A two-day Vishwa Mangalya Sabha meeting brought women together to discuss motherhood, changing social realities and the preservation of India’s family system.
File Photo: IANS
Parents must devote more time to explaining decisions and answering questions instead of expecting unquestioning obedience, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has said, as he raised concern over diminishing communication within Indian families.
Bhagwat said young people now seek reasons behind what they are told. Families must respond with affection, patience and meaningful engagement to preserve trust between generations, he added.
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“When we were young, it was an era of obedience. That’s not the case anymore. The new generation asks questions. We have to explain the reasoning to them,” Bhagwat said.
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“We need to give them a lot of affection. We need to spend time with them. We need to communicate with them. Nowadays, conversation has stopped even within families.”
The RSS chief was addressing the concluding session of a two-day Vishwa Mangalya Sabha meeting on “Contemporary Motherhood” at the Dr Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi.
Bhagwat said parents should answer their children’s questions patiently and continue expanding their own knowledge.
He also urged adults to lead by example, arguing that children absorb more from the conduct they observe at home than from verbal instructions.
Stronger communication within households was essential for sustaining family relationships and helping younger people understand the reasoning behind values and traditions, he said.
Turning to the central theme of the programme, Bhagwat described motherhood as indispensable to the creation, care and continuity of human life.
“The creation, nurturing and continuity of life are impossible without motherhood,” he said.
A mother is a child’s first teacher and remains a powerful source of emotional strength throughout life, Bhagwat added. While human beings possess the ability to think, he said, mothers play a crucial role in directing that thought.
Bhagwat acknowledged that inviting a man to speak about motherhood presented “a paradox” because the experience naturally belongs to women.
He referred to the writings of Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore while discussing the place of motherhood in society.
The RSS chief also urged families to retain confidence in India’s cultural heritage, historical knowledge and social institutions.
He described unity amid diversity as central to the Indian worldview and cautioned against adopting lifestyles without examining their effect on family and social relationships.
Bhagwat said misconceptions surrounding Indian traditions should not weaken confidence in the country’s civilisational foundations.
The Vishwa Mangalya Sabha held the meeting on July 23 and 24 under the theme “Nation Building through Motherhood”.
Around 280 women from different parts of the country participated in deliberations on contemporary motherhood, changing social conditions and the role of mothers in preserving the family system.
More than 900 women leaders and other participants attended the concluding session. Organisers said between 2,000 and 2,500 women had registered for the dialogue.
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