programmes. It has also reversed the conversion game of missionaries. In Jashpur, the struggle to return grabbed land of tribals by Church authorities was initiated with the help of Raja Kumar Singh Judev, descendent of the royal family there. Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and VHP have led the movement of ‘ghar wapsi’ (return back to faith) with some success. Tremendous amount of work has been done in the form of Bhajan mandlis, yuvak kendras, satsang samitis, schools etc.

  M L Kaul in Kashmir – Past & Present, Unraveling the Mystique, writes in chapter eight, “The Hindus not given to the campaigns for proselytisation outright rejected the suggestion of Maharaja Ranbir Singh, a scion of the Dogra dynasty, to reconvert the Muslims to the fold of Hinduism as they were forcibly converted to the faith of Islam and were willing to hark back to their original faith and creed. Even the influential elements among the Hindus of Kashi are said to have turned down the suggestion of the Maharaja.” This supposed act of tolerance can be seen as one of the crucial factors behind the disastrous state of affairs in J&K. Learning lessons from history, the Sangh took proactive action in following in the footsteps of Swami Dayanand, founder of Arya Samaaj movement, Swami Shraddhanand and Veer Savarkar who had worked through ‘shuddhi movement’ for people who wished to return to Hindu fold. Shri Guruji, called for a fresh ‘shuddhi’ movement on the occasion of his reception on the completion of 51 years. He called for converts to come back to their original faith.

  The VHP, in its first plenary session in 1967 in Karnataka witnessed an unforgettable moment in history when revered head of Pejawar Peeth declared “na Hindu patito bhavet” i.e. no Hindu is ever fallen. With one stroke the stigma of caste based discrimination and reconversion was removed. Then on “paraavartan” and “ghar wapasi” became a watch word for Hindu organisations working in various parts of Bharat.

  The VHP took out a Jagannath Rath Yatra across tribal areas of Odisha which covered close to 1000 places from March 1986 to May 1988 in which around three to four million people participated. Dilip Singh Judeo led hundreds of converts back into the Hindu fold by washing their feet in presence of various religious heads.

  There are thousands of Chauhan Rajput Muslims in Rajasthan who converted to Islam after the defeat of Prithviraj Chauhan. Though they are Muslims by faith, they follow all the customs of Hindus. They were being pressurised by local maulvis to drop all Hindu practices and become staunch Muslims, but instead chose to return to the Hindu fold under the aegis of the head priest of Pushkar temple who is also the Sanghchaalak of RSS there. He organised their return to faith with full honour. Similar kinds of customs are also seen in Jammu where Muslims recognise their Hindu antecedents with love and pride. Reconversions have also happened in north east in places like North Cachar with support from VHP. In Valsad, in Gujarat, there is an annual Maaval Mata Yatra in which all citizens irrespective of their religious practices participate. Some of them have come back to their original faith now. A few years back a massive congregation of tribals from all over India participated in a religious festival named ‘Shabri Kumbh’ at a place in South Gujarat, which is believed to be the place where mother Shabri lived when Lord Ram visited her during the search of his wife Sita. It was attended by around 60,000 tribals and other Hindus, and was deemed a fulfilling pilgrimage for tribal brethren.

  The humungous task of removing the stigma attached to conversions and bringing converts back to their ancient faith has been supported by the people Infact, people in North East told RSS prachaaraks, “you came nearly 30 years too late.” But, historical compulsions, shortage of resources, active opposition and persecution by ‘secular’ lobbies exploited by Church and Islamic organisations still leaves a lot to be done.

  XIV

  Current Scenario

  Note: When I wrote the first edition RSS was targeted in the name of Saffron Terror by the then government. The book was written to counter the negativity created by Congress since 1947-48. By the time the second edition came up, Shri Narendra Modi had led BJP to a decisive victory in 2014. By the time this refreshed and revised version is going to print, the national scene has changed drastically. Nationalist forces are on the rise and the Left, pseudo-secular forces are facing irreversible decline.

  As an analyst of current affairs, I would have been tempted to update this section with some fancy, hyperbole about the progress of the RSS. There have been big stories in newspapers about growth in RSS membership since the victory of Mr Modi. To put it mildly, these stories are not based on facts. RSS has never grown on the backing of any patronage. Nor can RSS shakhas be increased simply with a spurt in popularity. Readers would have noted from the previous chapters that creating an RSS worker or karyakarta is a painstaking process. It requires years of training before he can take up a responsibility of running a shakha or taking up more responsibilities. Even if there is a perceptible increase in popularity of RSS, on ground it takes much longer time to harness it in structural form of RSS. Definitely there has been huge growth in people willing to join RSS in last 3-4 years. I surmise it has more to do with the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda celebrations, when RSS and its associate
organisations reached each and every nook and corner of India to spread his message on Hindu dharma, with special focus on youth. Huge rallies, constructive programmes, door to door campaigns through these celebrations have brought the youth closer to RSS. This has been at the root of higher visibility and growth. Popularity of Mr Modi, a prachaarak, has definitely added to the charisma of RSS. Still, I have preferred not to change this section drastically because the basic social realities expressed here have not changed much so far.

  From a small beginning in Nagpur as a group of young boys playing in playgrounds, the RSS grew into a protector of Hindu community before and after the Partition, a sword arm of India during various attacks and a saviour in various calamities. With its expansion into nearly all the fields and segments of society after 1948, its presence is all pervading.

  As seen earlier, social service activities inspired by the RSS cover nearly the entire spectrum of social structure – from a cultural organisation it has grown into a movement of Hindu renaissance and nation building. It is no more restricted to RSS shakhas, but new grounds for accretion to its strength and ideological spread have emerged.

  Inspite of this steady but strongly rooted growth, question marks have been raised about its achievements during all these years of existence. Any person in social domain in today’s fast moving life becomes impatient and despondent when he or she cannot see changes happening fast enough. It is like a parent looking at his/her child every day and not sensing any real change, till he looks at some earlier photographs or some neighbour or relative exclaims, “Oh, how has she grown and changed!” The activists who have dedicated their lives, or their best years and moments of their lives to this cause would surely be going over their lives once in a while and thinking, “Was it worth it?” In the ebb and rise of history, such questions do arise. The initial chapter about landmark events in the life of the RSS has given the reader an overview of its evolution and contribution to national life of Bharat.

  Critics, as also well-wishers, talk about the decline in RSS sometimes reflected through its shakhas on open grounds and its presence in the middle-class areas in urban localities, its natural recruiting ground in its earlier phases. Even as recruitment to its ideological school of thought is taking place through different associate and sister organisations, visible presence through shakhas on playgrounds is not as impressive as it was once, especially in cities. I view it as a change in the whole social dynamics in the past few decades.

  The social atmosphere that followed independence and the preceding generation laid stress on commitment to nation, social causes and moral values. That generation worried less about material gains and did not mind foregoing material growth for social good. Middle-class of the time embodied this approach. One could find even elite citizens sacrificing their comfortable life to do something for the society. But, in the intervening period, with high influence of consumerist culture, success has come to be measured in terms of money and political power, resulting in a near amoral society. The middle-class of the present has become so enamoured by the career of its offspring and earning good money that sometimes it appears that there is no time or inclination to sacrifice some time or comfort for social good. There will always be exceptions and there still are. But, it doesn’t detract from this basic submission.

  Children are put into coaching classes right from secondary school and they do not get out of this vicious circle of coaching, entrance exams, hunting for best colleges and courses until they are a job and get married. Thus, the best productive years of youth who contributed to major social movements earlier, are today buried in various coaching classes and institutions. This alarming lack of interest in the country and its affairs is also reflected in large number of vacancies in officers’ cadre in the armed forces.

  Reuters report dated 17-1-2015 tells us that in USA about 2.4 million youth participated in the nearly 105-year-old Texas-based scouting program, representing a 7.4 percent decline over 2013 enrollment of 2.6 million youth, Boy Scout officials said in a statement on Friday. Enrollment declined by about 6 percent in 2013. BSA officials said that decreasing participation is a trend that most youth organizations are facing. Here in India, I quote two reports about Scouts & Guides – Telegraph report dated 16-12-2016 from Kolkata tells us that Sushila Birla Girls’ School has opted out of the guides course, only offerings bulbul training up to Class V. “Senior students hardly opt for guides, ” said Sharmila Bose, principal. Apeejay School, Salt Lake, discontinued the programme because the trainer “failed to ignite interest among the girls”, said principal Rita Chatterjee. A report in thehansindia.com dated 5-3-2016 reports that in Telangana there were 58582 candidates in Scouts and Guides in 2009-10. The number reduced to 47124 in 2013-14 and then to 27510 in 2014-15 after bifurcation. Today, the government schools are in no position to setup the Scouts and Guides units

  In the backdrop of this scenario, let me share a simple fact. Each year nearly 20,000 new volunteers go for Sangh Shiksha Varg (one month training workshops for workers) across the country. They are always fresh, new members, as there is no provision of repeat course in this. Generally, these are people who have gone through the one week primary training workshops. It is estimated that only 1 out of 5 swayamsevaks who passed from these primary training go for first year training. This means that nearly 100,000 new volunteers qualify each year to take up some responsibility or the other in the organisation. These are young people who have decided consciously to dedicate their time and energy for the society. I am not sure if there is any other organisation in the world, let alone India, that can boast of addition of one lakh active dedicated volunteers each year, year on year. And these numbers are rising each year.

  I may submit that one more factor leading to the falling number of youth joining social movements and or careers like armed forces or less lucrative fields like teaching is the kind of education that our Nehruvian ‘secular’ lobby has thrust upon this nation. It is totally amoral, bereft of any ethical, moral and patriotic content. Media, in line with same thinking, is more interested in projecting negative images – whether in the socio-politics or pop culture. It is not interested in positive stories about very large number of people working silently for social upliftment and growth of the nation. Thus, young boys and girls grow up in self-centered environment soaked in consumerism without any moral values or sense of pride or attachment for the motherland.

  On the other hand, the lesser privileged sections of the society have become more conscious of their surroundings and want to be a part of democratic process for improvement in their individual lives as well as their society. Therefore, youth from this segment of the society are more active in social movements of different hues. This is the section that is increasingly getting involved in RSS work. Visibility of RSS on playgrounds like yester years has reduced but its presence in the lower strata of society, in lesser privileged localities has increased tremendously. That is why the number of shakhas has kept growing though not where we are used to see them. Similarly, the growth has continued in rural areas where there is a huge social churning. Thus, this talk of decline in RSS ranks stems from a comparison with its own earlier image that doesn’t take into account this changing societal pattern.

  The RSS is finding new ways to engage with youth from middle and upper income group through other alternative means. Due to the sheer size of the organisation the corrective action or new approaches seems slow. During last few decades, recruitment through other associate organisations has grown hugely. Social service projects have got a large number of educated youth from all segments of the society involved with social causes.

  If we look back, RSS and its organisational set up in form of shakhas was a novel and innovative concept. All through its decades of its existence, RSS has not shied away from experimenting with different methods of social mobilisation, and opinion building. There have been innovative attempts in form of new concept like IT-shakhas which reach out to young people through the
internet. These are shakhas where people meet on the net and discuss various issues. The members meet periodically and also take part in camps. There are nearly 100 IT shakhas in hubs like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune alone that meet weekly, conduct training camps and undertake social service activities. Many activists have taken to social service in a big way and they have attracted surprisingly large number of young boys and girls in thousands who volunteer to work for different social service projects not only in their own areas but also in other parts of the country. Many sympathisers and volunteers have taken to creating blogs and websites that espouse the cause of Hinduism, Hindutva and present alternative views on Indian history etc.

  An effort has been made recently to reach out to the youth through the Internet and through campaigns in colleges and public places to encourage them to serve the society by contributing their weekend time or one week in a year during vacations. Message is ‘one week for the nation’. This idea was experimented recently in Vidarbha region, and evoked highly encouraging response.

  These new experiments and their success show given the right motivation, today’s youth are ready to be involved in social service and nation building. The Sangh workers are continuously in search of innovative ideas to involve more youth in nation building.

  The RSS has networked with various other organisations working in public domain, religious, voluntary and reforms movements. It believes that it does not have a monopoly on nation building or person building. So, it co-operates with other organisations with positive approach to nation building and social awakening wherever possible. It believes that all well-meaning positive forces of national re-construction must work together; because there is so much to do and speed at which this is happening is too slow. The response from other organisations in various social fields has been encouraging too. This is the vision that drives RSS today. We can look forward to more velocity and momentum in its work in the coming years.