Kolkata: Over 5,000 RSS shakhas were opened during a special 10-day drive across Bengal ending on Mahalaya, with many coming up in areas where the Sangh had no presence earlier, senior RSS functionaries said.RSS has planned a seven-day training session for the shakhas after Lakshmi Puja to make them livelier and more attractive to new members. Every district now has nearly 200 shakhas, the basic unit of the RSS organisation, with some having greater numbers. Till last year, each district had about 100 shakhas.“We conducted a special drive for 10 days, between Oct 1 and Oct 10, which was Mahalaya. Over 5,000 new shakhas were opened during this time,” said Biplab Roy, Dakshin Banga pranta prachar pramukh.Jisnu Basu, Purba Kshetra saha prachar pramukh, said the 10-day drive was part of the year-long centenary programme of the organisation. “Some shakhas have started with 5 or 6 people, some with 20/25 people. In Murshidabad and Malda, there are new shakhas with 50 or 60 people. We have received a very positive response,” said Basu, a senior functionary of RSS in Bengal, Odisha, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Sikkim.He said “Panchabindu”, or the five-point year-long programme, includes invoking nationalistic thoughts, laying stress on family systems of India, eradication of untouchability, conservation of environment and citizens’ responsibilities towards nation-building. It also includes outreaches to educated and respected figures in society.RSS functionaries said they did not want to tell the total number of shakhas in Bengal now, as many of the new shakhas could disintegrate later. “Not all units will survive. Many people have come with the hope of benefitting from the shakhas. They will leave once they realise that the shakhas are not places for making personal gains,” said an RSS functionary.Shakhas usually last for an hour every day with an 11-minute session of surya namaskar, physical exercise and drill a mandatory part of the everyday sessions. Merely coming together every morning may fail to encourage new members to come back every day after a few weeks, said senior functionaries. “Playing kabaddi and other Indian games will make the shakhas more interesting,” said Roy.Lathikhela, or the traditional stick-fighting, is a feature of many shakhas. “People practice stick-fighting with two kinds of sticks. Jashthi or kalari is the stick that is about an arm’s length. There is also danda, which is up to the height of one’s shoulders,” said a Sangh functionary.While shakhas are held daily, sessions held once a week are called milan, while monthly sessions are called mandali.
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