Bhagwat has no trouble with labels; he will tell you the RSS is the world’s biggest voluntary body and also the one most in the dark. But at a recent centenary function, he was more pointed, calling for a change in how the Sangh is viewed. The onus is on you to see it from the inside, not from a vantage point on the outside.
Why the RSS chief says it is misunderstood
The problem, in Bhagwat’s view, is that too many judgements on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh are made from afar and are therefore short of the mark. He put the programme in place to give folks a better read on an entity they don’t always get right.
It is not uncommon to hear two things in the same breath: that we are the largest of our kind and yet the most misapprehended. To him, that is where perception and what you actually encounter come apart at the seams.
Bhagwat’s preferred route to understanding the Sangh
This is less of a manifesto and more of a way of doing things. Bhagwat’s advice is to make your way to the Sangh and have a go at it. You will understand its purpose by being part of it.
He knows that when you are new, you want to be sure it is a safe space to figure out what the organisation is about. A book or a talk can be a good first step, but there is only so much they can do for you.
For those with an inquiring mind, here is the way to go about it:
– Make an open, unmediated start
– Get your bearings before you go in any further
– Let a lecture or some reading be your entry point
In the spirit of the centenary, Bhagwat is asking for some substance to back up the talk. It is about getting to know the Sangh’s work and the thinking behind it through your own involvement.
What shapes outside perceptions
Some of what we do is easy to misread, he concedes. When you see swayamsevaks in uniform on a route march, it is natural for an outsider to think paramilitary.
Then there is our push for Bharatiya games and the like, and you have people off to the races with the idea that the RSS is just a national gym. But as he would have it, that is not the whole story. You won’t get it from the sidelines.
Centenary outreach and organisational positioning
We are in our 100th year of this work, so it was time to put out a feeler and say a few words about the Sangh. We want to lay out what we are, how we operate and the reason for being.
Make no mistake, the RSS is not a knee-jerk response to any given moment, nor do we stand in opposition to any part of society or party. The Sangh was born to be of service to the nation and to see that through.
Since 1925, the RSS has been around, and now we are in a period of fresh engagement. Bhagwat is putting it to you: put your preconceptions to the test and judge us by what we put on the ground.
If you are with us, you will see we have nothing to hide. If you are not, well, there is your challenge to back up your views. For everyone else, it is an opportunity to put aside what you have been told and see for yourself.
Where we go from here is up to whether you take us up on it. Follow Bhagwat’s line and the measure of the RSS will be in the encounters you have with us, not in the stories told about us.
