11-21-2006, 06:56 PM
From Pioneer, 21 Nov.,2006
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MV Kamath
<b>RSS: A Vision In Action, HV Seshadri (ed); Sahitya Sindhu, Rs 100</b>
Whether one likes the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or not, wisdom lies in knowing more about its vision, approach, organisation and the services it has rendered to the people. Many are familiar with the work of the Christian missionaries, but how many are aware of the splendid work done by the RSS and its subsidiary bodies? The sheer magnitude of the constructive work done by the RSS is so dazzling that it beats one's imagination. HV Seshadri has done well to compile many of the unrecorded services rendered by the RSS in the course of the years and let the reader make his or her own judgement.
A peculiar feature of this compilation is that names of volunteers who have rendered services are seldom mentioned because, says the editor, they "run into thousands". Quite believable. Everytime there was a national calamity, the RSS was there with its helping hand.
Whether it was during the largescale massacre of Hindus in East Pakistan in 1950, or during the devastating Bihar famine in 1966, the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, the Uttar Kashi Earthquake in 1991 and in several such occasions when their assistance was desperately called for, it was not the 'secular' Congress that rushed to help the distressed, but the RSS swayamsevaks.
One suspects that if there were no RSS, we would have needed to invent one. What is significant is that aid was given irrespective of the sufferer's caste, creed or religion. Everyone was treated as human being. <b>During the 1965 India-Pakistan war, police duties like traffic control in Delhi were transferred to the RSS. The military looked upon it as a friend-in-need. Whenever the Army felt the need for any kind of civil assistance, it would just ring up the Sangh karyalaya.</b>
When the war was at its peak, a military train carrying wounded jawans arrived in Delhi. Hundreds were urgently needed for blood transfusion. The Army officers telephoned the Delhi Sangh karyalaya. It was midnight. The very next morning, 500 swayamsevaks reached the military hospital to donate blood. According to the hospital rules, each of them was offered Rs 10, but they returned the amount saying it could be better used for the wounded jawans.
To read this book is to be inspired. It records the RSS's efforts at meeting internal threats, at upholding symbols of national veneration, the various dimensions of social service rendered by the Sangh, its striving for social harmony and equality, its striving for social harmony and equality and its role during the Emergency.
When the RSS set up a home for abandoned children called 'Matru Chhaya', it could hardly have dreamt what service it would be rendering to the kids. Childless couples came forward to adopt many. Out of 90 babies brought up in Matru Chhaya during the last decade, as many as 60 (out of whom 34 are girls) have been adopted.
The trouble with the RSS is that it does not know how to blow its own trumpet, despite the fact that it has spread to nearly 30,000 places, encompassing a total of 50,000 actual working centres. That it has won the unqualified admiration of such patriots as Jayaprakash Narayan speaks for itself.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Selfless volunteers
MV Kamath
<b>RSS: A Vision In Action, HV Seshadri (ed); Sahitya Sindhu, Rs 100</b>
Whether one likes the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or not, wisdom lies in knowing more about its vision, approach, organisation and the services it has rendered to the people. Many are familiar with the work of the Christian missionaries, but how many are aware of the splendid work done by the RSS and its subsidiary bodies? The sheer magnitude of the constructive work done by the RSS is so dazzling that it beats one's imagination. HV Seshadri has done well to compile many of the unrecorded services rendered by the RSS in the course of the years and let the reader make his or her own judgement.
A peculiar feature of this compilation is that names of volunteers who have rendered services are seldom mentioned because, says the editor, they "run into thousands". Quite believable. Everytime there was a national calamity, the RSS was there with its helping hand.
Whether it was during the largescale massacre of Hindus in East Pakistan in 1950, or during the devastating Bihar famine in 1966, the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, the Uttar Kashi Earthquake in 1991 and in several such occasions when their assistance was desperately called for, it was not the 'secular' Congress that rushed to help the distressed, but the RSS swayamsevaks.
One suspects that if there were no RSS, we would have needed to invent one. What is significant is that aid was given irrespective of the sufferer's caste, creed or religion. Everyone was treated as human being. <b>During the 1965 India-Pakistan war, police duties like traffic control in Delhi were transferred to the RSS. The military looked upon it as a friend-in-need. Whenever the Army felt the need for any kind of civil assistance, it would just ring up the Sangh karyalaya.</b>
When the war was at its peak, a military train carrying wounded jawans arrived in Delhi. Hundreds were urgently needed for blood transfusion. The Army officers telephoned the Delhi Sangh karyalaya. It was midnight. The very next morning, 500 swayamsevaks reached the military hospital to donate blood. According to the hospital rules, each of them was offered Rs 10, but they returned the amount saying it could be better used for the wounded jawans.
To read this book is to be inspired. It records the RSS's efforts at meeting internal threats, at upholding symbols of national veneration, the various dimensions of social service rendered by the Sangh, its striving for social harmony and equality, its striving for social harmony and equality and its role during the Emergency.
When the RSS set up a home for abandoned children called 'Matru Chhaya', it could hardly have dreamt what service it would be rendering to the kids. Childless couples came forward to adopt many. Out of 90 babies brought up in Matru Chhaya during the last decade, as many as 60 (out of whom 34 are girls) have been adopted.
The trouble with the RSS is that it does not know how to blow its own trumpet, despite the fact that it has spread to nearly 30,000 places, encompassing a total of 50,000 actual working centres. That it has won the unqualified admiration of such patriots as Jayaprakash Narayan speaks for itself.
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