The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) conducts several training camps to strengthen its organisation. These camps are broadly known as Sangh Shiksha Varga (SSV). There are three levels of these camps which are SSV-First year, SSV-Second Year, SSV-Third Year. The duration of these camps varies from two to four weeks.
A day at these camps typically begins at four in the morning and ends at ten in the night. The morning and evening hours are used for physical exercises. The afternoons and late evening hours are used for intellectual discourses and discussions on various ideological issues as well as contemporary developments in the context of the ideological framework.
The food served at these camps is vegetarian and no spices. It is cooked and served by by the Swayamsevaks. The camp begins and ends with surgical precision. Every activity is pre-planned and there is self-discipline. These camps are residential camps and Swayamsevaks sleep in dormitories.
While the first-and second-year camps are organised at the provincial and sometimes district levels, the third-year camp is organised at the RSS headquarters at Nagpur. The ‘Third-Year’ camp is the most coveted one and Swayamsevaks (volunteers) selected through a rigorous process from all over the country attend it. It is a 30-day camp and organised during the soaring heat in Nagpur in Maharashtra in the months of May-June. This training camp can only be attended by those who have attended the first-and the second-year camps. Generally young men above the age of 16 years attend the first-and second-year camps while the third-year camp is generally attended by Swayamsevaks above 18 years of age. A large number of Swayamsevaks, who attend the third-year camp mostly choose to become a ‘Pracharak’(full-time workers of the RSS). However, not everyone finishing the third-year camp does that.
All the trainees at these camps pay a nominal fee that collectively takes care of the expenses incurred for the camp.
The first RSS training camp was held at Nagpur in 1929. It was organised for 40 days from May 1 to June 10. Initially, these camps were called ‘Summer Camps’, as they were organised during the summer vacations. The name ‘Sangh Shiksha Varg’, was used after 1950 for these camps.
The training curriculum of the RSS for these camps has evolved gradually. In the early years of RSS, the focus during these training camps was primarily on ‘March Past’ and other military activities. A significant number of commands were given in English language.
B.N. Varadpande, a senior RSS functionary from Nagpur-recalls in his book, “Sangh Karyapaddhati Ka Vikas”: In one of the meetings, there was discussion about how we should address the summer camps which were being organised. Someone suggested the name should be ‘Training Classes’. Another Swayamsevak added that as these camps are to expand the RSS Shakhas, so we should call it Sangh Training Class. Dr. (Hedgewar) said that as these camps are organised to prepare workers for the RSS which can give maximum amount of time to the organisation, so it should be called, ‘Officers’ Training Camp (OTC).
OTC remains a popular word for the RSS training camps even today, though it is no more the official name of the RSS camp. Guruji, who was the second RSS Chief, renamed these camps as Sangh Shiksha Varg.
Upto 1937, there used to be some entertainment programmes in the RSS camps on Saturday evening and on Sunday, the daily routine of programmes for the Shakha were also not followed.
However, this ‘break’ was shelved after 1938 as it appeared that this affected the training programme. In days to come, the time-period of the camps was also reduced from 40 to 30 days.
Till 1934, the RSS camps were conducted only in Nagpur. The second-and third-year camps started at Pune in 1935. In 1938, the first-and second-year camps were also started in Lahore.
There have been several interesting anecdotes related to the RSS training camps, where class, creed, caste does not matter. All the trainees are treated as one and the same. There is no discrimination. It might look quite ordinary today but it was an extraordinary feat to bring trainers and trainees from all castes together and make them eat together and stay together as brothers.
In 1934, Mahatma Gandhi visited a Sangh Shiksha Varg at Wardha. While addressing the RSS workers, he recalled during one of his speeches in Delhi on September 16, 1947. “I visited the RSS camp years ago, when the founder, Shri Hedgewar was alive. I was very much impressed by your discipline, the complete absence of untouchability and the rigorous simplicity. Since then, the Sangh has grown. I am convinced that any organisation, which is inspired by the high ideal of service and self-sacrifice, is bound to grow in strength.”
Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar visited Sangh Shiksha Varga in Pune in 1939. When Dr. Ambedkar asked Dr. Hedgewar whether there were any untouchables in the camp, the RSS founder replied that there were neither touchables nor untouchables, but only Hindus there. Dr. Ambedkar said, “I am surprised to find the Swayamsevaks moving about in absolute equality and brotherhood without even caring to know the caste of the others.”
Leading freedom fighter Jayaprakash Narayan, a known socialist, who led the historic movement against the anti-democratic forces in 1970s, addressed an RSS training camp in Patna on November 3, 1977.
In June 2018, former President of India created a flutter by addressing the third-year training camp at Nagpur. He also visited the house where Dr Hedgewar was born and where the idea of setting up RSS was discussed in the early 1920s.
Earlier RSSFACTS columns can be read here.
(Arun Anand has authored two books on the RSS. His X handle is @ArunAnandLive.)
Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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