Dainik Jagran Editor-in-Chief Sanjay Gupta attended the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Vijayadashami celebrations as the chief guest in Nagpur, Maharashtra, on Tuesday. The event this year marks the 101st anniversary of the foundation of the Sangh.
During his address, he said that the Sangh was founded 101 years ago when India was not independent. Shedding light on the role of RSS to improve social conditions, Editor-in-Chief Sanjay Gupta said, "When the Sangh was founded 101 years ago, India was not independent, and the social conditions of that time were very different. Therefore, while the basic concept and purpose of the Sangh was to unite and empower Hindu society, achieving independence for the nation was also its primary objective."
He added that the RSS's then-held belief was that true independence was unimaginable without liberating society from the mentality of subjugation and self-awareness.
Stressing these values, Mr Gupta said that after independence, the Sangh made individual development, along with Indianness and national loyalty, its primary goals.
"This sacred ideology of the Sangh was not accepted by the politicians and a section of the political establishment after independence because the Sangh's ideology did not match their appeasement agenda. Yet, despite all the challenges, the Sangh continued to move forward on its path," he further added.
Dainik Jagran's editor-in-chief, Sanjay Gupta, further said, "After India became a republic, many politicians who believed in pure Indianness, inspired by the Sangh's ideologies, changed their views and, along with some with nationalistic views, founded the Jana Sangh. Later, this same Jana Sangh, in the form of the Bharatiya Janata Party, became the world's largest political party today."
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In a sharp observation, he also stated that the Hindu culture and the Hindu way of life would have become extinct if there was no Sangh. "The RSS, along with its affiliated and ideologically inspired organisations, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, are constantly accused of promoting Hindu extremism. But if the RSS were not there today, Hindu traditions and the Hindu way of life would have long since disappeared. After nearly 600 years of slavery, first under the Mughals and then under the British, if Indianness and Hindutva still have a global presence, the credit for this should primarily go to the RSS," the Dainik Jagran Editor-in-Chief said in his address.
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