Introduction

 “The best way to predict future is to create it” is an oft-quoted aphorism by management guru Peter Druker, befitting to Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar.  He envisaged a strong ‘Hindu Rashtra’, rolled out plan of action for himself and swayamsevaks to ensconce beloved Bharat Mata to the position of Jagat Guru. He braved all odds and turned a tide in his favour. He is a pioneer of world’s largest non-leftist, Non-Governmental organization known as ‘Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’ (RSS). Dr. Hedgewar is deservedly a most revered personality in RSS camp.

21^st of June 2020 is his 131^st death anniversary which prompts to reflect on his personality and genesis of RSS. It is apt to recall him when thousands of swayamsevaks are engrossed in tacking Covid-19 menace and earning accolades from various quarters of society for their selfless services. It is time to ponder as to how he managed to form an indomitable organization and injected the exemplary spirit of service in swayamsevaks which incessantly channelizes their strength in the same direction as Doctorji wished them to have.

Dr.Hedgwar and RSS

Doctorji is not a new personality in India. He is equally known in leftist, rightists and centrist camps. Several books and articles have been written on him in RSS programs, he is remembered on almost all occasions. However, every time new aspects about his personality and his ideas about RSS surface, it would be tempting to compare a reflection on him with ‘Samudramanthan’ a great churning exercise undertaken in the Indian history.

Dr Hedgewar was great revolutionary in his early days and worked closely with Lokmanya Tilak. He was in Congress and participated in all significant endeavors by Congress to acquire freedom from Britishers. However, from 1920s he started cogitation on real causes of Indian debacle, blunders committed by India, its glorious history etc. and came to the conclusion that all the efforts of the then socio, political and cultural groups are flash in the pan and solution lies somewhere else. He was convinced that there should be an organization in India which should be all encompassing and would not reduce to ad hoc organization in the society like several other organizations. The consolidation of entire Hindu society was the target of his organization.

It was most arduous task because of his grooming and past associations. Dr. Hedgewar was not avowed Sanyasi in traditional sense nor he subjected himself to any religious group like Ramakrishna Mission or Arya Samaj. He had associations with the Congress hardliners as well as soft-liners. Therefore, he was not subjugated to any particular ideology. He supported Bhagat Singh and Subhash Babu on one hand and eulogized Savarkar and his book ‘Hindutva’ on the other. He was such patriot that he happened to set aside all the differences and rose to the occasion for the benefit of the nation wherever it was necessary. However, now he was planning to set out an organization which had no name, no infrastructure, no pomp but grand objective.

It is required to appreciate that carving out space for his organization was herculean task given the contemporary appealing ideologies like communists who could dazzle people with evident fault lines in society and appeal of Congress party for cherished goal of freedom of nation. The ideology and goals of RSS were not trite in nature. Therefore, its trickle in the common man’s cognizance was onerous. The abstruseness of RSS philosophy required special dexterity to funnel the idea of RSS in the mind of common people.

Dr. Hedgewar wanted to establish a unified and strong Hindu Society to recover lost glory of India. After working with various organizations including congress, he arrived at a conclusion that the life source of India is Hindutva and spirit of Hindutva is required to be revived for strong and unified Hindu Rashtra. Several organizations in the society had been focusing on short term goals which according to Doctorji, meting out merely a superficial treatment for national ailments, the real solution was in resuscitation of Hinduvta undercurrents latent in the ancient soul of India.

Doctorji invented a unique way to knit his organization. The roots of which could be found in his own personality. Doctorji due to his affable personality had established connections with almost all contemporary socio- political streams. Therefore, despite ideological differences he never lost a touch with them. Exactly, same principle he invoked while chalking out modus operandi of RSS and concept of daily Shaka saw light of the day. RSS shakha at the outset was depicted as gathering for gymnasium or sports. But a well thought strategy behind it became visible after some years of RSS formation. Shaka was an instrument to build an informal network among Swayamsevaks which ultimately flowered into a strong personal bonding. It would not be hyperbolic to state that Doctorji nudged people towards Hindutva merely through the instrument of daily shakha. He altered the environment in such a way that cognitive processes of people triggered to favour desired outcomes. In daily shakha along with sports and gymnasium, Doctorji laid emphasis on intellectual debates as well. In his discussion with Swayamsevaks in Shakhs, Doctorji delved on the thoughts of nationalism, the culture of India and services Swayamsevaks could render to the country. Interesting phenomenon which has been described by Richard Thalar in his book ‘Nudge’ as social proof heuristic was already pressed into service by Dr. Hedgewar. “Social proof heuristic” is a tendency of people to look at the behavior of other to guide their own behavior. In 1926 on occasion of Ramnavami toeing same principle of Social proof heuristic Doctorji took for the first time RSS Swayamsevaks in full uniform to Ramtek where they helped in organizing the worshipping of deity by thousands of worshippers. The intention was not limited to organise Swayamsevaks in particular work but he also wanted to appeal non-participants to come forth and join RSS by setting the ideal of participant Swayamsevaks before them.

The cultural nationalism was the rudiment of RSS. Hence Sanskrit was gradually adopted as language of instructions in Shakha. On the instructions of Dr. Hedgewar a saffron flag had become a guru of RSS Swayamsevaks. It was out of the box thinking of Dr. Hedgewar to designate saffron flag as Guru because if we analyze Hindu dharma, a vivid conclusion can be arrived at is that it has no single book, no particular God, no particular cult. In such a case which other source could be better for symbolic depiction of Hindutva than the saffron flag itself. Saffron flag is holding a holy land of Bharata since time immemorial. Guru Gobind Singh a 10^th Guru of Sikhs declared ‘Guru Granth Saheb’ as a Guru of Sikh people. It was novel way to sideline personal genuflection in religion. Similarly, Dr. Hedgewar too threw a spanner in carte blanche of future Sarsanghchalak or any other RSS dignitaries by way of installation of saffron flag as a Guru.

Dr. Hedgewar was far ahead in his thinking about the nation when he said that the revival of culture of Hindutva in the land of Hindus is the only solution for all ailments grappling Indian society. Let us take an example of economics. It is a science which was considered completely secular in nature and economic schools like Marxian went to the extent of stating that economic betterment is the only solution to all the problems of humankind. However, latest studies in Economics are validating a cultural significance of society in influencing economic forces. Scholars are also accepting that the economics cannot be disassociated from culture of society.  Dr. Hedgewar a seer identified this long back which catapulted him to rejuvenate suppressed prowess of Hindutva elixir.

Mahatma Gandhi and RSS

It is half baked to allege that Gandhiji, did not agree with Dr. Hedgewar on Hindutva theory as several thoughts expressed by him were in line with Dr. Hedgewar. It is surprising that some intellectuals are writing books and appealing people to choose between Hind Swaraj (Book by Mahatma Gandhi) and Hindu Rashtra when there are so many similarities in both the ideologies including paramount importance attributed to Swaraj and Swadeshi. It is in common knowledge that when Gandhiji was pressing for disbanding Congress party and converting it into Lok Sevak Sangh, he like Doctorji got convinced that real strength to make a difference in society was not in political party but in consolidated social servants. Gandhji rolled out a charter for Lok Sevak Sangh and points he mentioned therein are strikingly in line with that of RSS as envisioned by Doctorji barring few. For Lok Sevak Sangh Gandhiji laid emphasis on village as Unit. Similarly, soul of RSS is daily Shakha. Gandhiji made it mandatory for every servant of Lok Sevak Sangh to personally come into contact with each villager and  in consonance with it, the very purpose of RSS Shakha is to build a network of people in given locality. Please note that RSS was established much before Gandhiji published a charter on Lok Sevak Sangh.

Mahatma Gandhi’s visionary book  Hind Swaraj have several considerations in tune with RSS ideas about nation, culture and society. Inherently Hindutva and Hind Swaraj are complimentary to each other. Mahatma Gandhi states in Hind Swarajya that Englishmen have not taken India, we Indians have given it to them, and our internal squabbles enabled Englishmen to pull the strings in the country. Similarly, Doctorji also said that internal strife and disassociation with our fundamentals resulted in loss of freedom. While narrating an importance of religion against west-influenced civilization, Gandhiji says “when full effect of the said civilization is realized we shall see that the religious superstition is harmless compared to modern civilization I am not pleading for a continuance of religious superstitions. We shall certainly fight them tooth and nail, but we can never do so by disregarding religion. We can only do so by appreciating and conserving the latter”.  Gandhiji went on to the extent that comparing modern civilization our religion is better with its superstitions too!!!! and appealed for conservation of religion. According to me, he was appealing for the preservation of Indian culture which was fundamentally based on concept of Dharma. But when Dr. Hedgewar expressed identical thoughts by using word Hindutva unnecessary hue and cry had been made by some nefarious forces. It was deliberate distortion of RSS ideology to estrange Gandhian philosophy from Sangh.

Gandhiji stated as follows “The English have taught us that we were not one nation before and that it will require centuries before we become one nation. This is without foundation. We were one nation before they came to India. One thought inspired us. Our mode of life was the same. It was because we were one nation that they were able to establish one kingdom. Subsequently they divided us”. He was on the same page with Doctorji when Doctroji said that India is nation since eons of years. Gandhiji further submits that “I do not wish to suggest that because we were one nation we had no differences, but it is submitted that our leading men travelled throughout India either on foot or in bullock-carts. They learned one another's languages and there was no aloofness between them. What do you think could have been the intention of those farseeing ancestors of ours who established Setubandha (Rameshwar) in the South, Jagannath in the East and Hardwar in the North as places of pilgrimage? You will admit they were no fools. They knew that worship of God could have been performed just as well at home. They taught us that those whose hearts were aglow with righteousness had the Ganges in their own homes. But they saw that India was one undivided land so made by nature. They, therefore, argued that it must be one nation. Arguing thus, they established holy places in various parts of India, and fired the people with an idea of nationality in a manner unknown in other parts of the world”. We have to accept that Gandhiji was pointing towards unitary Hindutva culture throughout India. Furthermore, he added that the holy places had been established in India with a purpose to fire an idea of nationality in the people. However, Doctoriji’s clarion call for Hindutva or Hindu cultural nationalism was branded as call of theocratic man.

RSS is on the mission to shape India as envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi and any attempt to orchestrate a schism between RSS and Gandhi is spin doctoring by left leaning ideologues to obfuscate common Indian. It is time for RSS and Gandhian school of thoughts to join hands for betterment of country.

When Doctorji laid a foundation of RSS the only thought he might be having in his mind was to devise an organization which would merely take care of making men who would be having single goal to regain a lost glory of Hindu Rashtra and their sole capital will be the culture of this country. Such swayamsevaks will fan out in various fields and work according to their test and temperament with an objective to achieve their goal of making nation Jagatguru. RSS can be compared with water which takes a shape of utensil but never changes its own properties. It is a novel model of management in the world without any hankering after monetary gains, marketing and publicity hence worth to be replicated all over the world.

References

https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/hind_swaraj.pdf- Hind Swaraj

THE SAFFRON SURGE UNTOLD STORY OF RSS LEADERSHIP- Arun Anand

https://www.mkgandhi.org/panchayat_raj/loksevaksangh.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudge_theory

Image Credits: VSK Bharat