Nagpur: A nation is shaped not merely by its land and the people living on it but by its culture, collective aspirations and traditions, said Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Akhil Bharatiya Pracharak Pramukh Swant Ranjan at a national conference on Sangh literature at Vanamati auditorium in Nagpur on Saturday.




“Land and the people living there form the concept of a country. A nation takes shape through culture, collective desires and aspirations, and the foundation of traditions,” he said.




The conference, titled ‘Sangh Literature — A Comprehensive Stream of Thought, Poetry Stream — A Hundred Years of National Endeavour’, was organised by Sahitya Bharati , sponsored by Akhil Bharatiya Sahitya Parishad , as part of programmes marking the conclusion of RSS’s centenary year.




Ranjan spoke about the life and contribution of RSS founder Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and underlined the need to understand the Indian perspective on the idea of the nation. Referring to Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya ’s concept of ‘Chiti’, he said it had been described as the soul of the nation.




Ranjan explained the distinction between the concepts of country, nation and state. “RSS founder Dr Hedgewar and the RSS are inseparable. If one wants to know about Sangh, one has to study the life of Dr Hedgewar,” he said.




Akhil Bharatiya Sahitya Parishad general secretary Pawanputra Badal spoke about what he described as RSS’s 100-year intellectual journey, its emphasis on national consciousness and its contribution to literature. He also spoke about the organisation’s history and its participation in the freedom movement.




Badal said Sahitya Parishad had undertaken several initiatives across the country, including distribution of around 1,560 books, lectures on the theme ‘From Self-Awareness to World-Awareness’ and the ‘Kavya Dhara’ programme.




Representatives from different regions presented accounts of activities undertaken during RSS centenary year . Participants included representatives from Vidarbha, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Meerut, Assam, Awadh and Jharkhand.




The conference featured sessions on ‘Partition’ by Prof Suryaprasad Dixit of Uttar Pradesh, ‘Aur Desh Bant Gaya’ by Diwakar Hegde of Karnataka, ‘Seva Aapda’ by Prof Milin Jamatia of Tripura and ‘Panch Parivartan’ by Prof Swanand Gajanan Pund of Vidarbha.