Veer Savarkar, Gandhi Ji & R.S.S
vis -a- vis Partition of India
Many people ask as to how with such a vast majority of Hindus in India and powerful leaders like Veer Savarkar and Gandhi ji and a big organization like RSS, Hindus had conceded to the demand of Muslim League for partition of India without any battle or resistance worth the name.
To find out reasons for all this I have gone through books /articles written by some eminent writers like Shri J.D joglekar, Shri Vidya Sagar Anand, Prof. Vikram Ganesh Oak, Shri Bhagwan Saran Awasthi and Shri Gangadhar Indulkar. Thus my findings are based on their views and also on the basis of my own experience.
First of all I quote bellow the virtues and the qualities of the two leaders- Veer Savarkar and Gandhi ji, who were at the helm of affairs during the days of partition and also about the then leaders of RSS. Thereafter I will narrate the events that developed in the course of time resulting in the unfortunate and painful partition.
While Veer Savarkar was visionary genius, he breathed fiery heroism from his boyhood. Defiance of unjust authority was in his blood. He was every inch a Veer (hero) as much in action as in his thoughts. He and his family members made supreme sacrifices for the freedom of motherland from British yokes. He and his party Hindu Mahasabha though with small band of workers had strained every nerve to oppose and confront the direct action of Muslim League and its demand for division of India. He and his party organized a crusade to keep India united. Quite a large number of eminent Scholars in India and abroad have said that Savarkar’s views on Hindu Rastravaad as enunciated in his book “Hindutva” are not communal but are scientific and can save India from communalism, casteism, and regionalism. That Hindu Rastravaad .
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was adopted by the Hindu Mahasabha and also by the founders of the RSS as their party’s basic ideology. But the Congress has always been propagating that Veer Savarkar and Hindu Mahasabha are Communal. Even the RSS after 1940 started a campaign of vilification against Veer Savarkar and Hindu Mahasabha. So most of the people though admiring the unique and shining personality of Veer Savarkar, kept them away from Hindu Mahasabha.
On the other hands Gandhi ji was undoubtedly a leader of masses. For long period of 25 years he strived for independence of India. Although he was not even a primary member of the all India congress, he was the supremo of that party. He however, did not tolerate any person at the top of the party who held views different form that of Gandhi ji or could pose a threat to his supremacy e.g. Subash Chandra Bose was elected president of all India congress against the wishes of Gandhi ji but he had to resign because Gandhi ji and his disciples in the party did not corporate with Subash.
Gandhi ji was never a man of firm views e.g. At once stage while opposing the demand of Muslim league for partition of India he had said “vivisect me before vivisecting India”. How serious was he in his views, let his own words speak for him. Just a few months later in 1940 he wrote in his paper “the Muslims must have the same right of self determination that the rest of India have. We are at present a joint family and any member may claim a division". Unfortunately in June 1947 Gandhi ji persuaded the members of all India Congress Committee to accept the demand of Muslim league for partition of India and creation of Pakistan. Thus when the formula for creation of Pakistan was endorsed by the Congress, Pakistan came into being.
For 28 long years, in spite of complete absence of Muslim response, Gandhi ji clung steadfastly to his favorite theory for Muslims. At one time Gandhi ji had suggested to the British to
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hand over power to the Muslims before quitting India. In a letter to Jinnah (Muslim league president) in 1942 Gandhi ji wrote that “he would have no objection to the British handing over power to the Muslim League on behalf of all Indians. The Congress would not only not oppose a government formed by Muslim League on behalf of all Indians but would even participate in it”. He said “he was saying this in all seriousness and sincerity”.
But the Muslim League insisted that it wanted Pakistan (a separate homeland for Muslims) and nothing less then that. The Muslim League was not cooperating in the freedom movement. It was pressing for a separate homeland for Muslims. The Muslim league was claiming that Hindus and Muslims have nothing in common and cannot live together peacefully. That Muslims are a separate nation and they want Pakistan for them. Muslim league had also asked the British not to quit India until India is partitioned and Pakistan a separate country is carved for Muslims. There were wide spread riots due to direct action of Muslim League in which thousands of Hindus were killed and women molested. But the Congress and Gandhi ji with their policy of appeasement and non-violence did not retaliate. This compelled Gandhi ji and Nehru ji to surrender to the demand for Pakistan and persuaded the Congress party leaders to accept the formula of partition of India and formation of Pakistan.
Profound gloom and hidous confusion prevailed through out the country (at partition time). The feelings within congress circles was exceedingly bitter. There was a sense of betrayal and underlying the disillusionment and almost over whelming frustration. Shree Purshtom Das Tondon, quondam president of the Indian National Congress was reported as saying “Gandhi’s doctrine of absolute nonviolence was responsible for the partition of India”. One congress newspaper said in a leading article. “Today Gandhi ji is a living witness to the failure of his mission”.
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As such Gandhi ji’s policy of appeasement of Muslims and its leader Mr. Jinnah and with no retaliation to their direct action plans, Gandhi ji and his Congress can be genuinely held responsible for partition of India.
That was in nutshell the state of affair of the two political parties namely Hindu Mahasabha under the leadership of Veer Savarkar and of Indian National Congress under the leadership of Gandhi ji -as to how they reacted and countered the demand of Muslim League for creation of Pakistan. To achieve this end Muslim League had called for direct action resulting in the killing of thousands of innocent Hindus and kidnapping of hundreds of Hindu women specially in Bengal and Punjab.
Many people say how this could happen when there was vast majority of Hindus in India and with a big Hindu organization of disciplined youth namely the Rastriya Svam Sewak Sangh (RSS) having lakhs of volunteers. These volunteers used to pray in their daily shakhas and pledge for laying down their lives for safety and uplift of Hindus and Hindustan and for establishment of Hindu Rastra in India. Thus Hindus in general had great expectation from the RSS, but it miserably failed to do anything worth the name to safe guard the interest of Hindus. As such the disappointment of Hindus was natural as the RSS had stood as a silent spectator at that time of crises. Till today no convincing explanation has come from the RSS side as to why it was so unmindful at that critical time.
To trace out the reasons for their silence, it is important to know how the RSS was born and what changes came in its leadership from 1925(since its birth). With the arrival of Gandhi ji on India’s political scene in or around 1922, Muslim communalism had started raising its head. After Gandhiji’s support to khilafat agitation, there were Hindu Muslim riots at some places including
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Nagpur. So some Hindu leaders of Nagpur viewed that the unity of Hindus alone could ensure their safety. So on 27-9-1925(Vijay Dasmi Day) Dr .Moonje, Dr. Hedgewar, Shri Pranjpai and Bapu Sahib Soni founded a Hindu youth club. Dr. Hedgewar was made its chief. The organization was later on given the name of Rastriya Svam Sewak Sangh - populerly known as RSS. The volunteers were given physical training including marshal art training and lessons about Hindu Rastrabaad. While Veer Savarkar was in internment at Ratnagiri, Dr. Hedgewar went there and had met him. By then, he had already read the book “Hindutva” written by Veer Savarkar. Dr. Hedgewar highly appreciated the views expressed in the book and said that Veer Savarkar is an ideal person.
Both Savarkar and Hedgewar believed that so long as the Hindu society does not give up blind faith in many out dated rituals, religious practices and traditions, which kept Hindus divided in castes, sub-castes, touchable, untouchables, tribles and non-tribles and does not stand united and organized, India would never be able to take its rightful place.
In 1937 Veer Savarkar was released from his internment and now he could take part in politics also. In that very year, he was elected president of Hindu Mahasbha, of which Dr. Hedgewar was vice-president. The 1937 session of Hindu Mahasbha was held at Karnavati (Ahemdabaad). The speech delivered by Veer Savarkar at the session is commonly known as Hindu Rastra Darshan.
In 1938, Veer Savarkar was for the second time elected as president of Hindu Mahasabha and the session was held at Nagpur. The responsibility of this session was almost entirely shouldered by the RSS volunteers under the leadership of their chief Dr. Hedgewar. Here also Dr. Hedgewar expressed esteem regards for Veer Savarkar. A large procession was taken out covering entire
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Nagpur city. At the head of the procession was Shri Bhaurao Devras, a top ranking volunteer of the RSS, rode on an elephant with a Bhagwadwaj(saffron flag) in hand.
The 1939 session of the Hindu Mahasabha was held at Calcutta. For this session also,Veer Savarkar was elected as its president for the 3rd consecutive year. Those who attended the 1939 Calcutta session of the Hindu Mahasabha included Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherji, Shri Nirmal Chandra Chaterji, ex judge of Calcutta highcourt, RSS chief Dr. Hedgewar and his associates Shri M.S Golwalkar and Shri Baba Sahib Gatate.
BITTERNESS BETWEEN HINDU MAHASABHA AND RSS
As stated above Veer Savarkar was already elected as its president, but the elections for other office bearers of Hindu Mahasabha were held at the session ground. For the post of office secretary there were three contestants 1. Mahashey Indraprakash, 2. Shri Golwalkar and 3. Jyoti Shankar Dixit. The elections were held and the result was - Mahashey Indraprakash got 80 votes, Shri Golwalkar secured 40 votes and Shri Jyoti Shankar Dixit got only 2 votes. As such Mahashey Indraprakash was declared elected as office secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha.
The defeat of Shri Golwalkar in this party elections annoyed him so much that he and some of his colleagues kept them away from the Hindu Mahasabha.
In June l940 Dr. Hedgewar died and in his place Shri Golwalkar was made the head of RSS.
Soon after taking over as RSS chief Shri Golwalker removed Shri Martandey Rao Jog from the post of Sar Senapati, who was appointed by Dr.Hedgewar for imparting military training to senior RSS volunteers. There by breaking the teeth of his own RSS.
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Shri Golwalkar was an orthodax person believing in outdated. religious rituals- so much so that he peformed sharad ceremony, not for his ancestors, but for himself during his lifetime. He wore garlands of Ganda- taveez (perhaps given to him by some saints to save him from evils).
Shri Golwalkar’s Hinduism was slightly different from that of Veer Savarkar and Dr.Hedgewar. Shri Golwalkar did not have that much respect and regards for Veer Savarkar which Dr.Hedgewar had. Dr. Hedgewar had many a times described Veer Savarkar as an ideal person and called him Prata- simraniya(A noble person to be remembered with respect every morning).
Infact Shri Golwalkar was not robust enough. He was timid and immature person to head such a big organization which had in 1940 about 4lakhs volunteers and in 1946 strength of about seven lakhs volunteers.
Soon after Golwalkar taking over as chief of RSS the relations between the Hindu Mahasabha and RSS went on going tense. So much so that Shri Golwalkar went on criticizing the agitation being carried on by the Hindu Mahasabha and its leader Veer Savarkar for enrolling the Hindu youths in the Indian army (as a part of their policy of militerising Hindudum).Whereas Dr. Hedegwar till his death in 1940 was admiring the agitation. Even Subash Chandra Bose in his boradcast from Singapur radio had praised Veer Savarkar for recruiting Hindu youth in the army. Thus due to indifferent attitude and negative approach of Shri Golwalkar on such vital issues, the relations between the two organization went on deteriorating.
The Congress and Gandhi ji on the one hand had suggested to the British to handover powers to the Muslim League before quiting India, they were relentlessly propagating that Veer Savarkar and Hindu Mahasabha were communal. The RSS too (after Dr.
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Hedgewar's death)under the leadership of Shri Golwalkar had started a hatred compagin against Veer Savarkar and Hindu Mahasabha. As per Shri Gangadhar Indulkar, an Ex-RSS leader, Shri Golwalkar was doing so because of the growing popularity of Veer Savarkar amongst youths especialy in Maharashtra. Shri Golwalkar was fearful that if the popularity of Veer Savarkar went on growing, the youth would be attracted towards him and will disassociate them from the RSS. Shri Indulkar, while narrating all this asks, whether by doing so, the RSS had done sanghathan or vighatan of Hindus (unity or rift).
while the Congress and the RSS might not have been very successful in marring the shining image of Veer Savarkar, they were to a great extent successful in keeping many Hindus away from the Hindu Mahasabha.
The basic idealogical change in RSS after Dr. Hedgewar's death in 1940, is evident from the fact that while during Hedgewar's time Veer Savarkar (not Gandhi ji ) was named as RSS Prata Simraniya, while it was during Golwalkar's period that the name of Gandhi ji was inducted in the list of RSS Prata Simraniya(it means a noble person, who should be remembered with respect every morning).
In 1946 the election for Central Legislative Assembly of India were held. While Congress contested almost all Hindu and Muslim seats. The Muslim League contested on Muslim seats. Where as Hindu Mahasabha filed nomination for some Hindu seats. Amongst the persons who filed nomination papers as Hindu Mahasabha candidates were some young volunteers of RSS like Baba Sahib Gatate and others. But after the date of filling nomination papers had elapsed, Shri Golwalkar directed those RSS volunteers to withdraw from the elections. Since the date of filling nomination papers had already elapsed, no other person could file
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nomination in their place. In such a tense atmosphere withdrawal of some candidates from fighting elections would have naturally. upset the party and marred its prospects in the elections. That was exactly what happened with the Hindu Mahasabha.
The Congress won all the 57 Hindu seats and Muslim League 30 Muslim seats. Infact Shri Golwalkar had indirectly helped Congress in those elections.
With these result of elections, the British had enough evidence to hold that Congress represented the entire Hindu population of India and the Muslim League represented the Muslim population. As such British called meeting of Congress and Muslim League to consider the demand of Pakistan before they quit India. Hindu Mahasaba was not invited for the meetings.
While meetings were going on, there were riots all over India especially in Bengal and Punjab in which thousands of Hindus were killed and lakhs of Hindus left their homes in Muslim dominated areas. That was being done by Muslim league and its Muslim national guards obviously with a view to terrorize the Hindus and compel Gandhi ji and Congress to concede to its demand for Pakistan.
The meetings between Britain, Congress and Muslim League were held at shimla in the months of June and July 1947. At last on 3rd July 1947, they agreed to a formula by which India was to be partitioned and Pakistan was to come in existence on 14-08-1947. The formula was approved by the Congress Commitee including Gandhi ji. As a result of this formula which is known as Mount-bettin formula, India was partitioned and Pakistan formed on 14-08-1947.
The RSS during this period was sitting as a silent spectator. Was it not a betrayal? Till today no convincing reason has been given
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by the RSS for their unmindful attitude on such important issue and at such critical juncture. As such one can ask the volunteers of .the RSS as to what RSS did for the safety of Hindus and for keeping India united and what happened to their daily prayer pledging to give sacrifices of their lives for strengthening Hindu nation and Hindustan.
Obviously it was due to the timid and unmatured leader Shri Golwalkar, who became the chief of the RSS after the death of Dr. Hedgewar.
The RSS having a strength about 7 lakhs young volunteers in 1946 neither took any step on its own to counter the direct action call of Muslim league and its Muslim National Guard and its demand for Pakistan. Nor did RSS cooperate with Veer Savarkar and his party Hindu Mahasabha in their efforts for the safety of Hindus and for keeping India united. At some places where Hindu Mahasabha had some strength its workers did give a befitting reply to Muslim National Guard workers of Muslim League. The number of such incidents was of course small.
In Oct. 1944 Veer Savarkar called a meeting of all Hindu parties (political and non-political) and some prominent Hindu leaders, as to how to meet the challenge of Muslim League and to counter its demands. This meeting held at New Delhi was presided over by Shri Radha Mukand Mukherji and was attended to by Shri Shankracharya of Puri, Master Tarasingh, Sir Joginder Singh, Dr.Khare and Jamuna Das Mehta. But the RSS did not attend such an important meeting. Even after the partition of India the RSS did not cooperate with the Hindu Mahasabha in its struggle for Vishva Nath Mandir, Varanasi, agitiation for Comman Civil Law and agitation against Kutub-Minar (which was originally an astrological Lab. and a part of Vishnu Temple). That being so - One asks, whether RSS is a “Sanghathan for Sanghathan only”.
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Such an apathetic attitude by the RSS leadership is astonishing and painful.
As such not only Gandhi ji and Congress are responsible for the partition of India but the RSS and its leader Shri Golwalkar are also responsible for the sufferings of Hindus and division of our Motherland.
The history will tell that only Veer Savarkar and Hindu Mahasabha were consistently fighting for Hindu cause but because of indifferent attitude of large number of Hindus, and RSS they could not be successful in their efforts to put an end to the Muslim Leagues's demand for Pakistan.
So Pakistan, a perpetual danger and headache for India came into being on 14-08-1947 (The Black Day for Hindus and Hindustan).
t.d. chandna
