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  This self-driven motivation for a mission leads one to modify one’s own personality traits to work with other people. I was an introvert who would move to the other side of the road to avoid running into known acquaintances. But, the compulsions of working with people made me a far open person, even if it meant crossing over to the other side of the road to meet a person!

  Personality Development

  A volunteer learns to recognise inherent skills in his colleagues and nurture them. As a swayamsevak becomes a kaaryakartaa (more active volunteer or activist), giving more time and energy to organisational work, he hones his skills further. From being a member of a local shakha he graduates to being a senior worker who handles the co-ordination of various activities of RSS. He may look after physical training, intellectual training or special workshops, meet celebrities in his locality and so on. This interaction with people of varied backgrounds, sensing their problems or their likes and dislikes, taking them along, persuading them to work for a cause by dedicating his time and effort builds up his managerial and Human Resources (HR) skills.

  Purushottam, my friend who joined RSS at a comparatively older age during the Emergency, was a typical carefree young man playing street cricket, getting into arguments or street brawls; having a team of friends who would play and gossip at street corners. Once, he plunged into Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) work, (ABVP was not banned during emergency) and later became its prachaarak, his transformation was amazing. Initially, it was not easy for him, he admits. But, as he settled down, his aggression and skills were channelised into positive and disciplined act of organising students, meetings and networking with teachers, professionals and industrialists, and being helpful to people. These same skills made him a successful businessman later. I rate him as one of the best PR men today in our circles.

  A highly respected teacher, Prof Mohanrao Apte, is another name that I can recall with awe for his sheer energy and a great eye for talent. He may have moulded and brought in more young people into social arena on strength of his inspirational personality, right from national level to local level. He finds time to write highly researched books on foreign affairs, defence and science inspite of being busy on field with his students with something or the other. Such is his impatience with any kind of lethargy that all his students humorously recall his oft used word, “useless” for anybody, any activity that drops in pace.

  The most difficult part of working for an organisation which has nothing to offer but, on the contrary, which demands more out of you in terms of time, efforts and even money; is to motivate people to work harder for a cause that does not offer any personal rewards in any way. To motivate people to do something in which there is no self interest is the biggest challenge a person in social field faces and this changes his whole perspective about life, people and work. People working in voluntary work can appreciate this aspect. An RSS worker learns these persuasive skills as he learns to manage people.

  Immaculate Planning

  Apart from regular shakhas, there are other programmes – like six regular RSS festivals that are celebrated with much more organised effort, with larger numbers of Sangh volunteers and members of public. There are occasional local or regional programmes that do not fall under these six all India festivals, say a picnic, a social gathering for a lecture, a cultural programme, organising sports events from different shakhas or a larger territory, organising workshops, being part of a team that organises camps. A camp arrangement can mean putting up tents, surfacing the playground, organising the space for different units of volunteers, plumbing, electrical job, looking after kitchen including cooking, cleaning of utensils, preparing for intellectual and physical programmes or even digging ditches for toilets.

  A young member who is graduating to be a worker, or kaaryakartaa in RSS terminology, finds it extremely exasperating the way his seniors pore over each and every detail of a programme or an event, delegating the smallest to critical responsibilities to different team members as well as work out a back-up procedure. No detail is too small for the seniors. Right from the arrangement of flowers, flag, chairs, lights, sound to taking care of chappals – nothing is left out. While working on the book, I met Rajabhau, about whom I have mentioned earlier too. He took out an old sheet of paper casually from his carefully maintained files with minute detailing of the arrangement to be made for a RSS festival (utsav). This detailed arrangement is called ‘vyavasthaa’ in RSS parlance. The senior colleague or co-worker guides the organiser of any programme to chalk out details of each component of an event from start to finish, each person is told about his role diligently.

  The effect of all these exercises can be seen in everything a volunteer does. I was wonderstruck when I was shown the stores management of a huge relief camp by a young student who seemed to be hardly a school pass out, during Gujarat earthquake in Raandhanpur in Kutch in 2002. Same approach works wonders for every event or programme a swayamsevak manages. More a worker rises in ranks, more people he interacts with. It is not a surprise that an RSS trained person can organise any programme in a very systematic way with a calm efficiency as if he was trained in it. Having organised so many events, he is becomes an effortless event manager who takes up any kind of job like a fish takes to water, whatever be the situation.

  This immaculate planning is a hallmark of ‘RSS School of Management’. Naturally, you hardly find any press coverage of RSS programmes as there are no gaffes, no stampedes, no scuffles, nor complaints of leaders coming late or programme stretching beyond yawns and disorder. Our media, after all, is trained only to report negative news.

  Consensus Based Decisions

  All decisions in the RSS are taken through consensus, even the election of the General Secretary at the top is based on consensus. No wonder that this 92 year old organisation has not split even once, contrary to Indian traditions of a social organisation. In a lighter vein, one can say that till RSS launched its mission of uniting Hindu society, four Hindus would look in the same direction only when the fifth one was on their shoulders. In our yonder, the joke on socialist groups used to be that three socialists can have four opinions and they can split like an amoeba!

  Normally, each activist or worker having a record of selfless public service should have ego which should be more than that of a housing society secretary or local social worker. Since he is under nobody’s obligation and is entirely self driven, there are more reasons for him not to listen to another colleague or senior. But, the RSS working ethos defies this conventional logic. This lack of personal ego is one reason why decisions can be taken with consensus.

  The stress on consensus-based decisions does not mean there is no democracy in RSS. Infact, I have yet to come across a social organisation which has more internal democracy than the RSS. But, it is tempered with an organisational culture – respect for consensus arrived through a very high majority in a given situation, with a belief that no one in the discussion has a vested interest and that everybody is thinking and working for the society. There are heated debates and discussions that may end up in an unanimous decision or a decision even being put on hold for lack of consensus.

  A person brought up and trained in such an environment can definitely manage a group or a team of colleagues and bring them round to a consensus-based decision where everybody feels that he is a part of it; and it is a win-win situation for all.

  Evolution of a Manager

  A swayamsevak, thus, gradually gets involved in management, managing team(s) and building teams right from his teenage years as he matures into an activist. He learns how to motivate his team members and get tasks done with a sense of joy. He is trained to identify a problem, study it and resolve it. He learns how to manage things by taking people together.

  Review of the work done by each activist is done regularly in periodic meetings and also informally. Final review is once a year when he may either be asked to continue, or maybe shifted to another responsibility, based on the reading
of his seniors, or be promoted to higher responsibilities. It is also possible that a person be relieved of his responsibility due to his request or perceived inefficiency.

  Sanjay Hegde, founding director of a social service organisation, Sewa Sahayog Foundation and Executive Director of Price Waterhouse Cooper India, attributes his rise from a humble village in Goa to the select ‘who-is-who’ of the corporate world to the readiness for hard work, discipline, character and management lessons he imbibed during his RSS training.

  This is also the training that has produced a highly efficient administrators and ministers like Nitin Gadkari who could build more bridges, fly-overs and highways in five years than Congress ministers could build in 50 years. This system produced Chief Ministers like Manohar Parrikar who put a small state like Goa, known only as a beach destination till then, firmly on a growth path through industrial development and by plugging loop-holes in the system; Shivraj Singh Chauhan, current Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Dr Raman Singh, current Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, whose welfare schemes for the neglected strata of society are being keenly watched and replicated by other states. Narendra Modi rose from a humble beginning as a canteen boy to be a prachaarak and then become a Chief Minister to launch so many innovative schemes for social and economic development that it has won him national accolade, and governments from other states send their officers to study them. Media may deride and demonise him, but his hard work and vision have made him the darling of the people. Today, ofcourse he leads a new confident India as its Prime Minister. Atal Behari Vajpayee, one of the best and the most popular Prime Ministers of India, gave a vision to planners that resulted in networks of national highways and rural road network schemes changing the way men and material move in this vast country. This has also brought in economic dividends to backward areas. I recall that the so called progressive economists had laughed derisively at Atalji’s vision and called it a scheme for the rich that would not get any funds. Only an Atal Behari could explode the nuclear bomb, face sanctions, motivate people including PIOs and NRIs to contribute liberally to India’s funds to face those sanctions, and finally bring America to a situation where it would look at India as a friend and an ally. All this happened because these fiercely proud nationalist people trained in this disciplined organisation were close to people, to the society and have had a dream of a well developed, prosperous India they visualised every day in simple shakhas; where they smelt and rolled in Indian soil.

  Probity in Public Life

  An RSS volunteer nearly always has a strikingly pleasant experience when he approaches people for any cause. It is the implicit faith people have in Sangh and its volunteers about financial probity. Swayamsevaks are conditioned from day one to deal with each other in total faith. Each and every penny is accounted for very transparently. This habit is fortified on as a volunteer graduates to higher posts and takes up more responsibilities. The amounts may change over years but there is never a doubt that accounts will be handled scrupulously, with complete honesty.

  When we used to go door to door to collect funds for various disaster relief programmes, people would remark that they give funds to the RSS unquestioningly because they have full faith that money would be utilised properly. It is pertinent to note that the administrative cost any RSS-run social service organisation is the lowest, or zero in many cases, as compared to other NGOs. From the beginning, an activist has been tuned to spend out of his own pocket for any activity, right from refreshments to picnics and camps. So, it does not come easily to him to get his expenses reimbursed or spend lavishly on himself. He has been trained to be frugal with himself as well as the organisation.

  Ram Ratna Vidya Mandir School was being built in Keshav Srishti near Mumbai. Rajju Bhaiyya (Professor Rajendra Singh) was the chief of the RSS at the time. Since, he had laid the foundation stone of the school he would enquire its progress whenever he visited Mumbai. He was being regularly informed that the school would open in June 1997. But, on this particular occasion he was told by the concerned trust member that the committee had decided that the opening will be shifted to the year next as there were some practical difficulties. Rajju Bhaiyya was highly perturbed. He gave an earful (in his own soft loving way) to the trustee on importance of accounting of public money and its cost, which is not just interest in funds but the public trust you lose not keeping promises. Naturally, trustees took the lesson to heart and worked very hard to start the school on a near impossible original schedule.

  Lead by Example

  One of the most important secrets behind the success of RSS is that a person is expected to lead by example. People listen to a person who puts into practice what he preaches. People are not trained by mere talks, but with living examples of their leaders and colleagues. Respect in the organisation is commanded by conduct and not demanded by position in the hierarchy.

  One of my senior colleagues, Bimal Kedia, took a conscious decision on the very first day he joined his family business that he would devote only eight hours out of the 24 hours of a day to business and nearly every other waking hour will go for Sangh work. I have not seen this conduct change in 40 years that I have known him, come what may. In fact, the actual time contributed to business has only reduced over years. Even when the family demanded more from him to promote the booming business further , he firmly refused. Such is his moral influence on his colleagues that nobody can say no to him, whatever responsibility he requests a person to take up.

  Each and every teacher (shikshak) and prachaarak is a living model of this code of conduct. This is what makes an ordinary person into an extraordinary achiever in social field.

  I am not convinced with the argument that today’s generation is not motivated to do selfless service because it does not find role models in political or social leaders. One could find such role models around one’s own homes or institutions if one were to look carefully. Media can also play a positive role by giving important place to such caring personalities in its coverage. We do not easily forget a very good teacher we met in our school days, or a social worker in our neighbourhood.

  Before I close this chapter, I will talk of another instance of setting example with one’s own conduct. Mr Valecha, about whom I wrote spoke earlier too, decided not to move to the new plush bungalow in Juhu the family had built for all the brothers. He explained, “If I move into such a fancy home, my young friends from the shakha who from poor families may feel shy to come there. So, I better stay in my old flat.” In earlier years, he had allowed Vidyanidhi School trust to run its initial classes from his garage and drawing room. I am deliberately quoting from my next door colleagues and friends so we realise that any ordinary person can become an extraordinary soul when he goes through the unobtrusively simple training through Sangh work.

  I have noticed that cadre based organisations, be it RSS or others, cannot retain all brilliant members because they are too fast or too impatient for an average member. RSS has, generally, been an exception though I have seen some of the brilliant people drifting away. However, it is equally true that organisations are generally built by the brilliance of a few. Building an organisation requires the patience of a farmer. Jim Collins, author of From Good to Great, has come to the conclusion that it is not brilliant individuals but the average steady hardworking team of individuals who take the organisations to greatness and consolidate it over long years. This unsung and unnoticed ability of the RSS that brings extraordinary achievers out of ordinary souls is the biggest source of its strength.

  RSS Volunteers through the Eyes of a Management Theorist

  Dr Sadhana Satish Modh, whom I also know now as a managing committee member of Sangh inspired Vidyanidhi group of educational institutions in Juhu in Mumbai, did her doctoral research on ‘Understanding Human Response in Organisations: A study of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh with a Management Perspective’. The research concept drew its inspiration from the theoretical work done by Dr S K Chakraborty (IIM, Calcutta) which provides
a normative framework of Gunas (Satwic, Rajasic and Tamasic) in his book Human Response in Organisations. Her transformation from a research student to an active member of an RSS inspired educational institution was, to an extent, also the result of this study.

  Her research was inspired by a study by celebrated management guru Peter Drucker on the famous international movement of Scouts. Peter Drucker lists the reasons why one should study non-profit organisations for advancing one’s knowledge in organisational theories:

  1) Non-profit sector is one of the largest influential factors in society.

  2) Non-profit sector is growing at a much faster pace.

  3) Effective endeavour of ‘non-profit’ is commitment to their management that is dedicated to “doing good”.

  4) As a rule, ‘non-profits’ are more money conscious than business enterprises but they do not base their strategy on money. They start with the performance of their mission.

  5) Mission is one of the most important part of any non-profit organisation. It has clear-cut implications for the work its members have to perform.

  She says, “The RSS has over 140 frontal organisations and they are the front runners in their respective fields. What keeps the saffron brotherhood together? The answer lies in the crucial fact that it has evolved a unique style of operation. When many organisations copied the western style of functioning, the RSS developed its own system, which is indigenous. Many may differ on Sangh’s world view and its solutions to problems but no one can question its organisational skills, ideological rectitude and unequaled discipline.”

  Her research questionnaire was designed after initial response to a pilot study with 25 selected RSS workers in Mumbai. Based on more inputs, the final questionnaire was sent to more than 1500 senior activists by mail in Madhya Pradesh and Mumbai; and 351 of these responded. The age group wise distribution from the received responses was 62% per cent between the age groups of 26-55;, 15% per cent below 25; and, 23% per cent above 55 years. Similar care was also taken in distribution in terms of occupation.