New Delhi: Claiming the “Bharatiya family system” is a “unique contribution to humanity”, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Saturday said the increasing influence of “materialist mindset” is responsible for “unchecked desires and greed, stress and divorce”.
In a resolution passed at the three-day Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) — its top policy making body — in Gwalior, the Sangh said with time “distortions and rigidity have crept in our society” which need to be uprooted.
It urged the government, eminent personalities, saints, media as well as various organisations to work towards “strengthening” the institution of family.
“Family system is the precious contribution of our society to the humanity. Due to its uniqueness, Hindu family functions as the basic unit which connects individual to the nation,” said the resolution passed Saturday.
“The ABPS is of the firm opinion that there is a need for comprehensive and immense efforts to sustain the lively and value-based nature of our family system,” said the resolution.
RSS is the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“These days, our family system that epitomises the sacred cultural heritage seems to be disintegrating. The principle reasons for the breakup of the family system are the increasing influence of materialist mindset and self-centeredness,” the resolution said.
“Due to the materialistic thinking, the problems of self-centered and acrid behavior, unchecked desires and greed, stress, divorce etc. are on the rise,” it added.
Also read: ‘No room for negotiation’: BJP & RSS are not game for ‘mediation’ in Ayodhya case
‘Family life’
Expressing displeasure at the concept of joint families making way for nuclear ones, the RSS said children are sent to hostels at young age and the “absence of emotional security” causes children to be lonely, leading to “drug addiction, violence, heinous crimes and suicides”.
In fact, to ensure a happy family life, the Sangh even has a prescription.
“The family life will be joyous and blissful through dining, praying, celebrating festivals and going on pilgrimage together, the use of mother tongue, insistence on Swadeshi and, nourishing and protecting family and social traditions,” the RSS said.
It added that “encouraging donations for social, religious and educational cause and readiness to help the needy will instill the sense of social responsibility”.
Talking about “distortions and rigidity that have crept in”, the Sangh pointed to practices like “dowry, untouchability and discrimination, ostentatious and extravagant spending, superstitions etc” that are “creating obstacles in the all round development of the society”.
“The ABPS calls upon the entire society, starting from our own families, to make efforts in uprooting these evils and shortcomings and work towards establishing a value based and harmonious society,” said the resolution.
Calling upon “eminent personalities” to make films and programmes that will “strengthen the roots of the family system”, the ABPS urged “all governments to constructively consider the need for strengthening the family system while formulating the education policy and making family related legislations”.
Doling out advice to those “forced to stay in nuclear families due to the circumstantial compulsions”, the Sangh said they “should keep their contacts alive with the ancestral family and spend some time with them collectively on regular intervals”.
“Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha calls upon the entire society, including the swayamsevaks, especially the young generation, to take all necessary steps to make the invaluable family system more lively, vibrant, and value-oriented,” the resolution concluded.
Also read: Mohan Bhagwat is like RK Laxman’s common man and RSS under him means business
Either we become like North Korea where state controls every aspect of life or as a global society, we accept the change. The family, the workplace, the outlook everything is changing and evolving in India. RSS and similar organizations cutting across faith should also evolve or they will become irrelevant.
Point well taken. What about too much political desire which is what makes Modi, Shah and their anger against those who have different point of view so much so that PM of India has to use Dyslexia to criticise. The mentor RSS needs to ponder. Exploiting anger is easy for them rather than spreading peace which takes much longer
1. RSS’ interpretation of the current scenario is perfectly okay but perhaps no one has a solution to avoid eventual break-up of the ‘joint family system’. I guess nothing much will be achieved by passing a resolution as Akhil Bhartiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) of RSS has done. 2. I believe emergence of nuclear families is an inevitable change since relocating has become necessary for all those who cannot find jobs in place of their choice. 3. But my query is this: if joint family system has to be preserved as suggested by ABPS of RSS, the society at large must recognize importance of joint families. 4. Those who are concerned about preserving values associated with the joint families must make efforts to suggest a viable alternative through which society at large preserves values of the joint family system even at it accepts the inevitable emergence of nuclear families.
In short they want the women in Ghoonghat looking after the house. The patriarchal society with the macho men in charge! They want to drag you back to the 19th century.
A fair point of view, expressed by an organisation that is deeply committed to the Hindu culture and way of life. Let it compete for acceptance with many others. Government is an entirely separate entity, with its own duties and obligations. Sometimes, as in restrictions on the cattle trade, when these two entities seem to coalesce, suboptimal decisions can result.
What the resolution says is unexceptionable. But RSS has no clue as to a possible solution. Their prescription is laughable. Changes in technology has made it easier for money to buy comforts. Aspirations of the deprived for a more equitable sharing of comforts can no longer be ignored. We need new ideologies to create new societies of life satisfaction and not the outdated models that only RSS can think of.