RSS’ ‘Catch them young’ operation to sanskritise northeastern children

Keshav Dham, RSS’ office in Vrindavan, doubles up as a hostel for 52 children from the northestern states of India. They study at the Sangh-run Saraswati Vidyamandir Senior Secondary School where their medium of instruction is English. Alongside, they are all taught Sanskrit. In fact, though their conversational skills in Hindi is pretty barebone, all instructions were being given to them in Sanskrit.

National Herald’s Vishwadeepak spoke to a few of these children when they were planting the RSS flag in the field.

Angube from Assam said, “We have come here to become good citizens of India and to learn Sanskar.”

Karan from Meghalaya, 12 years old, said, “We are becoming Hindus here.”

Jutish from Tripura said, “Back home, education facilities were not adequate. Here I get to study for free. Also my food and boarding is taken care of.”

This is how RSS is trying to sanskritise young and impressionable minds who originally belong to a culture completely different from the Hindi heartland.

Interestingly, on September 1, 2010, the Supreme Court of India, in the case of ‘Exploitation of Children in Orphanages, State of Tamil Nadu vs UoI and Others’, concerning movement of children from one state to another, said: “The State of Manipur and Assam are directed to ensure that no child below the age of 12 years or those at primary school level are sent outside for pursuing education to other states until further orders.”