Madhukar Dathathreya Deoras aka Balasaheb Deoras is commonly known as the third Sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). But, that he was a social reformer par excellence is not much talked about by the so called elites. Balasaheb Deoras took over as the Sarsanghchalak when Guru Golwalker passed away on June 5, 1973. The author still remembers the way the media of those days had compared Deoras with his predecessor. They wrote that Golwalker was a spiritual genius and his successor does have neither any interest nor any sort of touch in spirituality hence RSS was heading towards an identity crisis!

But, those who were either swayamsevaks or close fellow travelers of Sangh maintained something else. The reference is to those who did not have the opportunity to see or meet Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the revered founder of the organization.  Guruji, the terrific personality of pinnacle of spirituality, was the Sarsanghchalak they had seen. So their anxiety was quite natural: “Will the new Sarsanghchalak be a match for his predecessor “? Deoras answered this question through his relentless, proactive, exemplary and sharp leadership until he relinquished the position, owing to ill health, when the Akhil Bharathiya Prathinidhi Sabha met in March, 1994. He took over the leadership on the august occasion of the monthly shraddha of Guruji in July, 1973. During the customary speech he gave a clear cut hint of the modus operandi he was going to practice. He made it clear that his stress would be on social service activities and reforms.

His organizational activities and leadership thereafter proved that he meant what he said. He made social fraternity and social reformation the inseparable organs of the organization. When this matter undergoes discussion one has to study the chronological continuation of the office of the Sarsanghchalak. Dr. Hedgewar was an unparalleled organizer. In turn Guruji studied Balasaheb Deoras’s meritorious organizational skills and the tenacity to lead the organization under any sort of crisis. Balasaheb Deoras’s leadership vindicated Guruji’s estimation. 

Balasaheb Deoras included social engineering and social reformation in his activities using the powerful organization which was even ‘Gods’ envy’ as Guruji had rightly described. In another words the stress Balasaheb Deoras gave for the social fraternity and reformation was the practical continuation of the organizational expansion achieved by his predecessor. His historic statement “If untouchability is not wrong, nothing in this world is wrong” during the Vasanthamala Lecture Series, Poona, was the pragmatic statement of the lessons Sangh had been teaching its swayamsevaks until then.

Balasaheb Deoras’s stand towards community ‘reservations,’ a matter paving the way for even street fights, was robust too. Akhil Bharathiya Prathinidhi Sabha of RSS was meeting in Nagpur during March, 1981. Some delegates expressed their strong opinions against the indefinite conduct of the reservations.  Sangh has a tradition in conducting the Akhil Bharathiya baitaks; it is always conducted by Sarkaryavah (general secretary). Balasaheb Deoras did not deviate from that system initiated by Guruji. Swarg. P. Madhav (senior RSS Pracharak, Keralam) had once mentioned to this correspondent that Guruji and Balasaheb Deoras used to sit like statues in such biattaks while they were in the august office of Sarsanghchalak. Former Akhil Bharathiya Boudhik Pramukh Ranga Hari recently told this writer that Balasaheb Deoras used to interfere in discussions only when he felt that it was “absolutely necessary;” and it was confined to couple of sentences. The aforementioned belonged to the class of such rare occasions.  He said: “If you belonged to the communities entitled of such reservations, you would not have said like this”. The delegates got wind of his thoughts. The chapter was obviously closed.

He had no confusion concerning the necessity to keep the community reservations intact; because despite having some social progress among dalits by and large in the country, he was very much aware of untouchability prevailing in several places. This single incident is an ample proof for his caliber befitting the office of RSS Sarsanghchalak. Once Sarsanghchalak was touring Kerala. A tall leader of BJP took his newly wedded son and his bride to Balasaheb Deoras.  Idea was to seek his for the couple. The girl belonged to a caste said to be inferior to that of the leader. The Leader had proudly told Balasaheb Deoras about it. He expressed his extreme joy when he heard about it.

Balasaheb Deoras ardently believed that inter-caste marriages could play significant role to eradicate casteism. A senior swayamsevak in Kerala found out a suitable match for his daughter. He did not bother about the caste of the groom (even though it was a so-called inferior one compared to his caste). His only concern was the ‘merit.’  It was a purely arranged marriage; the bride and groom had no contact at all. It was very much beyond one’s imagination two and half decades ago! These days lot of such weddings take place in Sangh families in Kerala.

When Balasaheb Balasaheb Deoras took over as Sarsanghchalak in 1973, Vanvasi Kalyanashram was not a massive organization as it is now. It became a significant force during his regime. When the activities scaled a satisfactory height he believed that it needed powerful leadership. He zeroed in on former Kerala Pranth Pracharak, (late) Bhaskar Rao Kalambi aka K. Bhaskar Rao who had proved his mettle in Kerala as a real follower of Dr Hegdewar. The deployment of such a senior leader like Bhaskar Rao underlines his deep interest in the welfare of the vanvasis and in the necessity of assimilating them in the mainstream of national life.  His stress on the activities among the fishermen community under the banner of Matsya Pravarthaka Sangham in Kerala carried the same spirit. (Now, Matsya Pravarthaka Sangham is the part of an Akhil Bharathiya organization). He had two targets to achieve by engineering the activities among the weaker sections of the society. First of all their industry and culture needed protection.  Secondly, they all should join the mainstream of the national life. Every day we come across vote bank politics of keeping the weak always weak; they are always being kept under somebody’s diktats.

Balasaheb Deoras realized the urgency of spreading Sangh in North-Eastern states, the citadel of fissiparous tendencies and activities where gunshots were a daily occurrence. Lot of pracharaks were sent to Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Assam and Meghalaya. They worked in those hilly, tribal areas weathering the adverse climatic conditions and armed rebels. Several of them were martyred. But, Sangh activities still went ahead. Vanvasi Kalyanashram, VHP, ABVP and BJP made tremendous progress in the activities and achievements. One has to take note of the political development took place in Assam recently in this regard. A good number of such pracharaks are from Kerala; the RSS workers of Kerala take pride in it. Kerala’s Asokan is the Manipur Pranth Pracharak of RSS; he was deployed to North-East more than three decades before.

Balasaheb Deoras always stuck to the style of social fraternity when he was in deeply involved in the tough job of organizing the vast Hindu society. His dream was the harmonious life of all sections of the society together. The power politics methodology of “RSS at the top and others under its iron umbrella” was alien to him.

He envisaged the same fraternity mantra in political field too; his ultimate aim was the param vaibahvam (pinnacle of glory) of his motherland. He look forward to the expansion, development and achievements of Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Janata Party and Bharatiya Janata Party, the political parties which used to swim together with Sangh, co-operate with Sangh and still swimming together with Sangh respectively. He did not hesitate to advise them whenever it was necessary. But he did not have the complex of highhandedness for keeping them always under the RSS clutches.  Nor, did he try to be their spokesperson. Policies of the political party led by Sangh swayamsevaks did not prevent him from airing his views of national or social significance.

When the Janata Party Government which came to power after the dark months of Emergency mooted the idea of forming a minority commission Balasaheb Deoras’s reaction was of utmost caution and farsightedness. “What Bharat wants is human rights commission” was his prudent reaction. They were the words of a statesman who stood for social harmony and social fraternity. It had two dimensions: First of all when a section or few sections are declared as minorities, naturally they will psychologically deviate from the mainstream. Secondly, those were the days (1977) when the reminiscences of fascist autocracy, brutality, oppression, nepotism, inhuman police torture, human rights violation, suspension of fundamental rights, uncivilized press censorship, etc. were still in the atmosphere of the country; it was hardly few months since the lifting of Emergency; and there were several human rights violations. Obviously, the common solution to the problems the society as a whole faces will give impetus to the social harmony. Moreover, it is not the Constitution or statutory institutions that protect the minorities in India, but the “sarva dharma samabhavana” of the Hindu society.

Balasaheb Deoras’s concern was in uniting the people apolitically. But, appeasement was never his means to achieve this noble cause. He was the supreme leader of the organization which suffered all sorts of oppression and human rights violations during Emergency. He was behind the bars during the whole Emergency days, from June 30, 1975 to March 22, 1977.  But, he did not lose his balance when mammoth rallies of thousands of people received him throughout the country when he was released from the jail after Emergency and the unjust ban on RSS were lifted. His advice to the people of India in general and to the workers of Sangh and Sangh oriented organizations in particular was to “Forget and Forgive” (the people who spearheaded anti-democratic measures during Emergency). Some could not believe it.

He ‘disappointed’ the people who expected the RSS chief shouting for the revenge on Smt. Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi who unleashed all sorts of oppressions against thousands of RSS workers  causing deaths of several people and physically invalid life to thousands of people. But, the swayamsevaks who knew him and carried the noble Sangh ideologies in their inner hearts were not at all surprised. The then Home Minister Charan Singh told Balasaheb Deoras that he would never forgive Indira. But, what Balasaheb Deoras replied them without the blink of his eyelid was something a genuine social worker has to bear in his mind throughout his life: “See we are social workers. You are a ruling minister. We are bound to cultivate the noble quality of patience in the minds of the people.” All social workers have to keep this in mind. It was not a scream of a diffident person. On the other hand it was the assertion of a champion.

The “right people” grasped those words in right spirit; “some others” did not! And, we saw its result. Some in Janata Party and its government, blind with spirit of revenge, sans even going through the ‘rule books’ or not even having a glimpse of the Shah Commission reports, arrested Indira Gandhi and his son Sanjay. Indira, the shrewd politician, exploited the consequent sympathy efficiently. She turned stronger and engineered a split in the ruling Janata party. The government fell. Indira came back to power in January 1980 as a more powerful leader. Of course   Balasaheb Deoras knew the strength and weakness of the Janata apparatus very well hence his warning well in advance!

Balasaheb Deoras’s path was that of fraternity and consensus, without confrontation. He wanted the organization he led to move in the same direction. Khalistan or Independent Punjab Movement and related terrorism and terrorist activities of 1980s are still fresh in our memory. It enjoyed the support of Pakistan. The idea was to convert it into a Hindu-Sikh riot and separate Punjab from India. Pakistan and the Khalistan terrorists knew that their aim will be achieved only by provoking RSS and bring it into the path of violence and confrontation. Balasaheb Deoras, the master of quick analysis of any sort of complex and complicated quandaries, realized the conspiracy behind it.  As a part of the conspiracy, the terrorists attacked a Sangh sakha in Moga, Punjab, on June 25, 1989 and killed 27 swayamsevaks, including small boys, in the Sanghastan. The incident hurt the sentiments of swayamsevaks living all over the world. Former pracharak and father of the then Punjab Pranth Pracharak was one of the victims of the terrorists’ bullets.

But, all over the country the Sangh swayamsevaks followed self-restraint. The aim of Pakistan, Khalistan terrorists and the global forces trying to destabilize India was to invite a Hindu backlash; it was a prerequisite for them to go ahead with their sinister designs. But, Balasaheb Deoras’s sterling instruction to the swayamsevaks was not to go for tit for tat. Lot of swayam sevaks sacrificed their life in Punjab. But, the dreams of the anti-national forces did not see any fruition. No Hindu-Sikh riot was reported. The conspirators failed miserably. Sikh terrorism turned a unilateral attack. Punjab is still the integral part of India. But for RSS it would not have been possible. ‘Social fraternity at any cost and use it for the empowerment of the nation’ was the working style of Balasaheb Deoras.

As a part of his excellent design, Balasaheb Deoras sent Sangh pracharaks to Punjab from all over the country. They led the Sangh activities amidst the terror attacks and killings. Rashtriya Sikh Sangat was launched in 1986. It aimed at the fraternity between Hindus and Sikhs. 

Those who drew inspiration from that organization, later on formed Muslim Rashtriya Manch. This movement aims at bringing the Muslim brothers and sisters to the mainstream of national life while the vested interests are trying to separate them from the national stream; the culprits do rake the issues of Ayodhya, IS, Uniform Civil code, etc. to win their separatist games. This proves that even after twenty years since the sad demise of Balasaheb Deoras, Sangh workers still cherish his dreams and work for it. That itself speaks out the ideological command he wielded in the hearts of Sangh workers.

It will be an injustice to Balasaheb Deoras if a reference is not made to the historic struggle the Sangh organized against the Emergency. After clamping on the Emergency on June 25 midnight, 1975, Balasaheb Deoras was arrested on June 30 at the Nagpur railway station. RSS was banned on July 4. Balasaheb Deoras was jailed in Yerwada Central Prison, Maharashtra. He was fully conscious about what was in store for his organization under Emergency. So, he had written three different letters to the workers before his arrest. They told the workers what they were expected to do if Indira was going to take the autocratic path.

At least some senior swayamsevaks and functionaries were doubtful about the feasibility of peaceful reactions to the autocratic regime. By the end of July the clever Sangh workers had devised ‘channels’ to communicate to the swayamsevaks and functionaries housed in the jails. It was done with the help of some swayamsevaks who were not in active work and through some officials who were dead against the fascist style of the establishment. The workers got a clear idea from Balasaheb Deoras, through one of those channels, regarding the style of struggles they had to select.

That the people of India will only accept absolute non-violent struggles was the idea he conveyed.  Rest is history. The Sangh organized non-violent Satyagraha all over the country; lakhs of workers underwent, without any sort of violent retaliation, brutal police torture; several workers died: Balasaheb Deoras’s prophetic farsightedness saved the country and the Sangh from the brink.

The political instability and anarchy that we witnessed in the third world countries like Pakistan is not happening in India, thanks to the dynamic leadership and farsighted leadership of people Balasaheb Deoras. Therefore, he was the befitting successor to Dr. Hedgewar and Guruji Golwalker.  The successful mission of Balasaheb Deoras was the translation of the ideological thoughts of both Doctor and Guruji into practice; in another words, an “applied RSS.”