saṃghe śakti kaliyuge
Unity is strength in the age of Kali
“If asked why people are safe in India, I would say that there is a Constitution in the country, there is democracy, there are the armed forces, and fourthly the RSS is there. What prompts me to say is that the RSS had worked against the Emergency. The RSS’s strong and well-organised work against the Emergency had reached then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi…. She understood that it could not go (on for) long.”
Retired Supreme Court judge Justice Kallupurackal Thomas Thomas was quoted praising Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh ( RSS )at the beginning of 2018.
Neither the first or only eminent personality to praise RSS for protecting country during Emergency!
Kannadigas’ pride and receiver of honorary doctorate from a Hindi speaking city’s Meerut University along with others, Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth said:
“When elections were announced the one anxiety that filled my mind was, who are the persons who will carry the message of freedom to the people and make them aware of the things at stake? The workers of RSS came forward in thousands and my anxiety was set at rest. Even prior to elections the main burden of the struggle was borne by them. It is they who had kept up people’s morale. More than 80 per cent of the fighting cadres had been drawn from the RSS. I have personally seen thousands of their young men solely inspired by a spirit of idealism, without any desire or expectation in return, plunging into the struggle. Often they had nothing to eat, no place to rest, but their zeal remained unabated.”
Editor of Modern Review M C Subramaniam wrote:
“Among the groups which carried on this work with heroic persistence the RSS group stands out for its special mention. In organizing satyagraha, in maintaining the all-India communication network, in quietly collecting money to finance the movement, in arranging distribution of literature without any bottleneck and in offering help to fellow prisoners even of other parties and other faiths, they proved that they constitute the nearest answer to Swami Vivekananda’s call for an army of sanyasins to take up social and political work in this country. They are a constructive force who has won the admiration of fellow political workers and respect of even their erstwhile opponents.”
The Economist on December 12, 1976, wrote:
“The underground campaign against Mrs Gandhi claims to be the only non-left wing revolutionary force in the world, disavowing both bloodshed and class struggle. Indeed, it might even be called right wing since it is dominated by the Hindu communalist party, Jan Sangh and its ‘cultural’ (some say paramilitary) affiliate the RSS. But its platform at the moment has only one non-ideological plank; to bring democracy back to India. The ground troops of this operation (the underground movement), consist of tens of thousands of cadres who are organized to the village level into four men cells. Most of them are RSS regulars, though more and more new young recruits are coming in. The other underground parties which started out as partners in the underground have effectively abandoned the field to Jan Sangh and RSS.”
The People versus Emergency: A Saga of Struggle, 1991
The capacity and strength of RSS can be gauged from the confession of Indira Gandhi. In spite of all the efforts to suppress the RSS, Indira Gandhi had to admit, “We were not able to capture even 10 per cent of the RSS workers. They all have gone underground and the RSS did not disperse even after the ban, on the contrary it was striking roots in new areas like Kerala”. (page 21)
The RSS planned a stayagraha from November 14, 1975 to January 14 1976 demanding removal of emergency and restoration of democracy; lifting press censorship; releasing all the arrested leaders and lifting the ban on RSS. The response to RSS satyagraha was tremendous. Over 1.5 lakh people offered satyagraha at 5349 places. Of them 80 thousand were RSS swayamsevaks. 44965 of them were arrested under DIR and MISA. The arrested included 2424 ladies also. 87 RSS swayasmevaks were martyred during the emergency.
According to “The People Versus Emergency: A saga of Struggle” the number of RSS swayamsevaks detained under MISA was 23,015 including 22938 male and 77 female activists. The number of RSS activists arrested for offering satyagraha during Emergency was 44965 while only 9655 people of other parties offered satyagraha.
The nationalist heart of RSS becomes clear with the organization not accepting Indira Gandhi’s proposal of only lifting the ban from RSS. The restoration of democracy was given utmost importance, even more than getting the ban on RSS lifted.
Nor this is the first time Justice (Retd.) K.T. Thomas has praised RSS!
At several events, even in the presence of Shri Mohan Bhagwat, he was quoted mentioning that it is unfair to hold RSS responsible for murder of M.K. Gandhi as Nathuram Godse was not a member of organization when the act took place.
[4:34 – 5:40]
How RSS ensures safety of the seventh largest nation in world:
As per 2016 records, the RSS holds 56,859 shakhas at 36,867 locations. The RSS volunteers or swayamsewaks reach out in almost all constituencies with an aim of reaching every household to connect people.
Apart from daily shakhas, where salutations to motherland, physical exercises, history of the nation and discussions on planning & execution on services to the nation remain main aim, RSS is an umbrella organization to many service centric NGOs.
Seva Bharati is inspired from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and is the official community service umbrella of allied organizations. The Akhil Bharatiya Saha Seva Pramukh of the RSS guides the organization and is also represented in the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, the highest decision making body of the Sangh Parivar.
Rashtriya Sewa Bharati is a non-governmental organization (NGO) working among the economically weaker sections of Indian society with special focus on socioeconomically marginalized, tribal and indigenous communities. It also works among urban slum dwellers and resettlement colonies by introducing a number of welfare and social service programs, such as free medical assistance, free education, as well as vocational training through its nationwide network of more than 10000 centers.
It runs about 160,000 activities throughout the year in 602 districts. The organizations affiliated to Rashtriya Sewa Bharati and other likeminded organizations are running more than 1.38 Lakh projects and programs.
1) Women Empowerment
2) Child Welfare
3) Implementation of CSR, SHG, Skill Training, Education, Microfinance and other Government welfare schemes for the welfare of the deprived and downtrodden sections of the society.
4) To help and guide our affiliated NGOSs/sister organizations in the matter of implementation of various scheme of the Government and the Corporate Sector for the welfare of the weaker sections of the society
5) Provide relief and rehabilitation during natural disasters and calamities.
Following are the major areas of work of Rashtriya Sewa Bharti:
a) Empowerment of communities
b) Secure sustainable livelihoods
c) Promotion of micro-finance
d) Curative, primitive
e) Preventive health care
f) Advocacy and lobby
g) Promotion of societal peace
h) Alternative energy option
i) Community based calamity preparedness
j) Promotion of people’s culture
k) Research and documentation
Major activities of Sewa Bharti are:
1) Training
The trainings are imparted, by way of power point presentations to the office bearers of Virtual Organizations as well as project in charge. The subjects covered are Accounts & audit, sourcing of finance, project proposal writing, office management, publicity & public relation, HR, report writing, project running etc., for which a syllabus has been formulated.
2) Self-awareness
To create public awareness about current social problems, regional as well national. Conducting conferences of voluntary organizations at state level and national level called “Sewa Sangam” to boost the morale of the VOs and to provide them a national platform.
- a) Publications are brought out periodically both in English & Hindi
- b) Sewa Sadhna – Annual – with different themes each year viz, self reliance, women empowerment, rural development, environment, etc
- c) Sewa Disha – which gives the data of projects run by our affiliates & associates
- d) Sewa Kunj – Annual, about our affiliated organizations and their service activities
- e) Sewa Sagar – Quarterly bulletin
- f) Handbook – “Balkalyan” – about orphanages, on “Training”, on “Self Help Group”
- g) Book on the problems & solution for adolescent girls – “Samarth Kishori”
3) Co-ordination
Rashtriya Sewa Bharati has conducted workshops in co-ordination with some of the all India Organizations, who are experts in their field and whose guidance, was required by Sewa Bharti to implement their system in their affiliated organizations they have also given their input in such workshops to improve the system.
Successful meetings conducted are:
a). Sahakar Bharati: Experts in Self Help Groups at all India level.
b). Aarogya Bharati: The organization is working at all India level to arrange medical facilities in the village and remote areas, where there are no such facilities, either by providing doctors or barefooted health workers and by training them.
c). Saksham: At all India level they are taking care of physically disabled people to provide them artificial limbs, eye care etc. and to create an awareness about donating eyes, hospitals, artificial limbs center and are benefited by the workshop.
d). Bhartiya Kusht Nivarak Sangh, Champa, Chattisgarh: This organization with a very big campus is taking care of lepers as well as their families through employment generation, schooling etc. and have been role model in this field good guidance was given in the workshop to work in a better and systematic way.
Major Projects run across the nation are widely divided in four categories:
1) Education
The organization has run many literacy initiatives for adults and children. A project in the slums of Delhi aims at making Delhi hundred percent literate.
– Mobile Dispensaries
– Medical Centers
– Leprosy Centers
– Diagnostic Centers
The organization reports over ten thousand educational projects in India, including hostels for boys and girls, primary education centers in rural areas and in slums, adult and informal education centers for street children and single teacher schools in the remote places of the country.
2) Health
The organization has been working in all parts of the country to ensure good health right from birth of a child.
3) Social
RSS continues to send volunteers in thousands wherever a natural epidemic takes place. Some of them being:
2001 Gujarat Earthquake, 2004 Tsunami, Floods in South India (2009), 2013 Uttarakhand Floods
4) Women Empowerment
Rastriya Sewa Bharati has large number of centers that provide vocational training to economically underprivileged women. It trains women in making handicrafts and decorative items and helps to market these products. Hundreds of girls trained by Seva Bharati over the years are transforming handicrafts into a successful cottage industry mostly in the North Eastern states of India.Rashtriya Sewa Bharati also conducts camps and organises exhibitions of handicrafts churned out at such camps and works as a catalyst in marketing these items. The participants are usually trained in fabric painting, hand stitching, pot-painting, glass painting, jute work, flower-making, cane and bamboo craft, pith and banana fibre craft. As a volunteer notes, the best part is that the items produced by these women are in demand because of their quality and hence are getting bulk orders.
A beautiful excerpt from RSS’s daily prayer, which can be recited by anyone thankful to the country that nourishes us, says following:
tvadīyāya kāryāya badhdā kaṭīyaṃ|
(O Motherland Bharat!) We are resolute in rendering our services unto you.
śubhāmāśiṣaṃ dehi tatpūrtaye ||
Please bestow your auspicious blessings so that we complete them successfully.
References:
The People versus Emergency : A Saga of Struggle [P G sahasrabuddhe]
https://swarajyamag.com/politics/therss-and-emergency [Virag Pachpore]
http://rssorg/swayamsevak.html