Never in headlines ... the RSS continues its good works.
- In 1962, RSS workers trudged to Himalayan villages carrying supplies for jawans.
- 1965, the Swayemsevaks directed traffic in Delhi to allow convoys to move unimpeded.
- 1971, the RSS ran refugee camps for millions fleeing East Pakistan.
- 1999, during the Kargil conflict, they supported the families of martyrs and provided logistical assistanc.
Evolution of the RSS has many facets. In more ways than one, the organisation founded in 1925 has evolved as a body of multi-dimensional patriotism, including civilisational nationalism and also social, cultural, behavioural and economic patriotism.
RSS believes and propagates the idea that 'Man Making' is an important element in everything about human society and civilisation.
If individuals could be molded, society could be rebuilt, and then the nation could rise.
Over the centuries, India symbolises unity in diversity, many interpreted this notion to suggest India is originally fragmented nation-state. But this is not true and the Sangh fountainhead has made people realise the value of cultural patriotism as a binding force. Thus from Kashmir to Kohima in the hills in Nagaland several organisations are working relentlessly to make national integration a part of experiential learning.
Sociologists need no longer consider identity as something primordial. They now recognise its importance as a unifying force. Amid waves of "Americanisation" in the name of globalisation; the 'cultural patriotism' of RSS has able to teach the value of protecting core cultural identity to safeguard the beauty of diversity.
"From languages to culinary traditions and from fashion to architecture, if the global community indulges in aping the West, the world will certainly be less attractive than what it actually is," said former BJP MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.
In 2025, the RSS runs 83,000 Shakhas across India and in addition 32 "RSS inspired organisations" have rededicated themselves to the service of the nation. People in India irrespective of caste, creed and religion realise today that Patriotism has to reflect in their day-to-day conduct and is not just confined to flag hoisting or playing patriotic songs.
RSS has also challenged certain faulty historical lines.
First, that India is a "nation in the making". This is a typical foreign line but was accepted by Jawaharlal Nehru and was also glamourised.
Secondly, the communists perception has been India is only a conglomeration of many societies and cultures.
But the RSS line has been more about the spiritual structures and also that Bharat has been a very ancient civilisational state. Important achievement in all these is that the RSS viewpoint has a much wider acceptance today.
In 1925, India was in shackles. Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar saw that without character, there could be no freedom worth talking. His answer was not a political party, but an organization built on discipline. His refrain has been that there is little purpose in creating a new organisation. But there will be more effective works and in the ultimate analysis the results if the 'society itself is organised' to follow some values and principles and of course discipline.
Perhaps, he tried to offer nationalism in a new spirit that would fight the caste hierarchies and other sectarian divides. It may not be entirely erroneous to suggest that 'victimhood' could fit in the RSS scheme of things.
RSS veteran pracharaks often say - if the Shakha is/was RSS’s tool of character-building or "man making", as L K Advani used to say; its true test was service.
Lakshmanrao Inamdar, also known as "Vakil Saheb" and PM Narendra Modi's political mentor, had told some of us in Ahmedabad in 2002 that - "There is a sad element of irony associated with Hindus and the RSS as an organisation itself.
The RSS is being always accused of being secretive and anti-Muslim, but at the time of crises; the Sangh and its fountainhead and BJP are always active and but
--- the good works remains least acknowledged in political and media discourse".
During the peak of Covid-19; the RSS cadres' reach extended from isolation centres to plasma donation camps. Its volunteers delivered oxygen cylinders to strangers including Muslims and Christians and performed funerals/last rites with the aid of concerned religious priests and others when families themselves were unable to attend.
They ran over a few hundred care centres, thousands of food packages were distributed and overwhelming numbers of funerals performed -- all in anonymity. In fact, during the oxygen cylinder shortage crisis; western media were allegedly more bothered about "corruption" in the entire game of distribution of cylinders supplied from various countries.
Way back, during the Andhra cyclone of 1977 Sswayamsevaks were among the first in the waters, ferrying stranded families and distributing clothes. When the Gujarat earthquake of 2001 (Bhuj tremor) turned cities into rubble, over 25,000 volunteers rushed in to help. They pulled out the living, cremated the dead, and adopted villages for long-term rebuilding. Few organizations in the world would claim as part of their work the respectful cremation of more than 3,500 unidentified bodies.
In fact, Narendra Modi himself (then just a party leader) camped himself in Bhuj for days.
Again, during the 2013 Uttarakhand floods, RSS kitchens provided food to nearly a million people. Roads reopened not through official orders, but through the sweat of nameless young men clearing landslides.
Sewa Bharati deployed numerous teams of volunteers to conduct relief and rescue operations in the affected regions, including Kedarnath and Uttarkashi.
An image of a 70-year-old RSS leader, Gulab Singh Negi, leading volunteers with supplies in Uttarkashi was widely circulated.
RSS volunteers, or swayamsevaks, distributed food, drinking water, clothing, blankets, and other essential items. According to reports from the time, over 136 truckloads of relief material were sent to the affected areas.
The organization set up 21 relief centers to provide shelter and other necessities to victims. Volunteers also helped in evacuating stranded pilgrims and digging out bodies from the debris.
Among the RSS oldtimers; there is another saying -- and quite a popular one. That is -- the RSS as an organisation is "very easy" to be misunderstood.
Hence - no wonder - it has been a victim of motivated propaganda.
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