In a society divided along caste, class, and language lines, the greatest service from a social worker to his community will be to keep intact the very social fabric. The oneness of society being an article of faith with the swayamsevak, it becomes all the more important for him to strive for social consolidation, especially when self-seeking politicians try to drive a wedge between diverse groups for their own selfish ends and anti-social elements take advantage of such sensitive situations. In many trying situations, conflicts born out of casteism, untouchability, and sectarianism have always acted as a powerful antidote to the disintegrating pulls exercised by separatist elements. The Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, the Samajik Samarasata Manch of Maharashtra, the “Speak Sanskrit” movement of Karnataka, and the like have been rendering yeoman service in this direction.

While founding the Sangh, Dr Hedgewar—himself a freedom fighter—had before him the goal not only of independence but also of “swatantrya” in its literal sense, i.e., the blossoming of “SWA”—the national identity—in every walk of our social life. As such, it has always been the supreme concern of the swayamsevaks to uphold and seek re-assertion of national honour wherever it is at stake. The State of Jammu & Kashmir, with its oppressive Muslim-majority character, has been a headache for our country ever since Independence. The forces inimical to Bharat never wanted Kashmir to integrate itself with Bharat, and in October 1947, immediately after Independence, when Pakistan’s forces invaded Kashmir, these elements conspired with the enemy to defeat every move to save the situation from our side. However, thanks to the timely collaboration of the entire Sangh force then present in Jammu with the Armed Forces of Bharat, Kashmir was saved. Had it not been for the premature and insensible cease-fire declared unilaterally by our own government, even while a large chunk of our territory was still under the siege of the enemy, our Armed Forces would then have driven the latter completely beyond our borders, and there would not have been this problem of “Pakistan-occupied Kashmir” (POK), which even now continues to be a scourge undermining the sovereignty of Bharat.

The problem of Kashmir, in fact, is one of our own makings, because, unlike other States, it has been accorded special status under Article 370 of the Constitution, even after its total accession with Bharat. In 1952, Bharateeya Jan Sangh and Praja Parishad, in those days the political front of the Sangh in Jammu & Kashmir Stale, jointly agitated against this special status; and the BJS had to pay a heavy price in the death of Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, the founder-president of the party, in Srinagar jail. He died under dubious circumstances, after being incarcerated there for having led a batch of satyagrahis, defying the ban on his entry into the state. However, because of this agitation, the game plan of the conspirators, with Sheikh Abdullah as the kingpin, was thwarted and Kashmir was once more saved, for the time being.

The endless appeasement of the Muslim population, especially in Kashmir, practised by the successive governments in Delhi has been the bane of our government”s Kashmir policy. Just as too much mollycoddling and lack of discipline spoil the child, so has been Kashmir, a problem created out of our own folly. With about one-third of the state territory illegally occupied by Pakistan, a hostile neighbour, the alienated area has virtually become a haven for subversives. Pakistan is waging a cold war, abetting the militants, supplying them with arms, and training them for an armed revolt from within, fully aware that open war with India would be too costly and that the chances of victory would be unpredictable.

The militants are taking advantage of the government’s weakness, being sure that the government dare not take ruthless action against them because of their privileged “minority” tag. They have resorted to all types of inhuman measures to evacuate the minuscule Hindu population from the Valley. They went to the extent of openly burning the national flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Independence Day. It was the ABVP that first accepted the challenge from the Kashmir militants, and took a massive 10,000-strong contingent of students from all over the country to Lal Chowk to hoist the tri-colour there. The attempt, however, was foiled by the then government under V.P. Singh. Two years later, the BJP picked up the cue and a historic “Ekta Yatra ” (Unity March) from Kanyakumari to Srinagar, with Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, the party president himself, as the leader, was organised. This 25,000 km-long Yatra successfully culminated at Lal Chowk, exactly on the decided day, braving all the challenges, political as well as others, and did hoist the national tri-colour there, thus proclaiming to the enemy within and without that a competent party had arrived to settle the account.

Apart from the Kashmir issue, the Sangh has all along been at the forefront of each and every national campaign, be it the “Ban Cow-slaughter” campaign of 1952 or the mass collection drive for the Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari in 1963. The Ekatmata Rath Yatra of Ganga Jal and Bharatmata in 1983 and the later issue of Ram Janmabhoomi temple, sponsored by the Sangh Parivar, have irrefutably established that Hindu society would respond like a “Virat Purush” (one corporate body) when the innate chord of Hindusthan is stimulated to pulsate in every Hindu heart. Thus,

The thrust of the Sangh and its methodology is not restricted to its outward institutional form only, but is multi-dimensional, extending beyond the boundaries of “sanghasthan”. The aim is to activate the dormant Hindu society, to make it come out of its self-oblivion and realise its past mistakes, to instil in it a firm determination to set them right, and finally to make it bestir itself to reassert its honour and self-respect so that no power on earth dares challenge it in the days to come.