Being anti-Hindu is secularism, support to terrorists is human rights, insulting national culture is freedom of expression. Only, love for the Mother is debatable!
Does the RSS need good conduct certificates from others? Suppose it does. What better certificate can be there than one conferred on you by your adversary? E.M.S. Namboodiripad, Marxist politician and ideologue, was as staunch an opponent of the RSS as you would wish to find. But even he rejected any questioning of the patriotic credentials of K.B. Hedgewar, founder of RSS. In his critique BJP-RSS: In the Service of the Right Reaction, he wrote thus on Dr Hedgewar: “…a nationalist who participated in the Gandhi-led movement, he continued to be a Congressman for a decade more and participated in the 1930 Salt Satyagraha”. Bipan Chandra, a leading light of the Marxist brigade of historians, also had to reluctantly admit in his book Communalism in Modern India that “Dr Hedgewar never integrated with the colonial regime”.
Many Socialist leaders and others who remained opposed to the RSS also could not forget their past—the days they spent underground in 1942, when they were provided safe shelters by RSS activists. Aruna Asaf Ali and Jayaprakash Narayan were housed in Delhi sanghchalak Lala Hansraj Gupta’s residence; Achyut Patwardhan and Sane Guruji were sheltered at the residence of Pune sanghchalak Bhausaheb Deshmukh; and Krantiveer Nana Patil at Aundh sanghchalak Pt S.D. Satwalekar’s house. Aruna Asaf Ali reminisced in Hindi daily Hindustan in 1967: “After the 1942 movement became directionless with the arrest of the top leaders, I was underground at the house of RSS’s Delhi prant sanghchalak Lala Hansraj Gupta. He gave me shelter for 10-15 days....” This interview was given before she became a Communist leader.
This story is from the February 05, 2018 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the February 05, 2018 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
The Propaganda Files
A recent spate of Hindi films distorts facts and creates imaginary villains. Century-old propaganda cinema has always relied on this tactic
Will Hindutva Survive After 2024?
The idealogy of Hindutva faces a challenge in staying relevant
A Terrific Tragicomedy
Paul Murray's The Bee Sting is a tender and extravagant sketch of apocalypse
Trapped in a Template
In the upcoming election, more than the Congress, the future of the Gandhi family is at stake
IDEOLOGY
Public opinion will never be devoid of ideology: but we shall destroy ourselves without philosophical courage
The Many Kerala Stories
How Kerala responded to the propaganda film The Kerala Story
Movies and a Mirage
Previously portrayed as a peaceful paradise, post-1990s Kashmir in Bollywood has become politicised
Lights, Cinema, Politics
FOR eight months before the 1983 state elections in undivided Andhra Pradesh, a modified green Chevrolet van would travel non-stop, except for the occasional pit stops and food breaks, across the state.
Cut, Copy, Paste
Representation of Muslim characters in Indian cinema has been limited—they are either terrorists or glorified individuals who have no substance other than fixed ideas of patriotism
The Spectre of Eisenstein
Cinema’s real potency to harness the power of enchantment might want to militate against its use as a servile, conformist propaganda vehicle