On Golwalkar

Madhok8217;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 8212; long considered the bete noire of the Atal-Advani duo 8212; who was thrown out of the party in the early 1970s. In an article entitled 8220;Shri Guruji: Some Memories8221;, 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 8220;proved to be a meeting of minds8221;.

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. 8220;After listening to me, he said, 8216;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!8217;8221; Madhok clearly didn8217;t.

Man of premonitions

VHP boss Ashok Singhal has a different take. Golwalkar, whose saintly qualities are extolled by several other contributers as well, 8220;had the unique ability of foreseeing the coming dangers8221;, says Singhal. When the whole country was chanting the slogan 8216;Hindi Chini bhai-bhai8217;, 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. 8220;But Vasant Rao Oakji thought that it would adversely affect the movement and did not deliver that letter to him.8221; And when Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri decided to go to Tashkent for talks with Pakistan, Golwalkar 8212; in a public meeting 8212; advised him not to go or else he would not come back. 8220;This revelation also proved true and only the dead body of Shastriji came back from Tashkent.8221;

Swamy8217;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 8220;in hot pursuit of aggressors8221; 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 8220;and keep Sanskritising Hindi till it becomes Sanskrit8221;; and resolutely oppose conversion of Hindus 8220;while at the same time being ever ready to welcome back to the Hindu fold any Muslim or Christian by conversion8221;. Such a good Hindu has an obligation to defend religious minorities 8220;but only if the obligation is bilateral8221;.

Saffron Gandhi

The Sangh may not be quite his soul, but Varun Gandhi is getting there. In his weekly column, he maintains that 8220;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 immediately8221;. Is there a third yatra in the offing?

Compiled by Manini Chatterjee