Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh- A Century of Selfless Service

 Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar was a member of Congress who recognised that the approach to the problem of Bharat’s freedom was fundamentally insufficient, if not entirely flawed. Tactical arrangements might produce some advances. These may be relevant to the national purpose. These could also hurt the national purpose because of the nature of compromises. But tactics produce no lasting result in themselves. A robust social movement must be aimed at the fundamentals rather than superficial progress. The nation exists because of its cultural and spiritual moorings rather than the tactical arrangements that aim to produce immediate effect. Such will inevitably be unstable.

Dr Hedgewar resolved upon the monumental task of uniting Hindus across Bharat spanning the plethora of regional, linguistic, historical and customary divisions among the Hindus. This idea was ridiculed and dismissed off-hand by many among his closest circles. He started Hindus organisation on the eve Of Vijayadashami of 1925 at his home with few of his friends in his home in Nagpur. His closest friends and acquaintances laughed at his ideas. The event would go unnoticed for the next decade. But this idea eventually exceeded even the bravest hopes through the history of Bharat or indeed any other in the world. There is still a long road to walk, but now there is no doubt that this goal will be attained.

Various cataclysms over the centuries had deeply divided the Hindu society. A nation with the greatest spiritual and cultural heritage of the world was divided into a number of fragments by language, region and caste. Division and mutual hostility were fostered by a long series of foreign invaders and gradual ossification of native genius into a dull and dark repetition of dead patterns of behaviour.

The rebuilding of the nation demanded not merely expulsion of a foreign ruler or the revival of set patterns but the revival of the inherent genius of the nation. The first principle of the RSS was the veneration of the Bharat Mata. Her children are the Hindus. These form one nation, one in body and spirit. This awareness of a common and indivisible and timeless inheritance is the firm foundation of the nation. The vast body of the Hindus comprises many different sects, languages and food habits, and so on. But this glorious heritage had become poisoned by divisions of caste. No specific date can be set to the origin of these divisions. Castes have been divided into upper, lower and most horrifically untouchables, meaning no one can touch them. The person who touch them become unclean as if afflicted by an incurable ailment. This was not merely a flawed philosophy as Swami Vivekananda observed, but a deep mental and spiritual crippling of the nation.

To establish an organisation for national integration in such a society was as difficult as weighing frogs in a scale. Dr Hedgewar was determined to take up this impossible civilizational task. Dr Hedgewar gave a simple mantra- ‘Ekasaha Sampat – Form a Line’, the simple command on the daily shakha. Several hundreds of divisions were dissolved with this simple step. People belonging to diverse caste, languages, social strata and with different dressing habits assemble with rapid precision, united in a single line. The Swayamsevak must shed all notions of division by caste, wealth, language and region. None is privileged or deprived. Swayamsevak’s stand shoulder to shoulder, allowing the divine spirit within to do its work of gently uniting the entire nation into one being. Dr Hedgewar does not deliver sermons against casteism and untouchability, nor did he bother to coin slogans like, ‘We are going to remove untouchability’. Dr Hedgewar just let everyone experience the simple fact, ‘We are all Hindus’.

The daily shakha works silently to create the space where this innate feeling of oneness in Hindus may flower into an unbreakable bond. Swayamsevaks assemble daily, stand in a single line, play together, occasionally go out together and eat together. In Sangh camps, there is only one kitchen. All sit together and eat. Swayamsevaks serve one another in quiet dignity and devotion. Questions about the caste are never raised, nor discussed. All are swayamsevaks of the Sangh, all are Hindus and that is their identity. A nation is made up of people whose culture is the same and those who believe right as right and wrong as wrong without any religious or caste bias. It would demand much more than anyone was capable of braving or even imagining. Over a span of 15 years Dr Hedgewar travelled across Bharat to unite Hindu society. Dr Hedgewar was clear that freedom would not be obtained by the scattered efforts of even the bravest fighters fighting separately. There efforts were to be united and organized with a common plan and discipline.

If freedom fighters worked with a commonly established discipline, then the fear of death would cease to limit their ability to act. Dr Hedgewar observed that the British and the Mughals came from distant lands and ruled Bharat for centuries. This was because of two reasons. Firstly, the people of Bharat were not united by a coherent political vision and purpose. Secondly and more importantly, they nurtured unnatural and completely vacuous social divisions. Dr Hedgewar was firm that he did not want to form one more sectarian Hindu organization like the plethora that there were, but desired to create an encompassing unity of the Hindus under one roof. The RSS was formed with the vision of an organised Hindu society. It aimed to nurture a robust and adapting organization. One that would continuously , integrate and express the civilizational genius of the Hindu nation. Its guiding philosophy was that the united Hindu society shall achieve every goal cherished by the nation and indeed all humanity. The organization was intended to be a grassroot organisation and develop one volunteer at a time. This was in complete contrast to the Congress style of functioning, which was founded as an organisation of a privileged class organised into a hierarchy of petitioning intended to negotiate power.

The RSS is regarded by outsiders as an organisation. But primarily it is a family of swayamsevaks. Swayamsevaks live like a family and share one spirit in happiness and sorrow. Dr Hedgewar remained the Sarsanghchalak till his last breath on the 21^st of June, 1940. He entrusted the responsibility of nurturing the still very young organisation to Madhav Sadashiv Golwarkar, fondly known as Guruji, who became the second Sarsanghchalak of RSS. From 1940 to 1973 under the leadership of Guruji, RSS expanded rapidly.

Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. RSS works tirelessly to unite all sections of society under one roof. The mind boggling complexity, the intricate hierarchies among the castes and the institutional discrimination is a great hurdle in unifying the Hindu society. A society that endorses and institutionalizes discrimination by birth, status and wealth cannot be united. The RSS recognizes this truth that the if the individuals cannot come together the society will not prosper. Bharat has remained a developing country for decades. So long as a nation remains divided against itself, it will remain under-developed. Only when the ugly internal divisions and long entrenched prejudices and oppressions are removed can the nation hope to rise again.