[ Dr Sunil Mohanty ]
As the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) enters its centenary year on Vijaya Dashami, 2 October 2025, Arunachal Pradesh, the far-easternmost frontier of Bharat, stands as a living testament to the sangh’s work in national integration and cultural empowerment.
This land of 26 major tribes, where snow-capped peaks guard the borders and rich traditions thrive, has witnessed the quiet but transformative journey of the RSS in nurturing a bond between local identity and national unity.
Founded by Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in 1925, the RSS began its Northeast outreach in 1946 with shakhas in Assam. But the sangh’s formal foothold in Arunachal emerged in 1990 with sangh yojna, when pracharaks from Vidarbha traversed rivers and mountains to sow the seeds of organisation, integration, and service. Indomitable pracharaks such as Sunil Kitkaru (Itanagar), Prasad Barve (Ziro), Vinay Tare (Pasighat) and Rajesh Deshkar (Changlang) braved the challenges of terrain and situation to build trust and relationships, rather than imposing ideas. As a result, during the 1992 Ayodhya Kar Seva, a group led by Lithom Nosi and Pidi Tayum from Arunachal participated, and by 1994, the first route march in Naharlagun led by vibhag karyavah Tai Tagak was attended by sarkaryavah HV Sheshadri.
In 2007, KS Sudarshan became the first sarsanghchalak to visit Arunachal. Two dedicated names – Gyamar Bapu and Rutum Kamgo – remain etched in collective memory for their pioneering sangh work.
Long before slogans like ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ were coined, the sangh initiated annual programmes such as ‘Bharat Mera Ghar’, connecting teachers, students, and families from Arunachal with communities across the country. In 2013, for example, 23 teachers from nine districts of Arunachal visited Maharashtra, returning with experiences that bridged geography and culture. In 2011, the first 20-day annual ‘Sangh Shikshan Varg’ in Nirjuli trained hundreds of young Arunachali swayamsevaks in discipline and ideological clarity, shaping activities rooted in tradition yet connected to a broader national vision.
Arunachal’s strategic location has also inspired patriotic initiatives. Programmes like ‘Sarhad Ko Pranam’ (2012) brought youths from other states to Arunachal’s border villages, and vice versa, walking for days beyond the last motorable roads to witness the life of local communities and security personnel. The Bharat Tibbat Sahyog Manch (BTSM), guided by local swayamsevaks, has been organising the Tawang Yatra since 2012 – a patriotic-spiritual journey honouring soldiers of the 1962 war, highlighting China’s unjustified claims on Arunachal, expressing solidarity with Tibet’s freedom movement, and showcasing the shared Buddhist-Himalayan heritage of Bharat and Tibet. The grand ‘Sarhad Ko Swaranjali’ programme at IG Park, Itanagar (2013) marked the 50th anniversary of the 1962 Sino-India War, where thousands sang Lata Mangeshkar’s ‘Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon’ and martyrs’ families, including Jaswant Singh Rawat’s 92-year-old mother, were honoured. At the 2016 historic ‘Arun Chetana Sammelan’ in Itanagar, sarsanghchalak Dr Mohan Bhagwat remarked, “China says it’s incomplete without Arunachal, but Arunachalis say with pride, we belong to Bharat.”
The sangh’s approach to Arunachal’s indigenous faiths has been one of reciprocity, not imposition. In 2016, Dr Bhagwat emphasised that indigenous faiths are the fountain source of all developed civilisations and organised religions, and preserving indigenous values and traditions is the duty of all. Today, indigenous gurukuls run by local elders teach tribal children their age-old rituals and practices, while the sangh and its affiliates converge with these movements to envision a self-reliant Bharat anchored in its original identity.
Education has been the central pillar of this vision. Around 33 Vidya Bharati schools, carrying traditional faith names such as Abotani, Donyi Polo, Rangfra, and Manjushree Vidya Niketans, operate even in remote villages. It has also empowered Arunachal society while organising matru sammelans, balika shivirs and sports meets where thousands participate. Inspired by the invitation of Lt Governor KAA Raja, Eknath Ranade, former RSS sarkaryavah and founder of Vivekananda Kendra, established the first Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalayas (VKVs) in 1977 in Kimin, Seijosa, Balijan, Sher, Oyan, Roing, Kharsang, and Jairampur. Today, the VKVAPT network runs 44 schools and one BEd college across Arunachal, educating over 14,300 students, including more than 3,600 hostellers. Seva Bharati manages service centres, coaching classes, and civil services training, and during the Covid-19 crisis, swayamsevaks provided relief kits, assisted stranded Arunachal students across the country, and reached areas beyond the reach of official agencies.
The Arunachal Vikas Parishad (AVP), an ideologically affiliated organisation, has also played a transformative role with presence of 2,000 villages. It runs 29 schools, including balwadis and has supported the higher education of over 500 Arunachali students through hostels of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram across Bharat. AVP organises health camps, sports events, and vocational training – blending education, tradition, and community development. After the 1962 Sino-India war, the SEIL (Students’ Experience in Inter-State Living) programme of the ABVP was started in 1965 as a catalyst to national integration.
From a handful of visiting pracharaks in the 1990s, the RSS in Arunachal has grown into a self-reliant movement led by local karyakartas, with increasing numbers of daily shakhas, weekly milans, and monthly mandals woven into the state’s social fabric. The centenary year preparation was marked by Dr Mohan Bhagwat’s four-day visit to Itanagar in February 2025, where he met 130 indigenous faith leaders and addressed a three-day camp attended by nearly 900 functionaries, reflecting a strong and rooted base.
As the RSS completes 100 years, Arunachal shines as a model of how national integration can flourish without diluting local identity. The sangh’s journey here demonstrates that unity and diversity are not contradictions but complements, nurtured through patience, service, and mutual respect. In the Land of the Rising Sun, the centenary is not merely an anniversary but a celebration of an ongoing journey – where a national organisation has walked alongside local communities, honouring traditions while strengthening their place in the nation, offering a beacon of inspiration for Bharat’s future. (The writer, presently Northeast kshetra prachar pramukh, RSS, has a PhD from JNU, and was a former assistant professor at the University of Delhi)
