The latest special issue of the Organiser March 26 to mark the centenary celebrations of RSS’s revered “Guruji” M.S. Golwalkar is in a glossy magazine format. It begins with a glowing message from Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhwat who describes Golwalkar as “a staunch nationalist and an impassioned patriot” who “touched the hearts and minds of millions of people across the country and inspired them with patriotic fervour to serve the cause of the motherland”. More than a dozen articles elaborate the same theme.

Significantly, though, no article by any major BJP leader figures in the issue. Although both Vajpayee and Advani had close dealings with the second sarsanghchalak of the RSS who passed away in 1973, neither has contributed to this issue. In fact, the only BJP members who find a place for their reminiscences of “Guruji” are Kedarnath Sahni and Sushil Modi.

Madhok’s memories

The absence of the BJP top brass is made all the more glaring by the inclusion of former Jana Sangh chief Balraj Madhok — long considered the bete noire of the Atal-Advani duo — who was thrown out of the party in the early 1970s. In an article entitled “Shri Guruji: Some Memories”, he recalls that having read Hindutva by Veer Savarkar and We, or Our Nationhood Defined by Golwalkar, he had become an advocate of Hindu rashtra much before he joined the RSS. Thus, when he met Golwalkar in 1939 it “proved to be a meeting of minds”.

He recalls several subsequent meetings but the most interesting is the one that took place in 1971. Golwalkar, says Madhok, called him to his room and wanted to talk in confidence about the rift within the Jana Sangh. “After listening to me, he said, ‘Balraj, I know everything. I am pained. But I have to keep the sangathan united and therefore like Shiva I drink poison every day. You also do the same!’” Madhok clearly didn’t.

Man of premonitions

VHP boss Ashok Singhal has a different take. Golwalkar, whose saintly qualities are extolled by several other contributers as well, “had the unique ability of foreseeing the coming dangers”, says Singhal. When the whole country was chanting the slogan ‘Hindi Chini bhai-bhai’, Golwalkar was the first person to reveal that China had illegally occupied NEFA. Earlier, when Shyama Prasad Mookerjee went to campaign in Kashmir in 1953, Guruji asked him not to go and warned that if he went there, he might not come back. “But Vasant Rao Oakji thought that it would adversely affect the movement and did not deliver that letter to him.” And when Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri decided to go to Tashkent for talks with Pakistan, Golwalkar — in a public meeting — advised him not to go or else he would not come back. “This revelation also proved true and only the dead body of Shastriji came back from Tashkent.”

Swamy’s ideal

Subramaniam Swamy, meanwhile, continues his search for a Hindu agenda. A good Hindu, he prescribes, should hold that India is an ancient country with an unbroken civilisation and therefore must debunk the Aryan-Dravidian race migration theory; should retaliate “in hot pursuit of aggressors” when his religious symbols and country are attacked; must repudiate the birth-based concept of caste system; must strive to communicate with other Hindus in Hindi with a Sanskrit vocabulary “and keep Sanskritising Hindi till it becomes Sanskrit”; and resolutely oppose conversion of Hindus “while at the same time being ever ready to welcome back to the Hindu fold any Muslim or Christian by conversion”. Such a good Hindu has an obligation to defend religious minorities “but only if the obligation is bilateral”.

Saffron Gandhi

The Sangh may not be quite his soul, but Varun Gandhi is getting there. In his weekly column, he maintains that “India is holy and her soul lies in her places of worship. Therefore, attacks on religious places are not sporadic acts of terror, but are acts of war, and must be countered immediately”. Is there a third yatra in the offing?

Compiled by Manini Chatterjee