Savarkar and Sangh : a muddled equation
THE SANGH Parivar which never enjoyed a smooth relationship with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar when alive now wants us to believe that it is the true and the only heir to his legacy.
The flurry of activities taken by its leaders at the national level in the aftermath of the `plaque removal incident' or the recent decision by the leader of the BJP in Maharashtra Mr. Gopinath Munde to take out a `Savarkar Yatra' to avenge the alleged insult to the freedom fighter has proved beyond doubt its determination about the same.
Different priorities
Incidentally the callousness with which the `Parivar' itself views this claim of legacy was not lost on the common people when they noticed that when on the one hand, the BJP-Shiv Sena members were making a noise about the plaque removal incident inside the parliament, the spokesperson of the RSS Mr. Ram Madhav was releasing a letter to the press purportedly written by Sardar Patel, which, while `absolving the RSS from the charges of assassination of Gandhi' had clearly stated that Savarkar was involved in the conspiracy to kill Gandhi.
Even a cursory glance at the trajectory of the Hindu Mahasabha under the leadership of Savarkar or the way in which the RSS unfolded itself during those days makes it quite clear that the differences in priorities between the two organisations were already visible from the day Savarkar was elected president of the Hindu Mahasabha after his release from jail in1937.
In a sympathetic study of the RSS "The Brotherhood in Saffron, The RSS and The Hindu Revivalism," the authors Andersen and Damle clearly explain (pg 40, Vistaar, 1986, Delhi) that in fact Savarkar's emphasis was on turning the Mahasabha into a political party in opposition to the Congress when Hedgewar had already decided to insulate the RSS from any active politics and concentrate on `cultural work'.
Hedgewar and later Golwalkar also neither wanted to be associated with a formation whose confrontational activities would place the RSS in direct opposition to the Congress. There were apprehensions regarding each other's role in the Hindu Unification Movement. The souring of relations between the two organisations is visible in an angry letter issued by Savarkar's office in 1940 advising that "when there is such a serious conflict at a particular locality between any of the branches of the Sangh, the RSS and the Hindu Sabhaites that actual preaching is carried out against the Hindu Mahasabha, then the Hindu Sabhaites should better leave the Sangh ...and start their own Hindu Sabha volunteer corps (letter from V.D.Savarkar to S.L.Mishra, 3 March 1943)."
In fact the earlier Hindu Mahasabha leaders prior to Savarkar were expecting that the RSS would work as a `youth organisation' of the `parent body'. But that plan did not materialise and then the Hindu Mahasabha under Savarkar's leadership was forced to form the Ram Sena in its place.
The chequered course
It is now history how in 1942 when the Britishers were engaged in World War II and the Congress's call for `Quit India' reverberated throughout India, thousands of people engaged in government jobs including police and military left their jobs to protest against the continuation of the British regime. It is interesting that the mass upsurge of the Indian people once again could not compel both these organisations to chart a unified path. Of course there was one commonality and it was their refusal to join the anti colonial mass upsurge. And thus while the RSS preferred to keep itself aloof from the `Quit India Movement' and concentrate on its `cultural' agenda, Savarkar went one step further. At that time he preferred to tour India asking Hindu youth to join the military with a call `Militarise the Hindus, Hinduise the nation'.
The advent of independence also could not bring about any qualitative improvement in the relationships between Savarkar and the rest of the RSS led by Golwalkar. In fact the killing of the Mahatma as part of a deep conspiracy hatched by the forces of Hindutva and the consequent government crackdown on the RSS as well as the Hindu Mahasabha and the long winding court proceedings further soured the relations between the two.
The RSS's vainglorious attempts to save itself from the aftermath, Golwalkar's petitions to Sardar Patel for lifting the ban on the RSS coupled with its inaction as far as the court case against Savarkar and his other comrades was concerned proved to be the last straw.
The Fifties saw the RSS's attempts to build a mass political party of its own in the form of the Jan Sangh with a senior ex-Hindu Mahasabha leader Shyama Prasad Mukherjee in its leading position. It was a time when both the Jan Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha contested for the same political space in an ambience that was not conducive for either of them. It was clear to even a layperson that the RSS as well as the Jan Sangh were maintaining a distance from Savarkar.
In fact Savarkar died a lonely man abhorred by the very people who once called him the pioneer theoretician of the project of the Hindu Rashtra. It seems really ironic that these are the very people who are today engaged in an exercise to show that they are the real heirs to his legacy.
Vikram Savarkar, a nephew of Savarkar and a leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, in a recent interview to the press clearly exposed the hypocrisy involved in these attempts. According to him he very well knows that the BJP and the RSS did not appreciate his (Savarkar's) philosophy. In fact for him the BJP's sudden love for the legend is an eyewash. It is an effort to woo voters for the Assembly elections in Maharashtra.
SUBHASH GATADE
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