Decoding RSS:- Idea behind RSS (Part 1)

You must be wondering why we need to Decode RSS; Is RSS some complex chemical or mathematical formula that someone need to decode it? Actually understanding RSS is as simple as kid segregating same color balls but only if you are inside RSS and have proper perspective to understand things else it is as complex as investigating origin of universe. This complexity is not because of nature and working of RSS but because of over complexity of our own thought process. Kids grasp things fast as they are open minded and their mind is not cluttered & pre occupied with specific perspective. Opponent or supporter both approach RSS with complex mindset and hence it becomes hard to understand so let’s decode RSS in layman terms.

Before I decode RSS, First let’s make it more complex.

1) The table below gives us the sense of what the Opponents & supporters think about RSS? The wide gap between both groups understanding and how they portray the organization makes any neutral person hell confused.

Opponent	Supporter
Secretive organization	Open organization whose all activities happen on public places.
Violent Religious Organization	Socio-culture organization which work in peaceful manner.
Restricted to upper caste of society	Open to all & believes in removing all types of barriers.
Divides nation	Believe in uniting everyone & even celebrate Akhand Bharat din.
No entry to women.	Parallel structure for women exists with same stature as RSS.
List goes on	List goes on

  

2) RSS Second Sarsanghchalak Golwalkar Guruji once made a famous statement “RSS will not do anything and Swayamsevak’s will not leave anything” ,this statement adds more confusion. If RSS does not do anything then what RSS will achieve? What are its goals? If RSS claims that they don’t do anything except uniting people then why there is so much debate on what RSS has done? & what’s not?  On RSS old website there was a line that stated; we don’t know how many RSS inspired or Sawayamsevak’s run organizations are there. This shows how wide RSS is to understand.

3) In so called “Sangh Parivar”(term used collectively for RSS & RSS inspired Organizations) RSS is neither biggest nor most powerful organization Ex in Pure numbers BMS & BJP are much bigger than RSS and both are in more powerful category so question remains in practical world how can a weak and smaller organization control bigger & mighty, specially a Political organization where people are not even under control of own organization (Babulal Marandi is still out & Uma or Yeddyurappa joined back BJP after floating own party ).  2009 Article showing strength of different SanghParivar organizations.

4) Who is most powerful in RSS? The blind reply of media houses is “Sarsanghchalak” but as per RSS organizational working Sarsanghachalak post is of guide & philosopher; without having much power when it comes to organizational matters; all powers rest with Sarkaryavah. Is it not strange that most people don’t know organizational power/structure of leadership but then also we don’t hear about power conflicts within organizations?

I hope this is enough to justify decoding needed if not then list will go on.

When we start decoding 1^st question is eminent, what is RSS?

To understand RSS you need to divide RSS in 2 parts:-

RSS as an Organization: - Nothing special here, RSS have same strengths, weaknesses, processes, structures like any other organizations with some changes here and there. Even though RSS is a simple organization like any other but it runs more effectively than even corporate houses as there is a great idea behind it.

RSS as an Idea: - This is most interesting part, Dr Hedgewar took a courageous step when he decided to give an idea an organizational structure which was known for ages to most philosophers from left to right & east to west. This idea was explained in depth in Bhagwat Geeta, also proposed and rejected by Chanakya. Most probably Doctorji was aware about this Idea much before the starting of RSS but after working with Revolutionary movement & congress, he realized, this is the only permanent solution to all social problems.

What was this idea? Very simple; to change or fight any problem in the society, change individual (Masses) thought process (behavior) which will ultimately result in change in society & solve all problems forever as they will stand against any problem. This was known to all and many great leaders used this to solve temporary problems Ex in Indian independence movement, many leaders awaken masses but that was limited to specific cause and with the end of cause the zeal ceased.

Chanakya suggested this path but was not sure about its success and the reason was simple; changing masses is not a one day task and most probably you will not achieve anything in your lifetime (Link from Chanakya serial ) It’s like sowing Mango tree which will give fruit to our 3^rd generation and that’s where Chanakya chose a quick hybrid path of making politics as a primary tool of achieving change and using Gurukool to achieve individual character changes but as Gurukool had access only to students and not to all section of masses so impact on society was limited; hence awakening the sense of fighting unitedly for nation got lost in few centuries after Chanakya’s death. In villages there are always few Old wise man’s who care for the future generations and take efforts on Mango trees (present generation) so that their grand kids will enjoy fruits and Same was attempted by Doctor Hedgewar in form of RSS. He started working on something which will not achieve much in his life time & same thing happened but his effort created a strong base for future generations.

It was not that easy to implement this mass awakening idea as no one ever tried it. Obviously conventional way of going around and lecturing people was not going to work if the change needs to be permanent then some innovative way was needed. Innovation does not always means finding something new and presenting an old idea in new format is also a kind of innovation.

How to awake masses? : - Bhagwat Geeta shows how Lord Krishna changed Arjun’s perspective towards war. Arjun asked “whether I should not get angry on Draupadi's insult”; Lord Krishna replied “Draupadi’s insult is not only your problem but a social problem; if a lady with a powerful background like Draupadi can be insulted and molested publicly then what will be the situation of normal women’s in the society; you must fight against those who support such mindset” this explanation changed overall perspective of Arjun’s fight. Reference 

Same Arjun, same war but now goal was much bigger. This was used by many leaders like Gandhiji who linked Charkha, Khadi, Swachata with Indian independence and suddenly a small action became a cause of big change. RSS tries to achieve the same by alternating thought process and try to make people good citizens. RSS gives them a big goal of making our nation “Vishwa Guru”; once a member gets committed to this goal then every small action of his gets attached to higher objective e.g. to make nation “Vishwa Guru” or take it to “Param Vaibhav” members need to take small actions like unite by demolishing caste barriers, help poor sections of the society, help in natural calamity, fight for democracy & list goes on. Once eyes are set on big goal then people will find out their own ways to contribute to achieve it.

This theory was known to all and many tried it by focusing the idea on a specific cause and these experiments showed that motivating masses to stand against specific problem will not help as for every problem you need to fight separately. Doctorji planned to make this idea big and generic and realized past  better option was to create citizen who cares for society and once that is achieved, they will automatically find out solution of all problems. For a problem in family no one need to tell or provide instruction on what to do? Person try to do everything in his or her capacity. Bhartiya Philosophy says “Vasudhav Kutuambakam” world is one family then why people don’t react to problems in society the same way they react to problem in the family; because from childhood we have seen how elders react to problems and that’s how we realizes that these are my people but for society no one gives that realization or we have not seen such people around.  But question remains how to make people realize that society is your family and more important how to keep that feeling forever and pass from one generation to other.

Gurukul or families passing traditions & values effortlessly form one generation to other and even Bhagwat Gita explained this. Lord Krishna explain to Arjuna why doing correct things is important because it’s not only about impact on you but if you do wrong things then people will follow blindly considering you as model and repeat same. In ancient times; Kids were sent to Gurukual to learn values from teachers behavior and not from books; in families kids learn from their elders; same process Doctorji put ahead in form of RSS where elders put an example and behave in such a manner that those Values get transferred effortlessly and automatically like a family and that’s where “Parivar” word get associated with RSS.

Doctor ji were aware that role model need to be of very high standard then only people will follow and that’s why Doctor Ji started Tradition of “Pracharak” & he was the 1^st Pracharak of RSS. Pracharaks have no family, no earning only goal of life is serving to society; but what is work of these “Pracharak”? They don’t lecture anyone, they just stay around like a family member, friend, guide like any other normal person. Kid’s, youth or even elders who come to shakha automatically start thinking if Pracharak giving life to society then is it not my responsibility to give some time, resources, money or anything else to society. Few get motivated to go ahead and live same life; they become next generation of Pracharak and will motivate next generation people. This proses is called “Deep se Deep Jalana” means lighting one candle from another; one life effortlessly passes values to another. That’s why in Shakha nothing special happens, yoga, games. Discussion, going out for food or family get-together etc which create a bond between members and their families. Pracharak becomes part of RSS member’s family and slowly a sense of responsibility towards society automatically get transferred not only in member but in whole family and that’s why you will see not only RSS members but their families also whole heartedly supporting to any social cause. This process was started 90yr back by Doctor Hedgewar and I suspect that anyone would have noticed this than and even if few had; they would have just mocked Doctorji. Most would have been scratching heads why a Doctor wasting time in playing with kids & youths; he never explained anyone the goals of playing with kids. He did not lecture anyone on the process of character/society building as this process is so slow that even person going through change will not notice leave alone he convincing others. Even now RSS Sarsanghchalak says if you want to understand RSS come in & stay for 1 or 2 yrs, you can’t understand RSS by reading or staying out.

This song is on theme line how people sacrifice their life to create silently a role model example so thatothers can walk on that path.

In next part I will cover how RSS works and More on Sangh Parivar.

Note :- This write-up is on basis of my own understanding of RSS & nothing to do with organizations official position.

Twitter :- @prafulnikam