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By Ravindra Saini
?India'spopulation has grown to 106 crore but it does not make the nation great. The quality or texture of the citizens alone makes it great. RSS is doing the same. The man-making training that the swayamsevaks receive in the Sangh is exactly the same as Swami Vivekananda dreamed of, for the youth of the country,? said Shrikant Joshi, Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh of RSS.
He said that today people have great expectations from the RSS, which has taken up the challenge of creating a new Bharat so as to take the nation to paramvaibhav. ?In the past only Hindus lived in India so there was unity in diversity. But 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ started a new religion?Christianity. There were 4,00,000 Christians in India by the 1100 AD. Their population grew to 7,00,000 by 1700 AD and to over one crore and twenty lakh by 1947. Islamic invaders started attacking India in 712 AD, but they were defeated by the Indians till 1133 AD. Conversions to religions like Christianity and Islam led to a feeling of separatism, which was exploited by the British Imperialists for their own needs. During the time of Jehangir nearly 14 per cent of the Indian population had become Muslim. In Aurangzeb'stime it grew up to 18 per cent. If the Hindu population decreases and the others? increase, it will pose a serious danger to the integrity of the country,? he said.
Shri Joshi said that the society had indeed immense manpower, money, weaponry and all such adjuncts, but the one factor it lacked was national consciousness, which would prepare every individual to sacrifice himself for the cause of the nation. It was this serious drawback that had undone all other points in its favour.
He said that the mission of the RSS was to re-charge people with the true spirit of nationalism through cohesion. It was to suit this supreme vision that the shakha technique was evolved by Dr Hedgewar. The name of the Sangh, its flag, its prayer, its pledge, its exposition of thought, the several aspects of its methodology?each conveyed one message?inculcation of strong devotion to the nation and the urge to sacrifice for its greatness and glory among the people.
