The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the most important voluntary organisation on the earth and an ideological mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will flip 100 in 2025. In the run-up to its centenary, the organisation would deal with two key facets: Establishing the unique id of Bharat by pursuing the search for selfhood and affirmative motion for bringing social equality. Selfhood is denoted as ‘Swa’ and social equality is termed ‘Samajik Samrasta’ in RSS.
That is the message that RSS Sarsanghchalak (Chief Mentor) Mohan Bhagwat gave in his annual speech on Vijayadashami. The annual speech is taken into account to be a broad indicator of the path that the RSS prefers to take within the coming yr. It usually signifies the longer term plans for the long run. The RSS was based on Vijayadashami in 1925 and since then yearly the Sarsanghchalak delivers an annual handle on the event. Bhagwat is the sixth Sarsanghchalak to ship this handle.
Two vital issues have to be talked about right here earlier than we focus on this yr’s speech. First, the RSS doesn’t imagine in short-term measures. It tends to suppose and act on a scale of 25 years. Second, it’s least bothered about electoral politics because it has a agency perception that its goal of attaining the transformation of Bharatiya society can’t be achieved by political energy. Thus, observers and analysts who have a tendency to take a look at the RSS from the BJP’s perspective don’t attain the fitting conclusions.
Meanwhile, on this yr’s speech, there are two vital facets that want to be highlighted. Bhagwat mentioned, “As we complete the Amrit Mahotsav of Bharat’s Independence from the British colonial rule, remembrance of the remarkable lives of these inspirational personalities gives us the message of social equality, and unity and integrity and defending the ‘Swa’ or ‘selfhood’. It is a natural desire for a human being to make every effort to safeguard his ‘Swa’ and his inherent identity. As the world comes closer to each other at an astounding pace, nations are increasingly becoming worried about their inherent identities and their sense of the self or ‘Swa’. Attempts to paint the entire world in the same colour or to achieve uniformity haven’t succeeded so far, nor will they succeed in the future.”
“Thus, the desire to preserve the identity of Bharat and the identity of the Hindu society is only natural. It’s no surprise, then, that a crisis-ridden world expects Bharat to emerge with a new vision, germane to the times and based on its own value systems, to meet the contemporary needs and challenges of the globe,” he added.
This search for selfhood is on the core of the RSS’s ideological framework within the twenty first century. The RSS firmly believes that the true id of Bharat is that of a ‘Hindu Bharat’. And when it talks concerning the Hindu id, it doesn’t determine it with a method of worship or faith. It associates the phrase ‘Hindu’ with sure civilisational values which can be everlasting. The RSS desires a ‘Dharma’ and never a religion-based state and society. ‘Dharma’ shouldn’t be related to any method of worship. So Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Sanatanis, Arya Samajis, Sikhs, and Jains whereas practising their very own method of worship can observe the ‘Hindu Dharma’. There is not any dichotomy or contradiction. In truth, practising one’s faith and following the rule of Dharma are supplementary actions, in accordance to the RSS.
And that is the true ‘selfhood’ that wants to be discovered once more, accepted and established firmly because the bedrock of Bharatiya society, believes RSS. That is the essence of what Bhagwat has reiterated in his speech at this time.
Now how will this ‘Swa’ be searched and established and the way will ‘Bharatiya’ society turn into a really perfect society? For that, we’d like to take a look at the second vital facet highlighted by Bhagwat. He has clearly laid out an affirmative motion plan to obtain these targets.
Bhagwat mentioned, “We should deepen our relationships with nature by saving water, removing plastics, and increasing greenery in and around our homes. Let’s strengthen our reliance on ‘Swa’, or self, through Swadeshi. Wasteful expenditure ought to stop, too. Employment opportunities in the country should rise and the country’s money (capital) should be used within and in the interest of the country itself. Hence, the practice of Swadeshi should start from home. Law and order, and responsibilities as a citizen should be followed by all.”
“A climate of harmony and cooperation should prevail in the society. Everybody expects these five behavioural elements to materialise. But it is imperative to make a sustained effort to make this behaviour a part of our nature by starting with small things and practising them regularly and consciously. Apart from serving the needy members of the society, the Swayamsevaks (RSS volunteers) will in the coming days strive to make the society a participant and ally by carrying out these five types of social initiatives.”
It is vital to point out right here that the RSS volunteers are operating shut to two lakh welfare tasks throughout the nation. There are 36 organisations impressed by the RSS which can be working in the direction of the transformation of society. Since the mid-Seventies, the RSS has deployed increasingly of its power to work for the marginalised sections of society and assimilate them. Balasaheb Deoras, the third RSS Sarsanghchalak, had mentioned in his well-known handle at Pune in 1974: “If untouchability is not a crime, nothing is a crime in this world.”
With each passing yr, the RSS has been pushing for ‘Samajik Samrasta’ and that is going to be its main focus in Amrit Kal too. This is what Bhagwat has indicated at this time. The path to the RSS volunteers may be very clear: they want to exit within the discipline and work for social cohesion by empowering the socially and economically marginalised sections of society. And whereas doing this, they have to not let go of the search for selfhood that will set up the true id of Bharat in years to come.
The author is an writer and columnist and has written a number of books. He tweets @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed within the above piece are private and solely these of the writer. They don’t essentially mirror News18’s views.
