As tennis players and judokas practise their art and some joggers do their rounds on the lush green grounds of the Noida stadium, some two dozen men are huddled in a corner. It looks like a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) shakha because there is a saffron flag tied to a pole, and the men are singing the RSS anthem. However, it may not be an RSS morning-meet, because the men are in their 30s and are not donning the uniform of white shirts and khaki shorts. In fact, they are dressed in denims and sports shoes that look imported. What’s more, some are sporting T-shirts with the names of their multinational employers on the back.

It turns out, this is a post-liberalisation, yuppie-friendly version of shakha, called ‘IT milan’ or a get-together of tech professionals, clarifies the ‘in-charge’, Mahesh Babbar, a software engineer working for a multinational firm.

It is one of the many such get-togethers being organised in the capital and its adjoining regions of Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurgaon, he explains.

The RSS has been facing a stiff challenge over the past decade or so, as its supporter base is reducing, hurting the spread of its ideology. Go to a shakha, and you will usually find people well into their 50s if not altogether pensioners, badly in need of some weight management.

Missing is the new generation. People in their 20s and 30s seem to be too busy following their careers and ambitions to find any time for attending shakhas even if some of them have a leaning towards the Hindu nationalist ideology.

Thus, many shakhas in various places had to be shut down as no freshers were coming in while old-timers were not able to convince youngsters in their families and neighbourhoods to continue the tradition.

The RSS top leadership held several brainstorming sessions, and decided that special, custom-made sessions must be designed to suit the needs of the new generation. That is how the first ‘IT Milan’ was organised about three years back.

In Noida and Gurgaon, as well as in Bangalore, Hyderabad and elsewhere, young IT professionals and management executives were contacted through the internet and by personal persuasion to meet up and discuss issues of nation-building. But it wasn’t easy to make them come to the regular shakhas, both due to time constraints as well as the generational gap. So, IT Milans were launched especially on weekends in community halls, playgrounds or the living rooms of RSS activists. While traditional shakhas hold meetings every day, the new-age version meets weekly.

Thus, more and more IT Milans are being organised, though not in a big way. Currently, there are 41 IT Milans in Delhi, 10 in Ghaziabad, and four in Faridabad. Gurgaon and Noida have another two dozen. In Hyderabad the number had touched 40 while it was nearly 50 in Bangalore in mid-2012. The total number across the country is over 300.

RSS prachar pramukh, or publicity head, Manmohan Vaidya says though the leadership is satisfied with the feedback from the IT shakhas, the potential of the young professionals is unlimited and much more can be done to channelise their talent into nation-building.

Coming back the Noida stadium, the swayamsewaks have just finished the games-and-exercises part, and now it is time for the ‘bauddhik’ or the brainstorming session. At this point seven professionals walk in, and two of them have come to such a meeting for the first time.

Among the newcomers, Anand Pimparkar, a software engineer, hails from RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s own village, Chandrapur in Maharashtra, and has learnt about the IT Milan from a colleague. It is obvious that they are not too keen on the physical session. The meeting in-charge doesn’t want to force them into it – unlike in a shakha it is mandatory.

The subject of discussion today is the suspension of the young IAS officer, Durga Nagpal, who took on the sand mafia of Greater Noida. Everyone agrees that a social media group should be created right away to spread the message that the whole country is with the suspended officer. What is noticeable is that the discussion is laced with corporate jargon and examples drawn from the west, where nearly half of this lot have had professional stints.

Yuvraj Bhatnagar, the co-in-charge of this Milan, has spent five years in the US. He is now a senior HR manager in a German IT company and has submitted a detailed proposal to the RSS top brass on how to increase the intake of the Sangh. Mukul Kumar, who started this milan in Noida and has now started a second one too, is sure that the ideas for spreading the nationalist ideology among their colleagues must come from them, not from some pracharaks who are oblivious to the challenges and aspirations of this new world.

As the trend catches on, the old-timers resent the changes and laxity in matters of discipline. The old guard also dislikes professionals’ go-getter methods of contacting the RSS top leadership directly, bypassing the local functionaries.

To tide over these and other generational issues, a special meet of the Sangh bigwigs was held in Bangalore. It was felt that these lateral entries were a challenge since they put up too many questions and queries. The shakha in-charges who are trained to teach youngsters, mostly from RSS-inclined families were ill-equipped to answer these suave, foreign-returned, inquisitive and argumentative professionals. The RSS will now have to work at smooth transition and evolution of the shakha structure.

Meanwhile, in an experiment to reach out to young professionals, ‘vistaaraks’ are being trained. They would devote their weekends to the Sangh while pursuing their professional responsibilities during the week says Bhatnagar. Social media is also being harnessed in a big way. As Pimparkar says, “There are lakhs of professionals like me who feel inclined to the RSS ideology but have new-age lifestyles and professional commitments. If the RSS is ready to adapt itself to our world, we are more than willing to work the Sangh.”

(This story appeared in the November 16-30, 2013 issue of the print magazine)