Segment 1 preceded by disclaimer, sponsor's advertisement, special thanks, initial credentials, introductory video and cinematic video song- (Tu hi sab kuch…)
This is the story of such an organization that has achieved consistent growth for the last 69 years and has been working in Indian Education Sector, promoting nationalistic Student Activism, to achieve its goal of national reconstruction. The very fact that this organization has an ever expanding base, ever growing support of the student community in its favor without any deviation from its core ideology has inspired this documentary-team to delve deeper into the factors that makes this happen: the organizational structure and work culture of ABVP. After doing extensive research on the work culture of ABVP, the team came to know about a group of dedicated full time workers who are so much devoted to the cause of this organization that they have dedicated their whole lives for it. These workers form the backbone of this organization. Inside the ABVP and its affiliates, these full timers are popularly known as ‘Organizing Secretary’ or ‘Sangathan Mantri’. Before independence, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, popularly known as the RSS, the principal body of ABVP, started to function in 1925. After few years of functioning, the volunteers of the organization went to distant parts of the country for pursuing education etc, where they got heavily engaged in its activities and started to build up the organization. This way the organization made practical plans and created a pool of dedicated volunteers who were ready to devote their lives renouncing their family, career and personal life for the greater national cause, in spite of having sufficient intellectual and physical prowess. These full time dedicated volunteers came to be known as Pracharaks. Later, this concept was replicated by the organizations run and inspired by the RSS, including the ABVP, where they are known as the Poornakaliks or the full-time workers of the organization. In our society, people who renounce their personal interests for the greater good of the society are considered as saints. And when people of saintly tendencies are extant in the society, normal people get influenced to spend their lives according to the principles of Dharma or Righteousness. And when the common man starts treading the path of the saints, dharmic or righteous principles get ingrained in the society as a result of which the society starts adapting to change according to the needs of time without deviating from the path of Dharma or righteousness. To know more about them, their state of mind, what kind of work they do, what kind of a life they live, what inspires them to lead such lives- we met and interacted few of them and this documentary is the result of this inquisitive exercise. While interacting with them we got to understand their philosophy behind all this, an extract of which is; that this practice of ABVP is very much related to India’s ancient tradition of Sanyas or renunciation of worldly desires, in a modern way in modern times giving them the title of modern sanyasis.
Followed by Prof. Milind Marathe and Manoj Kant ji interview.
To know more about how the family members of a Poornakalik react when they come to know about their decision to become a Poornakalik, we travelled to the village of Madhopur, in Kushinagar District of Uttar Pradesh and visited Sri Manoj Kant‘s house to know more about him, who happens to be a Poornakalik of ABVP, for the last 26 years. What were his childhood inclinations? What kind of a student was he? When did he first express his desire to become a Poornakalik? What type of relation does he shares with his family after leaving his house? And how did things work up?
Followed by Manoj Kant ji’s family interview.
Contrast to this (Ahmad Sheikh interview)-
But not every Poornakalik is as lucky as Sri Manoj Kant, in terms of family support. Some Poornakaliks have to face wide opposition from their family members when they express their desire to become Poornakalik. The members of their families believe that at an age when they should start earning and share the financial burdens of the family, becoming a Poornakalik is similar to renouncing life; they cannot digest the fact that their relatives have chosen such a hard and unusual path in their lives. One such example is that of Ahmed Sheikh from Maharashtra, who had to face opposition from his own family members and community when he was working as a Poornakalik. In his case the decision was opposed in the pretext of religious prejudices.
Followed by Ahmed ji interview and Shreehari Ji explanation.
Marriage part-
One interesting and peculiar feature of these full time workers is that they are not allowed to marry till the time they serve as a Sangathan Mantri in the organization, so in those cases where they give their whole life as a Poornkaalik, they remain unmarried- life long ! Few people question the decision of a Poornakalik of not getting married throughout, and thus, they believe it’s an easy outlet to run away from the responsibilities of nurturing a family. When asked about this query, Sri Manoj Kant explained in his own words citing the example of a Director of an institute. The Director of an institute does not perform the job of a clerk, despite knowing the importance of the clerical job behind the daily functioning of an institute, since his vision gets broadened, so much so that he cannot spare time behind indispensable trivialities. Similarly the vision of a Poornakalik is broader in horizon and although he works for the reinforcement and consolidation of social institutions like marriage in the society, he himself does not participate in them. And thus it becomes a liability of the Poornakalik to explain to his family that service for the nation is primary to him than pursuing his own personal ends.
Followed by Prof. Milind Marathe, Praveen Ji and Saket Ji Interview.
When we inquired some of them about the forces which inspire them to lead such a life, the answer they gave may be incredulous to a majority of the people because contrary to the goals that common men pursue, i.e. power, fame, money, etc; these Poornakaliks derive their inspiration from their prominent inspirational figures, first is the nation or Rashtra itself and second is Swami Vivekananda: his dreams, aspirations and vision for the nation and its youth. Driven by the same vision and goal, the Poornakaliks work with the same mindset. It is expected from a Poornakalik to remember that this is not just another organization in the society but an organization of the society. Poornakaliks must act like a catalyst and their work must be catalytic towards achieving the greater goals. It is expected of them to have a composed behavior. They must have patience and perseverance, wear simple clothes and maintain nominal relations with everyone. They are expected to change their behavior as per the needs of the organization. A Poornakalik should live a simple life and should not have an extraordinary lifestyle.
Now let’s hear to Sri Sunil Ambekar who is heading the organization as its National Organizing Secretary, to understand how the mindset, with which he works, helps him to direct millions of volunteers associated with the organization, has developed overtime.
Followed by Sunil ji and Vinay Ji interview
National Reconstruction is the organization’s primary objective. The organization believes that the nation can only be reconstructed by undertaking massive character building measures and by inculcating cultural values at individual level. To maintain the health of the society it’s imperative that some people must develop saintly tendencies, so that even the common man gets inspired to lead a life full of principles thus establishing the principled way of life in the society. Therefore the majority of the activities driven by such ideology and mindset is aimed primarily at character building. Such individuals develop a character that helps them to improvise the exercise of nation rebuilding. Poornakaliks should have an untainted character which can create an atmosphere of faith in the society and anyone who comes in contact with them should get inspired to lead a life in his or her way. Poornakaliks should strive towards cultivating disciplined volunteers so that the organization’s work continues even in their absence. The organization works in a very scientific way. The Poornakaliks, who are expected to command a very inspiring character, leave an impressive mark on the students on their first meeting. In order to convert this good impression into active will to get the students involved with the organization, the Poornakaliks try to share as much responsibility, which may include any activity for an event of ABVP or other kind of social activity, on everyone, so that the successful completion of the activity boosts the morale of the student and motivates him to embrace the organization with increased vigor. In this way he gets more and more committed towards the ideology and the organization. His dedication increases and he starts spending more and more time in the activities of the organization, which nurtures a predilection in him to embrace the life of a Poornakalik. A consistency in the increase in the number of Poornakaliks has been maintained in the organization, which defines the success rate of ABVP, its ideology and its work culture. It displays the inner strength of this movement which can be compared to that of an iceberg.
Let’s hear out to some of them.
Followed by Shri Niwas ji, Shreehari ji, Nikhil ji, Nikhra ji and Saket ji interview
Guwahati Office Segment
Being a society dependent organization the expenses of the organization and Poornakaliks are borne by the local communities or largely the society in which they work. They donate money trusting the credibility of the organization which it has built throughout the years and secondly the source of donations come from the chain of ex-workers of the organization who are now holding good positions in the society. The income and expenses are accounted for and goes through various levels of internal assessment for transparency. In this way all the basic expenses of a Poornakalik like food, clothes and travelling are borne. Poornakaliks are expected to lead their daily lives with bare minimum materials required. Even materials acquired as gifts are informed about, and if is something unnecessary, it is given to any needy volunteer or person. To see what kind of life they lead, we visited one their offices in Guwahati, which happens to be the state head office of ABVP Assam. The offices of ABVP also serve the residential purpose for these Poornkaaliks or some other needy students volunteering for ABVP from where they keep continuing their studies apart from getting involved in day to day activities of the organization. Here we saw that these Poornkaaliks live a life of utmost simplicity without an ounce of lavishness; whereby they fulfill their daily chores mostly by themselves. The same person, Sri Shreehari Borikar, who has had held a responsibility as important as the National General Secretary of such a humongous organisation and who wields a huge influence in the society was found washing his own utensils and wiping the floor. This level of simplicity awed and inspired us to a huge extent.
Spoken simultaneously with Guwahati office visuals.
Physical Challenges-
But every Poornakalik is not privileged enough to have an office as decent as the one in Guwahati. Some of the offices do not even have basic amenities and in some places they do not even have an office to dwell. There they suffer from the lack of bare necessities like food, shelter and money. But the Poornakalik never discuss these hardships out in the open because they choose this life voluntarily knowing about all these hardships which are trivial in comparison to the national cause.
Followed by Vinay ji, Shreehari ji, Nikhil ji and Manjunath ji interview.
Female Experience
But female Poornakaliks do not live in the same common office; rather they reside with the families of the sympathizers of the organization in that locality or city. In this case it becomes the responsibility of other volunteers of the area to ensure that they maintain family-like relations with that house.
Followed by Prof. Milind Marathe and Shubhangi ji interview.
Violence Part (Highlights-Kerala and North-East)
Monetary and environmental challenges are not the only ones that the ABVP volunteers have to face, at times and in certain places even their lives are threatened because of political, religious and ideological hostility. For example in places like Kannur in Kerala because of ideological differences a series of attacks have been mounted on ABVP and RSS volunteers where many of them have succumbed to their injuries.
Followed by Nidheesh ji and Nikhra ji interview.
Andhra and Telangana Anti-Naxal Movement-
In the decades of 80s and 90s, naxalism started spreading like a creeper in the college campuses of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, taking advantage of the poverty and backwardness of the region. To prevent the situation from getting exacerbated and to stop the further alienation of the youth of these regions from the mainstream, ABVP put up strong resistance against the naxals in the college campuses. But the naxalites, whose core ideology revolves around violence, resorted to the use of force and as a result of which around 46 ABVP volunteers had to lay down their lives. It was Late Sri Yechuri Sriniwas, on whom the first lethal attack was mounded in the year 1981 and was mercilessly murdered in cold blood by the ultra-left groups, which marked the beginning of the blood rivalry between the ultra left and the right winged ABVP. But this did not deter the volunteers to continue their work and resist the naxals. Their arduous efforts and unwavering commitment to the nation led to the emancipation of the campuses in these regions from the grip of the naxal ideology. When we visited the ABVP office in Hyderabad, we came across a wall dedicated to the martyrs that contains the pictures and names of all the volunteers who laid their lives, including many of the fulltime workers during this movement, while fighting the vicious grip of naxalism in the college campuses. This wall acts as a memoir and reminisces the sacrifice of the ABVP volunteers. As said that the tree of freedom can only be nurtured with the blood of the martyr; similarly this memoir has influenced thousands of students to work for the nation selflessly without any attachment.
Spoken simultaneously with Hyderabad office visuals.
Martyr Volunteer Family-
One such volunteer was Late Sama Jaganmohan Reddy, who was murdered by the same forces and in a ghastly attack by the left, he was killed at the time when he was about to appear for the interview for the selection in UPSC after qualifying his main exams. His guilt was to only stand up as a witness in the court against the naxalites who opposed the hoisting of the tricolor on 26th January, 1980 in his college campus in Warangal. We got an opportunity to interact with his sister, which we have used to share her pains with you to know how his family thinks about the sacrifice of their beloved.
Followed by Lt. Sama Jaganmohan Reddy’s sister interview.
In the words of the 2nd Sarsanghchalak of RSS, Guruji Golwalkar, the reason behind youths devoting their time for the nation is that we offer fresh and not dead flowers to the goddess, in temples; similarly in the altar of national reconstruction only the best should be offered to Bharat Mata and youths are like fresh flowers who can reinvigorate the nation with the most potent time of their lives. The majority of the Poornakaliks work for a limited period of years after which they renounce this life and join the society as normal members. But when they rejoin the society they suffer from challenges of re-establishing themselves in the society since they had had sacrificed the prime years of their lives. It’s a brave decision took by a common student because in spite of knowing the consequences of sacrificing the golden years of their lives, they take this decision. But in the words of Vijay Shukla, the experience that a Poornakalik gathers during these years mitigates if not compensates for those devoted years and helps him/her re-establish themselves easily and effectively.
Followed by Prof. Milind Marathe and Vijay Shukla ji interview.
ABVP is considered as a permanent organization of floating population. This is because in its 70 years history, it has enriched the life experience of thousands of students which can be known by interacting with them. The organization has developed like a tree which nurtures and shelters humanity with embracing hands, keeping nothing for itself. Most of the famous institutions often showoff members of their alumni who have achieved fame in life, keeping this in mind if ABVP is considered an institution and its ex-members its alumni, then its alumni is spread across all the limbs and faculties of the Indian Democracy. Whether it’s the executive, the bureaucracy, the Union Cabinet or other fields like media, corporate-business world, academicians, artists etc.; ABVP members are indispensable parts of all the limbs of the Indian Democracy.
Let’s have a look at what people from different strata of life think of ABVP.
Followed by various interviews (Manoj ji, Dharampal ji, Shreehari ji, Nirmal Singh ji, Sushil Modi ji, Saket ji, Monika ji, Prof. MK Awasthi, Prof. Varadraj Bapat, Akshay Jajoo, Suyash Tripathi, Ayush Krishna, Manvendra Singh, Nishigandha Paniphukan, Shivendra Singh, Gaurav Singh and Krishna Kant Jain).
Closing Lines–
Being a Poornakalik is an oath of perseverance and the only way in which one can succeed in it is by doing it with joy. The Poornakaliks spend their lives behind the curtains; they fight their wars in the shadows without boasting about the sacrifices they have made and, during the making of this film, some of them literally declined to speak about themselves on the camera!
Followed By Major Achievements And Movie Credentials.