Hindutva Clarified: What RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat addressed a public meeting in Shillong.

‘Anyone living in India is Hindu’

Hindu is a geo-cultural identity, says RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in Shillong.

Seema Hajong | HENB | Shillong | Sept 25, 2022:: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS) chief Dr Mohan Bhagwat, on Sunday, attended a public meeting at U Soso Tham auditorium in Shillong, the capital city of Meghalaya.

The meeting started with the traditional Khasi welcome which included putting on of traditional attire to the RSS chief.

Mohan Bhagwat while addressing the meeting said, “The oneness of India is its strength. The diversity that India boasts is something to be proud of. This is the specialty of India which has been there since ages. We have been one always. When we forget this, we lost our independence. Hence, we must make sure that we become one and make our country stronger and more self-reliant. We all have to work for this unity.”

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said that India is an ancient nation since time immemorial.

He said that India lost its freedom because its people forgot the civilizational motto and values.

Bhagwat said we are an ancient nation since time immemorial, but due to forgetting our civilizational motto and values, we lost our freedom. “Our binding force among one another is our inherent faith in our age-old value which lies in spirituality,” he stressed.

“Sangh teaches to sacrifice for the country giving up one’s individual selfish ends. In the one-hour Sangh shakhas, people learn about these benevolent values and duty to the motherland. The RSS draws this tradition of sacrifice from this country’s ancient history. Our ancestors had visited different lands beyond and had deported the same values to Japan, Korea, Indonesia and many other countries. We are following the same tradition today even. Dr Bhagwat referred to the examples of how during the Covid crisis Bharat had served humanity by sending vaccines to different countries also, not so long ago, our country stood with Srilanka during her worst ever economic crisis,” he said.

“We are Hindus, but there is no particular defination of Hindu, although it’s our identity. Both the terms Bharatiya and Hindu are synonyms. It is a geo-cultural identity,” the RSS chief pointed out in Shillong, Meghalaya.

“The habitants of this area are traditionally called Hindus. This is also called Bharat,” said Bhagwat, who arrived here on Saturday on a two-day visit.

He said that even before the Mughals who have spread Islam and the British rulers who spread Christianity, Hindus were already in existence.

Highlighting the ideology of RSS, Bhagwat said the term ‘Hindu’ covers all those who are the sons of ‘Bharat Mata’, descendants of Indian ancestors and who live in accordance with Indian culture.

But, obviously RSS Chief did not mention the PFI culprits as Hindu who were caught by the NIA and ED raids nationwide or the Christian nuns who burnt the images of Hindu deities in Sambhal in UP for a nasty conversion ploy.

Ruling out the fear of religious conversion, the RSS supremo said to become Hindu one does not have to change since everyone here is Hindu.

“India is not a country with a western concept. It has been a cultural country since time immemorial; in fact, it is such a country, which has taught the world the lesson of humanity.”

Since Saturday, he has attended a series of events, including the meeting of RSS functionaries and workers across the hill state.

Several BJP leaders, members of Hindu organisations attended the events organised by the Meghalaya unit of RSS.

Bhagwat’s visit to Meghalaya — a Christian majority state, assumes significance as Assembly elections are scheduled to be held there in February next year.

Elaborate security arrangements were made in the state in view of the visit of Bhagwat, who has a ‘Z Plus’ security cover.

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__Inputs from IANS.