Did RSS Sacrifice for India’s Freedom?

On the occasion of the 100th year of the foundation of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ex-pracharak (preacher) of RSS, paid eulogies to it. He said RSS has sacrificed for the freedom of the country and in places like Chimur (Maharashtra), it organised a protest also. As per him, the contribution of RSS to nation-building was “tremendous”.

Read Also: RSS @100: ‘Static Content, Changing Language’

What is the real story? The freedom movement was for composite Indian Nationalism; inclusive to the core. Muslim communalists were struggling for a Muslim Nation and Hindu communalists (RSS, Hindu Mahasabha) for a Hindu nation. While V D Savarkar was not part of the RSS, he was a sort of patron and ideologue of Hindutva and Hindu Nation. He was the guiding icon of RSS to a great extent. After apologising to the British and getting released from the Andamans and later Ratnagiri jail, Savarkar never supported the freedom movement and was receiving a princely pension of Rs 60 per month, (close to Rs 4 lakh today) He helped the British in getting recruits for their army.

K B Hedgewar, who was to be the first sarsanghchalak (supremo) of RSS did participate in Khilafat movement and was imprisoned for a year. With this taking along of Muslims and later the Moplah revolt of Kerala (which was primarily the struggle of peasants against landlords), his Hindu nationalism came to the fore and he left the Congress.

Later, Hedgewar was part of the foundation of RSS, along with other Chittapavan Brahmins. They were disturbed due to the coming up of Dalits in the form of a movement against landlord-Brahmin (non Brahmin movement). The other factor behind the foundation of RSS was the attempt of Gandhi to make the movement all inclusive, including Muslims. The third core factor for the formation of RSS was inspiration from Mussolini and Hitler.

The major evidence of ‘their’ nationalism being different was manifest when Jawaharlal Nehru gave the call for unfurling the tricolour on January 26, 1930. Hedgewar also called for unfurling the flag but it was to be a saffron flag.

Currently, even when the Rs 100 coin has been issued to commemorate the 100th year of RSS, the coin has the picture of Bharat Mata with the saffron flag, not the Indian tricolour.

The tricolour was accepted by the Constitution and the government planned to unfurl it on August 15, 1947. Shamsul Islam, an eminent scholar on RSS, writes “RSS English organ Organizer in its issue of August 14, 1947, denigrating the National Flag wrote that it would "never be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colors will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to Country.”

Hedgewar did participate in the Salt Satyagraha, as he saw this as an opportunity to expand his organisation by trying to lure the freedom fighters who were jailed. So, he resigned from the post of sarsanghchalak and went to jail, and upon return assumed the same post again. During this period, he dissuaded others from participating in the movement. RSS, as an organisation, did not take part in any anti-British movement.

In the wake of the 1942 Quit India Movement, many claims and their hollowness came out. Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Atal Bihari Vajpayee claimed that he participated in the freedom movement, “In the wake of 1998 general elections, he had issued an appeal for seeking votes; he wrote that not only was he working for the RSS at shakha level but he also participated in the freedom movement .”

As such, he was part of RSS that time and as schools/colleges were closed he had gone to Bateshwar, his native village. He became an onlooker to the procession which was part of the Quit India Movement. As an onlooker, he was arrested. He immediately gave a letter dissociating from the procession and was released in a couple of days. 

"On August 27, 1942, at about 2 p.m. Kakua alias Liladhar and Mahuan came to the Ala and delivered a speech and persuaded the people to break the forest laws. Two hundred people went to the Forest Office and I along with my brother followed the crowd and reached Bateshwar Forest Office. My brother stayed below and all other people went up. I do not know the name of any other person, except Kakua and Mahuan, who was there,” quotes an article in Frontline magazine.

M.S Golwalkar was the RSS sarsanghchalak at this time. “In 1942 also there was a strong sentiment in the hearts of many. At that time too routine work of the Sangh continued. Sangh vowed not to do anything directly.”  (Shri Guruji Samgra Darshan, Vol IV, page 39-40).

This RSS ideologue clearly spells out that fighting against the British has not been part of their agenda. “We should remember that in our pledge we have talked of the freedom of the country through defending religion and culture, there is no mention of the departure of the British from here.”

A longish quote from Golwalkar clarifies their whole attitude. “There was some unrest in the mind due to the situation developing in the country from time to time. There was such unrest in 1942. Before that there was the movement of 1930-31. At that time many other people had gone to Doctorji (Hedgewar). The delegation requested Doctorji that this movement will give Independence and Sangh should not lag behind. At that time, when a gentleman told Doctorji that he was ready to go to jail, Doctorji said ‘definitely go, but who will take care of your family then?’ That gentleman replied , ‘I have sufficiently arranged resources not only to run the family expenses for two years but also to pay fines according to requirement’, then Doctorji told him ‘If you have fully arranged for the resources then come out to work for Sangh for two years’. After returning home that gentleman neither went to jail nor came out to work for the Sangh.”

Golwalkar also stated that "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 organization 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." However, there is not a single publication or document of the Sangh which could throw some light on the great work the RSS did indirectly for the Quit India movement,” writes Shamsul Islam.

Modi’s assertions have nothing to do with the truth. RSS is an organisation working for a Hindu Nation and had nothing to do with the freedom movement that aimed at a secular, democratic inclusive nation.

The writer is a human rights defender and a former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. The views are personal.