Adarniya Bandhuwar,
Sadar Namaskar.
Hope, you are in the best of health and sprites. Those who are in India, might have read the news items and some coverage of the "Hindu Sangam", organised in Jhabuwa on 17 January 2002 by Sewa Bharati Madhya Bharat, Bhopal with the co-operation and good wishes of our sister organizations. The aim of the Hindu Samgam was to awaken and make the Tribal aware of the tenets and philosophy Hindu Religion.
In Jhabua and Dhar Districts, Tribal comprise about 85% of the total population, from where more than 2 Lakhs of them participated in the Hindu Sangam. Sewa Bharati started its activity at about 5 years back with a single OTS (One Teacher One School). The seed, thus planted, has grown in to a full big tree, extending its branches in to 350 OTS, Typing, Sewing, embroidery and Computer Training and Health Centers into other scores of activities, such as Bhajan Mandlies, Mahila Small Savings Schemes and so on.
Behind the success of Hindu Sangam is the devotion and hard work of 350 Ekal Vidyalayas, and 250 whole time workers of Sewa Bharati. They traveled continuously to practically every village for 3 months and visited about 3 Lakhs 25 thousand families and established a place of worship by putting a photo of Bajrangbali (Shri Hanumanji). They also taught them how to worship and also made them learn and sing Bhajans. In this Yagya of awakening another 3500 workers also participated for one week and helped garlanding 28 Lakhs Tribals with lockets of Hanumanji. Similarly, Bhagwa (Saffrom) flags were also hoisted on practically each in every Tribal house. All these activities were performed with the expressed desire and willingness of the head of the household.
Last year, during the Ganesh Festival, about 1,500 Ganesh statues where installed in number of villages and on the festival of Ganesh Chaturthy processions were organized in which large number of tribals are participated.
The Hindu Sangam was organized on 17th January 2002, at Jhabua (M.P.). Manniya Shri Sudarshanji, Sadhvi Ritumbhara, her Guru Swami Paramanand ji, and large number of Dharma Guru's of Tribals were present at the time of this great gathering. They addressed the gathering of more than 2 lakhs Tribals and exhorted them to abandon superstition, drinking and other habits, which are against the Hindu Dharma. The gathering, in agreement time and again encouraged the speakers by shouting slogans such as "Jai Shri Ram, Jai Hanuman, and Keshav ki jai jai - Madhav ki jai jai," etc. The patriotic feeling was also quite evident as the slogan Jai Bharat Mata ki was also frequently heard from the crowed.
The program was organized on a 52 Acres land. It was barricaded and divided into number of blocks. Each block had the capacity to seat 5000 persons. 4 Lakh, 500 ml drinking water pouches were arranged and each block was provided with the sufficient number of pouches before hand.
Since most of the Tribal came on foot from far off villages, as such arrangement of their night stay was made outside the city, a day before itself. They are provided with meals and other facilities for their stay in the night. On the morning of 17th January, after breakfast each one of them were given packed lunch for the day in advance. 3 lakhs of lunch packets and 28 thousand garlands were received from Indore for the congregation's lunch and welcome. The local residence and businessmen had also opened counters to provide free breakfast, lunch and water etc.
The whole environment in and around Jhabua was pervaded with the enchantment of the slogans in praise of Shri Ram, Shri Hanuman and Bharat Mata. The whole city was full of saffron flags. The local residents had cleaned the roads, sprinkled them with water and decorated their home with beautiful designs of Rangoli. They also decorated the streets with the paintings and the cutouts of Shri Ram and Shri Hanuman.
Tribals came into Sangam site in-groups singing the Bhajans, and dancing with their traditional attire with the accompaniment of musical instruments.
A fifteen-ft high huge dais was made for the Sadhus, Saints and Tribal Gurus. The organizers welcomed them by the traditional embrace and washing their feet and putting Tilak on their forehead. From the dais, to the extent the sight went, there looked only the unlimited sea of humanity. During the program there was a continuous showering of petals on the participants by the aeroplane.
It was probably for the first time in the history of Madhya Pradesh, that such a large religious congregation of the tribals took place. In the beginning the administration was extremely skeptical about the law and order situation. However, when they saw the sincerity and the honesty of the Swemsevaks, they practically withdrew from the scene and just became on lookers. The entire management and the control of the traffic etc, thus fell onto the shoulders of our devoted Swemsevaks. They discharged their this duty also most successfully. The success of the Sangam can be gauged from the fact that there was not a single untoward incident of any kind and tension whatsoever during the entire program.
The entire local, provincial and all India newspapers gave a very encouraging and factual coverage to the occasion.
With kind regards and best wishes.
Yours truly,
Vishnu Kumar