The young pracharak ran for kilometers of unfriendly terrain to reach a remote railway station somewhere in North India in time to be present when the train arrived with a sagely personality -- Sarsanghchalak Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar ‘Guruji’ -- on one of his countless routine tours of the country. The train came to a halt. A window of a compartment opened and ‘Guruji’ peeped out. The pracharak reached the spot and bowed. ‘Guruji’ asked him a few questions about the ‘Sangh’ work and he replied promptly. Its two-minute stop over, the train started moving. ‘Guruji’ shut the window and the train moved on. The pracharak turned and started running to the village of his ‘posting’ because he had to be back there in time to complete other tasks before the day ended. C OUNTLESS numbers of such young pracharaks went to each and every part of the country to spread the message of Hindu unity on a mission of Manushyanirman se Rashtra-nirman (Nation-building through Man-moulding) -- as part of the organisation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founded by the visionary Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar exactly a hundred years ago on March 11, 1925, at Nagpur.

 

Through the dedicated work of pracharaks and many, many others beyond count, the seed of the RSS sowed in those difficult times has now grown into an iconic institution whose influence is felt the world over in different forms, in different ways. A hundred years later today, the RSS has assumed one of the focal points of India’s national discourse, dominating popular thought like no other organisation ever did, giving the vast majority of Indian people a sense of direction about scripting the story of a future-ready India. Of course, when Dr. Hedgewar first shared the idea of Hindu unity for nation-building with a handful of his trusted friends back in Nagpur a hundred years ago, his eyes shone with a glow that the group had not sensed before. His words were intense but not anxious. His voice was even-pitched but firm and communicated a rare sense of purpose. ‘Our nationhood needs to be built through a strong, united Hindu community whose roots go back to pre-historic times. We must work for this cause,’ Dr. Hedgewar said in effect. Those mesmerising words had their effect on the group and eventually the founding of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh became a historic moment for the country. Today, as the RSS celebrates its centenary, it has become a central point of not just national discourse, but also a subject of intense political speculation and criticism. Much of that criticism is often senseless and made by people who harbour biases and grudges about the world’s largest Hindu organisation. Despite those overloads of criticism, the Sangh -- RSS -- has been growing for decades on, no matter the political machinations by many to not just disturb it but also to destroy it. But neither do such jibes destroy the Sangh nor do they disturb its method and manner. Looking at the whole process, a non-partisan observer feels rather amused, and tends to conclude that such superficial pin-pricks can never do any harm to the Sangh. That is because those who oppose the Sangh just do not understand the essence of its existence and its method and manner.

 

The core value of the Sangh is moulding of individual person -- through whom the nation-building would be achieved ultimately. For the impatient, this journey may appear to be too long a haul. For the Sangh, that is the only way to achieve the goal of nation-building -- Rashtranirman. This task is to be achieved through patience, persistence, perseverance -- and prayer, the Sangh believes. T HIS is not talking poetry, so to say. Mere words cannot create such an impact and effect. For such an approach to succeed, there has to be a well-meditated philosophy and a well-drawn line of action -- so that an organisational eco-system is available for man-moulding. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is that eco-system -- having been conceived most thoughtfully, implemented with dedication through decades, and perfected through subsequent improvisation so that the Sangh remains ever relevant, ever ready for the challenges not just of the present day but also of the future. The story of the last one hundred years is the story of all these processes cumulatively put in motion.

 

The operational methodology of the Sangh surprises all. Through its daily meetings in Shakhas (branches) the Sangh works. The expectation is simple: Whatever one learns or experiences in that one hour has to be implemented and followed in the remaining 23 hours of the day. All this is nothing but pure voluntaryism. There are no salaried workers in Sangh, and no bonuses and benefits etc as are available in the commercial world and corporate layers of the society. A simple line of authority -- hierarchy -- exists to establish a link between the top and the bottom layers of the vast organisation whose spread is astounding, to say the least. The Sangh operates through a plethora of near-autonomous frontal organisations tied together through a complex organisational matrix and command-and-control system. The range of domains in which the Sangh is engaged is also astonishing. True, human factor has its own faults and foibles that generally eat into the vitals of organisations. The Sangh has designed a management system in which digression from the core value almost never takes place -- philosophically or operationally. The Sangh, as such, does not have a membership fee and nothing operates under any compulsion. What operates most effectively is a sense of mission with which everybody is deeply inspired. No matter the media speculations in that regard, the leadership transition in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh takes place without a word leaking out. Yet, the Sangh leadership and cadres do not like the RSS to be described as a ‘secretive’ organisation.

 

‘There is nothing secret in the RSS’, they insist. Yet, the organisation is run most effectively with no formal authority vested in anybody to implement discipline. In the RSS eco-system, the core focus is on human individual for manmoulding. Yet, paradoxically, the organisation is never known to have been affected by dependency on one human person. ‘Even a simple swayamsevak can become the ‘Sarsanghachalak’, and the whole organisation will stand by him,’ a senior pracharak once said. That is the reason why the Sangh has not just survived all the onslaughts but also thrived through thickets of opposition and deliberate and conspiratorial machinations designed to destroy it. It has been accused of being political -- much contrary to its own proclaimed signature of a cultural organisation. So vicious did the criticism and opposition become that the organisation was banned on two occasions -- though of course fully wrongly. And through each of those ordeals, the Sangh emerged like burnished gold. Today, a Sangh swayamsevak -- volunteer -- is the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, the second person to occupy the position after Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Today, countless numbers of the Sangh swayamsevaks are Chief Ministers, Ministers, Members of Parliament, legislators, Governors, diplomats, soldiers and armed forces officers, scientists, litterateurs, bureaucrats, cultural and artistic icons, corporate bosses, management experts ... acting as proofs of the Sangh’s man-moulding for nation-building.

 

Y ET, the Sangh is still beyond all that. For, it is on a mission whose journey is never going to end. It is a journey to eternity. It is a journey to continue doing the divinely ordained mission of moulding human individual to certain idea of excellence as per the Sanatan thought. It was that thought that made India of ancient times the leader of the world -- which we now love to call Vishwaguru. The aim, thus, is to create a society in which, in Gurudev Tagore’s words, ‘the head is held high and the mind is without fear’. Seven hundred-plus years ago, Saint Dnyaneshwar dreamt: Dooritanche timir jaao/ Vishw swadharma soorye paaho/ Jo je wanchhil to te laaho/ Praanijaat// (May the darkness in the lives of the distressed vanish/ May the world see the sunshine of good human conduct/ May everyone’s good desire be fulfilled). The core value, the central motivation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh can be described in these words -- beyond politics, beyond narrow, domestic walls that tend to create social divisions.

 

This is beyond politics. This is beyond power and authority. This is in the realm of human refinement that ultimately helps in nation-building. Because the Sangh talked of Hindu unity, consolidation, it was accused of going against the secular ethos of the country. The Sangh and its leadership was not abnormally affected by this criticism. Patiently, it has been explaining to the nation its definition of Hindu as a secular entity in which the core value is accommodation of different ways to reach the truth -- Ekam Sat Viprah Bahuda Vadanti ! Even those who do not believe in gods or Hindu rituals are Hindus, the Sangh insists. Inspired by such a philosophy -- which is beyond ideology -- the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh makes it known to the people that it is not bound by any political thought or party. True, it does not deny its nearness to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but insists that all political parties are equidistant to it. This may appear rather strange to most.

 

However, those who have known how the Sangh thinks also realise the truth in the Sangh assertion about its apoliticality of sorts. Through the past 100 years since Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar founded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the organisation has seen seven chiefs. Each Sarsanghachalak is constitutionally described as ‘friend, philosopher and guide’ of the organisation, The Sarkaryawah (Secretary General) is the operational chief. Each chief has his leadership style, but each has played a stellar role in carrying forward the organisational goals without any diversion or dilution. This is the story of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of the past 100 years. ■