India must bring tribal communities into mainstream of development: RSS chief | Mumbai News
4 min readMumbaiMay 3, 2026 08:32 AM IST
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Saturday said that given the current turmoil and global upheaval, only a strong and resilient India can become the foundation of the world. To achieve this, India must take all communities along and bring tribal communities into the mainstream of development.
Bhagwat said that for years, the tribal community has preserved our culture and has given us so much. This nature is the hallmark of India’s eternal culture, and the tribal people have preserved this tendency to work for the welfare of all. He said that it is the nature of Bharat. “Today, what we commonly know as Hindu society, lived here for thousands of years under different names, had this nature from infinite (Sanatan) time. For many reasons, be it our ignorance or attacks from foreign powers, people who preserved this nature faced problems. Foreign powers realised that this nature is a secret of our society’s immortality and they destroyed people of this nature,” said Bhagwat.
He was speaking at the Karmayogi Ekal Shikshak Mela organised by Laxmanrao Mankar Smriti Sanstha, which functions under the guidance of Union minister Nitin Gadkari. The RSS chief added that dedicating life to the development and education of neglected communities will make the country stronger. “It will make our Bharat stand stronger. It is only Bharat which can balance the already struggling world order,” he said.
He said that service is not a favour; it is our duty; it is a work of self-development. This is what makes us human. He said that spreading education in the tribal community is a work done with compassion, and is possible not through kindness but through hardwork. It is the nature of our Indian land to suffer for the sake of others. This nature has existed in Hindu society since ancient times.
Bhagwat added, “This nature of Bharat is preserved by tribals or those whom we call SC or ST…we try to bring them into the mainstream of development. But the real mainstream of the country is with them. We so-called urban, educated people have shifted from there. It is our need to join that mainstream and to make that happen we have to bring them to the mainstream of development.”
The RSS chief said that the identity of these people (tribals) is equivalent to that of our country’s and existence cannot survive without identity. The RSS chief cited a story of Bhakta Pralhad where the loss of identity leads to the losing of power, aura and money. Bhagwat said that today, tribal people do not have the facilities that are generally available to the people of the country. Without bringing them into the mainstream of the country, society cannot develop, and for that, we must learn from them. Our culture is rooted in the forests. The Vedas were composed there. Identity lies there, and without it, the country cannot exist.
Gadkari said that there is a need to change the definition of politics. Politics is no longer about power politics or gaining power. Politics now means development and social service. He emphasised that to change the country, there is a need to increase the number of karmayogis, i.e., people who work for the development of the backward and exploited sections of society.
