“Hi, Today (May 28) is Veer Savarkar’s Jayanthi. There is a talk on Veer Savarkar,” states a message sent via a social networking website to a select group of IT employees in Bangalore’s JP Nagar area. “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, IT Milans, Jayanagar Zone, Bangalore invites you for a special lecture on the 150th anniversary of the first war of Indian Independence,” says another message to members of a similar online group. Using online social networking resources like Yahoo Groups and Orkut, and weekly physical meetings called IT Milans, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has over the past six years built a steady stream of new age ‘Software Shakhas’ to groom busy IT professionals in the RSS way of thinking. A spin-off of the traditional RSS shakhas, the software shakhas spread across Bangalore now number 30, with each shakha boasting an average of 10 to 15 members, in the 24 to 40 years age group, from a cross-section of the city’s IT and BPO companies. While nearly 70 per cent of members of the IT shakhas have been associated with the RSS from an early age, the remainder are newcomers, say RSS officials associated with the programme. Unlike the traditional shakhas, the new-age shakhas concentrate less on the physical aspect—yoga, exercise and games—and more on stimulating the mind of its members to nationalistic thinking and a life of service, says the coordinator for the IT shakhas, Suresh Naik, a doctorate holder in micro-electronics and full-time RSS worker. All software shakhas find it most convenient to meet on Sunday mornings. “We don’t approach anyone to join us unless we feel they are inclined to the RSS ideology,” says Raghavendra Bhat, 36, a programme manager at Lucent Technologies, in-charge of five software shakhas in Bangalore. Bhat, a long-time RSS worker, who lost touch with the organization during a stint in the United States, feels the IT shakhas are suited for the busy schedules of knowledge-economy workers. “Discussions are the main focus of the milans. The main intention is to think constructively on building society and planning social service activities,” says Anil Kumar Airani, 32, an engineer with Mphasis.
