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  Late Prahlad Rao Abhyankar, a very senior Sangh functionary, is quoted as saying, “Shakhas don’t have women members but Sangh has.” We should note that the RSS affiliated organisations had more powerful women at the top much earlier than the self-proclaimed progressive organization like the CPM. Its politburo got its first woman member, Mrs Brinda Karat, after decades since its inception. It is an amusing subtext that the lady happens to be the wife of the General Secretary of the party. I have underlined this strange paradox not to deride anybody, but to underline the fact that this is a social phenomenon because of the late start Indian women got in the social and political life of the nation.

  I may use this place to express another paradox of Indian socio-politics. That is, all, yes, all political parties for years had been dominated by Brahmins, without exception. Whether it was Congress (starting from Nehru to most of their powerful regional heads like G B Pant etc.), or communists (recall late S. A. Dange, E.M.S. Namboodiripad or socialists (Madhu Dandavate, Madhu Limaye et al) You would be surprised how long the list can be. We are proud that none of these great people played casteist politics and fought for an equitable society all through their lives. So, to keep painting RSS as an organisation dominated by Brahmins is nothing but a perverse play of casteist policies and refusal to accept that this was a result of the educational advantage that Brahmins had centuries back, given the curious ways of history, rather than a devious plan by Brahmins to dominate national political life. Now, we can see that there has been a vast change in socio-political conditions after decades of democratic polity. Within the RSS and its associate organisations, large number of leaders come from depressed categories like the Other Backward Classes (OBC) or SC and ST. BJP is derided as a ‘bania’ party by the Left, but the fact is that it has one of the largest numbers of members amongst all elected bodies from these very categories.

  Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (VKA) is the largest Hindu organisation working for tribal welfare. Tribal population as per Indian census of 2011 is approximately ten crore. It was founded in 1952 by Ramakant Keshav Deshpande, popularly called Balasaheb Deshpande who left his legal practice under inspiration from Guruji. He established a small hostel in a dilapidated building donated by Raja Vijaybhushan Singh. Before that he had worked in Jashpur, Madhya Pradesh on government deputation on request of Thakkar Bappa, a renowned Gandhian, who headed this mission devised by the then Chief Minister Ravi Shankar Shukla for tribal welfare. He was able to open 110 schools in a short time and ran many innovative welfare schemes. He went back to Nagpur after the death of Thakkar Bappa but was persuaded by Guruji to return to Jashpur and dedicated his life for tribal upliftment.

  The effort of VKA like all other social service projects of RSS is not to offer charity but to make local populace self-reliant and generate self confidence at individual and societal level. The effort is also to help them gain confidence about their ancient traditions and practices and bring them closer to the mainstream national thinking. This means work in all segments of social life – education, health and rural development.

  VKA faces a lot of opposition from Church, which feels threatened by this inroad into what it perceives as its monopoly area and ideal ground for doing God’s own work: evangelism. It is unfortunate that media plays into the hands of this lobby and portrays work of VKA only as a counter to Church activities. People like Mathew S J, accuse and criticise the RSS and its associates for ignoring the less privileged. But, raise a storm when these RSS affiliates carry out welfare programmes. They should appreciate that finally the Hindu society is waking up and coming to the rescue of its brethren, rather than hating it for doing its duty. Does the Church alone have a birth right to ‘serve’ this segment of the population? Why is conversion freedom to choose, but a re-conversion back to original faith is communalism and is a divisive policy? There is enough evidence available about the hate campaign run by evangelists, funded from similar organisations and entities from across the globe. There is official FCRA data available that tells us that biggest share of foreign donations goes to Church supported organisations.

  Saraswati Shishu Mandir, one of the largest chain of schools in India with nearly 27,000 schools was founded in 1952 in Uttar Pradesh with the initiative of Prof Rajendra Singh, Nanaji Deshmukh, Deendayal Upadhyay and Nanaji Deshmukh; all of them young RSS prachaaraks at that time. These are all un-aided schools with very reasonable fee that provide Board level education with traditional Indian ethical value system. The teachers of these schools are known for their passion for education and national service.

  Vidya Bharati, an apex body of many educational trusts, was established in 1977. Saraswati Shishu Mandirs have been brought under the umbrella of Vidya Bharati recently. Vidya Bharati works as a nodal coordinating agency for these schools and also other institutions right from primary schools to post-graduate institutes. The schools follow NCERT syllabi, but apart from this, they also provide education on moral and nationalist values to turn them into duty conscious citizens. 1-6-2016 edition of The Indian Express gives the news of an Assamese Muslim boy topping the standard X board results. While 2-7-2009 edition of The Hindu reported about the Saraswati Shishu Mandirs topping Odisha Board examinations. The Indian Express report in another issue noted that the consistently better than steady above average results of these schools prove that teachers and students have a high emotional quotient and commitment towards education and inspire better results.

  Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) the most maligned organisation from the Sangh fold has, actually initiated many far reaching actions for reforming Hindu society and these should have been recognised as its signature achievements. However, the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation changed its focus and also the image of VHP. The VHP was founded to bring together all sects and faiths that traditionally fall under Hindu fold, and persuade various heads of mathams and temples, trusts etc. to come on a common platform to address serious problems of Hindu society. It was probably the only Sangh associated organisation to which the head of RSS, Guruji paid huge personal attention and devoted lot of time and efforts. He delayed even his last phase of critical radiation therapy for cancer to attend state level conference of VHP in Gujarat.

  Its agenda also included improving the working of temples and making them a vehicle of social change by taking more active role in temporal affairs that affected their followers’ live or affected Hindu unity rather than only rituals. Till then, trust members generally did not look beyond the temple and its maintenance, that too poorly. Many such trusts would become personal fiefdoms. Effort was required to bring in some social angle and dynamism in religious affairs of Hindus, so that the saints would not just give sermons from their mathams or trusts alone, but come to the common people and inspire them to reform their faith and make it inclusive by taking in all sections of the society, regardless of caste and creed.

  The Sangh felt that the objective of the VHP was very critical for the Hindu society; hence Guruji took upon himself to meet various gurus, saints and holy men. H. H. Swami Chinmayananda, founder of Chinmay Mission along with Shri Shri Vishwesh Teerth of Pejawar Peeth played a major role in this initiative. A Sangh prachaarak Dadasaheb Apte was deputed for this work. He was a scholar in his own right and could reach out to the Hindu saints and gurus with his sincere work and humble approach. VHP was officially established in 1964 at Sandeepani Ashram, the headquarters of Chinmay Mission in Mumbai and Swamy Chinmayananda presided over the first meeting of VHP in which many other great saints of various Hindu faiths and sects were also present. Its theme is “Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitah”, i.e. Dharma protects those who protect it. Swami Chinmayananda was the first president of VHP.

  The first plenary session of VHP was held during the Maha Kumbh of 1966 at Prayag (Allahabad) that came up immediately after its formation. VHP organising committee had an enviable task of bringing together the leaders of all sects and faiths that shared umbilical relationship with Hinduism. It was not an easy task. Never had the Hindu saints and
leaders and gurus of other sects had come on a single stage. Many of them had huge ego issues, some of them based on age old customs. There were many such other complexities. But, such was Guruji’s saintly persona and so hard he worked on them in his own inimitable gentle style that slowly, nearly all the saints agreed to attend this session. I have mentioned earlier that Guruji was an ordained sanyasi under the tutelage of Swami Akhandaanand, a guru-bhai (with common guru) of Swami Vivekanand. Such was the power of passion in Doctorji’s simple speech that it is said that it pierced his heart. Naturally, Guruji could not say no to him. He sought permission from his Guru and was granted his wish to return to Nagpur and work for RSS. He was a sanyasi in normal worldly clothing all through life. It is said that he literally lay prostrate before many saints to persuade them to come on to a single platform.

  This first grand conference saw, for the first time, the Shankaraacharyas, Achaaryas of all the major sects and mathams attending the session; and so did Jain munis, Sikh saints and Buddhist monks. It was a veritable Kumbh Mela of great evolved souls. The biggest and the historic achievement of this session was a resolution negating the division of society on lines of castes and the practice of untouchability. The persuasive power of Guruji and Swami Chinmayananda, venerable head of Pejawar Peeth, made this historic declaration possible, urging the holy men to break free of age old taboos and a rigid mindset. It was nothing less than a revolutionary moment for Hindu society.

  Subsequently, many reformist programmes were taken up by the VHP. This included helping non-brahmin people to learn rituals and work as priests. VHP also supported initiation of women priests against generally established norms. It was able to mobilise masses for improving conditions of temples in various cities and towns. Thus, VHP has been a highly progressive organisation.

  The biggest and defining event in its organisational life came with Ram Janmabhoomi agitation. The subject had such passionate appeal that it subsumed all other work and agenda of VHP at that time. The movement was about constructing a temple that befitted the status of Ram as one of the most popular and venerable God of Hindus. There are historical facts that prove that the site where the disputed Babri structure stood was the site of an ancient Ram temple. There were enough local and historical accounts of various battles fought for its restoration. As is the practice of victors of Semitic or Abrahamic religions who destroyed all centres of faith of local population, this temple too had been destroyed. It is not a coincidence that even Krishna Janmabhoomi and the most venerable Shiva temple at Kashi faced the same fate. It was natural for Hindus to feel the need to have the temple which they believed was the birth place of Bhagwan Ram and where a temple existed before it was destroyed. Unfortunately, the secular cabal with strong lobby of Marxist historians like Romilla Thapar, Irfan Habib, R S Sharma etc who control all academia in India would simply dismiss the proofs submitted by scholars who presented the facts as a mere myth!. Like true cultural fascists, they decide what is the truth – only that which suits their world view is truth, everything else is ‘mithya’.

  It is indeed tragic that this politics of vote bank and noisy posturing backed by ever obliging fifth columnists of the Marxist school in media, forced Indian Muslims to identify with a marauder like Babar and not with their cultural hero Ram. Their culture and traditions even today are more close to Hindus and naturally so as they also belong to the same stock. Most of the Indian Muslims have, after all, been converted to Islam by sword of attackers like Babar. For Hindus importance of Ayodhya is similar to that of Jerusalem for Jews, Muslims and Christians, or Mecca for Muslims.

  The movement was able to convey the message that Hindus do not get justice even in their own land without resorting to extreme forms of agitation. The unfortunate events like destruction of the Babri structure that followed were not expected by anybody. Since, this subject is sub-judice cannot make comments on it in detail. But, it seems improbable that if the destruction was pre-planned then kar sevaks would not arrange for some good tools but perform this superhuman task in a few hours using things like uprooted steel rods of barricades as tools. Speed with which the structure came down speaks of the extreme passion that these kar sevaks carried in their hearts. Debris of that size would have taken days if not weeks to clear even with some implements. They were cleared overnight without any mechanical equipment. It must have been made possible only by dedicated and passionate volunteers who were there in lakhs, not by a few hundred conspirators. There is no way a conspiracy hatched by hundreds and thousands of people can remain a secret.

  The continuous stone walling of various proposals for a peaceful resolution led to such a militant exception. There is a whole series of events which shows why tempers reached that pitch. One needs to remember that this was the second time a mass of people came together for the issue. The first event in 1990 saw brutal police action which left hundreds injured and scores of people killed. People had braved all kinds of persecution and oppression to reach Ayodhya at the time. They had returned the first time with assurance of fulfilment of their agenda. It was natural that the tempers ran very high the second time around.

  During this period of high pitched agitation, the more militant wing of VHP, Bajrang Dal was formed. Durga Vahini for young women was also established who were trained about Hindu ethos and also taught martial arts to generate self confidence. Many youth who found the inclusive and reformist style of RSS too mild joined Bajrang Dal. Once in a while they go overboard with some half-baked notions of Hindu culture and act as self-righteous protectors; and end up alienating people rather than bringing Hindus together. They are born out of circumstances created by secular extremists If only their energies could be channelised to constructive reforms within the VHP, their positive potential can be utilized.

  It is interesting that Naxalites and Maoists are not called members of Marxist parivaar but Bajrang Dal is called a part of Sangh parivaar. Even fringe organizations like Ram Sene are stamped as Sangh parivar, though disowned by it. By this yardstick, Naxals and Maoists too are by all means, members of Marxist parivaar. The ambivalent approach of CPM government of West Bengal towards Maoists and protection to Naxalites through various human rights lobbies is a more eloquent testimony than anything else. It is only now that they are on the receiving end that their language is changing.

  It is a sad fact that negative actions of the Bajrang Dal attracts more media attention than the positive, constructive and peaceful work done by other organisations like RSS, ABVP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram. I have never seen any decent news coverage of wonderfully organised reformist conferences of VHP, highly disciplined protest march or camp of ABVP, nor have I seen coverage of a grand and flawlessly organised camps or parades of RSS. Such coverage is a rarity.

  In this massive disturbance over a time span of nearly a decade, the more positive agenda of VHP took a back seat for many years. But, gradually these issues are coming back on the action plan of VHP. VHP has thousands of social service projects in cities as well as tribal belts for economically and socially disadvantaged section of the society.

  VHP too has its own systems of inducting full time volunteers or prachaaraks and has a good organizational set up. I feel very sure that VHP will remain a major catalyst in reforming Hindu society and make various institutions more society oriented with service to the society, removal of inequity and promotion of social amity, promoting learning of ancient scriptures, getting rid of archaic customs as their primary goal.

  Swadeshi Jaagaran Manch (National Awakening Forum) that burst upon the scene suddenly in 1992-93 with the advent of globalisation in India had clear economic agenda of opposing unbridled globalisation before Indian industry and commerce was internally liberalised. It did not work systematically for creating a practical economic model. Though, it was meant to spell out a strong nationalist economic agenda, it came out as a defensive organisation fighting the aggressive western capitalist imperialists that was not confident about success of Ind
ians in that environment. As the scenario unfolded, we realise that lack of confidence was unfounded. The Indian industry, including much neglected small and middle-sized enterprises (SME) segment emerged from the rough patch with flying colours, barring those who did not focus on upgrading skills and quality to move with the times.

  Prof Vaidyanathan of IIMB has in various lectures and articles notes that, our economy can be broadly summarised as 20 per cent agriculture – mainly small and medium farmers; 20 per cent government – central, state, municipal, PSUs, etc; 15 per cent corporate (companies governed by the 1956 Companies Act, of which some 8,000 are listed and 200 or so are traded and five or so are influencing the entire market); and 45 per cent non-corporate sector, consisting of partnership and proprietorship firms. Even in manufacturing, these firms have more than 40 per cent of the value addition. The non-corporate sector is the dominant player in all the service sectors apart from IT which is a small part of this total service sector. SME segment has clocked a compounded annual growth rate of more than eight per cent in the last decade.