By Shamsul Islam
20 January, 2013
Countercurrents.org
Despite shrill public denials by the RSS top-brass that its
swayamsevaks or cadres never indulged in terrorist activities, the RSS chief,
Mohan Bhagwat, while addressing a meeting of the RSS members on January 10,
2011 at Surat (Gujarat) made a significant statement saying that
of the majority of the people whom the government has
accused (in various blast cases), a few had left voluntarily and a few were
told by the Sangh that this extremism will not work here so you go away.1
It was a candid admission by the supremo of the RSS who was
naturally better informed about the happenings within his organization which
works in a clandestine fashion that many of these alleged terrorists were part
of the RSS. This statement raises few questions which RSS as an organization
must answer. The first is that RSS must share the names of those terrorists who
left ‘voluntarily’ or were asked to ‘go away’ with the people of this country
and especially with the police investigating agencies of the Indian State. In
fact, the latter should have by now put Mohan Bhagwat under scanner to seek the
names of these ‘terrorists’ not only in order to verify whether the ones so far
arrested were the same who were referred to by Mohan Bhagwat but also to know
about others who may still be indulging in terrorist activities and have not
been brought to book as yet.
The whole issue raises another pertinent question. When RSS
claims that a particular person indulging in terrorist activities is not
1
‘No place for radicals in RSS, says Bhagwat’, The Indian
Express, Delhi, 11-01-2011, p. 3
its member, how do we verify
it? Do we have an authenticated list of RSS members which can be referred to in
case of need? The reality is that there is no such list and in the absence of
such a list for an organization which functions in a regime of secrecy it
becomes a convenient alibi for the RSS to deny its actual linkages with the
individuals and organizations indulging in terrorist activities.
The individuals and organizations indulging in recent
terrorist activities having close linkages with Hindutva philosophy and
organizations like RSS should not surprise anybody. Any sectarian and
theocratic organization which is programmed to the cleansing of religious
minorities and undoing of a democratic- secular India has to be intolerant and
extremist in its ideological moorings as well as functioning. RSS is no
exception to this rule. A careful perusal of the documents from the RSS
archives makes it clear that terrorist activities being indulged by persons and
organizations associated with it are the outcome of an ideological mould
outlined by its mentors.
The RSS as flag-bearer of Hindu
nationalism always believed in the superiority of the Aryan race like Hitler
and the Nazis. Racism is the common tie, which binds them. Hindus happened to
be Aryans belonging to the National race whereas Muslims and Christians were
foreigners because they followed religions, which took birth in non-Aryan
foreign lands. The RSS divided religions professed in India into two
categories, Indian and foreign. Interestingly, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism
were declared to be of the Indian variety but were not accorded the status of
independent religions. These were simply treated as part of Hinduism. Madhav
Sadashiv Golwalkar (1906-1973), the most prominent ideologue of the RSS who
came to head the organization after Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, naturally,
inherited deep love for Fascism and Nazism from his seniors and stood for
cleansing of the followers of religions which originated in foreign
lands. He idealized the Nazi
cultural nationalism of Hitler, which was nothing else but ‘ethnic cleansing’
of non-Aryans, in the following words which appeared in his book We or Our
Nationhood Defined (1939); a book which became Geeta (or Bible)
of the Hindutva politics:
The other Nation most in the eye of the world today is Germany.
This Nation affords a very striking example. Modern Germany strove, and has to
a great extent achieved what she strove for, to once again bring under one sway
the whole of the territory, hereditarily possessed by the Germans but which, as
a result of political disputes, had been portioned off as different countries
under different states…German pride in their Fatherland for a definite home
country, for which the race has traditional attachments as a necessary
concomitant of the true Nation concept, awoke and ran the risk of starting a
fresh world-conflagration, in order to establish one, unparalleled undisputed
German Empire over all this ‘hereditary territory’. This natural and logical
aspiration of Germany has almost been fulfilled and the great importance of the
‘country factor’ has been once again vindicated even in the living present.
Come we next to the next ingredient of the Nation idea—Race, with which culture
and language are inseparably connected, where religion is not the all-absorbing
force that it should be. German Race pride has now become the topic of the day.
To keep up the purity of the race and its culture, Germany shocked
the world by her purging the country of the Semitic races-the Jews. Race pride
at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also shown how well-nigh
impossible it is for races and cultures, having differences going to the root,
to be assimilated into
one united whole, a
good lesson for us in Hindusthan [sic] to learn and profit by.2 [Emphasis
added]
While
outlining the constituent elements of the Hindu Nation Golwalkar raised a
significant question,
If, as is indisputably proved,
Hindusthan, is the land of Hindus and is the terra firma for the Hindu
nation alone to flourish upon, what is to be the fate of all those, who, today,
happen to live upon the land, though not belonging to the Hindu Race, Religion
or culture?3
He answered to his own query in the
following words:
At the outset we must bear in mind that so far as ‘nation’
is concerned, all those, who fall outside the five-fold limits of that idea,4 can
have no place in the national life, unless they abandon their differences,
adopt the religion, culture and language of the Nation and completely merge
themselves in the National Race.5
Golwalkar unhesitatingly
glorified the Race theory propagated by Hitler and Mussolini and subsequent
cleansing of non-Aryans or minorities in the following words:
It is worth bearing well in mind how these old nations solve
their minorities [sic] problem. They do not undertake to recognize any
separate element in their polity. Emigrants have to get themselves naturally
assimilated in the principal mass of the population, the National Race, by
adopting its culture and language and sharing in its aspirations, by losing all
consciousness of their separate existence, forgetting their foreign origin.
2
MS Golwalkar, We Or Our Nationhood Defined, Bharat
Publications, Nagpur, 1939, pp. 34-35.
3 Ibid, p. 45.
4
Interestingly, in Golwalkar’s writings there are found only
four constituents of Hindu nation. While explaining
the components of the Hindu nation he wrote: “In this country, Hindusthan, the
Hindu Race, with its Hindu Religion, Hindu Culture and Hindu language, [the
natural family of Sanskrit and her offsprings] complete the Nation
concept…”,Ibid, p. 43.
5 Ibid, p. 45
If they do not do so, they live
merely as outsiders, bound by all the codes and conventions of the Nation, at
the sufferance of the Nation and deserving no special protection, far less any
privilege or rights. There are only two courses open to the foreign elements,
either to merge themselves in the national race and adopt its culture, or to
live at its mercy so long as the national race may allow them to do so and to
quit the country at the sweet will of the national race. That is the only sound
view on the minorities problem. That is the only logical and correct solution. That
alone keeps the national life healthy and undisturbed. That alone keeps the
nation safe from the danger of a cancer developing in its body politic, of the
creation of a state within a state.6
Golwalkar as the most important
ideologue of the RSS and Hindutva brand of politics forcefully argued
for adopting the models of Hitler and Mussolini for getting rid off
minorities from his kind of Hindu nation in the following words:
From this stand point, sanctioned by the experience of
shrewd old nations, the foreign races in Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu
culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence the Hindu
religion, must entertain no idea but those of the glorification of the Hindu
race and culture, i.e., of the Hindu nation and must lose their separate
existence to merge in the Hindu race, or may stay in the country, wholly
subordinated to the Hindu Nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges,
far less any preferential treatment, not even citizen’s rights. There is, at
least should be, no other course for them to adopt.
6
Ibid, p. 47
We are an old nation: let us
deal as old nations ought to, and do deal, with the foreign races who have
chosen to live in our country.7
Golwalkar did not
mince words while expressing hatred for all those who differed with his notion
of Hindu nation. For him all others were traitors or idiots. The use of this
kind of intemperate language only showed to what extreme he and his followers
could go in denigrating adversaries to be cleansed later.
Those, only are nationalist patriots, who, with the
aspiration to glorify the Hindu race and nation next to their heart, are
prompted into activity and strive to achieve that goal. All others are either
traitors or enemies to the National cause, or, to take a charitable view,
idiots.8
This kind of philosophy was not
something of the bye-gone days of 1940s for RSS. It kept on resonating even
after Independence. In fact, another basic book for the RSS cadres, Bunch of
Thoughts, the compilation of the writings of MS Golwalkar, which
appeared in 1966 had a long chapter titled, ‘Internal Threats’, (it continued
to appear in all subsequent editions) in which the Muslims and Christians are
described as threats number one and two respectively. The Communists get the
status of being enemy number 3. This chapter opens with the following
statement:
It has been the tragic lesson of the history of many a
country in the world that the hostile elements within the country pose a far
greater menace to national security then aggressors from outside.9
While treating the Muslims as
hostile element number one
7
Ibid. pp. 47-48.
8
Ibid. p. 44.
9 MS Golwalkar, Bunch of
Thoughts,
Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1996, p. 177.
Even to this day there are so many who say, ‘Now there is no
Muslim problem at all. All those riotous elements who supported Pakistan have
gone away once for all. The remaining Muslims are devoted to our country. After
all, they have no other place to go and they are bound to remain loyal…It would
be suicidal to delude ourselves into believing that they have turned patriots
overnight after the creation of Pakistan. On the contrary, the Muslim menace
has increased a hundredfold by the creation of Pakistan, which has become a
springboard for all their future aggressive designs on our country.10
Deliberating further on this
enemy number one, Muslims, Golwalkar presented his thesis in the following
words which provided excuse to the VHP cadres for exterminating the Muslim
localities in Gujarat in the year 2002:
Within the country there are so many Muslim pockets, i.e.,
so many ‘miniature Pakistans’, where the general law of the land can be
enforced only with certain modifications, and the whims of the miscreants have
to be given the final say. This acceptance, indirect though it may be, implies
a very dangerous theory fraught with possibilities of the destruction of our
national life altogether. Such ‘pockets’ have verily become the centers of a
widespread network of pro-Pakistani elements in this land…The conclusion is
that, in practically every place, there are Muslims who are in constant touch
with Pakistan over the transmitter…11
While
deliberating on the ‘Internal Threat’ number two, he stated that the Christians
were indulging in activities which were
10
Ibid, pp. 177-178
11
Ibid, p. 185
not
only irreligious but also anti-national.12
According to him the Christians residing in India were,
out to demolish not only the religious and social fabric of
our life but also to establish political domination in various pockets and if
possible all over the land.13
Golwalkar’s hatred for minorities specially Muslims was
inexhaustible and never-ending. In this regard there was no difference in his
views contained in We or Our Nationhood Defined in 1939, or his
hatred for Muslims in 1960. In fact, this hatred got wilder. While
addressing the leading RSS cadres of south India in Bangalore on November 30,
1960, he declared:
‘Right from Delhi to Rampur, Muslims are busy hatching a
dangerous plot, piling up arms and mobilizing their men, and probably biding
their time to strike from within […]’14
There was no substantiation or
proofs offered for such a serious allegation against whole of the Muslim
community residing in the western Uttar Pradesh. If this was so it should have
been brought to the notice of the law and order machinery in the area. It was
never done because Golwalkar and RSS were simply interested in poisoning the
minds of its cadres. More importantly the Indian State took no action against
Golwalkar for spreading such a canard against common Muslims. It is not
difficult to understand that it was due to such hate preaching against Muslims
and Christians by the top brass of the RSS that large scale cleansing of
minorities could be successfully undertaken by its swayamsevaks.
The central publication house of the
RSS, Suruchi Prakashan,
12
Ibid, p. 190
13
Ibid, p. 193
14 M.
S. Golwalkar, ‘From Delhi to Rampur Muslims are Conspiring’ Organizer,
December 12, 1960.
Delhi, published a book in
1997, titled Param Vaibhav Ke Path Par (ON THE ROAD TO GREAT
GLORY) penned by Sadanand Damodar Sapre, a senior RSS functionary. This
book contained details of more than 40 organizations created by the RSS for
different tasks but more importantly it described how many of these organizations
are run in a clandestine manner for hidden agendas. This publication showed
that the whole network ran like a well-organized mafia through its subsidiaries
and satellites. There has always been a conscious attempt to create confusion
about its different fronts which provide RSS with the opportunity to dissociate
with any of these as per its convenience. For instance it used Hindu Jagaran
Manch (HJM) for attacking Christians in late 1990s and when public opinion,
media and Parliament seemed to turn against it, RSS denied any relation with
HJM. However, according to this publication Hindu Jagaran Manch was created by
the RSS as admitted in the above mentioned publication.
From the point of view of Hindu awakening this kind of
forums [like Hindu Jagran Manch] at present are active in 17 states with
different names like ‘Hindu Manch’ in Delhi, ‘Hindu Munani’ in Tamilnadu,
‘Hinduekjut’ in Maharashtra. These are forums, not associations or organizations,
that’s why it is not required to have membership, registration and elections.15
[Emphasis added]
It is clear that such
organizations with no record of membership, no registration and no internal
elections are created by the RSS. Such an organizational model provides an
opportunity to RSS to disown any individual or organization.
True to its nature RSS takes
recourse to conspiracies often. It can be known by the following disclosure in Param
Vaibhav Ke Path Par about a case in Delhi immediately after
partition:
15
Sadanand Damodar Sapre, Param Vaibhav Ke Path Par,
Suruchi Prakashan, Delhi, 1997.
Swayamsevaks had posed to have
adopted Musalman [sic] religion in order to gain the confidence of Delhi
Muslim League for knowing their conspiracies.16
What these Swayamsevaks, impersonating as Muslims, on the
eve of Independence were doing was made clear by none other than Dr. Rajendra
Prasad who later became first President of the Indian Republic. In a letter to
the first Home Minister of India, Sardar Patel, he wrote on March 14, 1948,
I am told that RSS people have a plan of creating trouble.
They have got a number of men dressed as Muslims and looking like Muslims who
are to create trouble with the Hindus by attacking them and thus inciting the
Hindus. Similarly there will be some Hindus among them who will attack Muslims
and thus incite Muslims. The result of this kind of trouble amongst the Hindus
and Muslims will be to create a conflagration.17
The following passage from the
autobiography of the first Home Secretary of UP, Rajeshwar Dayal, ICS, clearly
shows the sinister and criminal designs of the RSS to organize a pogrom of
Muslims in the western Uttar Pradesh (the largest province in the Indian Union)
and thus break the unity of the country just on the eve of Independence.
I must record an episode of a
very grave nature when the procrastination and indecision of the UP Cabinet led
to dire consequences. When communal tension was still at fever pitch, the
Deputy Inspector General of Police of the Western Range, a very seasoned and
capable officer, B. B. L. Jaitley, arrived at my house in great secrecy. He was
accompanied by two of his officers
16
Ibid, p. 86.
17 Rajendra
Prasad to Sardar Patel (March 14, 1948) cited in Neerja Singh (ed.), Nehru
Patel: Agreement Within Difference—Select Documents &
Correspondences 1933-1950, NBT, Delhi, p. 43.
who brought with them two large
steel trunks securely locked. When the trunks were opened, they revealed
incontrovertible evidence of a dastardly conspiracy to create a communal
holocaust throughout the Western districts of the province. The trunks were
crammed with blueprints of great accuracy and professionalism of every town and
village in that vast area, prominently marking out the Muslim localities and
habitations. There were also detailed instructions regarding access to the
various locations, and other matters which amply revealed the sinister purport.
Greatly alarmed by those
revelations, I immediately took the police party to the Premier’s [chief minister’s]
house. There, in a closed room, Jaitley gave a full report of his discovery,
backed by all the evidence contained in the steel trunks. Timely raids
conducted on the premises of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) had brought
the massive conspiracy to light. The whole plot had been concerted under the
direction and supervision of the Supremo of the organization himself. Both
Jaitley and I pressed for the immediate arrest of the prime accused, Shri
Golwalkar, who was still in the area.
Pantji [G. B. Pant] could not
but accept the evidence of his eyes and ears and expressed deep concern. But
instead of agreeing to the immediate arrest of the ringleader as we had hoped,
and as Kidwai would have done, he asked for the matter to be placed for consideration
by the Cabinet at its next meeting. It was no doubt a matter of political
delicacy as the roots of the RSS had gone deep into the body politic. There
were also other political compulsions, as RSS sympathizers, both covert and
overt, were to be found in the Congress Party itself and even in the Cabinet.
It
was no secret that the
presiding officer of the Upper House, Atma Govind Kher, was himself an adherent
and his sons were openly members of the RSS.
At the Cabinet meeting there
was the usual procrastination and much irrelevant talk. The fact that the
police had unearthed a conspiracy which would have set the whole province in
flames and that the officers concerned deserved warm commendation hardly seemed
to figure in the discussion. What ultimately emerged was that a letter should
be issued to Shri Golwalkar pointing out the contents and nature of the
evidence which had been gathered and demanding an explanation thereof. At my
insistence, such a letter if it were to be sent, should be issued by the
Premier himself to carry greater weight. Panditji asked me to prepare a draft,
which I did in imitation of his own characteristic style. The letter was to be
delivered forthwith and two police officers were assigned for the purpose.
Golwalkar, however, had been
tipped off and he was nowhere to be found in the area. He was tracked down
southwards but he managed to elude the couriers in pursuit. This infructuous
chase continued from place to place and weeks passed.”
Came January 30, 1948 when the Mahatma, that supreme apostle
of peace, fell to a bullet fired by an RSS fanatic. The tragic episode left me
sick at heart.18
Rajeshwar Dayal’s shocking narration of Golwalkar’s evil
design to cleanse western parts of Uttar Pradesh of all Muslims was further
corroborated by another senior RSS pracharak (preacher or whole timer),
Krishna Gopal Rastogi in his autobiography, Pracharak Jiwan (Life of
Preacher). While describing an incident
18
Rajeshwar Dayal, A Life of Our Times, Delhi, 1999,
pp. 93-94.
in which he personally led a
mob of armed Hindus against Muslims in Kaliar town situated between Roorkee and
Haridwar went on to state without any remorse how he did not spare even a young
Muslim girl. According to Rastogi’s heart-chilling version:
It was an old locality inhabited by the Muslims. They, armed
with daggers, spears, guns were fully prepared to meet any situation. When I
learnt of their intentions to attack some Hindu areas, I organized 250 people
including some known gangsters and raided Kaliar. Then a strange thing
happened. While we had been killing men in one of the houses, we spotted a very
beautiful young girl. The assailants led by me were instantly enamoured. They
even started fighting among themselves to take possession of the girl. I faced
an extremely awkward situation and did not know what to do. I tried my best to
get the assailants to focus on real issues. I abused and threatened them but
they would not listen to me. And suddenly the solution came. The girl was after
all causing this trouble and had to be eliminated. I took my gun and shot her.
She died. My associates were shocked and returned to the work. Though it was
against our principle to assault a woman, but it was done in an emergency and I
still regret it.19
This autobiography was released with a laudatory preface by
K. S. Sudarshan, the then head of the RSS. Incidentally, Rastogi was appointed
in two committees of the Human Resource Development Ministry of the Government
of India headed by Murli Manohar Joshi despite protests from more than 50 MPs.
The RSS immensely hates all those institutions and objects
which symbolize a secular-democratic India. On the eve of independence when
Indian Constituent Assembly adopted Tricolour as its
19
Cited in Khushwant Singh’s weekly column in The Hindustan
Times, May 12, 2001.
National Flag, the English
organ of the RSS, Organizer, in its issue dated August 14, 1947,
denigrated this choice in the following words:
The people who have come to power by the kick of fate may
give in our hands the Tricolour but it never be respected and owned by Hindus.
The word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will
certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a
country.
The RSS has been demanding since its birth in 1925 that
India should have saffron (bhagwa) flag of the Hindu rashtra as
the national flag. Golwalkar while addressing a gathering of leading cadres on
July 14, 1946 at the RSS headquarters at Nagpur stated that it was,
the saffron flag which in totality represented Bhartiya
culture. It was the embodiment of God. We firmly believe that in the end the
whole nation will bow before this saffron flag.20
The RSS has another pet-project and that is replacing the
Indian Constitution by Manusmriti or Codes of Manu. According to
Golwalkar, Uttar Pradesh (the largest province in the Indian Union)
Our Constitution too is just a cumbersome and heterogeneous
piecing together of various articles from various Constitutions of the Western
countries. It has absolutely nothing which can be called our own. Is there a
single word of reference in its guiding principles as to what our national
20 M.
S. Golwalkar, Shri Guruji Samagar Darshan, (Collected Works of Golwalkar
in Hindi), Bhartiya Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd, volume I, p. 98.
For RSS there was no ambiguity about this ‘national
mission’. It was the enforcement of Manusmriti as the law of the land.
The Constituent Assembly of India ratified the Constitution on November 26,
1949 and on November 30, the RSS organ Organizer editorially commented:
But in our constitution there is no mention of the unique
constitutional development in ancient Bharat. Manu’s Laws were written long
before Lycurgus of Sparta or Solon of Persia. To this day his laws as
enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and
elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits
that means nothing.
It is to be noted that Manusmriti is known for its
derogatory and inhuman references to Shudras, Untouchables and women. It was
for this reason that a copy of Manusmriti was burnt as a protest in the
presence of B. R. Ambedkar during historic Mahad agitation.
The RSS, contrary to the principles of democracy, has been
constantly demanding that India be ruled under a totalitarian regime. Golwalkar
while addressing the 1350 top level cadres of the RSS at its headquarters at
Nagpur in 1940 declared,
The RSS inspired by one flag, one leader and one ideology is
lighting the flame of Hindutva in each and every corner of this great land.22
21 Bunch of Thoughts, p. 238.
22 Shri Guruji
Samagar Darshan, Vol. I, p. 11.
This slogan of ‘one flag, one
leader and one ideology’ was directly borrowed from the programmes of the Nazi
and Fascist parties of Europe.
The extreme hatred expressed against the National Flag, the
Constitution and the democratic polity of the nascent nation was clearly aimed
at poisoning the minds of common Hindus thus inviting them to overthrow a
secular state. It is to be noted that spread of this kind of poison against
Gandhi led to his murder by persons who were directly or indirectly related to Hindu
Mahasabha & RSS.
The tag of terrorism on RSS is not something new. These were
the anti- national activities of the RSS due to which the organization was
banned on February 4, 1948. The government communiqué banning the RSS was
self-explanatory:
In their resolution of February 2, 1948 the Government of
India declared their determination to root out the forces of hate and violence
that are at work in our country and imperil the freedom of the Nation and
darken her fair name. In pursuance of this policy the Government of India have
decided to declare unlawful the RSS.23
The
communiqué went on to disclose that the ban on the RSS was imposed because,
“undesirable and even dangerous activities have been carried
on by members of the Sangh. It has been found that in several parts of the
country individual members of the RSS have indulged in acts of violence
involving arson, robbery, dacoity, and murder and have collected illicit
dacoity, and murder and have collected illicit arms and ammunition. They have been
found circulating leaflets exhorting people to resort to terrorist
23
Cited in Justice on Trial, RSS, Bangalore, 1962, p.
64.
methods, to collect firearms,
to create disaffection against the government and suborn the police and the
military.”24
It is generally believed that
the then Home Minister, Sardar Patel, had a soft-corner for the RSS and he
continues to be a favourite with the RSS. However even Sardar Patel found it
difficult to defend the RSS in the aftermath of Gandhiji’s assassination. In a
letter written to Golwalkar, dated 11 September 1948, Sardar Patel stated:
Organizing the Hindus and helping them is one thing but
going in for revenge for its sufferings on innocent and helpless men, women and
children is quite another thing…Apart from this, their opposition to the
Congress, that too of such virulence, disregarding all considerations of
personality, decency or decorum, created a kind of unrest among the people. All
their speeches were full of communal poison. It was not necessary to spread
poison in order to enthuse the Hindus and organize for their protection. As a
final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the sacrifice of the
invaluable life of Gandhiji. Even an iota of the sympathy of the Government, or
of the people, no more remained for the RSS. In fact opposition grew.
Opposition turned more severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and distributed
sweets after Gandhiji’s death. Under these conditions it became inevitable for
the Government to take action against the RSS…Since then, over six months have
elapsed. We had hoped that after this lapse of time, with full and proper
consideration the RSS persons would come to the right path. But from the
reports that come to me, it is evident
24
Ibid, pp. 65-66.
Hindu Mahasabha and RSS were
jointly responsible for the murder of Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, was
further corroborated by Sardar Patel in a letter to a prominent leader of Hindu
Mahasabha, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee. On July 18, 1948. Sardar wrote:
As regards the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, the case
relating to Gandhiji’s murder is sub-judice and I should not like to say
anything about the participation of the two organizations, but our reports do
confirm that, as a result of the activities of these two bodies, particularly
the former, an atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly
tragedy became possible. There is no doubt in my mind that the extreme section
of the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in the conspiracy. The activities of the
RSS constituted a clear threat to the existence of Government and the State.
Our reports show that those activities, despite the ban, have not died down.
Indeed, as time has marched on, the RSS circles are becoming more defiant and
are indulging in their subversive activities in an increasing measure.26
As per police investigations and press reports the training
for terrorist activities to the Hindutva cadres was imparted by military
personnel connected with Bhonsala Military School, Nagpur. It may be relevant
to note that this military school was the offshoot of Bhonsala Military School,
Nasik which was established by Dr Balkrishna Shivramji Moonje (known as
Dharamaveer amongst the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha fraternity) with the help of
the
25 Ibid, pp. 26-28.
26 Letter
64 in Sardar Patel: Select Correspondence1945-1950, Volume 2, Navjivan
Publishing House, Ahmedabad, 1977, pp. 276-77.
British rulers for imparting
military training to Hindu youth. Dr Moonje formed the Central Hindu Military
Education Society at Nasik in 1935 and started the school on 12th June 1937.
Interestingly he also idolized militarization of Italian Fascist dictator. Mussolini.
According to its website,
The school started functioning
in the Surgana Palace in Nasik city with 90 students on its roll. The
Maharaja of erstwhile Gwalior state, His Highness Shriman Jivajirao Scindia27
inaugurated the main building of the school…Such was the charisma, charm and
aura of the founder, that he made the then Governor of Bombay State, Sir Roger
Lumley to lay the foundation stone of the present main building of the school.
Importantly, this military establishment later supplied
Hindu military officers to the British army in its campaign to crush the
attempt by Subhashchander Bose led INA to liberate India from the clutches of
the British rule in early 1940s. It is very clear that Bhonsala Military School
was a collaborative project conceived and executed by RSS-Hindu Mahasabha, the
British rulers and their Indian stooges; the rulers of Native India for
militarization of Indian society in order to suppress the democratic
aspirations of the Indian masses. It is a matter of concern that such
sectarian, fascist, communal and pro-British establishments were allowed to
exist and function in independent India. The Hindutva terrorism being witnessed
today could reach to this dangerous stage because a fascist ideology was able
to have at its disposal the lethal military mindset and machinery made
available through establishments like Bhonsala Military Schools. The most
unfortunate aspect of this developing gory saga is that all this has happened
despite India being run under a democratic-secular dispensation. There is no
27 He
hailed from a family of native rulers which supported the British rulers in
1857 and played crucial rule in defeating Rani Laxmi Bai.
[This text appears as
introduction in ‘Godse’s Children: Hindutva Terror in India’ by Subhash Gatade,
published by Pharos Media & Publishing Pvt Ltd., New Delhi.
www.pharosmedia.com]
Shamsul Islam is Associate
Professor, Department of Political Science, Satyawati College,
University of Delhi. notoinjustice@gmail.com
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