Magazine / The Hindu
26 November 2006
Golwalkar's book disparages democracy as alien
to the Hindu ethos and extols the code of Manu...THIS
column generally deals more - much more - in
appreciation than in depreciation. However,
it is obligatory on the historian to also (occasionally)
notice individuals whose influence on history
was malign rather than salutary. One such person
was the Hindu ideologue M.S. Golwalkar, whose
birth anniversary his followers are marking
this year.
Early initiation
Born in February 1906, Golwalkar studied and
then taught briefly at the Banaras Hindu University
(hence the appellation "Guru", which
he carried for the rest of his life). He joined
the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh as a student,
attracting the attention of its founder, Dr.
K.B. Hedgewar. When the elder man died in 1940,
Golwalkar became the sarchangchalak of the RSS.
He headed the organisation until his death some
three decades later.
Golwalkar was a man of much energy and dynamism,
under whose leadership the RSS steadily grew
in power and influence. His ideas are summarised
in the book Bunch of Thoughts, which draws upon
the lectures he delivered over the years (mostly
in Hindi) to RSS shakhas across the country.
This identifies the Hindus, and they alone,
as the privileged community of India. It disparages
democracy as alien to the Hindu ethos and extols
the code of Manu, whom Golwalkar salutes as
"the first, the greatest, and the wisest
lawgiver of mankind".
Angels and demons
The early chapters of Bunch of Thoughts celebrate
the glories of the Motherland and its chief
religion, this a prelude to the demonisation
of those Indians who had the misfortune of not
being born into the Hindu fold. Golwalkar writes
that the "hostile elements within the country
pose a far greater menace to national security
than aggressors from outside". He identifies
three major "Internal Threats: I: The Muslims;
II: The Christians; III: The Communists".
A long chapter impugns the patriotism of these
groups, speaking darkly of their "future
aggressive designs on our country".
On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was murdered
by Nathuram Godse. Although Godse was not a
member of the RSS at the time of the murder,
he had been one in the past. And there were
reports that in several places RSS members had
celebrated his act by distributing sweets. As
a precautionary measure, Golwalkar and other
RSS workers were put in jail.
Secret documents that this writer has recently
seen strongly suggest that even if the RSS was
not directly implicated in Gandhi's murder,
its main leader was not entirely averse to such
a happening. Thus, on December 6, 1947, Golwalkar
convened a meeting of RSS workers in the town
of Govardhan, not far from Delhi. The police
report on this meeting says it discussed how
to "assassinate the leading persons of
the Congress in order to terrorise the public
and to get their hold over them".
Two days later, Golwalkar addressed a crowd
of several thousand volunteers at the Rohtak
Road Camp in Delhi. The police reporter in attendance
wrote that the RSS leader said that "the
Sangh will not rest content until it had finished
Pakistan. If anyone stood in our way we will
have to finish them too, whether it was Nehru
Government or any other Government... "
Referring to Muslims, he said that no power
on earth could keep them in Hindustan. They
should have to quit this country... "If
they were made to stay here the responsibility
would be the Government's and the Hindu community
would not be responsible. Mahatma Gandhi could
not mislead them any longer. We have the means
whereby [our] opponents could be immediately
silenced".
Dogged commitment
Six weeks later, Gandhi was assassinated, and
Golwalkar and his colleagues put in jail. Released
a year later on a bond of good behaviour, they
retained a dogged commitment to their ideas.
Golwalkar himself argued that "in this
land Hindus have been the owners, Parsis and
Jews the guests, and Muslims and Christians
the dacoits". He asked, maliciously: "Then
do all these have the same right over the country?"
Golwalkar saw Muslims, Christians and Communists
(among others) as threats to the nation. Other
Indians saw him and his ilk as a "Danger
to our Secular State". The words in quotes
served as the title of an essay on Golwalkar
written in 1956 by the Bombay columnist D.F.
Karaka. The RSS leader, noted Karaka, "thinks
in terms of Hindu India and only Hindu India".
As one who had many criticisms to make of the
Prime Minister of the day, the columnist nonetheless
believed that "it is necessary for all
of us whatever our differences are with Mr.
Nehru to stand firm with him on this point,
namely, that ours is a secular state and that
whether we are Hindus, Muslims, Parsis or Christians,
freedom of religion, which is guaranteed to
us under our Constitution should not be allowed
to be crucified at the altar of the RSS - the
organisation from which came the man who murdered
Mahatma Gandhi".
Failed project
Karaka's column was sparked by the celebration
by the RSS of the 50th birthday of Madhav Sadashiv
Golwalkar. In this, the year of his 100th birth
anniversary, all I need do is endorse Karaka's
words. For, Golwalkar was a guru of hate, whose
life's malevolent work was - as Jawaharlal Nehru
so memorably put it - to make India into a "Hindu
Pakistan". That project has not succeeded
yet, and may it never succeed either.
