Keshav Baliram Hedgewar was born on Varsha Pratipada of the Hindu New Year day corresponding to April 1 1889 of the Gregorian Calendar at Nagpur. Even as a child, he started questioning how a handful of foreigners could rule over a vast and ancient nation like Bharat for so long. No wonder he threw away the sweets distributed on the occasion of the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria’s coronation. He was eight years old at the time. When studying in high school, he started participating in nationalist activities and, unfurled the banner of independence during Dusserah at Rampayali in 1907. The intensity of his urge to free the Motherland grew steadily. In 1908, he was expelled for leading the students in raising the ‘seditious’ cry of ‘Vande Mataram’. He had to move to Pune to complete his matriculation.
Hedgewar opted for a medical course in Calcutta, chiefly prompted by the prospect of getting first-hand acquaintance with the underground movement. He soon became a core member of one of the leading revolutionary groups, Anusheelan Samiti, and plunged into various social service activities. When the river Damodar was in floods in 1913, he rushed to join the relief team.
He returned to Nagpur in 1916 as a qualified doctor. However, despite dire poverty at home, he did not (indeed never intended to) practice medicine. Remaining a bachelor, he preferred to become a physician to cure the ills of the nation. By then, he had established active contact with stalwarts like Lokmanya Tilak, Dr. Munje and Loknayak M. S. Anay. He worked in responsible positions in the Congress and Hindu Mahasabha till the early 1920s.
Hedgewar’s public speeches of those days were sheer fire and brimstone. It was not long before he had to face court trials. In one such trial, he defended himself, declaring, ‘The only government that has a right to exist is a government of the people. The Europeans and those who call themselves the government of this country should recognise that the time for their graceful exit is approaching.’ He was awarded one year’s rigorous imprisonment.
After release from prison, Dr Hedgewar, while continuously immersed in various social and political activities, intensified his quest for an understanding of the true nature of our nation for whose freedom the struggle was being carried on. Political emancipation from foreign rule alone could not cure all the nation’s ills.
Bharat is not a nation born recently. It has not only been a nation for millennia but also has made phenomenal progress in science, commerce, arts, technology, agriculture and other spheres, not to mention philosophy and the spiritual domain, wherein its achievements continue to elicit wonderment to this day. It is also a fact of history that the cultural empire of Bharat extended to the whole of Southeast Asia for over four centuries. Equally, it is a sad fact of history that social disunity and discord have been the cause of Bharat’s political subjugation by alien invaders.
The 800-year-long resistance of the Hindus to Islamic rule had its lesson for the British. Seeing that physical repression would not be of much avail, the British, through subtle and not-so-subtle ways, attempted to subvert the Hindu mind itself. They succeeded in part, and a Westward-looking social segment was created, mainly through enforcing the new system of education tailored to generate armies of clerks and end ‘brown sahibs’. A cleavage developed between the society and its cultural roots and legacy in such an environment. The nation’s identity became eroded.
It was to such a national self-oblivion that a cure had to be found. The Congress leaders’ policy of appeasement of the Muslims was but one symptom of the malaise. It is an irony of history that – even after paying the ultimate price of vivisection of their cherished Motherland – the Hindus have been treated as second-order citizens by successive governments of post-independence Bharat.
Dr. Hedgewar indeed foresaw this. Years of thinking had convinced him that a strong and united Hindu society alone is the sine qua non for not only the all-round prosperity but for the very survival of Bharat as an independent sovereign nation. Social cohesion alone could ensure national integrity.
Dr. Hedgewar’s response to this challenge was founding the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in 1925. The sweep and amplitude of one great mind can be fully grasped only by minds with a like vision and imagination. Thus, even in the early days of the Sangh, it drew praise and approval from eminent stalwarts including Mahatma Gandhi, Savarkar, Subhash Chandra Bose, Madan Mohan Malaviya and others.
A handful of youths in Nagpur started the first Shakha of the Sangh. Gradually, Shakhas sprouted in other provinces. Soon, vast numbers of ‘Pracharaks’ (whole-time social workers totally dedicated to nation-building activities) were working to fulfil the Sangh mission.
Dr. Hedgewar toiled night and day to lay a secure foundation for the strengthening and growth of the Sangh. That tremendous work spanning fifteen years did take its toll, and Dr. Hedgewar succumbed to illness on June 21 1940 – at the comparatively young age of 51.
From 1940 onwards, the task of steering the organisation as the second Sar-Sanghachalak came upon the shoulders of Sri Guruji (Madhav Sadashiva Golwalkar, 19.2.1906 – 5.6.1973). With his tireless movement throughout the year to every province meeting the swayamsevaks, inspiring them to put in more time and energy, he made the Sangh grow rapidly, even up to far-off places in Assam and Kerala. The Sangh which previously had only a few Shakhas in and around Nagpur, Vidarbha, Maharashtra and in some distant places like Lahore, Delhi, Varanasi, Calcutta and Madras began to spread with his inspiring personality at the helm, far and wide, in the highly surcharged prevailing political atmosphere of the country, then struggling for its freedom, with an ever-increasing number of Pracharaks submitting themselves for the Sangh work, giving a further fillip to the process. With his great erudition, Sri Guruji cogently propounded the historical and sociological background and the logicality of Hindu Rashtra, which until then was just an empirical thought. He thus widened the ideological base of the Sangh, making it intelligible to a lay villager and the urban intellectual alike. With his uncompromising stress on the one-hour Shakha technique through his word and deed, he perfected the Sangh methodology in every minute detail, thus making it an ideal instrument through proper Samskaras. As more and more co-workers, imbued with Sangh ideology and organisational skill, got ready, with his blessings, one after another, organisations (like ABVP BMS, BJS, BKVA, etc.) began to branch forth as and when the circumstances demanded.
In the meantime, after the assassination of Gandhiji, the Sangh also had to – though unjustly and temporarily – pass through the fire ordeal of a ban, but ultimately, it came out unblemished and as out of eclipse again continued with its mission. In 1973, after thirty-three years of long and unstinted stewardship, when Sri Guruji passed away, the responsibility was passed on to Sri Balasaheb Deoras (Madhukar Dattatreya Deoras: 11.12.1915 to 17.6.1996) the third Sar-Sanghachalak. In his tenure of twenty years, the growth of the Sangh, apart from geographical spread far and wide, has been meteoric, with leaping numbers of varied service projects and ever-expanding horizons of the Sangh-inspired organisations.
Balasaheb Deoras passed on the baton of Sarsanghchalak to Prof. Rajendra Singh in 1994. He, in turn, delegated his responsibility to K S Sudarshan in 2000. In 2009, Sudarshan passed on his responsibility as Sarsanghchalak to Dr Mohanrao Bhagwat under whose leadership the RSS is marching ahead on its way to accomplish its mission and translate its vision of a united, strong, and prosperous Bharat.
