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  Various intellectual exercises strengthen one’s conviction that only a united and disciplined Hindu society can take care of its ills that can result in all round growth of the society and country. Lessons of history taught to the members stress the fact that Hindu civilisation, though glorious, faced reverses primarily because the society was not united, people fought on petty issues and differences, and withdrew into a shell under assaults from outsiders rather than face them unitedly. Since, the majority Indian society is Hindu, unless it takes care of its ills, its divisions and sub-divisions, and stands united, one cannot dream of a prosperous India. The focus is more inward looking to understand weaknesses of Hindu society rather than find scapegoats for its decline. If foreign invaders have weakened this country and corrupted its systems, it is a historic fact that it was allowed to happen by a disunited Hindu society. Similarly, if caste system weakens Hindu society, it alone can correct this historic distortion of its social structure.

  Many of the prachaaraks have been great thinkers and analysts. Their understanding of the Indian society is astounding. I have heard some of the most perceptive and dispassionate analysis of social issues that confront Hindu society from such thinkers. Generally, the approach is not to get into confrontationist barren arguments or debates, but concentrate on an inclusive approach. Highly revered Shri Guruji who built up RSS over his 33 years of stewardship from a young fledgling organisation to an all India powerhouse drew attention to the limitations of intellectualism, pointing out that you may score some debating points with a person who opposes you intellectually, but you cannot win him over. He himself was a towering intellectual who had a photographic memory and tremendous spiritual depth. He had, probably, cautioned his followers to be more concerned with actual work rather than get bogged down by fruitless debates. One of the favourite quip the senior leaders is, “every Hindu you meet is a prospective swayamsevak, so try not to antagonise him or her. Listen, even to your opponents with open heart and be ready to learn.” We have seen many examples of diehard opponents joining RSS later on.

  The most important part of regular intellectual and mental training is the prayer that is written in Sanskrit. It asks for Mother India’s blessings so one can dedicate one’s life for motherland’s glory and prosperity. It reminds the participant that it is he who has chosen this difficult path of sacrifice for his society on his own volition so he seeks her blessings to make him strong to bear difficulties in his path with equanimity. Daily invocation to Motherland creates an emotional bond that is close to one’s heart throughout life and always guides one’s actions.

  U R Anandmurthy has noted somewhere that Hindu militancy is more political than spiritual. Though, nearly all the RSS volunteers are religious and spiritual, I doubt if most of them perform regular rituals that go with visible Hindu practices. There is no training at all about Hindu rituals and practices or influence to follow the so called Brahminical samskaaras, though the RSS is supposed to be a citadel of orthodoxy that is ready to take Indians to middle ages! Guruji was an ordained Sadhu of Rama Krishna Mission order, but lived in normal worldly clothing. He even carried the typical pitcher of a sadhu gifted to him by his guru, and followed regular rituals of pooja, meditation etc. But he would admonish people that putting ‘tilak’ on forehead, reciting shlokas or scriptures blindly and garlanding the statue of one’s God is not true religiosity or spiritualism. To him, all this was of no use, if the person did not take care of his fellow human beings and society. For him patriotism, surrender of self for motherland and service to fellow human beings were the highest form of spiritualism.

  Team Management

  Simple meaning of swayamsevak is the one who is self-motivated to serve the society. The earliest responsibility that a young person is entrusted by the time he reaches his teens is that of a ‘gatnaayak’ or a team leader. This group could be staying in the same area, or it could be from similar age group, but never on linguistic or income basis. From these early days of life he is supposed to bring this team to shakha every day, lead it in shakha activities, visit homes of its members, talk to their parents, ask about their studies – in general be their coordinator and lead member, at an age when their contemporaries indulge in fun and games.

  A swayamsevak could be planning and executing games in the shakha while another could concentrate on learning and singing patriotic songs, reciting the daily prayer and training others. A senior member may be asked to do some study and present a talk on some social issue or even narrate an informative story to the members of that shakha. A person may be given a temporary responsibility of managing a picnic. Small responsibilities mature a person slowly into a responsible person and a leader. So, you are being groomed as a disciplined team leader, in a very unobtrusive manner, who can handle multi-disciplinary activities naturally. And this is just a beginning.

  As a member matures, he would be asked to be in-charge of a shakha as mukhya shikshak (chief instructor or teacher) or kaaryavaah (secretary) who looks after the whole group and is the guardian for all the members of that shakha. Mukhya shikshak is in-charge of physical education and games, while kaaryavaah is expected to guide all the team leaders and also attend meeting with other volunteers of other shakhas in the vicinity for planning programmes. The two together are responsible for running the shakha.

  Unity through Purpose

  The secret of unity in an organisation is unity of purpose. An ingrained respect for consensus based decision making comes to every volunteer through his experience in the organisation. Right from the day a young volunteer starts attending a meeting in RSS, he experiences consensus building. I have seen real hot heads who could easily loose temper on minutest of things, finally calming down and coming to a common decision. This decision making is also tempered with respect for seniority in the hierarchy as an organisational discipline.

  It is not strange sight in an RSS shakha to see a 50 year old swayamsevak saluting a young instructor half his age. At times it may happen that a father could be saluting his son, or a teacher in school saluting his student in shakha! There are jokes abound in shakhas that a son receives more respect than the father because he happens to be a responsible member of the RSS! This training through simple acts in shakha results in respect for any person who has been given responsibility and who holds a higher post in the organisation. Since, nobody is promoted out of favour or fear. Members respect the authority and not the individual representing that authority. This mutual respect for each other and admiration for the work a person is doing filters down to a vibrant consensus based decision making process.

  Though, this style of working leads to delays many a times and many activists crib about it, this is a small price that an organisation has to pay to take everybody along. Once in a while, many impatient members complain that there are too many meetings and less action. But, this is a hallmark of RSS way of working, for better or for worse.

  We had a very senior activist, Rajabhau, in our local district level team that I headed. He is still active at 85. At that time, he might have been nearly two and half times my age. He had been a full time worker (prachaarak) in his youth and a very accomplished activist. He was so fit even at sixty five that he could do a handstand and walk on his hands! His neat notings in his diary and follow ups, his relentless social work over and above shakha work even at his advanced age, would be a lesson for anybody. One tough and emotionally draining social work he keeps doing year on year without fail since the age of 16 is to guide a family about various funeral rites whenever he gets to know of a death. I believe he may have guided thousands of such unfortunate families in their hour of distress. Rajabhau would put forth his views very strongly in meetings. If they were overruled by others or me, so be it. There would be heated arguments too. But, after the meeting was over, he would come to me and pat my back, saying, “Son, very good. You are doing a great job!” I have not seen such dispassionate and objective working in any other organisation. The RSS is basically fueled by
passionate hearts inspired by philosophy of personal sacrifice.

  Respect for Honest Work

  One important lesson I learnt at the RSS was to always respect a person performing genuine work, regardless of the ideological background of that person. This is the reason an RSS worker can co-operate and work with any organisation or person if situation demands. There is no concept of any kind of ‘intellectual or organisational untouchability’ that plagues many of our social organisations. Therefore, RSS workers tend to have good relations with other organizations too. The open discussions that take place in meetings also encourage one to keep an open mind for a different way of thinking. Having interacted with extreme left to centrist and socialists, I dare say that they are more fundamentalist in their beliefs and closed to hearing other ideas than a Sangh activist. They shy away from any interaction for the fear of being stained by saffron!

  Even a leader of the stature of late Jai Prakash Narayan had to be persuaded very hard by a person like Sitaram Goel to meet RSS leaders and attend an RSS programme till late in life due to his bias about RSS in his mind built over years. But, after attending one such meeting, his apprehensions were totally washed away and he was all praise for the RSS and its members. It is his greatness that he admitted to his earlier unfounded bias and also like a true Gandhian changed his views with courage, at the risk of being ridiculed by his erstwhile colleagues.

  Bringing the Best Out of a Person

  Personality development and character building through all these activities happens effortlessly and unknowingly. One learns to sing, give speeches, discuss issues, work together, relate to and talk with people belonging to different age, social status or education. In a few years, he becomes a better personality emerging from this system that hones his personality. Traditional Indian values like respect for women, holy men and elders are inculcated through visits to each other’s homes and various lectures and examples given during shakha hours. “Nirmanon ke paawan yug mein, hum charitra nirman na bhoolen, swaarth sadhana ki aandhi mein vasudha ka kalyan na bhoolein (Let us not forget character building in this new pious era of reconstruction, let us not forget about the upliftment of mother earth in this mad rush of self-aggrandisement),” says one of the Sangh songs.

  I have seen keen students from socially and economically deprived strata being trained lovingly by their more fortunate friends and senior colleagues going on to become successful engineers and doctors. I recall young friends like Manik and Deepak who rose from slums and went on to become an engineer and an accountant respectively. Some have become successful political leaders. I have seen the son of a humble poor tailor, Ramesh Patange – who used to be our senior in shakha in a neighbouring area and secretary of a much larger area later – maturing into a leading thinker and writer. He is an opinion leader of repute in literary field. I had a young school going colleague deputed as my junior for running a shakha. It turned out that he was a compulsive liar and also indulged in petty thefts once in a while. He generally cleared his examinations in second attempt. His family was fed up of him. To my surprise, he not only gave up such practices within months of taking up new responsibilities, but also managed to clear all his subsequent classes in single attempts without a single lecture from me. It just happened.

  There is a Marathi proverb which is repeated often, lest an activist forgets it – “Accept a person as he is and mould him into what you want him to be.” A great lesson for any human resource manager too. It is easier said than done, but I have seen large number of lives being moulded this way. Daily renewal of one’s faith and social commitment is the cause célèbre of shakha.

  Shri Rameshwarlal Kabra, a highly successful industrialist and Chairman of RR Kabel ascribes his success in business and social life to the art of recognising a person’s abilities and his/her character through the practical experience he had gained in meeting and handling various kind of people during his days in shakha. There are hundreds of such successful businessmen who have similar views. Dr Ravindra Khedekar in Mumbai, a renowned orthopedic surgeon always credits his rise from a very average student to a successful surgeon, without falling into the trap of short cuts that many people fall into, to rise fast in the profession, due to his training in Sangh. In his long career, he has never charged fee from any RSS volunteer, his friend or his family, whatever the pressure from the beneficiary. A person like Dr. Vinay Sahasrabuddhe has risen from a typical middle-class family to be a prachaarak of ABVP and headed Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini, and now Vice President of BJP. He never ever took advantage or boasted his close political relations with the high and mighty. I am talking of examples around me. Needless to say, at all India level, such examples would multiply in thousands.

  Simply put, it is all about simple living and high thinking, following high values and traditions. All efforts are to build character of the swayamsevaks or volunteers through easy to absorb ideas. These values imbibed in the years in shakha are so strongly embedded in one’s heart and mind that a person that has come out of this system will sooner or later come back to his roots and beliefs, and devote his energies for nation building.

  Moropant Pingley, one of the earliest prachaaraks, a remarkable organiser with keen understanding of Hindu society’s psyche and one of the senior most ideologues used to conduct ‘laugh a minute’ kind of meetings He used to say, “Work of the RSS is serious but we must do it with light heart, with laughter.”

  Thus, this humble shakha is the power house of RSS, the training ground for future social leaders who can take up any job with natural ease. All that I have described above happens in open grounds without any bamboo curtains or secrecy. Reading about this man making programme run through the shakhas of RSS, you would agree that my friend was not too far off the mark when he suggested that a well trained RSS worker could easily qualify for Social MBA.

  VII

  Inculcating Values and Sense of Nationhood through Festivals

  Doctor Hedgewar, the founder, had a different view about celebrating customary festivals of Bharat. He chose festivals that carried some message for the swayamsevak and the society. RSS celebrates six festivals through a Hindu calendar year. They are –

  1.Varsh Pratipadaa

  2.Hindu Saamraajya Din

  3.Guru Poojan

  4.Rakshaa Bandhan

  5.Vijayaadashamee

  6.Makar Sankraman

  I will elaborate a little about all these celebrations and the basic thought behind each.

  1.Varsh Pratipadaa – This is the first day of most widely accepted Hindu new year and based on ‘Shaalivahan Shak’. It falls generally in the second week of April and is called ‘Gudi Padwaa’ in Maharashtra. The festival is celebrated in most parts of the country in different names – Bihu, Poila Baishakhi, Cheti Chand, Ugadi, Yugadi, Puthandu etc It is now well established fact that the calculations of Hindu calendar based on astronomy are most scientific and accurate. Celebrating this day also connects you to your own ancient civilisation which is one of the oldest living civilisations in the world. To the RSS volunteers this day has another emotional pull too. The founder of the RSS, Dr. Hedgewar was born on this day. The festival begins with a special salute in the memory of its founder.

  Since it is the beginning of the new year’s organisational set up, new postings and new responsibilities are declared on this day in the RSS. Hand over to the new team begins on this day.

  This day is being slowly adopted by Hindu society all over India with large colourful rallies and festivities greeting this day. An RSS inspired organisation ‘Sanskaar Bharati’ has played a great role in popularising this festival.

  2.Hindu Saamraajya Din – This day commemorates the coronation of Shivaji, the most celebrated of Hindu kings who fought against all odds with limited resources at his command through direct and guerilla warfare. In the dark gloom of Mughal era when the Hindu society had gone into a shell believing that the only way to survive was to live a peaceful life, not bothering about the society and d
harma. Aurangzeb’s power was at its peak and Hindus saw no hope of deliverance from his atrocities. At that time Shivaji rose to declare, “Hindavi swaraajya whaave – hee Shreenchi ichchaa”; meaning “Let there be a independent kindgom of Hindus, this is the will of Supreme God.” In that atmosphere of gloom, he had the courage to break out of shackles of slavery. He was the first Hindu to declare a kingdom based on Hindu tenets. After his coronation by Gaga Bhatt from Kashi, his kingdom was designated ‘Hindu Pad Padshahi’ as long as Marathas reigned supreme. In terms of size it was not a very large kingdom. But, Shivaji was the one who rekindled the spirit of bravery in the hearts of Hindus and showed that it is possible to fight become independent. Subsequent Maratha kings finally reached the gates of Delhi. This is the greatness of Shivaji.

  It is the tragedy of our secular polity that he has been reduced to a Maratha chieftain, thus pulling him down from the pedestal of a national hero, putting him in a smaller straitjacket of a caste-based hero and dwarfing his personality.

  The RSS chose this date to awaken the spirit of bravery and self confidence. It may be underlined that RSS does not celebrate the birthday of any personality as a festival. Because it believes that the work done by an individual is greater than that individual. Thus, members of the RSS may celebrate Shivaji Jayanti along with other citizens and participate in it, but the RSS considers his coronation as the defining moment of his inspiring life and in the life of this nation and has made it into a national celebration.

  3.Guru Poojan – I have already explained the philosophy behind this festival earlier on. It is important to note that the volunteer is not only supposed to sacrifice his money for the cause, but his other resources too. There is popular term in Hindi – “tan, man, dhan” i.e. serve your motherland whole heartedly with body, soul and material resources. This festival is the day when a volunteer renews his pledge to serve the motherland and society with all the means at his command. The status of a person in the organisation is decided more by his contribution of time and efforts than anything else. It is the most solemn festival of all. A volunteer may bunk daily shakha, may not attend other festivals, but he makes it a point to be present for this festival come what may, indicating the strong sense of dedication this day invokes.