Cheery voices greeted guests as they drove into Ota Industrial Estate, Ogun State. Welcome to Indian Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh family retreat that celebrates global peace and nature. Paul Ukpabio and Evelyn Osagie report
Ota, a border town between Lagos and Ogun states, is home to various industries that produce household consumer brands. It is also blessed with an industrial estate that boasts of a residence for a small community of Indians.
The cloud was dark in Ota, Ogun State. The rain poured irregularly as if in a symphony, fast and then soft like a drizzle on the wet tarred, winding road leading to the security check point that keeps unwelcomed visitors away at the Ota Industrial Estate.
As one drives into the estate, some bungalows come within view, then the high rise buildings follow, well-architectured and in orderly fashion. As one approaches one of the flats, one is greeted by cheerful voices of men and women, some with their young children. They are members of the Indian Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh resident in the estate.
The Indian Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh is an organisation representated in 44 countries. Its members had gathered there for a family retreat.
“Our mission is to bring global harmony, peace, connectivity, and nature appreciation in the communities that we live in,” began Dr. Ram Vaidy, the group’s world joint coordinator, who flew into town to visit.
”We belong to the Hindu philosophy where our ancestors in India practise these same philosophies to the present day. It is our responsibility to bring these philosophies to the country where we are living in. So we believe that for the family to be sustainable, everybody should take care of the planet, we should always take care of each other, support the fight against terrorism and against exploitation,” he said.
According to him, its is a regular meeting for families. “The meeting is a family retreat where we come to know and understand the vision and mission and mechanism of our organisation. We call it a retreat. This retreat is for understanding our philosophy. We have four Shakha that is branches in Nigeria which meets weekly at weekends when families come together. When we meet we practice physical fitness, yoga, play some games and sing songs together. We also discuss issues and how to move communities forward and we celebrate some festivals together. Also important is that, we pray to Almighty that He should give strength to all of us. Our motto is that we achieve by our own efforts.”
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For the joint co-coordinator in Nigeria, Sanjay Srivastava, observed that “Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh is a way of life”. But what does the retreat involve? Srivastava explained that: “What we do when we meet is, we start with warm up exercise, yoga, we play traditional family home games whose main purpose is to get to know one another and bring harmony between us by encouraging strength building and bonding. We also sing songs about our struggles and about our leaders in history. We discuss issues in the society and we take views from everybody on how ills in the society can be solved. So in one hour meeting time, we have six activities that mean that we do not spend much time on each part of the programme. With these practices we build bonds, friendships, relationships, we increase our knowledge and intellectuality and the most important thing we do is character building.
“This is a branch of what we have in India. This is one organisation in India that has stood the test of time. It is presently over 90 years old. Founded in India in 1925, it is Indian’s oldest voluntary organisation and about the oldest in the world. It is an NGO known by the United Nations and popular with other organisations. But when we came out of India and spread all around the globe, we also spread the voluntary duties of the organisation. We have branches now in Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, UK, Australia and so on. You know Indians are known to love nature, low cost, good management, integrity, loyalty and so on. In 1947, our ancestors came to Kenya and they decided that they will start the Shakha that is a branch there like we have in India. That was achieved in 1947. So anyone coming from India could meet for a retreat there. That was the beginning of the group in Africa.” Taking part in the family retreats helps us so that when we go back to our organizations, we perform better. We work proactively; we work as better leaders, giving service to the people.”
Although Srivastava was not born into the group, he recounted his involvement with the group. “I joined when I was five years old. I saw a retreat like the one we had today, taking place near my house on a football playground. That was when I developed interest in learning about the group and taking interest in the games. From there I started and I have been in Nigeria now for 12 years. Six years ago, we had volunteers and we were able to restart here.”
Another Nigerian coordinator of the group Pushkraj Moghal, who was born into the group, disclosed that he has been a member right from India. “When I came to Nigeria, I became part of the organisation which was founded in Kenya, I believe in plurality since childhood, I believe that everybody should be treated equally,” adding that: ”As Hindus, we build our character; behave in a proper way, which in the end automatically means that society will behave in a proper way. At the end of the day, it boils down to Dharma which means duty. That is duty to the society. Everyone is supposed to come together irrespective of your religious belief. And do it for the betterment of each other. That is the Hindu way of life. We believe the whole world is a family. One family! We believe in family. Wherever we are born, we try to be the change within change in the society through character building. We do that by interaction, games, connecting ourselves, irrespective of our different followings, we are one. I lead the Nigerian chapter,” says Pushkraj, “which means that, I lead the team that works for this noble cause.”
During the visit, it was observed that members of the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh pray. When asked if the prayers indicate that the group is a religious organisation. Moghal said: “No,” was his immediate response. “It is not about religion but about humanity and sustainable development of mankind and we have many similarities between Nigeria and India. We have same kind of cultural and traditional way of life. It is that traditional way of life that encourages building of good character that our group is all about. And we also have a philanthropy aspect of it, whereby we donate books to schools and teach young people yoga; it makes them understand us better. It is beyond religion. It is basically for humanity, philosophy and culture. So any person from any religion can participate in it.”
Interestingly, according to him, the Indian Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh is also opened to Nigerians and other citizens wherever the group is located. “We have a few Nigerians in our group just like in Kenya. Our activities are attractive to Nigerians but they need to understand that we are ready and open so we have to communicate that to Nigerians because we are one family. There is no hierarchy, it is a family system. Like in family we have grandparents, parents, children and everybody has their own work to do.
“I enjoy eternal freedom. It doesn’t affect my religion. The group allows you to follow your religion, you are still accepted and I can follow mine too. We ensure that whatever we do, we do not hurt the other. That is what I like best. Presently, we have about 150 families here and about 40-50 families are in Northern Nigeria: About 25 to 30 families are in Abuja and perhaps 250 all over Nigeria. And together we try to connect with Nigerian brothers and sisters. We are going to increase the number of families to ensure that society gets better and better. Just like we say, it is a way of life for us,” he said.
To the youth, Srivastava said: “The whole world is going through some transitions now and we cannot just say that the government must be responsible for everything. It is our responsibility to bring about the change in the society wherever we are living in. When we become proactive and assertive to bring about the change in the society, the first thing is to bring about the change in our lives. The youths should not be spectators but be involved.”
‘As Hindus, we build our character; behave in a proper way, which in the end automatically means that society will behave in a proper way’
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