The Sangh and the new age woman
DIFFERENT TAKE Contrary to mainstream notions of feminism, the Rashtra Sevika Samiti empowers its members within the context of the family and the nation
NEW DELHI : Shivani Dani is a 28-year-old financial consultant based in Nagpur. The computer science graduate, who runs her own private company, does not remember when she started going to the local ‘shakha’. “I was just a little girl and found the games there very exciting. Over the years more and more friends joined me and it became a part of my life,” says Dani. She says what she learnt at the shakha were simple everyday skills that came in handy – from sports to group discussions and self-defence to arts.
Many girls like Dani are a part of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti, often considered the women’s wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The samiti, which celebrated 80 years of its foundation this year, currently has 3.8 lakh members, and claims to organise nearly 4,350 shakhas regularly. Much like the RSS, the organisation’s social projects are usually taken with a pinch of salt because of its unapologetic ideal of creating a ‘Hindu Rashtra’. Contrary to the mainstream feminist ideas that aim to free women from restrictive social structures, the samiti looks at achieving women empowerment within the family and the nation. The ideology is not backed by much theoretical study and documentation, however, it finds practical appeal with its members.
Ebullient and confident, Dani switches between Hindi and English with as ease, just as she does between sarees and jeans. “Nobody ever told us what to wear at the shakha. Of couse there was a uniform for special occasions. Moreover, we were constantly running around organising things taking part in sports, we wore what was comfortable,” she says. Between her multiple engagements Dani does not find the time to visit the shakha frequently anymore. “But it is a flexible system. I now try to make it to the monthly shakhas. No matter what, I will always be a sevika first,” she says.
Miles away from Dani, in Delhi, is another sevika Suchismita. While Dani has spent her childhood in the organisation, Suchismita joined about eight months ago. She helps organise shakhas and vocational classes and forming women’s self-help groups.
A London educated law graduate, Suchismita says the organisation has exposed her to an entirely new world. “We are all unified as sevikas here, irrespective of our names. It is a liberating experience,” she says. The fact that Hindusim is the mainstay of the organisation, works for her. “I think we should all take a sense of pride in our religion,” she adds. The organisation, she says, trains young girls and women, gives them confidence and teaches them how to stand for themselves and others. “It is a huge task,” she says, with the satisfaction of one who has found home.
The lore goes that after Keshav Baliram Hedgewar formed RSS in1925, Laxmibai Kelkar (Mausiji) took up the matter of forming a women’s wing. Golvarkar asked her to go ahead and form an organisation on the ideological lines of the RSS, exclusively for women, and promised his support. The first shakha of the samiti was held at Wardha in 1936.
Saraswati Bai Apte succeeded Kelkar as Pramukh Sanchalika (president) in 1978. Often referred to as Taiji, it was during her tenure that the samiti also began its work overseas. Ushatai Chati took over as the third Pramukh Sanchalika in 1994. Pramila Tai Medhe became the fourth president in 2006 and handed over the charge to Shanta Akka in 2012.
The organisation held a three-day ‘Prerna Shivir’ in the national capital in October this year, to mark 80 years . RSS chief Mohan Rao Bhagwat addressed sevikas at the event. “Till India’s matra shakti (women power) turns active and comes forward, India will not be able to achieve its potential and pristine glory and act as a guiding force to the world to show it the new path of peaceful coexistence,” he said, at the inauguration function. The all-India president of the organisation, Shanta Akka, also emphasised the importance of equality, an issue that particularly struck a chord with the younger sevikas. “Today, discord is evident in society in the form of ideas about man-woman relations. Men and women are complementary to each other, they are not competitors. Men have to stop treating women as inferior to themselves, as objects,” she said, at the event.
The core ideas of the primacy of family and country have stayed the same over the eight decades of the samiti’s expansion. Sevikas continue to refer to senior functionaries as Taiji, Mausiji or simply didi, bringing in a sense of family bonding. Similarly the ideals of Rani Lakshmibai and Goddess Sita, which were among the core ideas at the time of samiti’s conception, have stayed the same. The younger sevikas though are more inquisitive, and informed, says Malini Bhaskar Enaganti, a 47-year-old sevika based in Bangalore, who has been with the organisation for almost four decades.
The triple ideals of Matrutva (universal motherhood), Kartrutva (efficiency and social activism), Netrutva leadership) , ensures that all aspects of development are taken care of, she adds. Back in Delhi, a senior sevika narrates a discourse during which Mahatma Gandhi was asked how a woman could be expected to be like Sita, if men could not be like Ram. He said: “A woman is not made by a man, it is the man who is made by a woman.” But what if a sevika does not want to be like Sita? “She can work for society,” she says. “That is more than enough.”
We are all unified as sevikas here, irrespective of our names. It is a liberating experience. The organisation trains young girls and women, gives them confidence and teaches them how to stand up for themselves and others.