‘হিন্দুস্থান হিন্দুর দেশ। সুতরাং এ দেশকে অধীনতার শৃঙ্খল হইতে মুক্ত করিবার দায়িত্ব একা হিন্দুরই।… …আজ এই কথাটাই একান্ত করিয়া বুঝিবার প্রয়োজন হইয়াছে যে, এ কাজ শুধু হিন্দুর,—আর কাহারও নয়।’
‘Hindustan is the land of Hindus. So, releasing this country from the chain of subordination is the responsibility of the Hindus alone. … …Today, it is time to thoroughly realize this very fact that such a work is of Hindus alone and of no one else.’) Wrote Saratchandra Chattopadhyay in one of his essays.
A part of Sarsanghachalak Mohan’Ji Bhagwat’s speech in the SAI Complex of Talit village of Purba Bardhaman District of West Bengal subtly resembled such expression of Saratchandra Chattopadhyay when Sarsanghachalak elucidated that the only goal of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha was to organize the Hindu Samaj and elaborated on why RSS aimed at the Hindu Samaj alone.
Sarsanghachalak’s insightful speech provided clear hints on how RSS was inclusive, factual & rational in defining the origin & ‘swabhaav’ (psyche) of the Bharatiya Samaj i.e. the Hindus. ‘All those Bharatiyas who decided not to get along with the swabhaav of Bharat, formed a separate country and those who didn’t part off, were Hindus’— was the crux of Sarsanghachalak’s definition of ‘Hindu’.
Mohan’Ji Bhagwat’s articulation was full of profound ideas, eloquent explanations and fervent historical references illustrating why a morally, ethically & spiritually strong Hindu samaj was indispensable to build ‘param vaibhavshalee’ (glorious and prosperous) Bharat which was the sole goal of RSS.
He also explained how Bharat’s philosophy consisted of not sheer materialism but soulful spiritualism based on the spirit of ‘sacrifice for righteousness’ which made people of merit submit their all for glory & prosperity of the motherland and the greater cause of humanity.
His elocution reminded the listeners of Bharat’s own social principles where individualism didn’t prevail but each individual lived with his/her head high for the family, the family lived for the society while the society lived for humanity and the creation as a whole including the nature and the environment.
Looking at it from the socio-political perspective, Sarsanghachalak’s such elucidation provided the listeners with an alternative perspective of viewing socialism which was fundamentally different from the Marxist philosophy of socialism to which West Bengal was habituated since 1960’s. Sarsanghachalak Shri Mohan’Ji Bhagwat enunciated, with historical examples, Bharat’s indigenous principle of harmonious and inclusive co-existence of all where achievers & men of merit would use their own achievements and/or merit to help others achieve on their own, thus facilitating the achievement growth of the society as a whole.
Being Bharat’s own definition of socialism, this alternative approach doesn’t demotivate anyone to be a performer & keeps the society economically strong letting each individual flourish and create wealth (vaibhav) as per his/her own capacity turning Bharat ‘param vaibhavshalee’ as a whole.
On the other hand, socialism based on Marxist philosophy doesn’t stand to motivate the achievement needs of the under-performers and non-performers, finally yielding demotivation for the performers too.
Perhaps addressing West Bengal’s propaganda-based political practices & manipulative media presentations to mislead people in general, Sarsanghachalak’s reference story from Mahabharata provided the listeners with insight for propaganda-management and the necessity of being calm & composed at heart to deprive propaganda peddlers of undue attention. Also, perhaps keeping in mind the level of anti-RSS narratives & communist agitprop in West Bengal, Sarsanghachalak had called people of the State to come and join Sangha to understand RSS first hand for validating and cutting through the clutter of propaganda. Indicating flexibility and freedom of choice, Sarsanghachlak asserted that since there’s no regimentation in Sangha, there’s no bar if anyone who joined wanted to leave the organization either. Expressing in the contemporary language, Sarsanghachlak’s speech at Bardhaman was ‘fully loaded’ for those who realized what he said.
While it’s already a news that while celebrating the 100th year of establishment, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha wants to expand in West Bengal by adding another 700 number of Shakhas in the State, such news has yielded widespread speculations.
The speculation goes that the way RSS operated before Haryana, Maharashtra & Delhi State Elections to help BJP win in those States, they would be in similar operations in West Bengal too before the Eastern State’s Assembly Election in 2026 which perhaps is the real reason of the organization’s expansion plan in West Bengal.
Sarsanghachalak, however, had stated that Sangha aimed at nothing else but organizing the Hindu Samaj based on the swabhaav of Bharat as any problems of Bharat can be solved based on the psyche, response & preparations of the corresponding Hindu Samaj.
In reality too, Mohan’Ji Bhagwat’s West Bengal Prabas (tour) was a matter of Sangha’s routine practice. Sarsanghachlak proceeds on prabas to every pranta of Bharat on a regular & cyclical way. It may be noteworthy for those who aren’t aware that Sangha organisationally looks at Bharat as different prantas such as West Bengal is composed of three prantas namely ‘Dakshin Banga Pranta’ ‘Madhya Banga Pranta’ & ‘Uttar Banga Pranta’. However, as the recent prabas of Sarsanghachlak in Dakshin Banga Pranta & Madhya Banga Pranta also included the Baithak (meeting) of Sangha’s Akhil Bharatiya Toli (All India Standing Committee), it added more fuel to the speculations of probable political implications of Sarsanghachlak’s long prabas in West Bengal. However, those who are aware would realize that RSS truly wants only to organize the Hindu Samaj as Shri Sunil’Ji Ambekar, the Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh of RSS, had said to the press, “RSS doesn’t work or think like that. This is a routine organisational visit which was planned a year in advance.” Veracity of his words can be correlated with Sarsanghachlak’s prabas shuchi (tour schedule) too.
In Keshav Bhavan Kolkata, Sarsanghachlak informally met with not only the prantiya adhikaris (post-holders) but also their families. On February 8, he met certain eminent people including Swami Atmapriyananda’Ji & Padmashree awardee Sajjan’Ji Bhajanka along with the unfortunate parents of the young lady doctor of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital who died a mysterious death on August 9, 2024 which still remained unsolved.
While on February 9 & 10 Sarsanghachlak attended formal meetings with Sangha Karyakartas, Pracharaks & Swayamsevaks of all the Shakhas of Kolkata & Howrah, he met common people too for 3 hours on February 9 when even newlywed couples came praying for his blessings. Some other people appeared to invite him for marriage ceremonies too. As Sangha is like a family with no strict hierarchy or regimentation, Sarsanghachlak joined around 125 common people on absolutely informal conversation. All these fairly indicated his visit here was a pre-planned one which was awaited by many.
Not only at Keshav Bhavan, he met common people, including cooks & safai karmacharis, around where he stayed at New Town too. Besides, Ramesh’Ji Saraogi came to pay him a visit along with his family members & had a talk with Sarsanghachlak for around half-an-hour on family values & sewa bhav. Family system, values of life & reform of new generations had remained the central topics of formal discussion with Karyakartas, Swayamsevaks & the eminent people of the society. On the 100th year of RSS, ‘Kutumba Prabodhan’ had remained the prime focus area in this prabas of Sarsanghachlak.
Having said that, it is true that West Bengal is already suffocated under the leftist & ultra-leftist rule for last almost 60 years and hence, looking for a socio-politico-economic overhaul in reality.
A very large section of the people of West Bengal are looking for a more proactive BJP to bring in such overhauling change & people have witnessed, in the recent past, the role that RSS played behind BJP’s victory in Haryana, Maharashtra & Delhi. ‘BJP is the political wing of Sangha & BJP can win if Sangha wants’ remains a common public perception here. As even the social sphere of West Bengal turned completely politicised in last 60 years & people are rapidly forgetting to perceive intra-people & inter-personal social dynamics without having any political hues in it, the role of Sangha only for society-building appears mostly incredulous to the people of Bengal. It may be considered to be a kind of indoctrination by leftist and ultra-leftist politics for decades. Hence, people of West Bengal, on their own, can’t perhaps envisage the political implications of samaj-gathan. Therefore, if RSS, in its 100th year, truly decides to take up the responsibility of transforming the Hindu Samaj of West Bengal, it perhaps has to paint a picture of the political impact of social transformation referring to historical examples to get a prompter response from the Bengal populace in general.
However, those people of West Bengal who are expecting RSS to spoon-feed them the freedom they’re looking for, need to note that the modus operandi RSS adopted in Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi may not be as effective here in West Bengal because in West Bengal, the Executive Machinery of the State too turned completely politicised unlike those of Haryana, Maharashtra & Delhi.
Therefore, the change-makers here would have to chalk out a different approach keeping in mind that in West Bengal, both the Executives & Legislature have merged together converting the tripod structure (Executive-Legislature-Judiciary) of Indian Constitution into a bi-ped (Executive-Judiciary) one turning Legislature practically titular. While the role of the Executive is being shared between the real Executives (administrative officers) and some legislators (as Ministers), the role of legislature is practically being ignored. The legislators here don’t at all engage in drafting legislations and/or public policies leaving the role of legislature upon some Executives (mainly officers) who too do it predominantly by copy-paste operations. Such is the idiosyncrasy of Bengal which perhaps is not the case with any other State of Bharat as yet.
However, it has to be mentioned that even within the Executives (officers), there are people who are already frustrated & suffocated to work under a terribly compromised & politicised environment but are unable to function otherwise as some of their topmost bosses (officers) exist as ‘masterminds’ of such toxic politicization of the complete Executive machinery. Such masterminds are the ones who take a guard behind the name of I-PAC of Prashant Kishore. In fact, it won’t be irrational to contemplate that I-PAC was appointed by the ruling party of West Bengal for the very purpose to keep the Executive masterminds of manipulation free from direct charges of election manipulation.
Identification of such Executive masterminds behind poll manipulation appear to be one of the strategic pre-requisites for releasing Bengal from the clutches of the enemy factors. The Hindu Samaj of West Bengal has to wake up to the immensely difficult reality of the State. Sarsanghachlak’s speech engendered a lot of expectations indeed.
