A Century Not Out: The RSS Way

The glory of 100 years cannot be summarized in mere words. It takes sacrifice, commitment, and dedication to build an organization that has steadfastly worked to keep society united. It is not about politics, nor about shallow fanfare or façade. It is about contributing the very essence of one’s being for a greater cause — and this is exactly what countless karyakartas of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have stood for over the past hundred years.

For many, Hindutva may appear to be a political front, but for the RSS it is the preservation of civilizational wisdom passed down through generations. Selfless sacrifice has become the mantra of the RSS in its fight for the rights and dignity of Hindus.

The RSS is an organization that works for the Hindus, of the Hindus, and by the Hindus in the truest sense. For its karyakartas, caste holds no meaning. In the shakhas of the RSS, every swayamsevak mingles without prejudice. Their only goal is to unite Hindu society by keeping divisive evils at bay.

India is the only homeland for Hindus in the entire world. Yet, the Hindu society has been plagued for centuries — weakened by invasions, moral corruption, and political games. Because of this, threats such as forced conversions, communal tensions, and blind imitation of western culture have hijacked the way many Hindus think and behave.

If India needs anything today, it is the unification of Hindus to lead a true national awakening. In a country where, despite being the majority, Hindus are often treated as second-class citizens — where even an ex-Prime Minister once said that “minorities have the first right over the natural resources of this country” — something is clearly going wrong. With rising issues such as broken families, increasing divorce rates, dubious religious conversions, caste discrimination, and the growing acceptance of leftist or western ideologies, one is forced to ask: how will Hindus survive and thrive?

This is where the RSS steps in. Through initiatives like Diwali Milan — where families of karyakartas come together during Diwali Milan, Kutumb Prabodhn — or platforms like Manthan that foster seminars and discussions, the RSS spreads awareness among Hindus about their forgotten cultural roots.

Those swayamsevaks who dedicate their entire lives to a higher cause — the pracharaks — travel the length and breadth of the country to identify root problems and work towards lasting solutions. This is how the RSS expanded its wings, giving rise to organizations such as Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (working for indigenous communities), Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal (focused on education), and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (one of the largest labor organizations in India). In every field, the RSS has sought to reach the last person in society, ensuring no one is left behind.

The ultimate aim? The unification of Hindu society.

Apart from these social organizations, whenever there has been a need for first responders in times of calamity or crisis, it has always been an RSS karyakarta. Be it the Bhuj earthquake, the devastating tsunami, or even the earthquake that shook Nepal a few years ago, RSS karyakartas were among the first to extend a helping hand to those affected—without asking their caste or religion. Even during the 1962 war with China, RSS karyakartas worked selflessly to provide assistance in the war-affected areas, including help to soldiers. For precisely this reason, then Prime Minister Nehru honored the RSS by inviting them to participate in the Republic Day Parade.

Swami Vivekananda once said, “Service to man is service to God.” If anyone has truly embodied and realized this vision, it is the RSS swayamsevaks.

RSS stands tall as an organization that works for society not merely because of its ideology but because of the ultimate sacrifices made by its swayamsevaks. The organization has endured relentless attacks—whether in Kerala at the hands of communists, in the North East by Maoists, or in West Bengal by leftists. Yet, it continues to work with the same enthusiasm and dedication.

Building an organization as vast as the RSS requires not only the blood and sweat of swayamsevaks but also the unwavering support of their families, who stand by them, encourage them, and motivate them to serve. Courage is shown by the mother who lets her son become a full-time pracharak of the RSS. Strength is displayed by the wife who holds the fort while her husband is busy with shakha and samparka. Patience is practiced by the children who miss their father on important occasions because he is working for a larger cause—to ensure a better life for future generations in a united and strong society.

A hundred years of tireless service to the same cause cannot be captured in mere words—it must be felt and experienced. For a true swayamsevak is not just a volunteer; he is a soldier of this civilization.

The Homecoming of Ram Lalla

 

“Rama, the ancient idol of the heroic ages, the embodiment of truth, of morality, the ideal son, the husband, the ideal father, and, above all, the ideal of all the ideal kings” - Swami Vivekananda

Finally the struggle of a more than 500 year old dispute has come to fruition. The consecration of Shri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya is the symbol of the fulfillment of the dream of every aspirational Hindu. 

Building of temples and its consecration is not new to Indians. I believe, every other day, temples are built and programs are held in conjunction with the festivals. But the Ram Mandir consecration day holds a different importance. Not because it is closely related to the invasions, destruction or the violence that ensued later - may it be legal or physical; but because it signifies the core values of faith, courage, bravery and success

For Hindus, temples hold significance in their belief systems. A temple and the deity signify a social contract - that the deity should protect them from all the evils and in turn they shall offer their prayers and repentance for the same. Temples are the epitome of Dharma i.e., they are infallible.

With the Islamic invasions and the systematic destruction of the dharmic symbols, considerable damage was done to the faith of the Hindus. The damage to the temples meant a direct attack on their core values. Their entire belief system started collapsing - which was an advantage for the invaders to forcibly convert the gullible Hindus into other religions. Replacement of the Ram Mandir with Babri Masjid was specifically an exceptional wound on the Hindu hearts and minds for it was the temple dedicated to the warrior Prince Ram - who is a symbol of Idealism, bravery and dharma. 

Lord Ram is the epitome of grace, excellence and loyalty. He is the personification of perfection. He materializes the values of respect, righteousness, simplicity and morality. He is the representation of a protector and an able administrator who would be just, fair and ethical. He marks the descent of evil and rise of dharma. He is a son to every Hindu mother, an able man to every Hindu father, a perfect husband for every aspirational bride, a great warrior and a king to all his devotees and more so, He is the synonym to sublimity. In short, Ram is ‘Dharma’ in himself. To every Hindu devotee, Ram is equivalent to God himself. In this context, the ‘vanvaas of 500 years’ was unbearable to the Hindu community because they saw their deity being displaced and dethroned by the invaders much like how Queen Kaikeyi ordered Shri Ram to exile. Building of Babri Masjid over the very land where Shri Ram was born was seen by Hindus as a contempt. It is ironic that in this age, Hindus in Bharat had to fight for more than 500 years to get back the temple which rightfully belonged to them! 

In 2019, the historic Ram Mandir verdict of the Supreme Court finally brought peace and happiness in the homes of the Hindus who were eagerly awaiting the arrival of their deity back to the original place. It was as if they too were in exile along with Ram Lalla for more than 500 years. Today, as the temple is being built, this occasion is no less significant than Independence Day or Republic Day! This day marks the triumph of the Hindu aspiration over all the conspiracies to ensure their defeat. Much like the invasions of the past, post independence, Hindus have overcome the ideological invasions that wanted to see Babri winning over Janmabhoomi.  As we celebrate this day, we should not forget the sacrifices of our brave ancestors who gave up their life for the cause of dharma … for the cause of Shri Ram, as those were  warriors of dharma who without a thought jumped into the battlefield with a hope that may be their future generations would one day witness the homecoming of their beloved Lord Ram.  

To consider, let’s take a brief glance at the history of the struggle to understand why the consecration of Ram Mandir is a page turner in the history of India. A total of 76 battles were fought to save Ram Mandir. The despicable act of demolishing the sacred site happened in 1527 when Mir Baqi on the orders of Babur attacked the place. History suggests that the then ruler His Highness, King Mahtab Singh Badrinarayan who along with the brave soldiers fought the war with the Mughal army was defeated trying to protect the temple from the brutal attack. The temple was attacked by the invaders and demolished and Babri mosque was constructed . However, one Pandit Devideen Pandey who resided at Saanethu, some six miles away from Ayodhya gathered the Kshatriya warriors nearby and prepared a small army to defeat Mir Baqi in order to reinstate the temple of Lord Ram. They fought a valiant battle and most of them met with brutal death at the hands of the invaders including Pandit Devideen Pandey.

A mere 15 days later to his death, His Highness Maharaja Ranvijay Singh of Hansvar with a handful thousand soldiers pledged to save Ram Lalla from the clutches of Babur and attacked his army and yet again he too was defeated and died fighting the cruel captors of Ram Lalla. But Hindus didn’t give up. The Queen of Hansvar, after the death of her husband, continued the battle and entered the battlefield with her own army of three thousand women warriors. Queen Jayraj Kumari with her army and Swami Maheshwarananda with his army of monks kept fighting till the time Humayun took over and the Imperial army under him crushed the crusade of the valiant Hindu warriors. Although the battles went on, it was during the rule of Akbar that the peace was witnessed when he constructed a small temple unit for Hindus to worship. It was till the time of Jahangir that the place was free of the bloodbath. But it was Aurangzeb’s reign of terror that saw another set of horrific battles that took lives of countless Hindus who only sought to protect their sacred pilgrim. Alexander Cunningham in Vol 6 of Lucknow Gazetteer has mentioned on page no. 3 that it took the lives of 1,74,000 Hindus for Babur to demolish the temple and construct the mosque therein. The battle doesn’t seem to have stopped though as even during the British era religious riots and conflicts became a new normal for the people.

The very first instance of filing a judicial case regarding the dispute as suggested by the records was in the court of Colonel F.E.A Chamier, District Judge, Faizabad , C.A. No. 26 of 1885 wherein, before delivering the verdict, he visited the Ram Janmabhoomi sit and admitted in his judgment that he delivered in 1886 that “…Construction of a Mosque on the lands sacred to Hindus by demolishing their structure was a very unfortunate and regrettable act…” Yet, the case was dismissed saying that the incident was 356 years old and it was far too beyond the limitations of law to be brought to justice, when any tampering with the current situation might just aggravate the violence. It was then decided that the area would be divided between the two religious groups. While it was in 1949 that the Akhil Bhartiya Ramayana Mahasabha after nine days of continuous chanting of Ramcharitamanas ; installed and manifested the idol of Lord Ram in the mosque, the conflict took a shape again and riots were the direct consequence of the deed. A F.I.R was lodged, investigation took place, and a case R. C. S 2/1950 was filed in the court of Civil Judge, Faizabad. The case was transferred to the High Court and was finally decided by the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court.  The case was pending in the judiciary for almost 60 years before the judgment in the dispute was pronounced.

In the meanwhile, after independence, the socio-political environment had already heated up with many Hindu organizations trying to reclaim the temple site that once was a home to their adored deity Ram Lalla. A thousand years of repression and continuous hammering by the foreign invaders, forceful conversions and massive bloodbath was endured by the Hindus. Even after such a massive suppression of the fundamental right to worship, it was still the Hindus who were blamed by the liberal intelligentsia. In 1990 a group of 40,000 people went to Ayodhya out of which only 1000 could make it to the structure. The state government ordered immediate siphoning off of the premises and shooting orders were issued that killed 16 lives of young Hindus. Continuous hounding of the Hindu emotions by the liberals was what led to the outburst of Hindu sentiments on 6 th December 1992 when Babri was demolished by a group of high spirited Karsevaks. It was the time when the disappointment, rage and determination of the Hindu consciousness reached a tipping point. This reaction was not intentional. It is requisite to understand that this reaction was a result of thousand years of deep cuts that were ripped open by the lethargy shown by the system. Every new government formed promised a solution by resolution by various means but none abided by it. What should have been a priority was pushed on a back burner. The judiciary let down the faith of millions of Hindus by keeping the case pending. Justice was delayed and that was looked upon by Hindus as justice indeed being denied. Religious sentiments are and can never be structured within the four corners of the Constitution or the framework of Constitutional morality. The lethargy of the system led the people to believe that the entire machinery had let down the cry for justice of Hindu sentiments. This is exactly what led to the incident in 1992 when Babri was demolished. It was an act of Hindus trying to reclaim what was rightfully theirs, however unfortunate the incident may be.

Furthermore the thousands of historical proofs of existence of Lord Ram and the city of Ayodhya from the Vedas to Upanishadas and Puranas and in later era the drama and literature found on the subject should have been sufficient but the “liberal experts” refusal to accept the same and gave the dispute a certain character of being ”forcefully dragged” .

In the meantime in 1994, in Ismail Faruqee’s case, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in a landmark judgment that proved to be a turning point said that, “A mosque is not an essential part of the practice of the religion of Islam and namaz(prayer) by Muslims can be offered anywhere, even in open” This judgment should have shut down all the hoarse cries by the minority community that mosque is an essential place to offer prayers. Some significant findings were observed in this judgment. In Para 78 of the judgment it is observed that , “While offer of prayer or worship is a religious practice, its offering at every location where such prayers can be offered would not be an essential or integral part of such religious practice unless the place has a particular significance for that religion so as to form an essential or integral part thereof. Places of worship of any religion having particular significance for that religion, to make it an essential or integral part of the religion, stand on a different footing and have to be treated differently and more reverentially.” This observation of the court can be justified by Islamic Teachings itself. According to Islam a mosque should be built only on virgin land. A mosque constructed on land which has been forcefully taken or built on any other religious site is not a mosque in true sense and the prayers offered in such a mosque are not holy and Allah shall never accept them. Moreover, a mosque is not a prerequisite in Islam to offer prayers unlike in Hindu traditions and customs. Islam is against idol worship whereas Hindus believe in the same. Therefore, the argument that Babri is a holy Mosque and a religious requirement can be trashed as Namaz can be offered anywhere by facing in the direction of Holy Mecca. 

The Hon’ble Supreme Court in 2018 dismissed the plea to revisit the judgment delivered in 1994 and maintained that a mosque is not an integral part of Islam. The arguments and counter arguments helped nothing but create a toxic rinse and repeat of violent past. And hence, in order to get conclusive proof , The Hon’ble Allahabad High Court had ordered the ASI to carry out extensive excavation in Ayodhya in 2003. The report that was submitted proved beyond doubt that there existed a temple before the mosque. Yet, the judgment delivered by the Allahabad High Court in 2010 is conflicting, in a sense that the land was partitioned which wasn’t an acceptable solution and the parties to dispute however went to Supreme Court in appeal against the order passed.

The Supreme Court’s 2019 verdict proved to be the final nail in the coffin of those who worked tirelessly to ensure defeat of Hindu aspirations when the court pronounced that “It can, therefore, be held that the faith and belief of Hindus regarding location of birthplace of Lord Ram is from scriptures and sacred religious books including Valmiki Ramayana and Skanda Purana, which faith and beliefs, cannot be held to be groundless. Thus, it is found that in the period prior to 1528 A.D., there was sufficient religious texts, which led the Hindus to believe the present site of Ram Janma Bhumi as the birthplace of Lord Ram….On the balance of probabilities, there is clear evidence to indicate that the worship by the Hindus in the outer courtyard continued in temple premises. Their possession stands established together with the incidents attaching to their control over it. ” Now, there remained no doubt that Ram Mandir existed even before the so called modern historians were born !

This verdict was historic in a way as it took almost 70 years after independence when Judiciary woke up from slumber delivered justice in true sense. January 22, 2024 shall be marked in history as the day when Hindus regained their lost glory and succeeded in giving a befitting reply to those who doubted their beliefs, faith and courage. It is the day that Hindus can celebrate as their independence day from the trauma of the past. History shall look at this incident as a day that changed the destiny of this land. Ram Lalla is finally home!!