They opposed him and his ideas, mocked at his morals but RSS and BJP also need to appropriate the Mahatma

As the 150th birth anniversary celebrations end and the Mahatma returns to his confined habitat of museums, a fact worth noticing is the visible turn — we still cannot call it a turnaround— in the attitude of the Hindu Right to the man they hounded to death.

HV Seshadri, the biographer of the founder and first chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), KB Hedgewar states quite unambiguously: “Gandhiji worked constantly with one eye on Hindu– Muslim unity…But Doctorji (Hedgewar) sensed danger in that move. In fact, he did not even relish the newfangled slogan of ‘Hindu– Muslim Unity”.

Like the RSS, the Hindu Mahasabha also boycotted Gandhiji’s ‘Quit India’ movement in 1942, but its leader Shyama Prasad Mookerjee went a step further and requested the British to take stern action against the freedom fighters.

Mookerjee had joined Fazlul Haque’s ministry in Bengal and is revered by the present regime as the founder of the political wing of the RSS, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh that preceded the present Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “As one of your Ministers”, he wrote to the Governor of Bengal on 26th July 1942, “I am willing to offer you my whole-hearted cooperation... in this hour of crisis”.

We may fast forward to 1947 and we find that despite misgivings, Gandhiji still tried to convince the RSS to move to the mainstream and eschew violence. On 3rd April 1947 he revealed at a prayer meeting that the second Sarsanghchalak of the RSS, MS Golwalkar had met him and assured him that the RSS had not encouraged violence and also that it did not oppose him.

But just before Independence, the RSS's mouthpiece, the Organiser’s issues of 17th and 22nd July expressed its vehement opposition on several national issues. When India’s long-cherished Independence finally arrived, sadly along with partition, the RSS bitterly opposed the choice of the tricolour as new India’s flag. Its logic was that it will "never be respected and owned by the Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to the country."

This is not correct, as Hinduism holds three in very high regard as well — quite evident in its veneration of the Trimurti and Triguna. Later, in his book, Bunch of Thoughts, MS Golwalkar reiterated this opposition to the tricolour and wanted the Hindu saffron bhagwa dhwaj as the nation’s flag. During this time, the RSS was moving among the very angry Hindu refugees from Pakistan, offering some relief, but also fomenting communal violence and demanding retaliation against all Muslims.

Gandhiji, however, kept on with his persuasion and on September 16, 1947, he even visited an RSS camp at Bhangi colony in New Delhi, where he addressed RSS volunteers. He also recalled that Jamnalal Bajaj had taken him to another RSS camp in Wardha long ago, when the founder of the RSS Dr. Hedgewar was alive. Gandhiji’s efforts did not succeed and, as Ramachandra Guha found from several reports of the Delhi Police of 1947, the RSS kept attacking Gandhi’s policies and inciting violence. Finally, on the 17th of November 1947, an exasperated Gandhiji declared that “I have heard it said that the Sangh is at the root of all this mischief. Let us not forget that public opinion is a far more potent force than a thousand swords. Hinduism cannot be saved by orgies of murder...such violent rowdyism will not save either Hinduism or Sikhism.”

On 30th January of 1948, the Mahatma was shot in cold blood by a fanatic of the Hindu Mahasabha who had earlier been associated with the RSS. History tells us that Sardar Patel, whose statue the ruling party has set up as the tallest in the world, had come down heavily on the RSS and had banned it immediately.

Sardar Patel wrote on 27th February that Gandhiji’s “assassination was welcomed by those of the RSS and the (Hindu) Mahasabha who were strongly opposed to his way of thinking and his policy”. He also mentioned “allegations that sweets were distributed” by these two Hindu outfits. On July 18, 1948, the Sardar wrote that “our reports do confirm that, as a result of the activities of these two bodies (RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha), particularly the former, an atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly tragedy became possible. There is no doubt in my mind that the extreme section of the Hindu Mahasabha was involved in the conspiracy. The activities of the RSS constituted a clear threat to the existence of Government and the State. Our reports show that those activities, despite the ban, have not died down. Indeed, as time has marched on, the RSS circles are becoming more defiant and are indulging in their subversive activities in an increasing measure.”

The Sardar did not budge an inch on his ban on the RSS for one and a half years, despite pleas from Golwalkar and others. It was only on July 11, 1949, that he lifted the ban — after the RSS pledged to stay away from politics; not be secretive and abjured violence. More important, it professed "loyalty to the Constitution of India and the National Flag". It is ironic that at present it is the RSS and the BJP that are directing all Indians to display public respect for the flag or be branded ‘anti national’.

Having said all this, the ‘turn’ worth noting during the 150th birth anniversary celebrations is that the RSS and the BJP appear to have finally ‘accepted’ the Mahatma. They are, in fact, flaunting their proximity to Gandhiji and praising several (not all) of his ideals.

The Organiser of 15 October 2019 is quite overt in declaring that “Mahatma Gandhi’s encounter with Hedgewar, who founded RSS in 1925, could be traced back to the non-cooperation movement. When the Congress organised a mammoth rally in Nagpur in 1922 in reaction to Gandhiji’s imprisonment, it was Hedgewar who addressed the rally. Hedgewar proclaimed that there was no difference between the words and actions of Mahatma Gandhi”.

It further states that Gandhiji was misled by his supporters in 1942 into believing that the RSS was against Muslims or the Quit India movement. “MS Golwalkar refuted this serious charge. He clarified that ‘RSS does not indulge in unnecessary demonstrations, or raise slogans.”

The pro-RSS/BJP Swarajya has also strained to explain how Gandhiji had so much respect for the RSS and its philosophy as well as its discipline. There are numerous other items in the media on how the present RSS chief, Mohan Bhagawat, has emphatically declared his reverence for the Mahatma and his contributions to India. Some selective issues of his legacy like cow protection, organic farming, rural development, and swadeshi economy appeal quite naturally to the Hindu Right.

There is an explanation offered by Ajay Gudavarthy that “They need him to keep the idea of a tolerant Hindu to remain in popular memory so that the violence by Hindus finds justification”.

(The author is a retired IAS officer and former CEO of Prasar Bharti)