By Arun Anand

In an interesting development, an American delegation composed of prominent personalities attended the valedictory ceremony of a third-year training camp of RSS volunteers (also known as Karyakarta Vikas Varga-2) in Nagpur recently, where the Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat delivered an impactful address. The RSS was born in Nagpur in 1925, and the place holds special significance for the organisation as its national headquarters is situated there.

The ‘Third-Year’ camp is the most coveted one in the organisation. Swayamsevaks (volunteers) selected through a rigorous process from all over the country attend it. It is a 25-day camp organised during the soaring heat in Nagpur, Maharashtra, in the months of May and June. This training camp can only be attended by those who have attended the first- and 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 typically 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 so.

It is important to note that this is the first time that a delegation comprising prominent personalities from the US attended this ceremony. The indications are clear that as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) turns 100 this year, there is increasing interest in the Western world to know more about the organisation, which has often been stereotyped by many scholars in the West as a right-wing Hindu majoritarian organisation. The fact of the matter is that the RSS doesn’t believe in the binary of ‘Left vs Right’ and cannot be understood through a ‘strait-jacket’ approach. And it appears that the message has reached a cross-section of the Western world.

American Delegation

This American delegation that visited Nagpur comprised Bill Shuster, Bob Shuster, Bradford Ellison, Walter Russell Mead, and Bill Drexel. A look at their profiles explains the readiness of the Western world to look beyond the stereotypes regarding arguably the world’s largest voluntary organisation.

This story was originally published in moneycontrol.com. Read the full story here.