‘Sangh is my soul’
The BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, A.B. Vajpayee,
disclaims this article, published under his name in the RSS mouthpiece,
Organiser, in May 1995 and recently posted on but hastily withdrawn from
cyberspace
I came in contact with the RSS in 1939 through Arya Kumar Sabha, a
youth branch of Arya Samaj, in Gwalior — then a princely state, which was not
part of any province. I came from a strong sanatani family. But I used to be at
the weekly satsang of Arya Kumar Sabha. Once Shri Bhoodev Shastri,
who was a senior worker of Arya Kumar Sabha, and a great thinker and an expert
organiser, asked us: “What do you do in the evenings?” “Nothing”, we said,
because the Arya Kumar Sabha used to meet in the morning on every Sunday. Then
he recommended us to go to the shakha. Thus I started going to the shakha in
Gwalior. It was my first association with the RSS. At that time the shakha in
Gwalior had just begun. It had only Maharashtrian boys, and naturally all the
swayamsevaks used to speak only Marathi. I started going to the shakha
regularly. I liked the games played in the shakha as well as the weekly
bauddhiks (intellectual discourses).
A pracharak, Shri Narayanrao Tarte had come from Nagpur to start the
shakha. He was indeed a superb human being; a very simple man, a thinker and an
expert organiser. What I am today is the making of Shri Tarte. Next to him I was
inspired by Deendayal Upadhyaya and Bhaurao Deoras. Gwalior was then not within
the field of Bhauraoji. But once he had come to Gwalior with Shri Balasaheb Apte
who was the then Bauddhik Pramukh.
Apteji was very soft-spoken. We were soon drawn towards him. I had talked
with him for only a few minutes. But the same year (1940), when I went to see
the first year Officers’ Training Camp (OTC), I came in close contact with him.
I went there just to attend the valedictory function of the camp, not for
training. Dr. Hedgewar had also come there for some time. I first saw him there.
When Doctorji was ill I went to see him. In 1941, when I was in high school, I
did my first year OTC. In 1942, when I was in intermediate class, I did my
second year OTC, and I did my third year in 1944 when I was doing my BA.
When I wrote Hindu Tan-man, Hindu Jeevan I was a student of class X. After
completing my graduation from Gwalior I did my MA from the DAV College in
Kanpur, because there was no post-graduate college in Gwalior. I then got state
government’s scholarship also. Owing to Partition, I could not complete my law.
And then in 1947, I decided to give up my studies to come out as a whole-time
worker of the RSS. Till 1947 I did the RSS work at the shakha level and carried
on my studies.
I also participated in the Quit India Movement in 1942 and
was jailed. I was then studying for my intermediate examination. I was arrested
from my native village Bhateshwar in Agra district. I was then 16.
My
father was not attached to the RSS, but my elder brother was. He would go to the
shakha. Once he went to the winter camp where he created a problem. He said: “I
cannot take my food with the other swayamsevaks. I shall prepare my food
myself.” And see how deftly the RSS handled the situation. The sarvadhikari
(superintendent) of the camp complied with his request and provided him all the
necessary thing for preparing his food. After taking his bath and properly
adjusting his sacred thread, etc., he started cooking his food. On the first day
he prepared the food for himself. The next day, however, he could not prepare it
and joined the queue of all swayamsevaks for partaking of the food. Within 44
hours he was changed.
The RSS does not change only individuals. It changes
also the collective mind. This is the beauty of the RSS ethos. In our spiritual
tradition an individual can attain a great height. Even self-realisation is
possible if one undertakes the right sadhana and also attain nirvana. But what
about society? Nobody thinks about his obligation to the society in general. Now
for the first time the RSS thought about it and concluded that by changing
individuals we shall change the society. Had the sarvadhikari at the camp
scolded him and not allowed him to prepare his food himself his spiritual
development would have been thwarted, whereas in the RSS within 44 hours he was
a changed boy. This is the “secret method” of the RSS. That is how society is
changed. It is true that it is a long process but then there are no short cuts,
no instant recipes.
Gandhiji had praised the RSS for the absence of untouchability in the
organisation. Only the RSS organises the society. Other movements only divide
the society by emphasising distinct ‘identity’, different ‘interests’, special
‘status’, etc. They only encourage untouchability by constantly reminding the
so-called untouchables of their “separateness.” “You are being insulted. You
have no place in society.”
The RSS has a two-fold task before it. One is
to organise the Hindus. To build a strong Hindu society, well-knit and rising
above caste and other artificial differences. Some differences will persist but
then variety is the spice of life. Like we have the differences of the language.
We don’t want to destroy this diversity. The other task is to assimilate the
non-Hindus, like Muslims and Christians, in the mainstream. They can follow the
faith of their own conviction. No one can object to it. We worship trees,
animals, stones, and what not. We have hundreds of ways of worshipping God. They
can go where they want.
But this country must be looked upon as the
Motherland for them. They must have a feeling of patriotism for this country.
But the Islamic division of the world into Darul Harab and Darul Islam comes in
the way. Islam has yet to learn the art of existing and flourishing in a country
where Muslims are in a minority. They cannot convert the whole of India to
Islam. After all, they have to live here. So they have to recognise this fact.
And today it has become a matter of grave concern and deep thinking in the
Muslim countries. Because Quran offers no guidance in this regard. It only talks
of killing kafirs or converting them to Islam. But they cannot do it always and
everywhere. How can they do it where they are in a minority? If they try to
do it, a major clash will take place and only the members of the minority will
be killed. But Muslims themselves have to change this state of affairs. We
cannot change it for them.
Congress has not correctly understood the
Muslim problem. They continue to carry on their policy of appeasement. But to
what effect? The Muslims of this country can be treated in three ways. One is
tiraskar which means if they will not themselves change leave them alone, reject
them as our compatriots. Second is puraskar, which is appeasement, i.e., bribing
them to behave, which is being done by the Congress and others of their ilk. The
third way is parishkar meaning to change them, that is, restore them to the
mainstream by providing them samskaras.
We want to change them by offering them the right samskaras. Their
religion will not be changed. They can follow their own religion. Mecca can
continue to be holy for the Muslims but India should be holier than the holy for
them. You can go to a mosque and offer namaz, you can keep the roza. We have no
problem. But if you have to choose between Mecca or Islam and India you must
choose India. All the Muslims should have this feeling: we will live and die
only for this country.
I wrote Hindu Tan-man, Hindu Jeevan when I was
studying in the tenth class. I had then said, “Koi batlaye Kabul mein jaakar
kitni masjiden todin.” I still stand by my words. But we (Hindus) did pull down
the structure in Ayodhya. In fact it was a reaction to the Muslim vote-bank. We
wanted to solve this problem through negotiation and legislation. But there was
no puraskar for burai (evil act). We change burai also with parishkar. Now I
think, the Hindu society has been regenerated which was the prime task of the
RSS. Earlier Hindus used to bend before an invasion but not now. This change in
Hindu society is worthy of welcome. So much change must have come with the
new-found self-assertion. This is a question of self-preservation. If the
Hindu society does not expand itself it will face the crisis of survival. We
have to expand ourselves. We have to take others along with us. Now the Yadavs
and the so-called Harijans are coming with us. After all we have to live as
Hindus.
Once a Yadav leader came to me and said: “Don’t condemn all Yadavs. All
Yadavs are not with Mulayam Singh and Laloo Prasad. A samskrit (cultured) Yadav
does not like them. There can be sections of Rajput, Kurmi and Gujjar Muslims
but you cannot find any Yadav Muslim anywhere. The Yadavs never accepted Islam.
This talk of “Yadav-Muslim” Unity — MY card — is nothing more than an empty
slogan for votes.”
The simple reason for my long association with the RSS
is that I like the Sangh. I like its ideology, and above all I like the RSS
attitude towards people, towards one another which is found only in the RSS. I
remember an incident, when I was in Lucknow. The socialist movement was at its
peak. Suddenly a senior socialist activist fell ill. He was lying alone in his
house, and nobody went to enquire after his well-being. Then Acharya Narendra
Deo came to know and he went to his house to see him. The Acharya then said,
“What fraternity is this in the Socialist Party? Nobody has come to see you. It
can never happen in the RSS. If a swayamsevak does not go to the shakha only for
one day the same day friends will promptly reach his house to enquire about his
well-being.”
When I was ill during the Emergency, my family members did
not turn up to see me. They were afraid of being arrested for any such action.
Only the RSS workers helped me. See, how much living contact and fraternal
feeling is in the RSS. Actually the Sangh is our family. We are all one.
In the beginning we could not spread our work in all sections of the society
because we did not have enough workers. “Man-making” is the prime job of the
RSS. As we now have more workers, we are covering all sections of the society in
all fields of life. Changes are taking place in all spheres. But the work of
man-making will not be discontinued, it will go on. It must go on. That is what
the RSS movement is.
(Organiser, “RSS - Vision and Action Special”. May 7, 1995).
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