Hindus must rise above language, caste barriers ‘to stay safe’: RSS chief
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 6
At a time when the Opposition INDIA bloc led by the Congress party has been making a massive caste census push, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has called upon the majority Hindu community to rise above barriers of caste, language and regions for its own safety and security.
“Hindu society, for its safety and security, must eschew the distinctions of caste, language and region and organise itself. Society should be such where discipline, harmony and cordiality prevail,” Bhagwat said at a Sangh event in Rajasthan’s Baran on Friday evening.
The RSS chief added: “In society, it is important to be disciplined in one’s conduct and to imbibe a sense of duty and loyalty to the nation. He said India’s growing global stature was an outcome of its self-reliance and strength.
“Citizens are safe if their country is strong and powerful. Citizens of weak nations are told to vacate their own lands. A strong India is therefore equally important for every citizen of the country,” Bhagwat said, asking people to think beyond themselves to strengthen society and build a “safety net”.
“Me and my family alone do not make a society. Concern and care for all forms a society,” said the supremo of Sangh, the ruling BJP’s ideological mentor organisation.
Bhagwat dwelt in detail on the purpose of the RSS and it was not a mechanical institution, but one that was based on ideas and philosophy.
“The work of RSS work is unparalleled in the world. Just like the sky has no parallel, the ocean has no parallel, Sangh has no parallel. Sangh instils values among its trainers and the trainers in turn instil those values in swayamsevaks who pass on these ideals to their families and to society. RSS is dedicated to character building,” Bhagwat said.
Reiterating his position, the RSS chief said India was a “Hindu nation”. “We have been inhabiting this land since ancient times. The term Hindu came later. Hindus are people who consider everyone their own, who accept everyone, whose philosophy is — we are also right, so are you in your place. Hindus are the people who have lived in harmony adopting the path of dialogue and deliberations,” he said, urging cadres to work among people and ensure that the last man and woman standing are helped in “every way possible”.
Top Sangh sources today said Bhagwat’s message of obliterating caste barriers was not new.
In fact, the RSS has from its inception in 1925, stressed the criticality of Hindu unity. Its founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar established the RSS after concluding in early 1920s that what was needed was not a political movement but a social organization that could unite disparate Hindus at the time.
