8 thoughts on “BJP without RSS?”

1. a congress without dynasty may be a possibility, although it is only the dynastic factor keeps so many non-compatible actors together. a bjp without rss ? it can only exist in guha’s imaginations. for him politics should be simple – unlike the bjp, he wants a tripolarity – multiple actors confuse him and his simplistic & pop analysis of history.

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2. I would like to propose another connection, one that follows the logic of your argument. Regardless of the contingent and strategic need to separate the right, left and center in Indian politics, I think even the most superficial analysis can show the linkages of what we call RSS philosophy and ideals with “mainstream” ideas about political processes, their value, their place and symbolism in India. Thus, the need for a less rabid BJP – how else will we justify the aspiration for a masculinist foreign policy; how else can SC judges argue that Kasab is outside the rule of law; how else can we demand tougher “terror” laws. Liberal intellectuals like Guha need the BJP without the RSS, because they need some unquestionable truths and choir ready to sing praises of the glory of the Indian nation, disregarding the violence on which it makes claims everyday. Finally, as you pointed out, the BJP without the RSS, is important to re-affirm the masculinity of the state.

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3. Ram Guha laments the decline of the “great” congress party –
   http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090411/jsp/opinion/story_10792426.jsp

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4. I agree, what I see both of them as really arguing for is not a BJP without the RSS, but a real conservative party that doesn’t depend on communalism. Obviously, creating one from scratch would be hard (but not impossible) and so, they try to make existing parties fit into their ideas.

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5. Guha once took on Arundhati Roy. She dismantled him piece by rancid piece. I never heard back from Guha about her after that.

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6. RSS: provides support, pracharaks as sangathan mantris, ideology to BJP
   BJP: provides voice to RSS agenda in main stream politics as RSS is not a political party in itself.

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7. >> a congress without dynasty may be a possibility, although it is only the dynastic factor keeps so many non-compatible actors together.

   I believe the above sound shallow, however it is so visible being rahul gandhi’s being presence.

   As I started seeing around, all parties are promoting their off-springs.

   Beyond the innumerable examples in congress party from top to down, I must point those in BJP too.

   The son of Vasudhara Raje, Yedyurappa, Prem Kumar Dhumal, Jaswant Singh, Kailash Joshi. Not to forget the offer being made to Rajnath son to head Yuva morcha.

   All parties sound so shallow, and keep few good heads in their ranks, the likes of Arun Shourie & jaitley, Jairam Ramesh, Kapil Sibal, Digvijay Singh.

   It’s no different in regional parties as well.

   The only thing being, elections are never fought on issues, manifestos are not widely published and distributed.

   It would be so much better if only two parties exist, which would make the field much more competitive booting out the crooks.

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8. BJP without the RSS is like leopard without the spots. It would be dangerous to think of BJP without its ideological godfather RSS. Please see my Blog: http://balpatil.sulekha.com/blog/post/2010/10/bhonsala-military-school-abhinav-bharat-the-fascist.htm BHONSALA MILITARY SCHOOL ABHINAV BHARAT:THE FASCIST RSS ORIGINS: THE DNA: >BMS>RSS>Abhinav Bharat : SANGH PARIVAR: PATRON SAINT OF BJP By BAL PATIL The Bhonsala Military School of Nashik is under the ATS scanner after the recent revelations of its links with the Malegaon blasts. But what is little known is the fact that its founder Dr.Munje, was a patron of Dr.Hedgewar-the founder of the RSS. Several well-known personalities, alumnis of the BMS have come out in support of how the BMS cannot be associated with such Hindutva terrorist activities. http://www.bhonsalaschool.com/ AIM “The aim of the school is to inculcate military virtues in the Bhartiya Youth. The school also aims at inculcating habits of discipline and organized work in youth and create a sense of leadership. Fostering and advancing a notion of common brotherhood, interest in our rich heritage and love for the mother-land is also aimed by the school. The motto of the school, as given by the Founder, aptly and precisely sums up the aim of the school. “A person having four vedas (knowledge) in front (to guide him), a bow and arrows (power) at his back (to back him) has a combination of “Brahmyam” and Kshatram” and hence he is capable of defeating the enemies either by “Shap” (Power of Knowledge) or “Shar” (Knowledge of Power) “Thus, the aim of the school is to impart “Power of knowledge” and “Knowledge of Power “ to the youth. And hence the school gives emphasis on both, academic and military training. “ Since, our aim is to inculcate military virtues in the youth in general, it is not obligatory on part of the students of the school to join the services. However, those who are really willing to join the noble profession of “Arms” will certainly find our training useful towards their aim. Where as the rest will find themselves mentally and physically fit to pursue any career in the present competitive world. “A person having four vedas (knowledge) in front (to guide him), a bow and arrows (power) at his back (to back him) has a combination of “Brahmyam” and Kshatram” and hence he is capable of defeating the enemies either by “Shap” (Power of Knowledge) or “Shar” (Knowledge of Power) Alumni The ex-students of the School are generally doing well in life. Some of them have reached great positions in Military and also in Civil life. They include Padma-Bhushan Lt. Gen (Rtd) ML Chhiber, PVSM ; Lt. Gen (Rtd) Y D Sahasrabuddhe, PVSM ; Lt. Gen (Rtd) Y R Sardeshpande; Lt. Col. (Rtd) Prakash Kitkule, Veer Chakra; Shri. Vasant Sathe, former Union Minister ; Vanadhipati Shri Vinayakrao Patil. The school has instituted a Bhonsala Bhushan award for the ex-students who excel themselves in service to the mother land. The following persons have been given the award till date. Shri Vasant Sathe, former Union Minister Shri Vinayakrao Patil, former Minister Govt. of Maharashtra Padma Bhushan Lt. Gen (Rtd) M L Chhibber, PVSM Lt. Gen (Rtd) Y D Sahasrabuddhe, PVSM Lt. Col (Rtd) Prakash Kitkule, VrC Flt (Rtd) S M Ghatate, V M “It’s absolutely wrong to say that any such training is being imparted there,” MrVasant Sathe told Hindustan Times. He said military training at BMS prepared students for a career in armed forces. Over the years, the former Union minister has kept contact with BMS that is also the alma mater of a couple of retired three-star generals and service men in other ranks decorated for their bravery. But Mr Sathe conceded, nevertheless, that the ethos BMS inculcated in its students was based on Veer Savarkar’s pre-Independence philosophy of militarising the Hindus and Hinduising the military. And this apparently innocuous admission is an unmistakeable clue as to how deeply entrenched is the Hindutva philosophy inculcated by the Bhonsala Military School in its alumnis some of whom happen to be the stalwarts of the Indian National Congress There is concrete evidence about Shri Sathe’s essentially RSS ideology as evinced in his chorusing with the stalwarts of the BJP and the RSS at the release function of the book The Twin Titans by Dr.Harindra Srivastava at the India Habitat Centre standing shoulder to shoulder with Shri L.K. Advani as reported in The Organiser dated July 8, 2002 when Shri Sathe made a fervent appeal that “Veer Savarkar should be awarded Bharat Ratna” !!! ((Copy of the report attached) Shri Vasant Sathe also joined the chorus of the top BJP leaders including Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee, Shri L.K. Advani at the dedication function of the Savarkar volumes to the nation as reported in the RSS Hindi mouthpiece Panchajanya of 17-23 July, 2000 when Shri Sathe reitereated Sawarkar’s Hindutva philosophy : “ “Asindhu Sindhu Paryanta yasya Bharatbhumika pitrubhu punyabhu sarvaih hindu iti smritah” i.e. “One who considers the country or nation spread between the Sindhu river and the sea as his Fatherland and Holy Land is verily a Hindu.” (Facsimile of the report attached) For a discussion in depth of the fascist origins of the RSS and its mentors I cannot do better than refer to the article Hindutva’s Foreign Tie-up in the 1930s Archival Evidence (Economic & Political Weekly, 22nd January 2000 by Marzia Casolari) . As noted by her “Defining the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and, in gen­eral, the organisations of militant Hindu­ism as undemocratic, with authoritarian, paramilitary, radical, violent tendencies and a sympathy for fascist ideology and practice, has been a major concern for many politically oriented scholars and writers. This has been the case with the literature which started with Gandhi’s assassination and continues up to the present day…” And further : “Less well known is the fact that, as shown by a confidential report circulated within the Congress most probably at the time of the first ban of the RSS, after Gandhi’s assassination, the similarity between the character of the RSS and that of fascist organisations was already taken for granted. In fact, the report itself states that the RSS “(1) …Started in Nagpur some sort of Hindu Boys Scout movement. Gradually it de­veloped into a communal militarist organi­sation with violent tendencies. “(2) The RSS has been purely Maharashtrian brahmin organisation. The non-brahmin Maharashtrians who constitute the bulk of C P and Maharashtra have no sympathy with it “(3) Even in the other provinces the chieforganisers and whole-time workers will be found to be inevitably Maharashtrian bra “(4) Through the RSS the Maharashtrian brahmins have been dreaming of esta­blishing in India ‘a Peshwa Raj’ after the withdrawal of Britishers. The RSS flag is the Bhagwa Flag of the Peshwas – Maharashtrian rulers [who] were the last to be conquered by the British – and after the termination of British rule in India, the Maharashtrians should be vested with political po “(5) The RSS practises secret and violent methods which promote ‘fascism’. No regard is paid to truthful means and con­stitutional meth “(6) There is no constitution of the organi-sation; its aims and objects have never been clearly defined. The general public is usually told that its aim is only physical training, but the real aims are not conveyed even to the rank and file of the RSS mem­bers. Only its ‘inner circle’ is taken into a confid “(7) There are no records or proceedingsof the RSS organisation, no membership registers are maintained. There are also no records of its income and the expenditu “The RSS is thus strictly secret as regards its organisation. It has consequently… (National Archives of India (NAI), Sardar Patel Correspondence, microfilm, reel no 3, ‘A Note on the RSS’, undated). “Unfortunately the document stops abruptly here, but it contains enough evidence of the reputation the RSS already had by the late 1940s.” Mythistory is the creation of historical fact out of ancient stories placing the accuracies of these stories before the evidence of scientific investigation or epistemological study.” This Mythistoriography has pertinent relevance how Mohan Bhagwat, Sarsanghchalak (Chief of the fundamentalist Hindu organisation, RSS which advocates the creation of a Hindu Rashtra-Hindu Nation-by wiping out all the indigenous religious and sectarian distinctions such as Buddhism,Jainism, Sikhism and designating Christianity and Islam as foreign. As put by Bhagwat recently in a Seminar in New Delhi: “”There is no minority here. It is used just as a definition. All those who live here are sons of India. Ethnicity is used to describe those who came to India from outside 40,000 years ago but DNA of the people in the subcontinent is the same. All minorities in India are descendants of Hindus and have one ancestor”…claiming that “recent research findings on DNA mapping have established that the inhabitants of this sub-continent in the last 40,000 years have had similar DNA”, and “thus no one could be called minorities in the country”. Mr Bhagwat was steadfast in his belief that “Pakistan is transitory and will become part of India sooner rather than later. he said that “partition of the country was not a settled fact” and that the “division of the sub-continent would have to be undone for everyone’s good”. “We are often told to forget about this (Partition), but those who forget are condemned to repeat it. Partition is not a settled fact, and it shall have to be undone. When we refer to Bharat, it’s always Akhand Bharat. Those who think otherwise have been brought up on a western value system in the name of progress,” he said at the release of a booklet called Bharat Vibhajan — Ek Trasadi, Ek Kalank (India’s Partition — A Tragedy, A Blot). ” I am quite certain security experts and defence analysts will all land up and knock on his door at Nagpur to learn more about his blue-print for solving the world’s biggest migraine…(Afghanistan and Pakistan)” http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262766 Bhagwat ” is like Moses holding a staff and crossing the Red Sea and leading the people of Af-Pak to a brave new world.” Bhagwat also said On the eve of the Babri Masjid demolition anniversary, that the Hindu group has “no regrets” about the razing of the mosque in Ayodhya 17 years ago. Speaking at the Chandigarh Press Club, the RSS chief, responding to a question on whether the rightwing Hindu group regretted the demolition, said: “Afsos ka prashna hi nahin uthta (there is no question of any regrets).” It would be interesting to note the genesis of RSS in the Twenties and Thirties ot he Twentieth century and how it led to the greatest tragedy of India, the assassination of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi by Nathuram Godse-a Hindu fanatic : Bal Patil’s Blog:Could Gandhi Be Saved?” http://nonviolence.ning.com/profiles/blogs/1991979:BlogPost:284‘ Tracing the genealogy of the term “Hindu”, which was in use among Europeans from the early 17th century, Will Sweetman, the distinguished scholar of Asian religions, said: “One of the most striking advances in modern scholarship is the view that there is no such thing as an unbroken tradition of Hinduism, only a set of discrete traditions and practices reorganised into a larger entity called “Hinduism”.” Perhaps the first to criticise the term Hinduism and to advocate abandoning its use was Canadian scholar of religion, Wilfred Cantwell Smith: “The term “Hinduism” is, in my judgement, a particularly false conceptualisation, one that is conspicuously incompatible with any adequate understanding of the religious outlook of Hindus. Even the term “Hindu” was unknown to the classical Hindus. “Hinduism” as a concept certainly they did not have. And indeed one has only to reflect on the situation carefully to realise that it would necessarily have been quite meaningless to them.” The far-reaching and politically damaging consequences of such an inherently deceptive connotation are documented in a clinching argument by the American historian of India, Robert Frykenberg, who argues that: “the concept of “Hinduism” as denoting a single religious community has already done enormous, even incalculable, damage to structures undergirding the peace, security and unity of the whole Indian political system. What’s more, continued popular use of this concept and popular belief in the existence of a monolithic “Hinduism” – in short, fervent adherence to any doctrine which assumes that there is one single religion embraced by the “majority” of all peoples in India – can still do even greater damage. If such usages and beliefs continue to be dogmatically and persistently maintained, there is no telling how much more harm such a notion may do to the well-being of India’s peoples.” As famed German sociologist, Max Weber has pointed out: “Only in recent literature have the Indians themselves begun to designate their religious affiliation as Hinduism. It is the official designation of the English census for the complex of religion also described in Germany as Brahmanism.” And as explained by him further: “In truth, it may well be concluded that Hinduism is simply not a ‘religion’ in our sense of the word.” How did this modern myth of Hinduism begin? It had its origin in the “orientalism” created by the colonial Sanskrit scholars of the 19th century. In his book, Orientalism and Religion: Post-Colonial Theory, India and ‘The Mystic East’, religion and philosophy scholar, Richard King observes: “William Jones in his role as Supreme Court judge in India, initiated a project to translate the Dharmasastras in the misguided belief that this represented the law of the Hindus, in order to circumvent what he saw as the ‘culpable bias’ of the native pundits. In taking the Dharmasastras as a binding law book, Jones manifests the Judaeo-Christian paradigm within which he conceived of religion and the attempt to apply such a book universally reflects Jones’ ‘textual imperialism’. The problem with taking the Dharmasastras as pan-Indian in application is that the texts themselves were representative of a priestly elite (the Brahmin castes), and not of Hindus in toto. Thus even within these texts there was no notion of a unified Hindu community, but rather an acknowledgment of a plurality of local, occupational and caste contexts in which different customs and or rules applied.” King goes on to say: “It was thus in this manner that ‘society was made to conform to ancient dharmasastras texts, in spite of those texts’ insistence that they were overridden by local and group custom. It eventually allowed Anglicist administrators to manipulate the porous boundary between religion as defined by texts and customs they wished to ban’” (author’s italics quoting from Rosane Rocher’s British Orientalism in the Eighteenth Century, p. 242). This colonial construct of “Hinduism” contributed, according to Richard King, to the merging of the Brahmanical forms of religion with Hinduism, which is notable in the “tendency to emphasise Vedic and Brahmanical texts and beliefs as central and foundational to the ‘essence of Hinduism’ and in the modern association of ‘Hindu doctrine’ with the various Brahmanical schools of the Vedanta”(p. 102).’ The historiographical ambiguity and the confusion worse confounded caused by such orientation caused is well documented in Prof D.N. Jha’s address to the its 66th session of the Indian History Congress as its General President: Looking for a Hindu Identity (http://www.sacw.net/India_History/dnj_Jan06.pdf.) ‘ Inspiration for the RSS cadres and their paramilitary training was derived from Benito Mussolini’s fascist paramilitary groups, the Blackshirts, after RSS mentor and founder, BS Moonje visited the Italian dictator in 1931. As detailed in Marzia Casolari’s article, “Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the 1930s: Archival evidence” (Economic and Political Weekly, January 22, 2000): “To understand militant Hinduism, one must examine its domestic roots as well as foreign influence. In the 1930s Hindu nationalism borrowed from European fascism to transform ‘different’ people into ‘enemies’. Leaders of militant Hinduism repeatedly expressed their admiration for authoritarian leaders such as Mussolini and Hitler and for the fascist model of society. This influence continues to the present day. This paper presents archival evidence on the would-be collaborators.” As Marzia Casolari notes: “Defining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and, in general, the organisations of militant Hinduism as undemocratic, with authoritarian, paramilitary, radical, violent tendencies and a sympathy for fascist ideology and practice, has been a major concern for many politically oriented scholars and writers. This has been the case with the literature, which started with Gandhi’s assassination and continues up to the present day with works such as Amartya Sen’s “India at Risk”, (The New York Review of Books, April 1993) and Christophe Jaffrelot’s The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India (Viking, New Delhi, 1996). The latest book published on the subject is the well-known Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags (Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1993), which came out soon after the destruction of the Babri Masjid. As a result, the fascist ideological background of Hindu fundamentalism is taken for granted never proved by systematic analysis. This is an outcome that is, to a certain extent, explained by the fact that most of the aforementioned authors are political scientists and not historians. “It is a fact that many of those who witnessed the growth of Hindu radical forces in the years around the second world war were already convinced of the Sangh’s fascist outlook. Particularly acute was the perception that the Congress had of these organisations and their character. There is no need to mention the already well-known opinion of Nehru who right from the beginning had pointed at these organisations as communalist and fascist. Less well known is the fact that, as shown by a confidential report circulated within the Congress most probably at the time of the first ban of the RSS after Gandhi’s assassination, the similarity between the character of the RSS and that of fascist organisations was already taken for granted… “To demonstrate this, I will reconstruct the context from which arose the interest of Hindu radicalism in Italian fascism right from the early 1920s. This interest was commonly shared in Maharashtra and must have inspired BS Moonje’s trip to Italy in 1931. The next step will be to examine the effects of that trip, namely how BS Moonje tried to transfer fascist models to Hindu society and to organise it militarily, according to fascist patterns. An additional aim of this paper is to show how, about the end of the 1930s, the admiration for the Italian regime was commonly shared by the different streams of Hindu nationalism and the main Hindu leaders.” As emphasised by Casolari: “More generally the aim of this paper is to disprove Christophe Jaffrelot’s thesis that there is a sharp distinction between Nazi and fascist ideology on one side and RSS on the other as far as the concept of race and the centrality of the leader are concerned.” It is also pertinent to note how this Hindutva fundamentalism is inspiring Hindutva terror organisations resulting bomb blast such as Malegam and Goa in Maharashtra State of India. Hindutva organistions such as Abhinav Bharat presided over by Himani Sawarkar, daughter-in-law of Veer Sawarkar-an accused in the Gandhi Murder Trial- who formulated the Hindutva philosophy : “Asindhu Sindhu Paryanta yasya Bharatbhumika pitrubhu punyabhu sarvaih hindu iti smritah” i.e. “One who considers the country or nation spread between the Sindhu river and the sea as his Fatherland and Holy Land is verily a Hindu.” Links Between Hindutva Terror, RAW & indian Army Himani Sawarkar is the daughter of Gopal Godse ,elder brother of Nathuram Godse, assassin of Mahatma Gandhi who recently declared in an interview OUTLOOK Magazine , November 17, 2008 Exclusive Interview http://www.outlookindia.com/fullprint.asp?choice=2&fodname=20081117&fname=AHindu+Terror&sid=2 ‘If We Can Have Bullet For Bullet, Why Not Blast For Blast?’ : Replying to the question: How should India fight terrorism? Himani Sawarkar said: “We must declare ourselves a Hindu rashtra where everyone is a Hindu. Anyone who isn’t should be declared a second-class citizen and denied voting rights. Those who have problems with this should leave and settle in other countries. The Hindu votebank must unite to vote out any government that fails to tackle terror. Then we must throw out the outsiders like Bangladeshis who live off India’s wealth and work towards destroying us.” And further responding to the question:What if people of other faiths reject your prescription and refuse to call themselves Hindu…. She said:”Then they are welcome to leave this country. Those living in Germany are called Germans, in England they are English, then why shouldn’t those living in Hindustan be called Hindus?” But the virus of the “Mythistory” is not confined only to the political parties like the Bhartiya Janata Party revealing its worst and violent manifestation of the destruction of the Babri Masjid in 1992 and the ideology of the RSS but also in the administrative and judicial sphere. As the Secretary-General of the All India Jain Minority Forum, New Delhi I am pursuing the cause of declaration of Jainism-an ancient religion of India, as a National religious minority on par with Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Zoroastrianism in the Supreme Court of India. The obiter dicta observations declaring that Hinduism is a general religion of India and Jainism is a special religion although made extra-judicially have grave implications because the general public takes any declaration made by the Supreme Court as the law of the land. It is in this perspective that the Judgment of the Supreme Court in the matter of Bal Patil & Anr. Vs. Union of India has given the wrong message to the country against not only the Jain Community, but the minority religious communities. Bal Patil & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors. Supreme Court Decided on 08/08/2005 Indian Supreme Court Judgement Obiter Dicta Places Hindu Religion Above All Religions In the aforesaid context one can recall the historic peroration by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the Draft Constitution: “We will honour our pledges. Within limits, no Judge and no Supreme Court will be allowed to constitute themselves into a third chamber. No Supreme Court and no judiciary will sit in judgement over the sovereign will of Parliament which represents the will of the entire community. If we go wrong here and there, they can point it out; but in the ultimate analysis, where the future of the community is concerned, no judiciary must come in the way. Ultimately the whole Constitution is a creature of Parliament…It is obvious that no court, no system of judiciary can function in the nature of a third hourse, as a kind of third House of correction. So it is important that with this limitation the judiciary should function…Ultimately the fact remains that the legislature must be supreme and must not be interfered with by the courts of law.” These words have an inspiring finality like Abraham Lincoln’s historic peroration in his Gettysburgh speech that the “Government by the people, for the people and of the people shall not perish from the earth” and deserve to be engraved on the portals of the supreme judiciary as a constant reminder to the honourable justices that they cannot aspire to soar higher than the Parliament, and if they do their judicial wings would be clipped and not vice versa as bravely declared recently by the former Chief Justice of India, Mr. R.M. Lahoti. What emerges in the aforesaid discussion as noted by the present writer in his Supreme Court’s volte face on Constitutional Amendment, in the context of the constitutional and judicial volte-face of the Supreme Court’s regressive and anomalous stand is its failure “to come to a synthesis of Fundamental Rights with Directive Principles” Therefore it is essential to take constitutional steps for timely correction to avoid a confrontation injurious to the interests of our democratic polity. It was in the aforementioned context of the shady fascist background of the RSS and its Parivar including the BJP which evoled from Hindu Mahasabha>Jan Sangh>Bharatiya Janata Party when the inauguration of the Sawarkar portrait opposite that of Mahatma Gandhi was proposed I wrote a strong letter to Smt.Soniaji Gandhi (copy attached) asking how can the Trojan horses like Shri Sathe be “securely ensconsed in the very heart of the Congress stable”. Hindutva’s Foreign Tie-up in the 1930s Archival Evidence (Economic & Political Weekly, 22nd January 2000 by Marzia Casolari For a discussion in depth of the fascist origins of the RSS and its mentors I cannot do better than refer to the article Hindutva’s Foreign Tie-up in the 1930s Archival Evidence (Economic & Political Weekly, 22nd January 2000 by Marzia Casolari) . As noted by her “Defining the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and, in gen­eral, the organisations of militant Hindu­ism as undemocratic, with authoritarian, paramilitary, radical, violent tendencies and a sympathy for fascist ideology and practice, has been a major concern for many politically oriented scholars and writers. This has been the case with the literature which started with Gandhi’s assassination and continues up to the present day…” As Marzia Casolari notes: “Defining the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and, in general, the organisations of militant Hinduism as undemocratic, with authoritarian, paramilitary, radical, violent tendencies and a sympathy for fascist ideology and practice, has been a major concern for many politically oriented scholars and writers. This has been the case with the literature, which started with Gandhi’s assassination and continues up to the present day with works such as Amartya Sen’s “India at Risk”, (The New York Review of Books, April 1993) and Christophe Jaffrelot’s The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India (Viking, New Delhi, 1996). The latest book published on the subject is the well-known Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags (Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1993), which came out soon after the destruction of the Babri Masjid. And further : “Less well known is the fact that, as shown by a confidential report circulated within the Congress most probably at the time of the first ban of the RSS, after Gandhi’s assassination, the similarity between the character of the RSS and that of fascist organisations was already taken for granted. In fact, the report itself states that the RSS “(1) …Started in Nagpur some sort of Hindu Boys Scout movement. Gradually it de­veloped into a communal militarist organi­sation with violent tendencies. “(2) The RSS has been purely Maharashtrian brahmin organisation. The non-brahmin Maharashtrians who constitute the bulk of C P and Maharashtra have no sympathy with it. “(3) Even in the other provinces the chief organisers and whole-time workers will be found to be inevitably Maharashtrian brahmins. “(4) Through the RSS the Maharashtrian brahmins have been dreaming of esta­blishing in India ‘a Peshwa Raj’ after the withdrawal of Britishers. The RSS flag is the Bhagwa Flag of the Peshwas – Maharashtrian rulers [who] were the last to be conquered by the British – and after the termination of British rule in India, the Maharashtrians should be vested with political powers. “(5) The RSS practises secret and violent methods which promote ‘fascism’. No regard is paid to truthful means and con­stitutional methods. “(6) There is no constitution of the organisation; its aims and objects have never been clearly defined. The general public is usually told that its aim is only physical training, but the real aims are not conveyed even to the rank and file of the RSS mem­bers. Only its ‘inner circle’ is taken into a confidence. “(7) There are no records or proceedingsof the RSS organisation, no membership registers are maintained. There are also no records of its income and the expenditure. “The RSS is thus strictly secret as regards its organisation. It has consequently… (National Archives of India (NAI), Sardar Patel Correspondence, microfilm, reel no 3, ‘A Note on the RSS’, undated). “Unfortunately the document stops abruptly here, but it contains enough evidence of the reputation the RSS already had by the late 1940s.” And further: “The first Hindu nationalist who came in contact with the fascist regime and its dictator was B S Moonje, a politician strictly related to the RSS. In fact, Moonje had been Hedgewar’s mentor, the two men were related by an intimate friend­ship. Moonje’s declared intention to strengthen the RSS and to extend it as a nationwide organisation is well known. Between February and March 1931, on his return from the round table conference, Moonje made a tour of Europe, which included a long stop-over in Italy. There he visited some important military schools and educational institutions. The high­light of the visit was the meeting with Mussolini. An interesting account of the trip and the meeting is given in Moonje’s diary, and takes 13 pages (Nehru Memo­rial Museum and Library (NMML), Moonje papers, microfilm, rn 1). “The Indian leader was in Rome during March 15 to 24, 1931. On March 19, in Rome, he visited, among others, the Military College, the Central Military School of Physical Education, the Fascist Academy of Physical Education, and, most important, the Balilla and Avanguardisti organisations. These two organisations, which he describes in more than two pages of his diary, were the keystone of the fascist system of indoctrination – rather than education – of the youths. Their struc­ture is strikingly similar to that of the RSS. They recruited boys from the age of six, up to 18: the youths had to attend weekly meetings, where they practised physical exercises, received paramilitary training and performed drills and parades. “According to the literature promoted by the RSS and other Hindu fundamentalist organisations and parties, the structure of the RSS was the result of Hedgewar’s vision and work. However Moonje played a crucial role in moulding the RSS along Italian (fascist) lines. The deep impression left on Moonje by the vision of the fascist organisation is confirmed by his diary: “The Balilla institutions and the conception of the whole organisation have appealed to me most, though there is still not dis­cipline and organisation of high order. The whole idea is conceived by Mussolini for the military regeneration of Italy. Ital­ians, by nature, appear ease-loving and non-martial like the Indians generally. They have cultivated, like Indians, the work of peace and neglected the cultivation of the art of war. Mussolini saw the essential weakness of his country and conceived the idea of the Balilla organisation…Nothing better could have been conceived for the military organisation of Italy…The idea of fascism vividly brings out the conception of unity amongst people…India and par­ticularly Hindu India need some such institution for the military regeneration of the Hindus: so that the artificial distinction so much emphasised by the British of martial and non-martial classes amongst the Hindus may disappear. Our institution of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh of Nagpur under Dr Hedgewar is of this kind, though quite independently conceived. I will spend the rest of my life in developing and extending this Institution of Dr Hedgewar all throughout the Maharashtra and other provinces… He continues describing drills and uniforms: “I was charmed to see boys and girls well dressed in their naval and military uni­forms undergoing simple exercises of physical training and forms of drill. Marzia Casolari continues: “ Definitely more meaningful is the report of the meeting with Mussolini. On the same day, March 19, 1931 at 3 pm, in Palazzo Venezia, the headquarters of the fascist government, he met the Italian dictator. The meeting is recorded in the diary on March 20, and it is worth repro­ducing the complete report: “…As soon as I was announced at the door, he got up and walked up to receive me. ” I shook hands with him saying that I am Dr Moonje. He knew everything about me and appeared to be closely following the events of the Indian struggle for freedom. He seemed to have great respect for Gandhi. He sat down in front of me on another chair in front of his table and was conversing with me for quite half an hour. He asked me about Gandhi and his movement and pointedly asked me a question “If the Round Table Conference will bring about peace between India and England”. I said that if the British would honestly desire to give us equal status with other domin­ions of the Empire, we shall have no objection to remain peacefully and loyally within the Empire; otherwise the struggle will be renewed and continued. Britain will gain and be able to maintain her premier position amongst the European Nation (sic) if India is friendly and peaceful towards her and India cannot be so unless she is given Dominion Status on equal terms with other Dominions. Signor Mussolini appeared impressed by this remark of mine. Then he asked me if I have visited the University. I said I am inter­ested in the military training of boys and have been visiting the Military Schools of England, France and Germany. I have now come to Italy for the same purpose and I am very grateful to say that the “Foreign Office and the War Office have made good arrangements for my visiting these schools. I just saw this morning and afternoon the Balilla and the Fascist Organisations and I was much impressed. Italy needs them for her development and prosperity. I do not see anything objectionable though I have been frequently reading in the news­papers not very friendly criticisms about them and about your Excellency also. “Signor Mussolini: What is your opinion about them? “Dr Moonje: Your Excellency, I am much impressed. Every aspiring and growing Nation needs such organisations. India needs them most for her military regen­eration. During the British Domination of the last 150 years Indians have been waved away from the military profession but India now desires to prepare herself for under­taking the responsibility for her own defence and I am working for it. I have already started an organisation of my own, conceived independently with similar objectives. I shall have no hesitation to raise my voice from the public platform both in India and England when occasion may arise in praise of your Balilla and Fascist organisations. I wish them good luck and every success. Signor Mussolini – who appeared very pleased – said – Thanks but yours is an uphill task. However I wish you every success in return. Saying this he got up and I also got up to take his leave. “ The description of the Italian journey includes information regarding fascism, its history, the fascist ‘revolution’, etc, and continues for two more pages. As further noted by Casolari “One can wonder at the association between B S Moonje and the RSS, but if we think that Moonje had been Hedgewar’s mentor, the association will be much clearer. The intimate friendship between Moonje and Hedgewar and the former’s declared intention to strengthen the RSS and to extend it as a nationwide organi­sation prove a strict connection between Moonje and the RSS. Moreover, it makes sense to think that the entire circle of militant Hinduism must have been influ­enced by Moonje’s Italian experience Moonje’s Plans for Militarising Hindus “Once Moonje was back in India, he kept the promise made in his diary and started immediately to work for the foundation of his military school and for the militant reorganisation of Hindu society in Maharashtra. He really did not waste time, for, as soon as he reached Pune, he gave an interview to The Mahratta. Regarding the military reorganisation of the Hindu community, he stressed the necessity to ‘indianise’ the army and expressed the hope that conscription would become compulsory and an Indian would be put in charge of the defence ministry. He finally made a clear reference to the Italian and German examples: ‘In fact, leaders should imitate the youth movement of Germany and the Balilla and Fascist organisations of Italy. I think they are eminently suited for introduction in India, adapting them to suit the special conditions. I have been very much impressed by these movements and I have seen their activities with my own eyes in all details.’ “Soon fascism became a subject of public debate and Hedgewar himself was among the promoters of a campaign in favour of the militarisation of society, according to fascist patterns. On January 31, 1934, Hedgewar presided over a conference about fascism and Mussolini, organised by Kavde Shastri. Moonje made the con­cluding speech (NMML, Moonje papers, microfilm, Diary, rn 2, 1932-36). “A few months later, on March 31, 1934 Moonje, Hedgewar and Laloo Gokhale had a meeting, the subject of which was again the military organisation of the Hindus, along Italian and German lines: “Laloo – Well you are the president of the Hindu Sabha and you are preaching Sanghathan of Hindus. Is it ever possible for Hindus to be organised? I said – You have asked me a question of which exactly I was thinking of late. I have thought out a scheme based on Hindu Dharm Shastra which provides for standardisation of Hinduism throughout India…But the point is that this ideal cannot be brought to effect unless we have our own swaraj with a Hindu as a dictator like Shivaji of old or Mussolini or Hitler of the present day in Italy and Germany…But this does not mean that we have to sit with folded hands untill (sic) some such dic­tator arises in India. We should formulate a scientific scheme and carry on propa­ganda for it (NMML, ibid). As noted by Marzia Casolari ‘The intimate connection between Moonje and the RSS and the fascist character of the latter is confirmed by British sources. An Intelligence report published in 1933 and entitled ‘Note on the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh’, ascribed to Moonje the responsibility of the reorganisation of the Sangh in the Marathi speaking districts and in the Central Provinces in 1927. The report, describing the activity and the character of the RSS, warned that “ It is perhaps no exaggeration to assert that the Sangh hopes to be in future India what the ‘Fascisti’ are to Italy and the ‘Nazis’ to Germany (NAI, Home Poll Depart­ment, 88/33, 1933). “Moonje’s trip to Italy, “contrary to what happened in the case of Subhas Chandra Bose and other nationalists, did not give place to any further co-operation between Hindu nationalism and the fascist regime. However, these contacts were important at the ideological and organisational lev­els. In fact, Moonje kept his promise to improve military education in India and, as soon as he came back from his European trip, he started to contact all those who could support his idea of militarising Hindu society. In 1934, Moonje started to work for the foundation of his own institution, the Bhonsla Military School. For this purpose, in the same year he began to work at the foundation of the Central Hindu Military Education Society, whose aim was “to bring about military regeneration of the Hindus and to fit Hindu youths for under­taking the entire responsibility for the defence of their motherland. to educate them in the ‘Sanatan Dharma’, and to train them “in the science and art of personal and national defence” (NMML, Moonje papers, subject files, n 24, 1932-36, ‘The Central Military Education Society’, undated, probably written in 1935). Moonje’s programme was therefore en­tirely devoted to Hindu society, and not to Indian society as a whole. “It is possible that the other function of the society was that of facilitating the diffusion of military education and sup­porting the foundation of new schools. During the preliminary work for the found­ation of both the school and society, Moonje publicly admitted that his idea of militarily reorganising Hindu society was inspired by the ‘military training schools of England, France, Germany and Italy” (NMML, Moonje papers, subject files, n 23, 1934-36, report of the progress of the work of the society from January 1, 1935 to August 15, 1936). Moreover, there is an explicit reference to fascist Italy and nazi Germany in a document that Moonje circulated among those influential person­alities who were expected to support the foundation of the school (NMML, Moonje papers, subject files, n 25, 1935, ‘Preface to the Scheme of the Central Hindu Mili­tary Society and Its Military School’). It said at the outset: “This training is meant for qualifying and fitting our boys for the game of killing masses of men with the ambition of win­ning victory with the best possible casual­ties (sic) of dead and wounded while caus­ing the utmost possible damage to the adversary. As noted by Casolari “Moonje does not give any clear-cut indication regarding this ‘adversary’, whether it was the external enemy, the British, or the ‘historical’ internal enemy, the Muslims. The document continues with a long dissertation on the relation between violence and non-violence. In it are drawn many examples from Indian history and Hindu holy books, all in favour of organised violence, in the form of militarism. On the contrary, non-violence is considered a form of renunciation and cowardice.” Casolari continues: “Moonje’s views corresponded almost perfectly with Mussolini’s opinions: …The same thought is repeated though in a more forceful and direct language by Signor Mussolini, the maker of modern Italy. When he says: “Our desire for peace and collaboration with Europe is based on millions of steel bayonets.” And again, from Mussolini’s Doctrine of Fascism, “I absolutely disbelieve in perpetual peace which is detrimental and negative to the fundamental virtues of man, which only by struggle reveal themselves in the light of the sun, War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to meet it, Fascism believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace. It thus repudiates the doctrine of pacifism which is born of renunciation of the struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice.” Moonje added that these considerations did not aim at the legitimation of a climate of civil war. Contrary to the Indian situ­ation, where the British were responsible for the maintenance of public order, peace should rise from the self-defence of a militarily organised nation. Italy and Germany could offer a further example: As far as Germany was concerned, Moonje quoted a booklet entitled Wehrwissenschaft (Military Science), written by Ewald Banse, a professor at the Brunswick Technical High School: “The starting point of the book is that war is inevitable and certain and that it is imperative to know as much about it and to be as efficient as possible … the mind of the nation, from childhood on must be impregnated and familiarised with the idea of war”, because, the Professor says: “The dying warrior dies more easily when he knows that his blood is ebbing for his national god.” Casolari notes :”The spirit of the last sentence is surpris­ingly coincident with the essence of the Hindu nationalism. “When Moonje had to indicate practical ways of militarising Hindu society, he returned again to the example of Italy and its military and paramilitary organisations, and reported what he had seen. He de­scribed in detail the structure of the ‘She Wolf’s Children’, the Balilla and the Avanguardisti. He asserted that these organisations could provide paramilitary training to the male population from the age of 8 up to 18, when the youth became young fascists. Italy was therefore in a position of having “command of 6,000,000 trained and disciplined men ready to face any emergency”. The result was that “The Balillas are taught to build up moral character and take the first steps towards becoming soldiers. As a consequence, There will thus be no longer any dis­tinction between the citizen and the soldier between the civilian and the man in uniform. “Of course, nowadays we know that, in spite of this remarkable number of mili­tarily trained citizens, Italy lost the war: Moonje did not know that the level of the training was low, the cohesion between people poor, and the fascist faith of the people skin-deep. “Fascist ideas were widespread among Hindu nationalists, at least in Maharashtra. The above-mentioned script had been printed in the form of a pamphlet (copy in NAI, Jayakar papers, microfilm, fn6, rn2) and distributed not only among the people Moonje tried to involve in his project, but, most probably, to an even wider public. Fascism therefore, had a certain popularity, which, unfortunately, is at present difficult to measure. Eve of Second World War “After Moonje’s trip to Italy there was no further direct contact between expo­nents of the main Hindu organisations and the Italian government. However, by the end of the 1930s Italian representatives in India established some connections with the extremist fringes of Hindu national­ism. The Italian consulate in Bombay was very active in seeking contacts with the local political milieu. The Italian diplo­matic mission in Bombay was part of a network linking the Italian consulates in Bombay and Calcutta with the radical movements of Maharashtra and Bengal.” (Marzia Casolari’s PhD thesis, pp 276-79). “From June 1938 the consulate in Bombay started to ‘recruit’ as many Indian students as possible for Italian language courses, with the purpose of indoctrinating them with propaganda in favour of Italy and fascism. The person in charge of this activity was Mario Carelli, sent from Rome with the specific purpose of organising and managing the Italian activities in Bombay. Mario Carelli was secretary and librarian at the Institute for Middle and Far East (ISMEO), founded in Rome in 1933 under the auspices of the Italian govern­ment, and presided by Giovanni Gentile. “Among the students, one Madhav Kashinath Damley was particularly promis­ing. Following Carelli’s suggestion, Damley translated into Marathi Mussolini’s Doc­trine of Fascism and, in summer 1939, published it as a series of articles in a weekly he founded in June of the same year. The name of the magazine was Lokhandi Morcha (Iron Front). It pub­lished also, as a five parts article, a booklet by Antonio Pagliaro entitled II Fascismo contro il comunismo (Fascism against Communism) and an article by Mario Carelli entitled ‘The Institution of the House of the Fasci and Corporations’. “In the autumn of 1939, a particularly radical article published in the Lokhandi Morcha attracted the attention of the police. The result was that Damley, who had already been noticed by the agents, was forced to suspend the magazine and pay a fine. The refusal to pay determined the cessation of the publication of the Lokhandi Morcha. Damley was a chitpavan brahmin from Pune, resident in Bombay. His father owned the printing house where the magazine was printed. According to the police, ‘He [Damley] holds extreme political views and believes himself to be a follower of B G Tilak…He openly says that he is enamoured of the history of Italy and Nazi Germany (MSA, Home Special Depart­ment, 830(I)1939, note dated July 11, 1939). “Even more meaningful is Damley’s descri­ption by the Italian Consul: ‘Holding fascist ideas, he founded an organisation called Iron Guards, modelled on ours, but adapted to Indian peculiar conditions. He and his friends wore the black shirt: India’s first black shirts. The development of this organisation was compromised by the outbreak of the war. Casolari continues “The influence of fascist ideology and practice must have gone far beyond the limits of the main organisations of Hindu militant nationalism and must have ex­tended to the wide and intricate net of secondary militant groups and centres of physical education or paramilitary train­ing. This is shown by the example of the Swastik League, founded on March 10, 1929 by M R Jayakar – who became its president – and by other local personali­ties. In organising the Swastik League, Jayakar, who had a prominent position within the Hindu Mahasabha, drew some inspiration from the fascist paramilitary organisations. In his own words,: …in the near future, our GOC… intends to form a cadet corps, consisting of boys between the age of 15 and 18 years. The training which these cadets will receive will ultimately enable them to join the League’s volunteer corps… This reminds us of a picture published in the Sunday Chronicle on the 28th instant, showing two of Sgr Mussolini’s “Baby Soldiers” remaining on sentry duty at the entrance of their annual encampment at Camp Dux, where the young members of the Avan Guardista, (sic) a youth organi­sation of Italy for boys from 14 to 18 years of age, get first hand acquaintance with the tools of war. Neither we nor our cadets can expect to be able to get such a direct training, but all the same, the efforts to train a boy in military discipline will never be wasted and will in course of time make that boy an ideal volunteer (NAI, Jayakar papers, microfilm, rn 13, Swastik Herald, of November 7, 1934). Savarkar and Nazism As noted by Casolari “At this point we have to dwell on the crucial problem of Savarkar’s position vis-a-vis the European radical right. “With Savarkar’s coming on the political scene, from the late 1930s to the second world war, there was the attempt, even if timid and unsuccessful, to search for new contacts with the totalitarian regimes. At the same time, there was an intensification of cries in favour or in defence of Italian and German policy, even if the preference for Germany increased progressively. “Savarkar was declared president of the Hindu Mahasabha as soon as he was released in 1937, and he held that office until 1942. His presidentship covered the most sensitive period of both Indian and international history in this century. Ac­cording to the commonly accepted opin­ion – supported by the organisations of militant Hinduism – the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha have never been particularly close, and, during Savarkar’s president-ship, they severed their links. Reality, however, seems to be different. In fact, the available documentation shows not only that such a split never happened, but that the two organisations always had close connections. We should not forget that Hedgewar had been secretary to the Hindu Mahasabha from 1926 to 1931 (NAI, Home Poll Department, August 28, 1942; intel­ligence report ‘Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh’, dated March 7, 1942). The RSS seems to have provided support to the Hindu Mahasabha, as shown by the fact that groups of RSS militants used to gather at the public meetings organised to cele­brate Savarkar’s release.” Conclusions: Casolari “The preceding discussion has shown that: (a) the main historical organisations and leaders of Hindu nationalism had a distinctive and sustained interest in fas­cism and nazism; (b) fascist ideological influences on Hindu nationalism were present and relevant; and (c) to a certain extent, these influences were channelled through direct contacts between Hindu nationalists and members of the Italian fascist state. No doubt, beginning with the early 1920s, and up to the second world war, Hindu nationalists looked at the political reality of fascist Italy, and sub­sequently of nazi Germany, as a source of inspiration. “One of the results of the contacts be­tween fascism and Hindu nationalism was the attempt to militarise Hindu society and to create a militant mentality among the Hindus. If it is true that the Hindu society elaborated its own patterns of militarisation – I refer to the shakhas as a typically Indian phenomenon – it is equally true that a most relevant result of fascist influence was the transmission of a more functional organisation and a stronger political char­acter to the already existing organisations of political Hinduism. “At the ideological level, the most mean­ingful effect of the fascist influence is represented by the way in which Hindu nationalism developed its own concept of diversity, transforming ‘diverse’ people into enemies. Of course, the concept of internal enemy is already implicit con­tained in Savarkar’s Hindutva. Neverthe­less, the continuous reference to German racial policy and the comparison of the Jewish problem in Germany with the Muslim question in India reveals the evolution of the concept of ‘internal enemy’ along explicitly fascist lines. “In my opinion, if one wants to under­stand the evolution of Hindu radicalism in the post-independence period, one has to take into account both the domestic roots of this phenomenon and the external influence on its development. “In the 1920s and 1930s fascism was an international phenomenon. As such it was bound to influence the ideology and prac­tice of similar movements all over the world. Since many of Bal Thackeray’s most outrageously anti-Muslim and racist state­ments are literal quotations of Savarkar’s speeches and theories, it is legitimate to conclude that such influence is still alive.” MY COMMENTS I think the foregoing genesis historically documented by Marzia Casolari brings out the Hindutva fascist evolution of the Sangh Parivar outfit and orgaisations like Bhonsala Military School established explicitly for systematic cultivation of its communal and violent ideals. At the moment the Indian news channels and the press are all agog with the investigations carried out by the ATS and the arrests made of the army officers allegedly involved in the Malegaon blasts. Naïve speculation is rampant as to how absdurd it is as to how army with its secular and disciplined image could be involved in such terroristic activities. Nor is there any inkling of awarenes or knowledge of the fascist genesis of the Bhonsala Military School and its intimate connection with the RSS ideology. However it would be useful at this juncture to to dwell on the basic ideological ambivalence in the terms “Bharatiya” and “Hindu”. It can be best appreciated by comparing two statements made by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, one in 1980 and the other in 1995. In 1980 Vajpayee said: “I still feel that instead of the phrase “Hindu Rashtra” we should use “Bharatiya Rashtra”. Contrast this with his statement in December 1995: “There is no difference between Hindutva and Bharatiyatva, in Hindutva alone are the roots of Bharat.” Vajpayee’s ideological evolution over a decade and a half, his progression to “Hindutva” being indistinguishable from “Bharatiyatva”, clearly demonstrates the Bharatiya Janata Party’s inexorable march towards a “Hindu” India, thus returning full circle to Savarkar’s vision of India in his book, Hindutva: “Asindhu Sindhu Paryanta yasya Bharatbhumika pitrubhu punyabhu sarvaih hindu iti smritah” i.e. “One who considers the country or nation spread between the Sindhu river and the sea as his Fatherland and Holy Land is verily a Hindu.” It is pertinent to note that instead of “Motherland” Savarkar calls the country “Fatherland”, a peculiar definitive patrilineal concept characteristic of Vedic and “Hindu” Brahmanism that later developed into the racist and fascist Nazi concept of a pure Aryan “Vaterland”, thus making the fascist genealogy of Hindutva clearly evident. According to this convenient portmanteau definition of “Hindu”, most Indians, except of course Muslims and Christians, comprising those who believe in the Vedas as well as those who do not believe in the Vedas (such as Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs) are lumped together as “Hindus”. As explained by Hindutva ideologue, JS Karandikar, in his Marathi book Hindutvavada: “Although Jains, Buddhists, Vedic, Burmese, Arya, Sikh, Manbhava, belong to different religious sects, Hinduism is alone the spring source of all these sects and these have grown into separate branches at various times for various reasons. This leads to the pan-Hinduistic position of Vivekananda, stating that any religion in the world has its ultimate origin in Hinduism, but we do not want to connect Christian and Islamic religions by such far-fetched relationship.” SAVARKAR AND RSS ROLE IN GANDHI ASSASSINATION I had an occasion to play a coincidental role in the background procees leading to the appointment of the Kapur Commission in way back in1965. When Gopal Godse was released after serving his life sentence his homecoming was celebrated by Satyanarayana function at Pune in 1965 wherein shri G.V. Ketkar, editor of Tarun Bharat made a revelation that Nathuram Godse used to discuss with him for a few months before the assasination of Mahatma Gandhi his plans to do so and that he tried to dissuade him. This revelation caused quite a furore. I immediately wrote to the then Chairman of the Gandhi Memorial Fund, Mr R.R. Diwakar requesting him to draw the attention of the Government to this scandalous revelation. In pursuance of my appeal Shri Diwakar wrote to the then Home Minister of India and others leading to the appointment of the Commission. This Commission was initially headed by Shri Gopal Swarup Pathak. On his assumption of a ministerial post Justice Jeeval Lal Kapur was appointed and conducted a fresh inquiry which is published in two volumes entitled: “Report of Commission of Inquiry into Conspiracy to Murder Mahatma Gandhi” published in 1970. I corresponded with the then Chairman of the Gandhi Memorial Fund, Mr.R.R. Diwakar in 1964 expressing shock and indignation at the revelation of a Pune Editor that Nathuram Godse used to discuss with him his plan to murder Mahatma Gandhi six months prior to the assassination at the Satyanarayan ceremony held to celebrate the return of Gopal Godse after serving his life imprisonment as the convict in the Gandhi murder case. When Ketkar made this brazen confession I wrote to the Mr.R.R. Diwakar, the then Chairman of the Gandhi Memorial Fund dated 13th November 1964: “This negligence is culpable enough, but it assumes unpardonable proportions in the context of a scandalous disclosure which was made by a Poona Journalist. Mr. G.V. Ketkar, former editor of the “Kesari” and now editor of the “Tarun Bharat” disclosed at a reception given in Poona to Mr. Gopal Godse and Mr. Vishnu Karkare on their release from lifeterms for complicity in the Gandhi Murder case that “he knew from Naturam Godse, assassin of Gandhiji, the plan of Gandhiji’s murder for quite a few weeks earlier.” The report also further says that Naturam “used to discuss with me the pros and cons of his idea to kill Gandhiji.” He (Mr.Ketkar) added that he was opposed to the idea end ‘used to tell Nathuram to consider the consequences, social and political.” Mr.Diwakar was good enough to respond to my letter stating dated 17-11-64 ‘As to what is to be done I will have to consider the matter. “The remarks that you have made are too plain and no exception can be taken . But whether something can be done now seems to be remote. However, I shall think over the matter.” And on 2nd December, 1964 Mr.Diwakar wrote to me again: “Much has happened after you wrote to me, and I wrote to the Home Minister and others “This mornings papers convey the news that a Commission is going to be set up by the Central Government to investigate once again regarding the past, the knowledge of the conspiracy etc.” Mr.Diwakar consulted some high authorities and also there was a furore in the Parliament. As a result the Government of India appointed a Commission of Inquiry under the Chairmanship of Mr.Pathak to inquire once again into the Gandhi murder conspiracy. On Mr.Pathak’s appointment as a minister Justice J.L. Kapur, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India was appointed. Following is the transcript of my correspondence with R.R.Diwakar: Date: 13th November 1964 The Chairman ,Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, New Delhi Subject: A report in The Indian Express of 13-11-1964 about a Poona editor that the “knew of Gandhi murder plan.” Dear Sir, I am eager to draw your immediate attention to the report above which says that Mr. G.V. Ketkar, former editor of the “Kesari” and now editor of the “Tarun Bharat” disclosed at a reception given in Poona to Mr. Gopal Godse and Mr. Vishnu Karkare on their release from lifeterms for complicity in the Gandhi Murder case that “he knew from Naturam Godse, assassin of Gandhiji, the plan of Gandhiji’s murder for quite a few weeks earlier.” The report also further says that Naturam “used to discuss with me the pros and cons of his idea to kill Gandhiji.” He (Mr.Ketkar) added that he was opposed to the idea end ‘used to tell Nathuram to consider the consequences, social and political.” To my mind such an audacious revelation comes as a shock of my life. It is scandalizing in the extreme and odious too. It shows a most flagrant disregard of the elementary rules of human regard for the dead and gone. And in the case of Mahatma Gandhi whom we all revere as the Father of the Nation the reported disclosure of a responsible editor of a responsible newspaper seems to be utterly pervert because this worthy editor was content enough to ask Nathuram to consider the social and political consequences of the murder of Gandhiji. The editor conveniently forgot that a murder regardless of its social or political consequences is, ipso-facto, an heinous offence, and as such, it was his duty to alert the authorities in time. Evidently the editor did not do it and thus he stands self-condemned in his shameless revelation that he “knew of Gandhi murder plan.” This is appalling enough. But there is still more. It is interesting to know why the editor was bold enough now to make this disclosure. The report says: “As Mr. Ketkar said these things,Mr.Gopal Godse asked him not to speak ‘more about it.’ But Mr. Ketkar said, ‘they will not arrest me now for that.’ No comments are necessary, yet I cannot help observing that it is a contemptible attitude. The evidence of such an attitude is extremely disquieting . It can be said that Mahatma’s stature is such that such vile utterances will not harm him. Yet such cavalier statements ought to shock public conscience and rouse it in a chorus of condemnation. It is possible that this editor knows the law well and therefore he can brag of his immunity from arrest For such patently culpable admissions. This man may be immune from action by the man made law, but surely there is the higher law and he cannot escape its just judgment. Yet I cannot but feel that this editor has erred against public conscience and for that he must be brought to his sense showing that this kind of thing can’t simply be done in Gandhi’s India. I earnestly hope and pray that you, Sir, appropriately deal with this slight against the Mahatma. I shall feel grateful for a line in r LikeLike

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