New Delhi, Oct 1 (PTI) On September 27, 1925, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a doctor shaped by the freedom movement, gathered a small group of young men, most of them teenagers, at his home in Nagpur, and made a simple announcement: "We are inaugurating Sangh today".

The beginnings were unassuming but not a surprise to young followers of "doctorji", as Hedgewar was fondly called by his friends. He had been working on this idea to organise the Hindu society for nation-building through character building of people.

About two and a half years before that, Hedgewar had started a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Mandal in Wardha as part of his experiments to work out a model that could help "transform society".

The Sangh that he launched on the day Vijayadashmi started with monthly baithaks (gathering of young men ) at his home.

"Four or five times the karyakartas attended the baithak on their own and later on they had to be intimated. Then a situation developed, in which they failed to attend the baithak even after getting the intimation.

"Then suggestions were made that instead of monthly baithaks, weekly baithaks should be held so that attending the baithaks would become a habit," RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat recalls in 'Future Bharat', a compilation of the lectures he delivered in 2018 in Delhi.

"Then the baithak was made daily. The daily baithaks and discussions used to be held in a room," Bhagwat said, adding that Hedgewar wanted regular meetings.

A full-fledged outdoor shakha later started in an open ground in the next few months, with the young boys in Hedgewar's flock of swayamsevaks keen on physical activities instead of just sitting together and discussing various topics.

A khaki nicker and white shirt with a lathi became the swayamsevak's 'ganvesh' and physical activities were a regular feature at the shakha. Marthand Jog, a retired military personnel and Hedgewar's friend, started physical training of the Swayamsevaks along with parade sessions.

But the organisation was yet to get a formal name.

"When those who were attending the shakha started bringing others, the newcomers started asking about the Sangh's name. So when the karyakartas put this question to doctorji, he said: 'it has not yet been decided. You sit together and decide'," Bhagwat recalled.

Accordingly, about 16 swayamsevaks sat together in the presence of Hedgewar, and the organisation got its name as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on April 17 with the approval of the meeting, as a majority voted in its favour out of the four names proposed by the participants.

"Dr R Hedgewar was always in the habit of taking collection decisions which became the habit in the Sangh," Bagwat was quoted as saying in the book.

While the Sangh got its name six months after its formation, the posts of Sarsanghchalak, Sarkaryavah and Sarsenapati (chief trainer) were created four years later.

"The creation of the position of the Sarsanghchalak was in itself an affair extraordinaire. After discussion and debate on the changing political circumstances in the country, a two-day meeting of all prominent swayam sevaks was held in Nagpur on 9 and 10 November 1929," former BJP MP Rakesh Sinha says in his book 'The Builders of Modern India- DR Keshav Baliram Hedgewar'.

The meeting decided to keep the base of the organisation as one adhering to a unitary leadership structure (Ekchalakanuvartitwa).

"On the last day of the meet, at a bigger gathering of swayamsevaks, Appaji Joshi passed an edict before announcing the decisions of the Sangh meeting: "Sarsanghchalakpranam (greetings) one, two, three".

"All swayam sevaks then greeted Dr Hedgewar as the Sarsanghchalak", Sinha writes.

"He was quite taken aback. After the programme was over, he gave vent to his refusal to Appaji Joshi: 'I don't like receiving the salutations of such venerable individuals who are dedicated to sacrifice'.

"Upon this, Appaji informed him that this was the collective decision of the Sangh and 'in the interests of the organisation, you must accept this decision even though it displeases you'," Sinha adds.

From a modest start with baithaks of a handful of swayamsevaks in a small town in Nagpur, the RSS, which completes 100 years of its foundation on Thursday, has come a long way to become the world's biggest voluntary organisation with a pan-India presence, shaping the country's political and social discourse.

Over the years, a large number of RSS-inspired organisations have been formed by the swayamsevaks. Of them, 32 are prominent, including Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

After Independence, the RSS faced three bans by the then governments, with the first being imposed after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination by Nathuram Godse on January 30, 1948. The RSS' second Sarsanghchalak, MS Golwalker, was arrested on February 1, 1948, as the then government blamed the Sangh for the assassination. The year also saw thousands of swayamsevaks being arrested.

The RSS was banned for the second time on July 4, 1975, and Balasaheb Deoras, the then RSS chief, was arrested after the Indira Gandhi government imposed the Emergency on June 25.

The state of Emergency, which lasted 21 months, saw thousands of RSS workers being arrested and some even tortured to death, several RSS leaders recall. A large number of Sangh leaders and workers, however, continued their agitation against the imposition of the Emergency while remaining underground.

The RSS was banned for the third time after the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

The RSS is running about more than one lakh daily, weekly and monthly 'shakhas' across the country.

As part of its centenary plans, it is set to carry out a pan-India door-to-door public outreach campaign and organise over one lakh Hindu sammelans, starting with Mohan Bhagwat's annual Vijayadashmi address at its Nagpur headquarters on Thursday.

"At the start of the Sangh, there was one word that signified its ideology 'nation'. The organisation too had just one category of membership -- the 'swayam sevak'. As the Sangh expanded, its organisational edifice began to take shape," former BJP MP Rakesh Sinha notes in his book.

"The shakha is not a physical training centre, but an ideological centre for an intellectual movement. The plan of a 'SanghShikshaVarg' (Sangh educational class) for training swayamsevaks and strengthening their commitment was also implemented later," he says.

With the BJP at the helm in several states and at the Centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a former RSS pracharak, the Sangh is looking forward to continuing its mission with much vigour and motivation.

"In the last few years, the picture of the country changed and the governments too, with the success of our work," RSS general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said at an event where Prime Minister Modi launched a commemorative postage stamp and a coin to mark the Hindutva organisation's centenary.

"... A new path has emerged. We have to strengthen Bharat's vimarsh (narrative) within the country and across the global stage as well. Across the world, Bharat's narrative about Bharat must be positive, based on truth. This is the Sangh's idea on this occasion of its centenary," he added.

As part of the RSS key agenda of ‘Panch Parivartan’, a five-fold transformation of society, Hosabale called upon people to promote and adopt 'swadeshi' products and make India self-reliant. PTI PK RT