Onward to Nagpur to Meet Doctorji

The historic meeting of Hedgewar, Golwalkar, and Syama Prasad Mookerjee in the summer of 1940 coincided with the expansion of the RSS and paved the way for India's unity amidst calls of division

- ANIRBAN GANGULY

It was in the summer of 1940 that Sri Guruji and Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee first met. On May 16, 1940, Dr Mookerjee left Calcutta for Bombay to attend the Hindu Mahasabha's working committee meeting to be held in Dadar between May 18 and 19. The Hindustan Standard reported that Dr Mookerjee, then member of the Working Committee of the All India Hindu Mahasabha had left for Bombay on Thursday (16.5.1940) evening to attend the meeting of the Committee to be held at Dadar on May 18 and 19. It also reported that Dr Mookerjee will stop for a day at Nagpur on his way back from Bombay. Intimation was received in Nagpur, that Dr Mookerjee would be coming on May 20 to meet Doctorji.

1940 was a significant year for the RSS. It was significant in terms of the Sangh's growth and spread. By that year, shakhas had started spreading throughout the length and breadth of the country and in the Officers Training Camp (OTC) in Nagpur, there was representation from across the country. The editor of an informative and succinct biography of Dr Hedgewar, 'Dr Hedgewar: the Epoch Maker', records that over 1400 Swayamsevaks took part in the OTC and out of them 600 were from the Frontier Provinces, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, Madras, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat.