HINDUTVA GANG COLLUDED WITH BRITISH RULERS & JINNAH AGAINST QUIT INDIA
MOVEMENT 1942: A PEEP INTO HINDUTVA ARCHIVES
On the eve of 82nd anniversary
of the glorious Quit India Movement 1942 [QIM], we must evaluate the anti-national
role of the Hindutva flag-bearers (who shamelessly claim to be the original
nationalists) in India's anti-colonial freedom struggle. QIM also known as
‘August Kranti' (August Revolution) was a nation-wide Civil Disobedience
Movement for which a call was given on August 8, 1942 by the Bombay session of
the All-India Congress Committee. It was to begin on August 9 as per Gandhi's
call to ‘Do or Die’ in his Quit India speech delivered in Mumbai at the Gowalia
Tank Maidan (renamed as August Kranti Maidan) on August 8. Since then August 9
is celebrated as August Kranti Divas.
The British swiftly responded with
mass detentions on August 8th itself. The contemporary official documents
confirm that over 100,000 arrests were made which included the total top leadership
of Congress including Gandhi, mass fines were levied and demonstrators were
subjected to public flogging. Hundreds of civilians were killed by police and
army of the British rulers and their henchmen; native rulers. Many national
leaders went underground and continued their struggle by broadcasting messages
over clandestine radio stations, distributing pamphlets and establishing
parallel governments. Innumerable patriotic Indians were shot dead for the
crime that they were holding Tricolour publically. Even before that a terrible
massacre took place in Mysore where the armed forces of Mysore Raja who was
very close to Hindu Mahasabha and RSS shot dead 22 Congress activists for
saluting Tricolour.
It is to be noted that after
declaring Congress an anti-national and unlawful organization, the British
masters allowed only Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League to function.
Most of us know that the then
Communist Party of India opposed the QIM thus betraying a great phase of mass
upsurge in the history of the freedom struggle. But it is well documented that
despite CPI’s call for keeping aloof from QIM a large number of Communist
activists participated in it. However, what role the then Hindutva
camp—consisting of the Hindu Mahasabha [HM] and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
[RSS]—played in the QIM is under wraps for reasons unknown. The Hindutva camp
not only opposed QIM but also provided multi-faceted and multi-dimensional
support to the British rulers in suppressing this historic mass upsurge. In
this connection, shocking documents are available.
‘VEER’ SAVARKAR LED HINDU MAHASABHA
JOINED HANDS WITH THE BRITISH RULERS TO SUPRESS IT
While addressing the 24th session of
the Hindu Mahasabha at Cawnpore (now Kanpur) in 1942, Savarkar outlined the
strategy of the Hindu Mahasabha of co-operating with the British rulers in the
following words:
“The Hindu Mahasabha holds that the
leading principle of all practical politics is the policy of Responsive
Co-operation. And in virtue of it, it believes that all those Hindu
Sangathanists [members of HM] who are working as councillors, ministers,
legislators and conducting any municipal or any public bodies with a view to
utilize those centres of government power to safeguard and even promote the
legitimate interests of the Hindus without, of course, encroaching on the
legitimate interests of others are rendering a highly patriotic service to our
nation. Knowing the limitations under which they work, the Mahasabha only
expects them to do whatever good they can under the circumstances and if they
do not fail to do that much it would thank them for having acquitted themselves
well. The limitations are bound to get themselves limited step by step till
they get altogether eliminated. The policy of responsive co-operation which
covers the whole gamut of patriotic activities from unconditional co-operation
right up to active and even armed resistance, will also keep adapting itself to
the exigencies of the time, resources at our disposal and dictates of our
national interest.” [Italics
as in the original][i]
[Cited in
V.D. Savarkar, Samagra Savarkar Wangmaya: Hindu Rashtra Darshan, vol. 6,
Maharashtra Prantik Hindu Sabha, Poona, 1963, p. 474.]
This ‘Responsive Cooperation’ with
the British masters was not only a theoretical commitment. It soon got
concretized in the ganging up of Hindu Mahasabha with the Muslim League. Hindu
Mahasabha led by ‘Veer’ Savarkar ran coalition governments with Muslim League
in 1942. Savarkar defended this nexus in his presidential speech in the same
session of Hindu Mahasabha at Kanpur, in the following words:
“In practical politics also the
Mahasabha knows that we must advance through reasonable compromises. Witness
the fact that only recently in Sind, the Sind-Hindu-Sabha on invitation had
taken the responsibility of joining hands with the League itself in running
coalition Government. The case of Bengal is well known. Wild Leaguers whom even
the Congress with all its submissive-ness could not placate grew quite
reasonably compromising and socialable as soon as they came in contact with the
HM and the Coalition Government, under the premiership of Mr. Fazlul Huq and
the able lead of our esteemed Mahasabha leader Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerji,
functioned successfully for a year or so to the benefit of both the
communities.”[ii]
[Samagra Savarkar Wangmaya, vol. 6, 479-480.]
Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League
beside Bengal and Sind ran coalition government in NWFP also during this
period.
HINDUTVA ICON DR SYAMA PRASAD
MOOKERJEE DEPUTY CM IN THE BENGAL MUSLIM LEAGUE MINISTRY TOOK UP THE
RESPONSIBILITY OF CRUSHING QIM IN BENGAL
Following the Hindu Mahasabha
directive to co-operate with the British, the present Hindutva icon, Dr.
Mookerjee assured the British masters through a letter dated July 26, 1942.
Shockingly, it read:
“Let me now refer to the situation
that may be created in the province as a result of any widespread movement
launched by the Congress. Anybody, who during the war, plans to stir up mass
feeling, resulting internal disturbances or insecurity, must be resisted by any
Government that may function for the time being”[iii]
[Mookherjee,
Shyama Prasad, Leaves from a Dairy, Oxford University Press. p. 179.]
The second-in-command of the Hindu
Mahasabha, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, also the deputy chief minister in Bengal
Muslim league ministry in a letter to Bengal governor on behalf of Hindu
Mahasabha and Muslim League made it clear that both these parties looked at the
British rulers as saviours of Bengal against Quit India Movement launched by
Congress. In this letter, he mentioned item wise the steps to be taken for
dealing with the situation. It read:
“The question is how to combat this
movement (Quit India) in Bengal? The administration of the province should be
carried on in such a manner that despite the best efforts of the Congress, this
movement will fail to take root in the province. It should be possible for us,
especially responsible Ministers, to be able to tell the public that the
freedom for which the Congress has started the movement, already belongs to the
representatives of the people. In some spheres it might be limited during the
emergency. Indians have to trust the British, not for the sake for Britain, not
for any advantage that the British might gain, but for the maintenance of the
defence and freedom of the province itself."[iv]
[Cited in A G.
Noorani, The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour. LeftWord Books, p. 56–57.]
RSS FOLLOWED SAVARKAR IN OPPOSING QIM
THE other flag-bearer of Hindutva,
the RSS, was not different in its attitude towards the QIM. It openly sided
with its mentor ‘Veer’ Savarkar against this great revolt. The RSS’ attitude
towards the QIM becomes clear from the following utterances of its second chief
and most prominent ideologue till date, M.S. Golwalkar. While talking about the
outcome of the Non-Cooperation Movement and QIM he said:
“Definitely there are bound to be bad
results of struggle. The boys became unruly after the 1920-21 movement. It is
not an attempt to throw mud at the leaders. But these are inevitable products
after the struggle. The matter is that we could not properly control these
results. After 1942, people often started thinking that there was no need to
think of the law. This movement, specially, spread widely in Bihar. We witness
today that trains are stopped, chains are pulled and travel without tickets is
very commonly practised there…All this disorder and bizarre situation are the
creation of this struggle.”[v]
[Golwalkar,
M.S., Shri Guruji Samagra Darshan (Collected Works of Golwalkar in
Hindi), vol. iv, Bhartiya Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd, p. 41.]
Thus, the prophet of Hindutva,
Golwalkar, wanted the Indians to respect the draconian and repressive laws of
the inhuman British rulers! He admitted that this kind of negative attitude
towards the QIM did not go well even with the RSS cadres:
“In 1942 also there was a strong
sentiment in the hearts of many. At that time, too the routine work of Sangh
continued. Sangh vowed not to do anything directly. However, upheaval
(uthal-puthal) in the minds of Sangh volunteers continued. Sangh is an organisation
of inactive persons, their talks are useless, not only outsiders but also many
of our volunteers did talk like this. They were greatly disgusted too.”[vi]
[Golwalkar,
M.S., Shri Guruji Samagra Darshan (Collected Works of Golwalkar in
Hindi), vol. iv, Bhartiya Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd, p. 40.]
It would be interesting to note what
Golwalkar meant by ‘routine work of Sangh’. It surely meant working overtime to
widen the divide between Hindus and Muslims thus serving the strategic goal of
the British rulers and Muslim League. In fact, the contemporary reports of the
British intelligence agencies on the QIM were straight forward in describing
the fact that RSS kept aloof from the QIM. According to one such report, “the
Sangh has scrupulously kept itself within the law, and in particular, has
refrained from taking part in the disturbances that broke out in August 1942”.[vii]
[Cited in
Andersen, Walter K.& Damle, Shridhar D. The Brotherhood in
Saffron: the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism, Westview
Press, 1987, 44.]
These historical documented facts
make it clear that Hindutva gang led by the RSS not only betrayed QIM but also
rendered great service to the British masters by aligning with the Muslim
League when the foreign rulers were faced with the nation-wide popular revolt
by the Indians. They in collusion mounted one of the fiercest repressions of
the freedom fighters. Shockingly, this gang is ruling India today describing
itself as a symbol of Indian nationalism. We need to convey these facts to the
Indians so that these traitors are exposed and charged for crimes committed
against Indian people.
The RSS/BJP rulers know that betrayal
of the QIM by their Hindutva ancestors cannot be covered up. It is crystal
clear that RSS including its top leaders like Golwalkar (head of the RSS),
Deendayal Upadhyaya, Balraj Madhok, LK Advani and KR Malkani who were RSS whole
timers during QIM did not participate in this Movement or any other struggle
launched for the freedom of India. RSS-BJP rulers continue raking up communal polarizing
issues so that betrayal of the QIM is covered up.
Shamsul Islam
August 8, 2024
Link for some of S. Islam's writings in English, Hindi, Urdu,
Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati and video
interviews/debates:
http://du-in.academia.edu/ShamsulIslam
Facebook: https://facebook.com/shamsul.islam.332
Twitter: @shamsforjustice
http://shamsforpeace.blogspot.com/
Email: notoinjustice@gmail.com
Link for procuring Shamsul Islam’s books
in English, Hindi & Urdu:
https://tinyurl.com/shams-books
REFRENCES:
[i]
Cited in V.D. Savarkar, Samagra Savarkar Wangmaya: Hindu Rashtra Darshan,
vol. 6, Maharashtra Prantik Hindu Sabha, Poona, 1963, p. 474.
[ii]
Samagra Savarkar Wangmaya, vol. 6, 479-480.
[iii]
Mookherjee, Shyama Prasad, Leaves from a Dairy, Oxford University Press.
p. 179.
[iv]
Cited in A G. Noorani, The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour. LeftWord
Books, p. 56–57.
[v]
Golwalkar, M.S., Shri Guruji Samagra Darshan (Collected Works of
Golwalkar in Hindi), vol. iv, Bhartiya Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd, p. 41.
[vi]
Golwalkar, M.S., Shri Guruji Samagra Darshan (Collected Works of
Golwalkar in Hindi), vol. iv, Bhartiya Vichar Sadhna, Nagpur, nd, p. 40.
[vii]
Cited in Andersen, Walter K.& Damle, Shridhar D. The Brotherhood
in Saffron: the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism, Westview
Press, 1987, 44.
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