Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat has said after the 1947 Partition, the people who came to India were not refugees, but ‘warriors of struggle’ who endured significant hardships and pain out of love for their motherland and dharma.
These people left behind their wealth, land and businesses built and nurtured through several generations in the newly-created Pakistan and chose to come to India, he noted.
Bhagwat was addressing a gathering at the 75th Foundation Day programme of the Sindhu Education Society, an organisation run by the Sindhi community, in Nagpur on 1 July.
The RSS chief said post-Partition, people consciously decided to come to India from the other side, because they wanted to live in the land which is Bharat, where they can follow their religion without fear.
“They were not refugees, though they were displaced it was a wrong term used for them at that time. They were warriors (Sangharrath Yodha) who struggled out of love for their motherland, out of love for their faith. They lost a battle, not because of their own faults alone,” said Bhagwat, the sixth and current Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"We, all of us, lost that battle to keep India united. But what did they choose? They did not choose a career, they did not choose wealth. They chose the country, they chose their faith Dharma)," asserted Bhagwat.
The RSS chief referred to the Sindhu Education Society's 75 years of journey said such milestones provide an opportunity to review the work done by an institution and remember its goals.
Speaking about life's hardships, he insisted one should not give up in face of adverse circumstances, but instead strive to rise again.
"One should not become helpless before circumstances or fate. A person who makes efforts (to come out of difficult times) is the one who ultimately succeeds, while the one who runs away from difficulties has already accepted defeat," Bhagwat told the gathering.
He said while acquiring education for employment is important, it should not be the ultimate goal.
'Value-based education from teachers'
Value-based education is necessary to develop the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Such education does not come only from textbooks, but also from the conduct of teachers and the values they instil in students, Bhagwat emphasised.
A person who makes efforts is the one who ultimately succeeds, while the one who runs away from difficulties has already accepted defeat.
He concluded by saying that the real purpose of education is to create good human beings and a generation that is aware of the welfare of society.
