Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was established by Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in 1925 on the auspicious occasion of Vijayadashami. Dr. Hedgewar took huge inspiration from Veer Savarkar's ideology of the consolidation of Hindus. Frequent Hindus-Muslims violence before the independence of India also contributed to the formation of RSS. Thus, RSS came to be known as the organization of Hindus, for Hindus and by Hindus. Through RSS, Dr. Hedgewar wanted to unite Hindus of undivided India.
How to join RSS?
To become a part of the RSS ecosystem, you don’t need to pay any membership charge. There is no such formality, you become an RSS swayamsevak just by the virtue of attending any shakha. If someone does not know about the nearby shakha, he can visit the RSS website and fill an online form. He will be provided information by the nearest suitable contact for joining RSS.
What is Shakha?
It is a daily gathering of swayamsevaks (volunteers) of different age groups at a predefined meeting place or ground for one hour. At shakhas, the impetus is to make swayamsevaks mentally, physically, and socially fit so that they can work towards the betterment of society and building a self-sufficient nation. Therefore, its daily routine programs consist of physical exercises, games, singing patriotic chorus & poems, group discussions on social & national importance, and finally a prayer for our motherland.
Since the inception of RSS, swayamsevaks could be easily spotted wearing khaki shorts, a white shirt, a black cap, and black shoes holding dand (stick). A uniform helps to nurture the feeling of oneness among all the swayamsevaks. However, a swayamsevak is not required to wear the uniform daily. The uniform is meant to wear only during certain ceremonial parades and functions. All these years, khaki shorts have become an integral part of RSS. However, in 2016, the present Sarsanghchalak (chief) of RSS Mohan Bhagwat brought some major changes to the organization. One of its many changes included replacing khaki shorts with brown trousers. You can buy the uniform from the local RSS offices.
Apart from this, RSS has a women's wing named Rashtra Sevika Samiti which was founded in 1936. A social worker from Wardha in Maharashtra Lakshmibai Kelkar approached Dr. Hedgewar, and had extensive consultations with him when they finally decided to launch Rashtra Sevika Samiti.
One of the prime objectives of RSS is to unite Hindus and to empower them. The RSS considers Hindu as a term that defines the national identity of the people living in this country. According to the RSS, everyone living in this country, respecting the laws of the land, are Hindus in the eyes of RSS irrespective of their religious beliefs and affiliations.
RSS believes that Muslims and Christians in India were at some point in time forced to convert. But this doesn’t stop them from being children of Bharat Mata. In sangh parivar they are neither discriminated against nor do they get any special privileges.
There were 57185 daily shakhas being held at 36729 places (including rural and urban) in March 2017.
Sangh parivar - Affiliated organizations of RSS
There are numerous affiliated organizations of RSS including the largest political party in the world. Let’s have a look at some of the major organizations affiliated with RSS.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP): Since 2014, it is the ruling political party of the Republic of India. Politically a right-wing party, its policy has historically shown Hindu nationalist positions by virtue of its allegiance to RSS. In terms of representation in the national parliament and state assemblies, it is the largest political party in the country. Apart from this, in terms of primary membership, it is also the world’s largest party.
Rashtra Sevika Samiti: It is unofficially the women's wing of RSS. Its activities are focused on nationalist devotion and the unification of Hindu women.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad: Affiliated to RSS, ABVP is a right-wing all-India student organization. Having over three million members, it is the nation’s largest student organization.
Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan: The educational wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), it operates one of the largest private networks of schools in India. As of 2016, it runs more than 12,000 schools having 32,00,000 students. Having a functional headquarters in Delhi, it has its registered headquarters in Lucknow and a sub-office in Kurukshetra. For its valuable contribution to school education, the million lives club selected Vidya Bharati as an official member of the Vanguard cohort in 2020. It has empowered the lives of millions of children who are deprived of quality school education.
Muslim Rashtriya Manch: It is the Muslim wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). In 2002, it was established in the presence of the then RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan with an aim to grow dialogue with the Muslim community.
Rashtriya Sikh Sangat: It is the Sikh wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It has more than 450 units mostly in the states of Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. It aims to unite Hindus and Sikhs. Gurcharan Singh Gill is its president.
Swadeshi Jagaran Manch: Established in 1991, it is a cultural organization that deals with economic issues. Dr. Ashwani Mahajan is the co-convener of the organization. For the last many years, the SJM has been apprehensive of foreign direct investment.
Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram: It is an Indian social welfare organization based in Jashpur, in the Chhattisgarh state of India. Its emphasis has been on the welfare activities of Janjatis (Scheduled Tribes) in remote areas of Bharat (India), and has branches throughout the country. The focus areas of these branches include healthcare, child education, agriculture, and sports. It also works towards the creation of cultural awareness among janjatis. By doing so, it facilitates the idea of preservation of their tradition and customs followed in different groups.
Bharatiya Kisan Sangh: The farmers' wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, BKS was established by Dattopant Thengadi in 1978. As of 2000, BKS had more than a quarter-million members. They are organized in 11,000 villages and 301 districts throughout the nation.
Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh: Trade union wing of RSS, it was established by Dattopant Thengadi on 23 July 1955. The BMS has over 10 million members. As per the Ministry of Labour, the BMS had a membership of 6,215,797 in 2002. It is India's largest trade union.
Views of eminent figures on RSS
Mahatma Gandhi on RSS
In 1934, when Gandhi attended the RSS camp at Wardha, he was amazed to see the discipline of swayamsevaks and the absence of untouchability among them. To inquire about this, he went to see swayamsevaks and witnessed volunteers living and eating together in the camp ignoring their castes.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel on RSS
In early January 1948, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister of India remarked that RSS activists were "patriots who love their country". He was not in favor of crushing RSS and wanted Congressmen to win over the RSS by love. Apart from this, he also tried to persuade the RSS to join the Congress. Patel was impressed by the help the RSS had offered the Indian administration in maintaining public order in September 1947.
Former President Zakir Hussain on RSS
On 20 November 1949, former President of India Zakir Hussain told Milad Mehfil that the allegations against RSS of violence and hatred against Muslims were completely bogus. Apart from this, he asked Muslims to learn the lesson of cooperation, mutual love, and organization from RSS.
Khushwant Singh on RSS
Khushwant Singh, a noted journalist and RSS critic, had taken cognizance of the assistance offered by the RSS to the Sikhs during the 1984 riots.
Praiseworthy role of MS Golwalker in convincing Hari Singh of Kashmir
In October 1947, Pakistani troops and non-state actors were on the borders of Kashmir and Maharaja Hari Singh was hesitating whether to accede to India or remain independent. This is when Sardar Patel sent MS Golwalker, the chief of the RSS, to initiate a dialogue with Hari Singh on 18 October 1947. Golwalker was successful in convincing Hari Singh to accede to India while Pakistan was already busy sending troops inside Kashmir to spread terror and violence
RSS during natural and man-made calamities
In any kind of natural or man-made disaster, RSS has always been phenomenal be it the 1971 Odisha cyclone, the 1977 Andhra Pradesh cyclone, and the 1984 Bhopal disaster. The 2001 Gujarat earthquake, helped in relief efforts and assisted in the rebuilding of villages. In the relief efforts, almost 35,000 RSS members in uniform were actively involved. Even their critics appreciated their efforts.
RSS actively helped the civil administration during the Indo-China war of 1962. Watching the efforts of RSS, even Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was impressed.
To relieve the Delhi Police of their daily duties, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri invited the RSS at the time of the 1965 war with Pakistan so Delhi Police could focus on strategic tasks for the war effort.
RSS offered support to the government when the Indira Gandhi government declared the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence. RSS offered its services to maintain law and order in Delhi and its volunteers were the first to donate blood. Apart from this, RSS Swayamsevaks also assisted the Indian Army troops to dig trenches. After the war was over, it helped to repatriate the Bangladeshi refugees back to their newly formed country of Bangladesh.
In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Sewa Bharati conducted relief operations. It helped in building shelters for the displaced and offered clothes, food, and medical aid. Apart from this, they also took care of victims of the Kargil War of 1999. In 2006, RSS volunteers worked for those hit badly by the Surat floods and offered basic necessities such as milk, food, and potable water to them. Similarly, the RSS volunteers conducted relief and rehabilitation work after the floods impacted North Karnataka and some districts of the state of Andhra Pradesh.
After the Uttarakhand floods in 2013, RSS volunteers were engaged in flood relief work through its offices set up in affected areas.
The instrumental role of RSS during partition and Indo-China war
RSS members were instrumental in organizing relief camps for refugees from Pakistan. Not only this, in the 1962 India-China war, RSS helped Indian soldiers and citizens in the North East for which Nehru had to praise RSS.
First to help during national disasters
During national disasters, the one name that comes to our mind is RSS. This is because RSS is the first to reach the spot to help the common man. This could be witnessed in Uttarakhand floods, during the tsunami in Tamil Nadu, and the Gujarat earthquake to name a few.
Sewa Bharati: An epitome of selfless service
Sewa Bharati is an affiliated organization of RSS whose sole aim is to serve downtrodden and poor people. In Jammu and Kashmir, it has adopted over a hundred children from the insurgency and militancy-hit areas. The children are both Hindus and Muslims. Sewa Bharati takes care of their stay and educational needs. Many of those kids are studying in boarding schools in Delhi today. Apart from this, Sewa Bharati has worked selflessly in flood-hit regions of Jammu and Kashmir. Moreover, it organizes blood camps frequently.
RSS has been reaching out to the pandemic-hit regions and serving people
Much like its selfless service during the first wave of Covid-19, RSS has been instrumental ever since the second wave of pandemics hit the nation. More than half a million RSS volunteers served at 92,666 towns in the country.
As per the official data of RSS, it distributed food supplies to 7.3 million needy families and distributed food packets to 45 million people. The volunteers of RSS provided more than 9 million masks and donated over 60,000 units of blood. The volunteers made sure that no part of Indian society was neglected in these testing times. They offered timely help to 250,000 migrant laborers during these tough times. Apart from this, RSS organized 483 medical centers at various locations, 1,778 food centers, and 935 help centers at bus and railway stations.
When a Muslim woman offered all her savings to RSS
Last year, impressed by the philanthropic efforts of RSS during the lockdown, a Muslim woman from Jammu and Kashmir offered all her savings meant for her Hajj pilgrimage, worth Rs 5 lakh, to the RSS-affiliated 'Sewa Bharati'. From 2017 to 2020, there has been an increase of almost 30 percent in the number of Muslim students in the UP schools operated by Vidya Bharati which is the educational wing of RSS.
RSS aims to make backward classes as temple high priests
For years, the RSS has voiced in favor of training Dalits and other backward classes as temple high priests. Traditionally it has been a position reserved for Brahmins. RSS points out that the social divisiveness of the caste system is to be blamed for the lack of allegiance to Hindu values and traditions. RSS argues that making Dalits and lower castes temple high priests would be a step towards rectifying the societal norms.
Among other initiatives, the Sangh runs 27,000 Ekal Vidyalayas (schools) in remote tribal areas where more than 8 lakh socially deprived tribal students are enrolled.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
The VHP is an affiliated organization of RSS. It has played a vital role in stopping religious conversions and construction & renovation of Hindu temples. Apart from this, it has been very vocal on the issues of cow slaughter and Ram Mandir. In collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda, the VHP was established in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte. It was founded with the aim of organizing, unifying the Hindu society, and serving and protect the Hindu Dharma. The organization nominated Chinmayananda as its founding president and Apte as its founding general secretary.
Saintly power of Bharat
The VHP considers Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists along with native tribal religions as part of the larger Hindu fraternity. Officially, it states that it was established by the "Sant Shakti of Bharat''. Initially, the VHP was conceptualized at a conference in Pawai, Sandipani Sadhanalaya, Bombay on 29 August 1964 hosted by RSS chief M. S. Golwalkar. A number of representatives from the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain faiths were present in the meeting, along with the Dalai Lama.
VHP is also against the caste system. protecting Hindus and offering them the required assistance throughout the world has been their continued goals. For years, it was involved in the Ayodhya dispute. In Punjab, the VHP has actively worked towards the prevention of conversions of Sikhs to Islam or Christianity.
Vishva Hindu Parishad is active in social welfare work:
Medical training – VHP offers training to people in villages to give primary health care and referral services. The organization also holds medical check-up camps.
Vocational training – It also operates self-employment training camps in Bihar, Assam, Brij Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maha Kaushal, and Maharashtra. The training areas comprise agriculture, horticultural techniques, animal husbandry, farming techniques, bee-keeping, and sewing.
Education – It is actively providing educational facilities in distant areas.
Social welfare – It operates many help centers, rescue centers, temples, hostels, orphanages, marriage bureaus, and working women's hostels. It is also actively involved in environmental causes such as tree plantations. It offers social services in religious pilgrimages, emergency help during natural calamities, and rural development.
Relief services – Similar to RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad has offered emergency relief services. Vishwa Hindu Parishad organized medical and relief camps in the 2014 Jammu and Kashmir floods. It has a presence in 29 countries outside of India.
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