True to the Roots

We would do well to remember that Doctorji had grown up in a Nagpur that was intensely charged with the sentiments and feelings of revolution. One of RSS’ most iconic intellectuals, philosopher and mass organiser, Dattopant Thengadi (1920-2004), once Dr BR Ambedkar’s understudy, best describes that atmosphere in one of his lectures, “Nagpur during the Tilak Era.”

“In those days, means of communication and propaganda were far from adequate,” observes Thengadi, “still news from far-away places reached Nagpur, although late. The Nagpurians knew that the final objective of all armed struggles, big and small, made from the very beginning of the British regime, was to drive the British out of the country. The direct motivation of the various Vanavasi and Kisan agitations in the country as well as the activities of Tantya Bhil in Maharashtra was economic, but their ultimate aim was the attainment of freedom. The youth of Nagpur had a great love for the revolutionaries who embraced the gallows at various places. Prominent among such martyrs till the end of the Tilak era were Ramsingh Kuka (1885), Khudiram Bose (1908), Madanlal Dhingra, (1909), Anant Kanhere (1910), Vanchi Aiyar (1911), Avadh Bihari Govindlal, Amir Chandra Hukumchand, Vishnu Ganesh Pinglay, Sarabhai Bagi and Kartar Singh (all 1919), Sohanlal Pathak (1916), Bhai Banta Singh and Sufi Amba Prasad (1917), etc. Stories of heroism inspired the youth. Swami Vivekananda’s conquest of the world also gave them courage…”

Citing a long list of events, regional, national and global, that surcharged the Nagpur climate, Thengadi argues that “the atmosphere in Nagpur became quite surcharged when Tilak was sent to jail in Mandalay. As an immediate reaction, students took out a big procession and stoned Morris College. A largely attended protest meeting was held on August 19, 1908, opposite the Vyankatesh Theatre.” Narayan Paranjape “was arrested on the charge of defacing the statue of Queen Victoria in Maharaj Bagh with coal-tar, and later, editor and journalist “Achyut Balwant Kolhatkar was also arrested. Thus, the young patriots of Nagpur had girded their loins to back Tilak during the Tilak era. One can imagine the effect that all these events had on the mind of the born patriot Keshav, who was just completing his adolescence and coming of age.” The embers of revolution, thus, were deeply embedded in Doctorji, they often sparked and inspired his actions. The last months of his life saw these sparks intensifying when Doctorji sensed another great opportunity to free India against the backdrop of the Second World War.

An interesting aside here is that of Achyutrao Balwant Kolhatkar (1879-1931)—a popular journalist, Marathi litterateur, and editor of the Nagpur-based Deshasevak from 1906 onwards. In 1908, Kolhatkar was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for having reproduced Sri Aurobindo’s speeches in his paper. He was kept in solitary confinement for over five months and faced torture and humiliation.

In his path-breaking treatise, ‘Sri Aurobindo in the First Decade of the Twentieth Century’, author and historian Manoj Das (1934-2021) draws our attention to the l’affaire Kolhatkar and the intense debate that it had generated in the British Parliament, with Scottish trade unionist and labour leader Keir Hardie (1856-1915) taking on the British government for their treatment of Kolhatkar. Hardie, it may be remembered, was one of the founders of the Labour Party and its first Parliamentary Leader, and his speech in the House of Commons must have been widely reported in India, and avidly followed and read in Nagpur.

Citing Kolhatkar’s case, Hardie argued that he was “charged with dissemination of sedition, and was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment for the offence” and yet the “interesting fact to be borne in mind here is that when Mr Aurobindo Ghose was being tried for his speeches, judges decided that they were not seditious, and yet this man who was simply charged with publishing the speeches which the judges had declared not to be seditious, was convicted of sedition and was actually sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment.”

Hardie complained of how Kolhatkar was “kept in Nagpur gaol for five and a half months in a solitary cell” while the “IPC lays it down that no one can be kept for longer than seven days at a time in a solitary cell; but this man was kept in one for five and a half months, and during that period his weight went down from 135 lbs. to 103 lbs. He was loaded with chains, and on one occasion was seen by some medical men being removed from one prison to another, and he was so weak and his chains were so heavy that he had to stoop at every step and lift the chains from the ground to enable him to make any step forward at all.” Hardie asked why was it that “political prisoners are treated in this fashion?” In England, political prisoners were entitled to and received better treatment, surely “we are entitled to ask that a similar law be applied to political prisoners in India…”

The dastardly treatment given to Kolhatkar by the British government, and earlier the Alipore-Maniktola Bomb Case, made a deep impact on young minds in Nagpur. Thengadi writes, “After the Maniktola bomb case [1908-09] the patriots of Nagpur began to feel that they too should have a significant role in the revolutionary activities of the country.” Young Hedgewar was chosen as the leader to initiate that link. Thengadi describes it best: “It required a person with a burning heart but with ice-cold intelligence. It is unusual for the two to co-exist.” Hedgewar displayed these attributes.

The State Gazetteer described Hedgewar, based on information gathered by the British intelligence, “as the brain behind the revolutionary movement in Nagpur.” He was thus steeped in the revolutionary milieu; he was exposed to its ideals and the thoughts of its leading lights such as Lokmanya and Sri Aurobindo.

With Dr BS Moonje (1872-1948) as a father figure, it was but natural for Hedgewar to absorb these. Moonje was especially close to Sri Aurobindo. Leaders like Moonje and Dadasaheb GS Khaparde (1854-1938), all close colleagues of Sri Aurobindo in the nationalist party in the past, enthused youth through their speeches and writings. Thengadi observes how their speeches “filled young people’s minds with a patriotic spirit.” It was Moonje, who “taking inspiration from Tilak, brought all activities to Nagpur and also established contacts between local youth and the revolutionary Anushilan Samiti of Bengal”, Thengadi points out.

Thus, Doctorji’s revolutionary credentials were solid, he was not a pacifist, nor was he an impulsive activist devoid of scheme and strategy. Our point in linking the dots in this long line of events and sequences is to argue that Dr Hedgewar never disowned or gave up on his revolutionary past and orientation. The method of work and the roadmap he adopted later differed in texture and tactics. But its essence and core remained unaltered, which was to realise the aspiration of seeing India free, united and great.

The writer is a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC), BJP, and the Chairman of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation. Views expressed are personal