From: bond@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (Girish Bonde)
Subject: Re: RSS
Keywords: RSS
Organization: University of New Brunswick
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 19:11:27 GMT



     Extracts from a  special  report  "Rashtriya  Swayamsevak  Sangh:
     Altruistic  Expansion"  which appeared in the July 31, 1992 issue
     of India Today:
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     Regardless of increasing disarray in the BJP ranks, the  head  of
     the  Sangh  family broadens its base by working in slums and set-
     ting up schools.

  ...With the Vidya Bharati and Seva Bharati schemes  in  full  swing,
     the  RSS  is  turning  to  good  works  with a fervour previously
     devoted only to its fundamentalist flourishes.  In  an  era  when
     government  funding  is  retreating  from  the welfare sector, it
     reckons  that  delivering  bread  works  better  than   promicing
     deliverance...

  ...Regardless of the BJP's troubles, the  RSS  mood  at  Nagpur  was
     upbeat,  buoyed  by  the fact that its 25,000 shakhas, 2,500 full
     time pracharaks and 2.7 milion volunteers  are  at  an  all  time
     high.  Already, the BJP governments in M.P. & U.P.  have accepted
     the Vidya Bharati scheme as an alternative education  model,  and
     will  be  followed  by  Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. Under the
     scheme, the RSS has opened more than 5,000 schools in the country
     -  1,500  of them provide education up to higher secondary level.
     The rest are Saraswati Shishu Mandirs, set in  the  gurukul  mode
     where  physical  education,  Sanskrit,  Yoga,  music and moral or
     spiritual education are compulsory... There are 12 lakh  students
     and 40,000 teachers engaged in ths scheme.

     A year after he took over as spiritual head in 1973, present  RSS
     chief  Balasaheb  Deoras exorted Sangh volunteers to work for the
     eradication of untouchability.  Eighteen years  after  the  call,
     the Seva Bharati has targeted slums dominated by Scheduled Castes
     - for starting schools and  vocational  courses,  while  teaching
     youngsters  Hindu  sanskaras. There are about 10,000 Seva Bharati
     schemes all over the country with over 3,500 centres to supervis-
     ing them...

  ...Seva Bharati has also set up Matri Chhaya centres for children in
     Delhi  and Madhya Pradesh along the lines of Mother Teresa's Nir-
     mal Hriday for thew old and abandoned.

     Subtly but cleverly, the RSS has acquired  official  recognition.
     The  Delhi Development Authority provides Seva Bharati with eight
     offices while the Helth and Family Welfare Ministry  gives  it  a
     token grant of Rs. 6,000 a year.  Last year, Seva Dham Vidya Man-
     dir won the Certificate of Merit and a cash award of  Rs.  50,000
     from the Government in recognition of its contribution to primary
     education...

  ...Fortified by the existance of  300  shakhas  in  Punjab  and  the
     growth  of  its Akhil Bharatiya Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, which has
     about  2,000  centres,  the  Sangh  is  now  venturing  into  the
     Naxalite-dominated  areas  of  Andhra Pradesh.  Says Bhaskar Rao,
     organising secretary of the Kalyan Ashram: "We want to make  tri-
     bals  aware  of  how  Christian  missionaries converted them with
     material allurement."...

  ...Though the RSS has always had a finger in social service pie,  it
     was  only  on the occasion of the Hedgewar centenary in 1989 that
     it decided to nationalise its activities. Long accused  of  being
     representative  of  only an urban-Brahmin- Bania combine, the RSS
     was anxious to vault the impasse that it had run into...
     =================================================================
    
     Hope this suffices!

     au revoir,

     Girish.

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