Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh at 90 - A review of its contribution to India
- In History & Culture
- 03:22 PM, Nov 13, 2015
- Sagar Kinhekar
Mr. Sinha runs a residential school in Raigad district, in the area adjoining to very urban Navi Mumbai (New Mumbai - a suburb of Mumbai). He and his friends started the initiative some 10 years back. The villages in this area house one of the poorest tribes in Maharashtra. Mr. Sinha’s school gives free shelter, food and education to students who come from these poor families. Currently, there are more than 100 students living there. He has named it Gurukul (an ancient name for residential schools). Mr. Sinha is a co-founder of an IT firm and a globetrotter, but he makes sure that he spends time with these kids studying in his school on the weekends he is in India. When asked, “What gives you the inspiration for such a noble work?” Pat comes the reply, “My roots as RSS Swayamsevak (volunteer) inspires me and makes me able to take it up.” There are thousands of individuals like Mr. Sinha who involve themselves with such social cause and swear by RSS’ name.
While we hear countless stories demonizing RSS in media, how come there are so many RSS admirers? What exactly is RSS, the organization and more importantly, does it have any real impact on India’s social, political and cultural landscape? If you follow the popular media, the answer will be that all impacts are negative. But the truth can be stranger than the fiction.
From the first Shakha (Branch) of Dr Keshavrao Baliram Hedgewar in Mahal Nagpur, today RSS has grown to about 55,000 Shakhas in about 90 years with estimated 5 million volunteers. This translates roughly 80 Shakhas in every district of India! The organization has expanded organically and consistently in all these years. The stated aim of the organization is to create a united and cultured Hindu society where there is no discrimination due to disparities of economy or caste.
The basic unit of this organization, Shakha, is not an office where you see RSS hoarding etc. These Shakhas are conducted mostly in playgrounds or gardens. Here people meet every day for 1 hour. During this time, they play, do Yoga, exercise and sing patriotic songs. Anyone can go and mingle in this gathering without being asked his religion or caste or political inclination.
So what kind of impact does RSS make by just playing, singing and exercising day in and day out? The answer is, in the kind of people these activities produce. Due to the Samskara given in Shakha, the swayamsevaks are inspired to take up work for society in different walks of life selflessly. While there are many affiliated organizations within RSS, thousands of non-affiliated organizations created by inspired Swayamsevaks are shaping up India in many positive ways. Let’s examine three areas where RSS has made a direct and lasting impact. 1. Social Service, 2. Education, 3.Politics.
Social Service
RSS social activities are run mainly by two organizations, one is Seva Bharti and other Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram. While Seva Bharti works for various social causes, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (VKA) is dedicated to wellbeing of tribal population. Sewa Bharti was established in 1978. It has 439 voluntary organizations (VOs) affiliated and has more than 138,000 projects running across India. Out of these projects around 70,000 are running in tribal areas. Sewa Bharti enables VOs to run their projects smoothly by coordinating, bringing in systems and uniformity in functioning of affiliate organizations as umbrella organization.
Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (VKA) was established in 1952 by Bala Saheb Deoras, who later became chief of RSS. The organization believes in working silently. They have made tremendous impact on the life of tribal population across India. Some highlights of their work –
- VKA is working in more than 375 tribal districts (having a tribal population of more than 25K)
- 7,000 tribal students are staying in hostel facilities built by VKA
- More than 100,000 students are being trained in schools run by VKA
- Students after completing their education join prestigious services like Army, Civil services, educational activity, government employees, physicians and technologists
- More than 3000 VKA health workers reach more than 30000 villages with various medical facilities
- Every year more than 1.2 million patients are treated in tribal dispensaries/ hospitals by VKA
- Tribals are given vocational training by VKA for their economic development. Various training program undertaken by VKA are sewing, handlooms and handicrafts
- In Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh, Kalyan Ashram has taken up the Shiv Ganga project in 175 villages by which check/stop dams, contours and trenches have been constructed. As a result the water table in these villages has risen by 15 feet (4-5 meters). For more details see States-Madhya Pradesh
- In Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka more than one thousand self-help groups have been activated by Kalyan Ashram workers. Through these groups lakhs of people are benefiting
Education
RSS has contributed to reach the quality of education in India tremendously through Vidya Bharti. Established in 1952, Vidya Bharti today is largest non-government educational organization. Currently, there are 136,000 institutes running under its umbrella. Vidya Bharti is present in 597 districts and more than 3000 blocks in India. This means that Vidya Bharti has given more than 90% district level coverage and about 50% block level coverage. Interestingly, Vidya Bharti has equal ratio of high schools to government run high schools across countries. Both Vidya Bharti and Government run about 24,000 high schools each, across India. This tells us about the kind of contribution Vidya Bharti has given to India’s Education.
More than the numbers, Vidya Bharti schools are known for their quality of education. Very frequently the top rankers are from Vidya Bharti schools when it comes to state school boards or central board examinations.
Politics
The second RSS Chief Golwalkar (Shri Guruji), felt that RSS needs a political voice so that its thoughts are effectively put across in Parliament. In 1951 Bhartiya Jan Sangha (BJS) was started with Shyamaprasad Mukherjee as its head. BJS was a marginal player in the politics with handful of seats in Parliament until 1971, their best performance being 35 seats.
During the 1971 stint, the then-congress-government, led by Indira Gandhi, declared emergency suspending all fundamental rights of the citizens of country. With left having co-opted with Indira Gandhi, RSS was in the forefront of anti-emergency movement providing required man power and infrastructure for the movement. Even detractors of RSS accept that most underground activities during this time were led by RSS volunteers. Publication and circulation of newspapers and pamphlets and coordination between various parties opposing emergency would not have been possible without RSS support. RSS was instrumental in organizing Satyagraha in November 1975 which attracted 1.5 lakh people, out of which about 80,000 were RSS volunteers. The Satyragrah continued for 3 months and RSS ended up having 45,000 of its volunteers in jail. The RSS’ support to the movement was not borne out of hate for congress but it was felt a natural duty to protect democracy in India. In fact RSS’ relationship with congress, if can’t be termed as friendly, was not hostile until emergency.
If BJP could stand up to Congress’s blatant corruption in last general elections of 2014, it was due to the foundation led by RSS and its volunteers. We have seen the short lived governments of Janta Party / Janta Dal in 1977, 1990 and 1996. If one looks at the political history in this context, without RSS there could not be a credible option to congress. The two most stable non-congress governments are given by BJP with ex RSS Pracharaks heading them-The governments of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and that of Narendra Modi.
RSS has been shaping India positively in all walks of life silently for 90 years. The current noise in media notwithstanding, RSS as an organization needs to survive and thrive if we want a strong, developed and cultured India.
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