Akhil Bhartiya Karyakarta Sammelan.
Credit: X/@abvkaorg
New Delhi: Like Sanatani traditions, Vanvasi too has a deep rooted history in the country, said Satyendra Singh, chief of the RSS affiliate tribal body, Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, on Sunday.
Singh was speaking at the three-day-long workers meet, Akhil Bhartiya Karyakarta Sammelan, in the presence of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and others at Haryana’s Samalkha.
“All of us have our roots in the forests. The Vanvasi (forest-based) society has also played an important role in creating the ancient Vedas.
"The festivals and worship methods of all the tribal societies are similar to the Sanatani tradition, the meaning of which is the same,” Singh said at the gathering. He added that the differentiation between tribal communities and others was a “gift” from the British.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat asked the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram to expedite its work across the country. “We may have several challenges but we should not be afraid of the problems, every problem offers a solution,” he said.
The RSS and the BJP’s nomenclature for tribal communities – Vanvasi – has been a focus of critique of the Opposition with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accusing the BJP-RSS combine of relegating them to being just ‘Vanvasi’ (forest-dwellers) instead of ‘Aadivasi’ (first dwellers).
Among the more than 2,000 representatives that congregated for the triennial event, tribal leaders came from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Nepal and even Nagaland.
Among the attendees was Rajkishore Hansda from poll-bound Jharkhand’s Santhal Pargana region who spoke about “love jihad” and “land jihad” in tribal areas.
Thumbai Zeliang from Nagaland spoke about conversions of tribals to Christianity. Ramnath Kashyap from Chhattisgarh spoke about Maoism in the Bastar region where he said the fundamental rights of the tribal community were being compromised.