The Sangh espouses Hindu causes to build national character
The recent crackdown by the National Intelligence Agency and subsequent banning of the Popular Front of India (PFI) have largely been appreciated by society. Even Muslim community members supported the action. Yet, a few fringe political parties and a few mainstream media have time and again raked the issue of banning the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
One cannot understand how these political parties weigh these two organisations on a single platform. The unruly act of PFI has been observed during the recent hartal organised in Kerala.
The PFI has been banned for anti-national activities. Has RSS been booked for any anti-national activities? The RSS has often been dubbed the hyper-nationalist since the time of its formation. Anti-nationals and hyper-nationalists cannot be weighed together. The RSS evolved into an organisation from the pre-independent era to consolidate the Hindu society that is fragmented by different castes and communities. Being an organisation that focusses on the Hindu community, they need to cater to the needs of Hindu society, like any other religious organisation of the Christain or Muslim or Sikh community.
If you dub RSS a communal organisation, aren’t the other similar organisations like YMCA, YWCA, Indian Catholic Youth Movement, Muslim Association Of India and many more such organisations of various religions and sects also communal?
Aren’t our political parties communal? Every political party, be it national or regional, plays a communal card to win the vote banks during elections.
From time immemorial Indian society has welcomed people from other faiths and nationals. Cultural integration happened from time immemorial. Many of our Hindu spiritual gurus understand the readings of the Holy Bible or Holy Quran better than the followers of that religion. It was the Hindu kings, who gave space to establish educational institutions, hospitals, churches and masjids, as evident in many centres of archaeological significance.
Even though by birth I followed Christianity, the society I lived in and my parents always encouraged me to understand other religions and even took me to various temples, masjids and churches. Since childhood, I have had many friends who regularly went to RSS shakhas. I never felt any discrimination from these friends. They interacted with members from other communities and had friendly relations with everyone.
The Christain Sunday classes or Catechism classes and classes in Muslim madrassa’s also do the same. In some places, the priests make a clarion call to boycott members of other religions in making friends, doing business, etc. To my knowledge, RSS has not made any derogatory statements against other religions. Many youngsters of the present generation want to immigrate to foreign lands, citing a lack of opportunities in our country. A mass exodus of educated youngsters has recently been observed. Unfortunately, most of these youngsters engage in menial jobs in foreign countries and are willing to tolerate racial discrimination meted out to them for a few dollars.Since pre-Independence days, many people have visited western countries for their studies, returned to the country, and participated in nation-building. Their main concern was how to develop our country to the standards of western counterparts. The facilities we enjoy today result from such sacrifices made by our forefathers. Imparting nationalist feelings and Indian values in today’s youth is the need of the hour. Secularism and nationalism are the fundamental tenets we imbibed from our rich Indian heritage. People who propagate them in society should be promoted, be it RSS or any other.
(The author is an academic and columnist)