Shri Guruji gave a call for total Satyagraha on December 9, 1948. As he was in prison, he nominated Sarkaryavah Shri Bhaiyyaji Dhani to lead the Satyagraha Movement by holding Shakhas all over the country. From that day, the Satyagraha gained momentum. Shouting slogans like Bharat Mata ki Jai! and ?Long Live Sangh?, batches of Swayamsevaks all over the country came out to hold Shakhas and the police took them into custody. The nationwide Satyagraha launched by Shri Guruji led to an animated and heated discussion among all sections of society in India about the illegal ban imposed by the Government of India on the RSS. In many places, apart from Swayamsevaks, even the common people not belonging to the RSS started putting up posters with the demand: ?Prove the charges against the RSS or lift the ban.? At the same time, lakhs of copies of pamphlets legally refuting the charges against the RSS and explaining its just and nationalist demand were distributed from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. There was a great enthusiasm among the Swayamsevaks for pushing the Satyagraha Movement to its logical conclusion, regardless of consequences. The Government of India had never imagined that more than 80,000 Satyagrahis would come forward to do Satyagraha and would be cheerfully willing to be thrown behind bars. It became virtually impossible for the police administration in all the states to deal with this very large number of ?cultural prisoners?. Simultaneously in many of the places the Swayamsevaks went on a hunger strike causing great worry to the government at various levels. The inhuman lathi charges on peaceful Satyagrahis in Madras city was condemned by eminent persons like T.R. Venkatrama Sastri of the Liberal Party and Swami Venkatachalam, a Member of Parliament.
Shri Guruji was still continuing in prison. There was no sign of the Satyagraha Movement stopping and of the enthusiasm of the Swayamsevaks abating. In January 1949, G.V. Ketkar, editor of the Pune-based daily Kesari met Shri Guruji in Sivani Jail twice and suggested to him that if the Satyagraha was suspended, it would pave the way for public-spirited persons like T.R. Venkatrama Sastri for initiating some moves for getting the ban on the RSS lifted. Shri Guruji agreed and gave a written directive for suspending the Satyagraha and finally on January 22, 1949, the suspension of Satyagraha was formally announced. The saga of the country-wide Satyagraha that was started on December 9, 1948, on the call of Shri Guruji came to a remarkably successful conclusion.
A wave of public sympathy for the RSS swept throughout the country. For a change, this was also reflected in the media. On January 22, 1949, The Tribune from Ambala remarked: ?The RSS leader has paved the way for eventual settlement by calling off the movement without any conditions. It is now for the Government of India to honourably withdraw the ban. Let the Government of India remember that a policy of suppression will never succeed in killing an organisation.? Likewise, The Statesman of Calcutta paid a personal tribute to Shri Guruji for the manner in which he conducted the agitation and stated: ?The ban on the RSS was causing the youth power to go to waste by keeping them behind bars.?
Realising that the public opinion was going against the Government of India, a request was made to Shri Guruji to prepare a written Constitution for the RSS and to send it to the Government of India for information. (It may be noted that till then RSS was functioning in a most disciplined way without even a written Constitution). Accordingly, some leading office-bearers of the RSS met T.R. Venkatrama Sastri in Madras and got a draft Constitution ready for the RSS in June 1949. It was finalised by Shri Guruji and forwarded to the Government of India for its information.
In the meantime, angered by the authoritarian and dictatorial attitude of the Government of India, T.R. Venkatrama Sastri had prepared a long statement to the press and sent it to them on July 6, 1949, with a request that it should not be published till July 13, 1949. The Government of India was rattled by this move. T.R. Venkatrama Sastri'spublication of his indictment in all the newspapers in India and abroad would have brought great shame to the government in the eyes of the people and so it was decided to lift the ban just a day prior to its proposed publication on July 13, 1949. Yet, The Hindu of Madras carried the entire statement of T.R. Venkatrama Sastri on its July 13 issue which fully exposed the Government of India. Reacting to the Government of India'sobjection that ?The RSS Constitution was right enough, but the leaders of this organisation cannot be trusted to function within its scope?, T.R. Venkatrama Sastri in his strong statement said: ?Apart from being illegal, it would be hard on any organisation to say that in anticipation of a not unlikely unlawful action on the part of its members, it is not allowed to begin its work. A government or a State can be characterised as ?Fascist?, but not a private organisation like the RSS, to which no one is compelled to belong. One may join it, or refuse to join it, or having joined it may resign at will.?
On July 12, 1949, the ban on the RSS was removed unilaterally by the Government of India. Shri Guruji was released from Betul Jail on July 13, 1949. The Government of India covered itself with deathless shame and Shri Guruji with immortal glory in the pages of history.
