WASHINGTON, Apr 25:
The Indian diaspora should be loyal to the country they reside in and strive to be better citizens, while demonstrating that Hindus can contribute to local society and provide leadership in all walks of life, RSS General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said here.
Hosabale, who is on a visit to the US, said his conversations with a cross-section of Americans were focused on addressing misconceptions about the RSS that he said were a result of propaganda against the 100-year-old organisation for the past several decades.
“All these years, the RSS has been working silently with the belief that our work is the message. Now, we thought that it is better to reach out. Our words should also become the message,” Hosabale told PTI in an interview here.
Hosabale arrived in the US last week after a tour of the UK, where he interacted with academic circles, thought leaders, policy experts and a cross-section of the Indian diaspora as part of the outreach efforts as the RSS marks its centenary year.
The RSS General Secretary said there have been misconceptions about the organisation, especially in Western countries, which view the Sangh as a Hindu supremacist organisation.
“This mispropaganda has taken place for decades. They have portrayed RSS as a Hindu supremacist organisation, as anti-minority, anti-women, all such misconceptions have been there,” he said, adding that the visit to the US was an effort to remove such misgivings about the RSS.
In its centenary year, a key task before the RSS was to address the misconceptions about India and Hindu culture and set a clear narrative of what it stands for.
“The narrative about India and Hindu culture has been distorted for decades within India and outside. Such narratives have to be corrected.
“Many people who are not from the RSS background are involved in setting the proper narrative of India, of Hindu culture. Those things in the society should be spread. That’s one area where RSS wants to focus more,” he said.
Hosabale said his message to the Indian diaspora in the US was to be good citizens, win the hearts of locals through hard work and prove that Hindus can contribute to society and provide leadership in different walks of life.
“The RSS view is that Indians who have come here to build their career, academic or otherwise, should be loyal to this country, because this is where they are earning their livelihood.
“They should be better citizens here and emerge as a model to show that Hindus, wherever they go, contribute to the local society, give leadership and contribute to the nation-building process of that country,” Hosabale said.
He cited the Jewish community in the US that has contributed greatly to development in America but has maintained a strong cultural connection to the country of its origin.
The RSS was founded in September 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar as a volunteer-run socio-cultural movement to strengthen the Hindu society.Â
Hosabale said at present the RSS organises more than 83,000 daily meetings – shakhas – in neighbourhoods across the country for exercises, games and thoughtful discussions to foster teamwork, character and nation-building.Â
Hosabale addressed the New India Conference organised by the Hudson Institute here on Thursday and also participated in the Global Science Innovation Forum organised on the Stanford University campus in San Francisco last week.Â
He has also held meetings with a cross-section of the Indian diaspora and the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, a non-profit outfit to organise the diverse Hindu American society.
“The visit has been very rewarding, both personally and for the organisation. It is a part of the RSS outreach during its centenary year.
“We thought that we should reach out to the Indian community and more than that to the local community, both in some countries of Europe and also in America, particularly the opinion makers, so that we can better communicate to them what the RSS is really doing and how it has contributed to the service of the nation in last one century,” Hosabale said.Â
He said Americans have heard about RSS, but there have been some misconceptions or some communication gaps.Â
“But the glad news is that there are people who have understood RSS, who have studied RSS and written about RSS. Walter Russell Mead of the Hudson Institute and Walter Anderson of Johns Hopkins University. He has authored two books. Because of such people, RSS is also known among some academic circles.
“I’ve also been to London. There are some people of Indian origin in England, so they knew about RSS. So that’s a good thing. It’s a mixed result,” Hosabale said.
The RSS leader said the new generation of Indian Americans is joining Hindu organisations on university campuses in a big way.
“The people who are America-born, they are joining Hindu Yuva and other activities. Of course, because they are born and brought up in an American environment, they miss that socio-cultural atmosphere which Indians have,” Hosabale said, adding that Yoga and Bhajans have generated new interest in the youth, including westerners. (PTI)
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