Bunch of Thoughts

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is celebrating its centenary and its epic successes in the cultural, and, especially, political field.

- Aakar Patel

Readers who are familiar with the organisation, the font of Hindutva ideology, but unclear about what it specifically stands for might benefit from this column. The RSS’s longest-serving (33 years from 1940 to 1973) chief was MS Golwalkar. Two books are attributed to him, of which one is disowned. The other one, Bunch of Thoughts, is the subject here and we will look at what it says. It must be noted that it is not a book in the sense that it is a written work, but a compilation of Golwalkar’s speeches and interviews and excerpts thereof. This gives it a jumpy and sporadic feel, but it is worth going through nonetheless. What follows is your columnist’s representation of Golwalkar’s views, in as unbiased a fashion as is possible.

Golwalkar says the RSS called itself the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and not the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh. This was because ‘Rashtriya’ naturally means Hindu and therefore the word ‘Hindu’ need not be used. The first RSS head Keshav Hedgewar had said: ‘If we use the word Hindu it will only mean that we consider ourselves only as one of the innumerable communities in this land and that we do not realise our natural status as the nationals of this country.’

Savarkar’s Hindu Mahasabha was wrong in once having passed a resolution that the Congress should not give up its nationalist position by holding talks with the Muslim League but instead asking the Hindu Mahasabha to do so. This ceded equal position to the Muslims and was a perversion of the reality that India was wholly and only a Hindu Rashtra.