Shillong (Meghalya)

“We have always been one. When we forget that, we lose our freedom, so we must ensure that we become one.” These remarks came from RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat as he addressed a gathering of scholars, educationist, spiritual leaders and citizen in Shillong on the first days of his visit to the northeastern state of Meghalya.

"India's unity is its strength. It is important to be proud of the diversity India boasts of. The invaders saw this (diversity) differently. The world thinks that we are different and hence we are separate whereas India says Unity in Diversity.”

The leader of the world’s largest body of volunteers engaged in social and cultural renaissance of India has of late as taken to working openly to address the social fault lines of India mainly the frayed Hindu-Muslim relations. His outreach to Muslims to start a dialouge between two major communities of India has been appreciated across the board.

This is the first visit of Bhagwat to the state.

RSS Sarsanchalak Mohan Bhagwat being presented momento in Shillong

Referring to India’s diversity, Bhagwat said, “This is India’s specialty and it has been so since ages. We have been one always. When we forget this, we lost our independence. Hence, we must make sure that we become one and make our country stronger and more self-reliant. We all have to work for this Unity.”

Bhagwat spoke about the Sangh founder Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar’s life. He said once while Hedgewar was being sentenced in a case of opposing the British colonial rule in India, the judge who was hearing thecase said Dr Hedgewar's deposition in the court was all the more seditious than his original speech for which he was being tried.

Bhagwat said “we are an ancient nation since time immemorial, but due to forgetting our civilizational motto and values, we lost our freedom. Our binding force among one another is our inherent faith in our age-old value which lies in spirituality.”

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He said these values of our ancient civilization had been named ”Hindutva” by people outside our country. “We are Hindus, but there is no particular definition of Hindu, although it's our identity.  Both the terms Bharatiya and Hindu are synonyms. It is a geo-cultural identity.”