What Is RSS

RSS as the name suggest is राष्ट्रीय स्वयं सेवक संघ  (Rashtriya Swyam Sevak Sangh), which can be translated National Volunteers Organization. It has an organizational constitution. The RSS was founded on Vijayadasami Day, 27 September 1925 as a social organization by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, who was a doctor in the city of Nagpur. It is a non-political organization.

Mission:

In the words Golwalkar who was third Sarsanghsanchalalal (head) of RSS the mission of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as the revitalisation of the Indian value system based on universalism and peace and prosperity to all. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम), the worldview that the whole world is one family, propounded by the ancient thinkers of India, is considered as the ultimate mission of the organisation

During Partition

RSS has always worked towards nation building; its first major contribution in nation building was during partition in 1947. Noted Gandhian and recipient of the highest civilian award in India, Bharat Ratna, Bhagwan Das commended the role of the "high-spirited and self-sacrificing boys" of the RSS in protecting the newly formed Republic of India, from a planned coup to topple the Jawaharlal Nehru Administration in Delhi.

Dadra and Nagar Haveli

After the independence of India, RSS was one of the socio-political organisations who supported and participated in movements to decolonise Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which was at the time ruled by Portuguese colonists.

Support to government during wars with China and Pakistan:

Whenever there was a national crisis RSS was at the forefront to help the governments of the day without any bias towards any political party.

The RSS was invited by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to take part in the Republic Day parade of 1963 in recognition of its volunteer work during the Sino-Indian War in 1962.

During Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri requested RSS cadres to help control traffic in Delhi, so policemen could be freed for defence duties.

In 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence, RSS volunteers offered their services to maintain law and order of the country and were apparently the first to donate blood.

Service During Calamities

Whenever there is a calamity RSS cadres are the first to reach the spot and start helping the people. So not only during national crisis like wars but during other internal problems like floods, earthquake also you will find RSS cadres at the forefront. They do not seek any publicity as they consider selfless service to mother India their greatest reward. Yes, they consider India as their mother. One of their motto is जननी जन्मभूमिश्च स्वर्गादपि गरीयसी (Janani Janmabhoomischa Swargadapi Gariyasi) meaning mother and motherland are greater than heaven.

Criticism

RSS is often criticised by the people who do not know anything about it. They criticise it out of pure hatred. Some politicians in India criticise RSS because it is a road block in their selfish motives as it does a great job of educating the people and inculcating a strong sense of patriotism in them.

Why Cow Was Treated as Mother

This one sprang from a question in quora and part of the question was-
Are Indians, who treat cows as mothers and consume milk products, vegan?

"In India, in the olden days, we took cows as mother. According to scriptures also, there are seven mothers: (1) the real mother, (2) the wife of the spiritual master, (3) the wife of a brahmana, (4) the wife of the king, (5) the cow, (6) the nurse, and (7) the earth. All of them are mothers. Even in present days every Indian is taught in school (Gaya hamari mata hai i.e. Cow is our mother)."

For me question provoked much deeper thoughts than just categorizing the people.

As it is said in the question itself, cow is mother like mother earth. Like We consume produce of mother earth, so we do consume produce of cow. Right to life is implicit in Indian culture. There are several classifications and people are comfortable in their own belief systems. So it is always easy to criticism other's belief system. But there is one more fundamental in Indian culture and that is not to hurt the feelings of others. So this mentality that only my way is right way is never overwhelming in India. As for cow being holy there are economic reasons for that. In brief, cow was basis of existence of agrarian society. So when two kingdoms fight you can kill all the cows and destroy the society as society would not have been able to survive without agriculture. To avoid this destruction cow was elevated to be holy. After that you can win the territory, conquer the people but land will not lay waste and civilization will not be destroyed. Over the years people developed different degrees of reverence towards this. But net result was that in India you will not find destructive wars where whole tracts were laid waste. Because your own soldiers will not support you in absolute destruction. So caw was major part of this equation. Similarly in India women and children were not attacked and enslaved (which was quiet common in western society). Now it has become quiet fashionable to degrade this status provided to cow without understanding the whole picture. People enter into hollow technicalities without going into depth of issue. Only in past 100 year, it is possible to do large scale agriculture without muscle power of oxen, bulls, horses, camel etc, depending on which society you come from. But usefulness of cow or for that matter other farm animals is coming to the for once again with increasing emphasis on organic produce. Within 30-40 years time, we shall be able understand this issue in larger perspective. So caw was accorded status of mother not just for being a vegetarian society. There were larger reasons behind this. And that larger reason was agriculture and survival of whole society. 

In coastal areas of India, people were never supposed to be pure vegetarians, still they considered cow as mother because it fitted into the equation of their agriculture. 

Now urban people who just had modern schooling are not educated about these facts. And for the masses, you can not ask them to work on pure logic so a belief was created that cow is holy or cow is mother but real reason was economic and survival of human society.