Ahmedabad: “The Hindu culture is the life-breath of Hindusthan. It is therefore clear that if Hindusthan is to be protected, we should first nourish the Hindu culture. If the Hindu culture perishes in Hindusthan itself, and if the Hindu society ceases to exist, it will hardly be appropriate to refer to the mere geographical entity that remains as Hindusthan. Mere geographical lumps do not make a nation.The entire society should be in such a vigilant and organized condition that no one would dare to cast an evil eye on any of our points of honour.”
“Strength, it should be remembered, comes only through organization. It is therefore the duty of every Hindu to do his best to consolidate the Hindu society. The Sangh is just carrying out this supreme task.The present fate of the country cannot be changed unless lakhs of young men dedicate their entire lifetime for that cause. To mould the minds of our youth towards that end is the supreme aim of the Sangh.”
Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar -Founder of RSS
Sangh: Unique and Evergreen
A unique phenomenon in the history of Bharat in the twentieth century is the birth and unceasing growth of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The Sangh’s sphere of influence has been spreading far and wide, not only inside Bharat but also abroad, like the radiance of a many splendored diamond. Sangh-inspired institutions and movements today form a strong presence in social, cultural, educational, labour, developmental, political and other fields of nationalist endeavour. Sangh initiated movements – be they social-reformist or anti-secessionist – evoke ready response and approbation from the common multitudes as well as from vast numbers of elite of different shades. It has increasingly been recognized that the Sangh is not a mere reaction to one or another social or political aberration. It represents a corpus of thought and action firmly rooted in genuine nationalism and in the age old tradition of this country.
No other movement or institution has attracted such vast numbers of adherents, several thousands of them making social work their life’s mission, whose character and integrity are not doubted even by their most virulent critics. As a movement for national reconstruction totally nurtured by the people, Sangh has no parallel in Bharat or elsewhere. The growth of the Sangh – as a movement for assertion of Bharat’s national identity – acquires added significance when we remember that the birth of the Sangh was preceded by mental, cultural and economic onslaught by alien rulers for long decades.
Sangh Marches Ahead
There could be only one explanation for the continuing march of the Sangh from strength to strength: The emotive response of the millions to the vision of Bharat’s national glory, based on the noblest values constituting the cultural and spiritual legacy of the land and collectively called ‘Dharma’, comprising faith in the oneness of the human race, the underlying unity of all religious traditions, the basic divinity of the human being, complementarity and inter-relatedness of all forms of creation both animate and inanimate, and the primacy of spiritual experience. That the mission of the Sangh is in tune with a millennia old heritage itself carries an irresistible appeal.
It would have been logical for our post-1947 rulers to re-structure the national life in keeping with our culture. Sadly, that golden opportunity was lost. Until Dharma also is recognized as a basis of survival and progress, national integration and such other oft-repeated goals will remain a far cry indeed. Idealism and patriotism are tangible exterior manifestations of Dharma.
Absence of idealism has been at the root of most problems haunting our polity. Amidst such an environment, Sangh is unique in according primacy to inculcation of patriotism in all citizens and in all life’s activities. National reconstruction demands the fostering of a national character, uncompromising devotion to the Motherland, discipline self-restraint, courage and heroism. To create and nurture these noble impulses is the most challenging task before the country – what Swami Vivekananda succinctly called man-making.
It is to this historic mission that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has addressed itself.
Sangh: A Dynamic Power-House
Great oaks from little acorns grow. What started as a tiny stream in an obscure corner of Nagpur in Maharashtra 92 years ago has now swollen into a mighty river engulfing the remotest villages of the country. That the number of Sangh Shakhas has crossed 57000 is one indicator of the expanding reach of the Sangh.
It redounds to the foresight of Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (1889-1940) that he anticipated the need for strengthening the foundations of the Hindu society and for preparing it for challenges on social, economic, cultural, religious, philosophical and political planes. A galaxy of savants such as Dayananda and Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Tilak, had sown the seeds of the most recent phase of national renaissance. What was needed was a sufficiently strong instrumentality for carrying that process onward. This instrumentality was created and bequeathed to the nation by Dr. Hedgewar in the form of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh which he, after years of deliberate and patient preparation, founded at Nagpur on 27th September, Vijayadashami Day of 1925.
One of the hazards of organisation-building is allowing one’s vision to be clouded with immediate concerns, resulting in dilution of perception of the ultimate goal. Dr. Hedgewar’s especial strength was that he never allowed demands of the immediate present to veer him away from the ultimate mission he set to himself.
Keeping aflame the spirit of freedom and endeavouring simultaneously to strengthen the cultural roots of the nation marked the twin features of the character of the Sangh from the beginning; and that has to this day remained its main plank. Every passing day has confirmed the validity of this basic philosophy. Erosion of the nation’s integrity in the name of secularism, economic and moral bankruptcy, incessant conversions from the Hindu fold through money-power, ever-increasing trends of secession, thought-patterns and education dissonant with the native character of the people, and State-sponsored denigration of anything that goes by the name of Hindu or Hindutwa: these pervasive tendencies provide ample proof of the soundness of the philosophical foundation of the Sangh as conceived by Dr. Hedgewar and its continued relevance for the survival and health of the Hindu society and of the nation as a whole. It is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh alone which has consistently been sounding the alarm against all these wrong tendencies in the body-politic of Bharat.
Dr. Hedgewar said often, “Even if the British leave, unless the Hindus are organised as a powerful nation, where is the guarantee that we shall be able to protect our freedom?” His words have proved to be prophetic. Conjointly with Independence, parts of Punjab, Bengal, Sindh and the Frontier areas were sundered from Bharat; and, four and a half decades after the nation’s attaining freedom, Kashmir remains a thorn in the flesh.
Continuous efforts have been there to make Assam a Muslim majority province. Likewise, no-holds-barred efforts to proselytize by Christian missions continue unabated. Even armed revolt has been engineered (e.g., in Nagaland) to carve out independent Christian provinces. Such activities receive ready support and unlimited funds from foreign countries and agencies keenly interested in destabilizing Bharat for their own ends.
Sangh’s alone has been the voice of genuine patriotic concern amidst the cacophonous, politically inspired shibboleths of undefined secularism, etc.
Even at the inception, the Sangh was viewed by its founder not as a sectoral activity or movement, but as a dynamic power-house energizing every field of national activity.
Antidote to Self-Oblivion
The idea of founding the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was conceived at a time when self-oblivion had overtaken the society. The struggle for political independence occupied the minds of people; this was but natural. However, what was askew was the tacit assumption that the advent of freedom would automatically usher in a revival of genuine nationalist values which had perforce receded during foreign rule. Looking to the West as the pinnacle of civilization, irrationally perpetuating the Britishers’ self-serving theories of the ‘White Man’s burden’; that the Hindus were ‘a nation-in-the-making’, that the Hindus had achieved nothing of significance in the past, that Westernisation was the only hope for ‘the dying race’ that were the Hindus; unquestioning acceptance of myths floated by Westerners even in the name of history (e.g., that the Aryans came from outside), that life in Bharat was and had always been at a near primitive state; – acceptance of such numerous myths had virtually become mandatory for anyone with the slightest pretensions to education or intellectuality.
That this breed still claims adherents even seven decades after Independence bespeaks the intensity of the overarching colonial legacy.
All the father-figures of national renaissance from Swami Vivekananda to Lokmanya Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi had laid great stress on the fact that releasing the society from such mental thraldom was as necessary as throwing out the imperialist rulers.
While efforts to hasten political independence were being pursued in various forms, there were few or no sustained efforts for restoration of the Hindu psyche to its pristine form. Indeed, it is the latter which should constitute the content or core of freedom.
Such was the backdrop for envisioning a country wide movement such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Is it not the lack of social cohesion which enabled a handful of traders and shop keepers (who were no match to us either in intellectual brilliance or physical prowess) to establish their empire here? It was the native chieftains who facilitated the repeated destruction of the sacred Somnath shrine. Wasn’t it Raja Mansingh who, by becoming a kingpin of Akbar’s regime, betrayed the interests of the Hindus?
As if testifying to the sagacity of the proverb ‘The more things change, the more they remain the same’ – considerable sections of the so-called academia and the elite even today display a singular lack of national consciousness even after witnessing such horrendous insult to nationhood as partition of the country.
The fact that such a breed continues to exist even after so much historical and recent experience provides the strongest raison det’re for intense and continuous propagation of the ideal of nationalism and the recognition of the Hindu national identity as a fundamental fact transcending corroboration and discussion. Any compromise in this regard is bound to cause peril to hard earned freedom; and without freedom there will be no prospect of progress for all either. Equally, it is a fact of history that national consciousness should not merely remain an idea or concept, but should be reflected in every single activity of life.
A burning devotion to the Motherland, a feeling of fraternity among all citizens, intense awareness of a common national life derived from a common culture and shared history and heritage – these, in brief, may be said to constitute the life-springs of a nation.
It is these sentiments which have to be instilled in each child. Obviously, this task is beyond the capabilities of political institutions. This is basically a social task. The mechanism Dr. Hedgewar evolved for fulfilment of this all-important task is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Dr. Hedgewar not only had the foresight to anticipate this need, but also the skills of organisation needed to give a concrete shape to that concept.
The Founder
Keshav Baliram Hedgewar was born on Varsha Pratipada, the Hindu New Year Day, 1st April 1889, at Nagpur. Even as a child he started questioning how a handful of foreigners could for so long rule over a vast and ancient nation like Bharat. No wonder that he threw away the sweets distributed on the occasion of the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria’s coronation. He was eight years old at the time. When studying in high school he started participating in nationalist activities, and, in fact, unfurled the banner of independence during Dusserah at Rampayali in 1907. The intensity of his urge to free the Motherland grew steadily. In 1908, he was expelled from school for leading the students in raising the ‘seditious’ cry of ‘Vande Mataram’. He had to move to Pune to complete his matriculation.
Hedgewar opted for a medical course in Calcutta, chiefly prompted by the prospect of getting first-hand acquaintance with the underground movement. He soon became a core member of one of the leading revolutionary groups called Anusheelan Samiti, and also plunged himself into various social-service activities. When the river Damodar was in floods in 1913, he rushed to join the relief team.
He returned to Nagpur in 1916 as a qualified doctor. However, he did not (indeed never intended to) practice medicine despite dire poverty at home. Remaining a bachelor, he preferred to become a physician to cure the ills of the nation. By then, he had established active contact with stalwarts like Lokmanya Tilak, Dr. Munje and Loknayak M. S. Anay. He worked in responsible positions in the Congress and Hindu Mahasabha, till the early 1920s.
Hedgewar’s public speeches of those days were sheer fire and brimstone. It was not long before he had to face court-trials. In one such trial, he defended himself declaring, ‘The only government that has a right to exist is a government of the people. The Europeans and those who call themselves the government of this country should recognise that the time for their graceful exit is approaching.’ He was awarded one year’s rigorous imprisonment.
After release from prison, Dr. Hedgewar, while continuously immersed in various social and political activities, intensified his quest for an understanding of the true nature of our nation for whose freedom the struggle was being carried on. Political emancipation from the foreign rule alone could not provide the cure for all the nation’s ills.
Bharat is not a nation born recently. It has not only been a nation for millennia, but also had made phenomenal progress in science, commerce, arts, technology, agriculture and other spheres, not to mention philosophy and the spiritual domain wherein its achievements continue to elicit wonderment to this day. It is also a fact of history that the cultural empire of Bharat extended to the whole of South-east Asia for over four centuries. Equally, it is a sad fact of history that social disunity and dissension have been the cause of Bharat’s political subjugation by alien invaders.
The 800-year-long resistance of the Hindus to Islamic rule had its own lesson for the British. Seeing that physical repression would not be of much avail, the British, through subtle and not-so-subtle ways, attempted to subvert the Hindu mind itself. They did succeed in part; and a Westward-looking social segment was created, mainly through enforcing the new system of education tailored to generate armies of clerks end ‘brown sahibs’. Needless to say, in such an environment, a cleavage developed between the society and its cultural roots and legacy. The nation’s identity became eroded.
It was to such a national self-oblivion that a cure had to be found. The Congress leaders’ policy of appeasement of the Muslims was but one symptom of the malaise. It is an irony of history that – even after paying the ultimate price of vivisection of their cherished motherland – the Hindus have been treated as second-order citizens by successive governments of post-independence Bharat.
This was indeed foreseen by Dr. Hedgewar. Years of thinking had convinced him that a strong and united Hindu society alone is the sine qua non for not only the all-round prosperity but for the very survival of Bharat as an independent sovereign nation. Social cohesion alone could ensure national integrity.
Dr. Hedgewar’s response to this challenge was the founding of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1925.The sweep and amplitude of one great mind can be fully grasped only by minds with a like vision and imagination. Thus, even in the early days of the Sangh, it drew praise and approval from eminent stalwarts including Mahatma Gandhi, Savarkar, Subhash Chandra Bose, Madan Mohan Malaviya and others.
The first Shakha of the Sangh was started with a handful of youth at Nagpur. Gradually, Shakhas sprouted in other provinces. Soon, there were vast numbers of ‘Pracharaks’ (whole-time social workers totally dedicated to nation-building activities) working for fulfilment of the Sangh mission.
Dr. Hedgewar toiled night and day to lay a secure foundation for strengthening and growth of the Sangh. That tremendous work spanning fifteen years did take its toll, and Dr. Hedgewar succumbed to illness on 21st June 1940 – at the comparatively young age of 51.
From 1940 onwards, the task of steering the organisation as the second Sar-Sanghachalak came upon the shoulders of Sri Guruji (Madhav Sadashiva Golwalkar, 19.2.1906 – 5.6.1973). He, with his tireless movement all through the year to each and every province meeting the swayamsevaks, inspiring them to put in more time and energy, made the Sangh grow rapidly even up to far-off places in Assam and Kerala. The Sangh which previously had only a few Shakhas in and around Nagpur, Vidarbha, Maharashtra and in some distant places like Lahore, Delhi, Varanasi, Calcutta and Madras began to spread with his inspiring personality at the helm, far and wide, in the highly surcharged prevailing political atmosphere of the country, then struggling for its freedom, with ever increasing number of Pracharaks submitting themselves for the Sangh work, giving a further fillip to the process.