RSS: Still in search of a Genealogy!

MOHAN GURUSWAMY:

The RSS is still in search of a genealogy that will connect it to the nationalist movement that won India its freedom. The truth is that the contemporary writings and speeches of RSS leaders have a very different story to tell. These leaders showed little enthusiasm for the anti-British struggle. 

In the words of Guru Golwalkar, "There is another reason for the need of always remaining involved in routine work. There is some unrest in the mind due to the situation developing in the country from time to time. There was such unrest in1942. Before that there was the movement in 1930-31. At that time many other  people had gone to Doctorji. This '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 gentlemen told-'he has sufficiently arranged resources not only to run the family expenses for twoyears but also to pay fines according to the requirements'. Then Doctorji said to him-'if you have fully arranged for the resources then come out to work for theSangh for two years'. After returning home that gentleman neither went to jail nor came out to work for the Sangh'.

Now this lot are trying to apportion to themselves the legacy of Vallabhbhai Patel, forgetting that it was Patel who had banned the RSS after learning that RSS workers were distributing sweets to celebrate Gandhi's death. Gandhi was assassinated. Now Modi is displaying is lack of knowledge of history or willingness to distort it by saying that the Congress Party wanted Patel to be the first PM. The fact is that Jawaharlal Nehru became the President of the Congress in 1946, after Maulana Azad was dissuaded from offering himself on the basis of the system of rotation that the Congress informally followed. Patel was never in the run. If Patel contested he would have been defeated by Nehru.

The BJP leadership is very keen to project the RSS as a component of the freedom struggle. This is an attempt to gain greater respectability and wider acceptance. For a party which claims to be the touchstone of patriotism this is an important consideration. The BJP finds it embarrassing that the RSS - to which the top leadership as well as the overwhelming majority of the cadre of the BJP belong -was not a part of the freedom movement. It is politically inconvenient for an organization which constantly refers to its glorious past, that it has no legacy of anti-colonial struggle. The RSS lacks the courage to categorically state that it did not participate in the freedom struggle because its ideology prevented it from doing so.

There is also the well known story of how the RSS tried to lionize Atal Behari Vajpayee's role in the 1942 movement. This ended up in a huge fiasco when it was discovered that Vajpayee actually made a confessional statement disassociating himself from the event at his hometown Bateshwar. In this confessional he wrote:

"It seemed to me that bricks were falling. I could not know who was razing the wall to the ground but the bricks of the wall were certainly falling. I along with my brother started to go to Maipura and the crowd was behind us. The abovementioned persons forcibly turned out the goats from the cattle-pound and the crowd proceeded towards Bichkoli. Ten or twelve persons were in the Forest Office. I was at a distance of 100 yards. I did not render any assistance in demolishing the government building. Thereafter, we went to our respective homes." So much for his participation in the freedom struggle. 

Now the RSS is trying to make Sardar Patel its own. In this modern version of the RSS's history from which it tries to give itself a lineage deriving from Sardar Patel, the Sardar was preferred by the majority but Gandhi was insistent on Nehru. This is utter rubbish. After Gandhi, Nehru was the tallest of the Congress leaders and it was to him the party turned when the British got ready to leave.

But Narendra Modi wont know all this. History is not his forte, or else he would not think that Alexander died on the west bank of the Ganges!