Title: Why Sangh?
Author: Ma. Shripati
Shastryji
Publication: Amar Bharati
Date: April, 2000
[Ma. Shripati Shastryji
is the Saha Bouddhik Pramukh of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. While addressing
the karyakartas of BSS, Kenya, he elucidated the situations and the in-depth
analysis of the past history of Bharat, that led to the founding of the
Sangh by P.P.Doctorji]
The Sangh started by
P.P.Doctorji in 1925 has expanded all over Bharat upto Tehsil level. Here
in Kenya too Sangh has been working for the last 50 years. Once Pt. Nehru
went to Manali in Himalayas, for a holiday. It was winter. He was taking
early morning walk. He thought he was alone, when suddenly he saw a prabhat
shakha in action and exclaimed," Have they come upto here?"
Sangh was not welcomed
wherever it went. It has grown continuously passing through various stages
of ridicule, indifference and opposition from various sections of society.
Presently it has reached such a stage that it can no more be ignored. It
has reached the 'decisive moment'. We have to move ahead crossing all obstacles.
As they say 'the last mile is the longest mile.' Guruji used to say, "I
have decided that this movement shall not be a failure. You are all, -
every swayamsevak - a part and parcel of that determination." He laid the
responsibility on our shoulders and left us.
Doctorji participated
in all the movements of those times such as Hindu Mahasabha, Congress,
revolutionaries and had close contacts with all the leaders of those days.
He studied the working of those organisations from close quarters. He was
organisational in-charge of the Nagpur Congress session in 1920. He participated
in non-violent non-cooperation movement in 1930. Before participating in
the movement, he temporarily resigned from the post of Sar Sanghachalak
and appointed Shri Paranjpe instead. All the facts about Doctorji's participation
in the freedom movement were published in the souvenir brought out by the
Congress on
the occasion of its
centenary in 1985.
Doctorji thought out
deeply why our country was thrown into such a miserable, poverty-stricken
state? In those days it was said that British were the reason for all our
ills. British came to India for exploitation, no doubt. But how could the
British, a nation of shop keepers (as Napoleon used to call derisively),
come to India at all and how could they rule it for a long period? An important
link is missing here. In those days there used to be riotings by Muslims
on Hindus, which were miscalled Hindu-Muslim dots. Hindu, though belonging
to a large society, used to feel that he was alone and helpless. Doctorji
talked to many Hindus regarding those riots and got the same reply, "I
was alone. What could I do?" Doctorji decided to remove from the minds
of Hindus that they were lone individuals and to instill in their minds
that they belonged to a strong Hindu Samaj.
In 1912, the British
transferred the capital of India from Calcutta to Delhi and the Royal Imperial
entry into Delhi was celebrated with a big procession in which Lord Hardinge,
the viceroy, was riding on an elephant in pomp. Some revolutionary threw
a bomb at the viceroy. He was of course not killed, though some others
were killed. Coolly the viceroy got down from the elephant and another
person took his place on it. The procession went on as if nothing had happened.
Doctorji used to narrate this incident as an example how a living society
would respond to a crisis.
Doctorji came to a firm
determination to mould Hindu society into such a one where every Hindu
is filled with patriotism and concern for the welfare of the society, acts
in a disciplined manner and has imbibed qualities helpful to promote nationalism.
So he proclaimed the universal truth that 'Hindus are a nation'. In order
to evolve the required good 'Sanskaras' in Hindus, he also gave a technique
in the form of RSS, (the name was given afterwards.) He used to say, "I
wish to make the Hindu society EXCELLENT."
The state of Hindu society
in those days can be described by the following statement, said in a lighter
vein. " If there is one Hindu, he is a philosopher; if there are two, there
is argument; if there are three (which is not likely), there is great confusion.
-- If there is one Englishman, he is a scientist; if there are two, there
is a beautiful organisation; if there are three, there is an empire on
earth.-- If there is one German, he is a soldier; if there are two, there
is conspiracy; if there are three, there is third world war." Though this
statement is exaggerated there is also a ray of truth in it.
Swami Shraddhananda,
who had brought back into Hindu-fold 16,000 Malkana Rajputs who embraced
Islam many generations ago, a leader of Arya Samaj, person who was acclaimed
as 'the saviour of Hindu race', himself lost all hope of the rejuvenation
of Hinduism and said in his last days that "Hindu Society is a dying race."
In 1923, when Muslims subjected Hindus to riots, arson, killings and forcible
conversions right from Kerala in the south (Moplah Rebellion) to Kohat
in North-west frontier provinces, Mahatma Gandhi said, "in all these riots
Hindu always comes second best. It has become a rule 'Hindu is a coward
and Musalman is a bully'. Where there are cowards there will always be
bullies." Veer Savarkar, acclaimed as the watch-dog of Hindu society, said
in despair, "This is the death-cry of Hindu Samaj. If those who took up
the rejuvenation of Hindu Samaj as their life's mission, could speak out
thus, towards the end, we can understand the pitiable state of Hindu Samaj
in those days. But, Doctorji did not lose hope or courage. He roared with
unimaginable self-confidence, "I will make Hindu Samaj excellent." This
is the birth story of RSS.
In the middle ages, there
used to be a tyrant called, Timur Lung (the grand father of Babur), who
was described as the scourge of Asia. He was very cruel and deceitful.
He used to imprison large number of people from the countries he conquered
and used to auction them as slaves. He kept a pundit with himself, because
he could not be sold. He used to ask this pundit to fix the price of each
person he would auction and the pundit would do it perfectly. He became
Timur's cost-accounting officer. One day he asked the pundit as to what
his own price would be. The pundit said, "100 rupees." Timur was annoyed
and said, "Only hundred rupees? This shawl of mine itself costs 100 rupees.
Tell your estimate again." So saying he threw the shawl aside. The pundit
returning the shawl told him, "I know the price of the shawl. That is why
I fixed the price thus. Don't throw away this shawl." Doctorji covered
our shoulders with the shawl of Hindutva. If that shawl is thrown away,
what remains is a big zero. We got our identity because of it and so we
should be proud of it.
A rich man had a big
house, lots of material possessions , a number of servants and only one
son. One day the building caught fire. Servants began to run here and there
to save the expensive things in the house but none thought of the child
sleeping in a cradle in a corner of the building. An old servant of the
house rushed in and rescued the child. With his rescue all other rescue
measures became meaningful. Otherwise all efforts would have been useless.
Bharat has a child 'Hindu' in its cradle.
All were preoccupied
with economic prosperity or political independence of the country and so
on. Nobody paid any attention to the rescue of the child Hindu. Doctorji
rushed forward to rescue the child Hindu. If Hindu is not rescued, of what
use is the political independence, economic prosperity, security etc. of
Bharat? Also if Bharat is not there, what country is there for Hindu to
call his own? What happened to Parsees after they were thrown out of Persia
or to Jews after losing Israel? If Bharat were not to be there, the state
of Hindus also would be the same.
"This is a Hindu nation
and we have to establish it." Doctorji proceeded to realise this vision
of his with an adamantine will by bringing discipline and unity, replacing
narrow loyalties by national loyalty, selfishness by social consciousness,
and by infusing necessary patriotic qualities. There are many forces of
disintegration working. They try to bring conflicts between different sections
of the society based on caste, state, sect, student-teacher, male-female,
minorities, oppressed, depressed, suppressed etc. Recently there was held
a women's conference in Mahabaleshwar, where the speaker vehemently demanded
50% reservation instead of proposed 33%, because women are 50% of the population.
She was in a mood of fighting the male dominated society. (it was learnt
that she was not even married.) These attempts are all to break the backbone
of the Hindu society.
Our work is in the Hindu
Samaj which we want to change by our cordial behaviour. We are for harmony
but not for sowing discord. By changing the political leaders, the state
of the society can not be changed because, even though the political party
is changed, all the nation - bureaucracy, military etc. are the same. It
can be done only by changing the average man of the society. Just as you
can't improve the grammar of your son by giving him a new fountain pen,
so too with the society.
