Uttar Pradesh RSS to appeal to Hindus: Shed your castes, unite

“Senior and influential people from different castes and communities will be invited. They may be followers of Ravidas, Kabir Das, Meera or those divided as per higher and lower castes. They all will be called on the same stage,” Saxena told The Indian Express.

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He said that meetings of ‘samajik sadbhav’ will be held at the block level for the first time with an aim to “keep Hindus united” and “prevent their division along caste and sect lines”.

While the RSS had been holding meetings under the banner of “social harmony” for the past four years, it will be the first time meetings will be held at the block level. Currently, such meetings at the district level are held across the country under the supervision of RSS’s national executive member Ashok Beri.

Awadh prant’s Sah Karyavah Narendra said, “In these meetings, we will discuss various issues of nationalism and others that concern the society. We will appeal to the people to remain united as Hindus. From now onwards, we will hold such meetings at block levels as well. There are 174 blocks in Awadh prant and these meetings will be held regularly under the supervision of RSS office-bearers.”

Narendra also such meetings have become “important in the current scenario” when Hindus have separated into different groups along caste lines and small incidents of communal tensions continue to emerge from various parts of the state.

Another RSS office-bearer from Awadh prant, too, attached importance to such meetings, saying it has become “essential as it is being felt that Hindus are becoming weak against the Muslims due to the division on caste lines”.

“Several groups such as Kushwaha Samaj, Rastogi Samaj, Kori Samaj, Khastriya Samaj have come up. In such a scenario, if Muslims are in a small number in any particular block or village, they become dominant on Hindus because our community remains divided over caste. At block-level meetings, Hindus will be appealed to remain united so that they can strongly oppose atrocities on their community,” said an RSS worker.

At its recent Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha meeting held in Nagaur in Rajasthan, the RSS had expressed concern over the rising incidents of communal tensions and incidents of clashes. Organisation members had expressed that it is “primarily the Hindu community” that falls prey to such violent incidents.