NEW DELHI: As RSS Sarsanghchalak Dr Mohan Bhagwat travels to the United States to participate in the Universal Oneness Celebration in New York, his visit has once again brought the RSS and its message of social harmony, mutual respect and universal oneness into public discussion. More than five decades ago, a similar opportunity for engagement came through an Iranian journalist and Arabic scholar, Dr Saifuddin Jeelany, who met the then RSS Sarsanghchalak, M S Golwalkar (Guruji), in 1971.
Writing about the meeting and interview with Guruji, Dr Jeelany described it as a “rare, inspiring and unforgettable” experience. He recalled his determination to meet Guruji despite his brief visit to Calcutta and busy schedule, saying that he wanted to discuss the Hindu-Muslim question during what he described as difficult times. His account went beyond the meeting itself: he offered his own observations on Guruji.
Dr Jeelany, who had closely observed the RSS for years, wrote about his experience with Guruji in Organiser on February 27, 1971, Read here:
It was not at all easy to secure this interview with Shri Guruji. His visit to Calcutta was brief and his programme over-crowded. But my business was pressing. I wanted to discuss with him the communal problem during these difficult days when unscrupulous politicians are going all out to mislead the people.
I had never met or communicated with Guruji before. But, when he recently fell seriously ill and had to undergo a major operation, I felt it was my duty to inquire about his health, wish him a speedy recovery and pray Allah to spare him for many years to come. I had this conveyed to him through my good friends Acharya S. S. Apte and R. P. Khanna.
I wonder how many, or how few Muslim Indians other than myself felt about Shri Guruji the same way. If any, I will be happy to know them. They may please write to me. I will write back telling them how proud I am to know fellow Muslim Indians living up to the true teachings of Islam.
If they are many, so much the better. If few, that will be still something. If none, it will be a stab in the back of Islam by violating its basic teachings.
I wanted to meet Guruji to congratulate him on his miraculous restoration to perfect health. I felt that I was one of the happy millions of Indians whom God favoured by answering their prayer.
Let us not allow petty prejudices to blind us to a fact that stares us in the face. In saying this, I am addressing not only the Muslims of this country, but many Hindus as well.
Shri Guruji is the most important man in India. He is our country’s Man Of Destiny.
The opportunity to meet Guruji came when I learned that he would be in Calcutta for a short visit. I wanted to combine the pleasure of meeting him with a discussion of Hindu-Muslim relations. My effort has met with some success, thanks mostly to the vast amount of goodwill that many Hindus have for their Muslim brothers. But, I was not satisfied with this result, promising though it was. I am after a victory over the communal monster. Nobody can help in bringing this about except Guruji.
Meeting Shri Guruji is a rare experience, inspiring and unforgettable. I have, in my time, met many of the world’s greatest men, from Hitler to Nasser with a galaxy of others thrown in between them. I have yet to come across one as impressive and at the same time fascinatingly confident and affable, as Guruji.
He smiles with his eyes. One has just to look at them to feel at home and know that he is face to face with a sincere friend of long standing.
Yes: Shri Guruji is the one man to provide the guide-lines for the solution of the communal problem.
Am I forgetting the RSS? Indeed, I am not.
I have, for years, closely observed the activities of the RSS and can conscientiously say that it is the greatest asset of our country. It is, no doubt, often painted in dark colours by people who, designedly and otherwise, ignore its significance as a vital necessity of India.
The RSS is not an enemy of the Muslims of this country. On the contrary it is their friend. But, they do not realise this because they never think for themselves. They sit back and allow an ignorant designing leadership to think for them.
Am I forgetting that the RSS membership is not open to Muslims? Indeed, I am not.
The RSS came into being to help the Hindu recover his Abhimaan. When this is done, its doors will at once be thrown open to all other non-Hindu Indians. One has to build from the bottom, not from the top. The Hindu is the corner-stone of the mighty edifice called Bharat. Once that corner-stone is strengthened and is solidly established, the edifice will rise up in all its splendour and glory as one people, the like of which history has never produced.
I asked Guruji whether, at least of late, any prominent Muslim Indian sounded him on the communal problem. He mentioned quite a number. Not one of them was any of the Muslim leaders I had in mind. Naturally, I asked Guruji if he would like to meet those I was thinking of. Came his answer without any hesitation:
“I not only like it; I welcome it.”
I could feel the challenge in these few words, uttered in all sincerity and goodwill. Will it fall on ears deafened, as the Holy Quran says, by perversity?
I am an humble servant of the Indian people as a whole. But, frankly those of them foremost in my mind are my fellow Muslim Indians. The Hindus do not lack leadership. The Muslims are more like sheep without shepherd.
All I ask them to do is to open their eyes and minds and, for a change, think for themselves.
