‘Fight all demons in society’

Who or what is your image of Bharat Mata?

For us, Bharat Mata is as conceptualised in the scriptures — the Himalayas, the rivers, the seas, the trees and the shrubs — a much larger country. But it has seen a lot of ups and downs. It was broken up and, unfortunately, that was on the basis of religion. Those who broke it converted our people. We are opposed to those who converted and stopped loving the motherland.

What if Bharat Mata was wearing a salwar kameez?

Yeh toh behuda khayaal ha (This is an absurd thought). How can you say that? Our women wear a sari.

But the uniform of the Durga Vahini is a white salwar-kameez with saffron dupatta.

We wear them in our camps because our girls learn self-protection skills like martial arts.

While there are mythological stories explaining why Goddess Durga is imagined riding a tiger, is there any such story explaining Bharat Mata?

For us, Durga Mata is an ideal, and Bharat Mata is a matter of faith. Both are devis, and both are equal. Ours is the only religion that worships the earth as mother. Like Durga Mata, we teach our women to fight all demons in society.

Do you also control what the members do outside of the organisation? Are they allowed to follow careers, watch films?

The Durga Vahini training is shakti ki sadhana (worship of strength), focussing on security and service. It does not impose any restrictions on its members. We allow our girls to follow careers, in fact, we encourage them to study. We allow them to watch movies, read what they want. The training itself brings about a change in the girls and they become mature enough to understand what is good and what is bad and become selfless.

Are they also allowed to marry whoever they want, wear what they want?

See, we are not the khap. Our girls are free to marry and raise a family. The training helps them become good daughters-in-law, serve their mother-in-law and father-in-law, and keep the family together. We allow our girls to do fashion, wear what they want. We just tell them that wear such clothes that nobody ogles at you.
Durga Vahini has recently started training pregnant women — garbh sanskar — to inculcate values in
the womb.

How many members does the Durga Vahini have?
Currently, Durga Vahini has around 25,000 full-time members. Women can come anytime to offer their services. There is no compulsion.

The JNU issue has kicked up a debate about nationalism. What is your take on it?

Look, don’t think of yourself as a journalist, think of yourself as a Hindu. If people do that, incidents like those in JNU would not happen.