Rescue Golwalkar from the secularists

He championed the cause of the full integration of all communities in the national mainstream

The Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh has been celebrating the birth centenary of its second sarsanghchalak, M.S. Golwalkar, popularly known as Guruji, for the last one year. The occasion has been utilised by the RSS to consolidate its social base and prepare the ground for a resurgent Hindutva. However, the media reporting on the RSS is usually restricted to its relationship with the BJP.

Golwalkar8217;s importance lies not only in his heading the RSS for more than three decades 1940-73 but his ceaseless ideological campaign on two issues, secularism and nationalism. He confronted the Nehruvian state which had solid backing of the Marxist scholars, who controlled the social science faculties in Indian universities. He remained, nevertheless, a firm ideological warrior and remained unapologetic about his ideology.

Under his leadership the Sangh made a great leap despite repression by the state and alienation from the masses due to the state-sponsored propaganda that it was involved in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Golwalkar belongs to the past as much as the present. He is a relevant reference point both for his followers and opponents in contemporary debates on secularism and nationalism. His centenary year deserved more serious debates.

Secularist social scientists conveniently quote from the treatise, 8216;We or Our Nationhood Defined8217;, to present his views. There cannot be more injustice to a ideologue of his stature than this. Golwalkar was not its author. He merely translated Rashtra Mimansa, authored by G.D. Savarkar, a Hindu Mahasabha stalwart, in an abridged form. After a few editions in 1940s, which carried his name as the author, he dissociated himself from the book.

Why is Golwalkar derided so much? The answer is simple. He is blamed for fomenting an anti-minorities ideology. This is not accurate. There were two phases of Golwalkar8217;s discourse on minorities. The first phase was the formative period after Partition. Two important events took place in this brief phase: the framing of the Constitution and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. In this phase, Golwalkar8217;s ideological articulation was not very different from those of the members of the Constituent Assembly. Debates in the Constituent Assembly showed that contemporary leadership realised the mistake of legitimising the political identity of a religious community in a country like India where innumerable diversities exist. Golwalkar argued, 8220;History bears testimony to the fact that Bharat, the cradle land of religious generosity, has always welcomed and assured all religious groups a free, honourable and secure life.8221; And asserted that therefore in India there was 8220;no question of majority and minority8221;.