Founder’s fears of Hindu disunity behind RSS birth in 1925 on Vijayadashami Day

For RSS veterans and cadres, chief Mohan Bhagwat’s call for unification of Hindu society, as the Sangh entered into its 100th year, is not a new mission.

A study of the RSS history reveals it was the anxiety around Hindu disunity that led Keshav Baliram Hedgewar to set up the RSS on Vijayadashami Day in Nagpur in 1925.

Historical sources reveal that Hedgewar, a Brahmin from Telangana, whose family migrated to Nagpur, was deeply impacted by the 1921 Malabar riots as also Hindu-Muslim riots of the time.

“Hedgewar felt Hindus were too fearful of Muslims to defend themselves on the streets. In 1922, Hedgewar was searching for an alternative form of public engagement when a handwritten copy of VD Savarkar’s as yet unpublished essay was smuggled to him from prison. What was needed, Hedgewar concluded, was not a political agitation but a social organisation dedicated to converting India’s disparate Hindus into a unified Hinduism,” writes author Vinay Satpathy while dwelling on the RSS history.

Accordingly, Hedgewar founded the RSS in Nagpur in 1925. The organisation had a slow start with 99 mostly upper caste Maharashtrian men.

But as Satpathy goes on to note, “The RSS was a radical break from the past. While conventional Hinduism had emphasised sect and caste differences, the RSS saw this as a cause for Hindu vulnerability. Their solution was to invent a new unified Hindu identity. The cultural grammar of this new Hinduism, Hindutva, was upper caste and there was emphasis on martial valour that could, if necessary, engage in defensive violence. This was why the RSS was from its very inception an all-male club.”

Today as the RSS entered its centenary year, Bhagwat renewed the call to strengthen the organisation’s original mission of Hindu unity and self-defence in the face of violence.

Bhagwat said weakness was an invitation to atrocities and added that people had the right to “protect and defend themselves” in the events of stone pelting and attacks on Hindu festive processions such as Ganesh Utsav.

PM Modi hails Bhagwat’s speech

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hailed the address of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and greeted the organisation as it entered the centenary year. “Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, dedicated to the service of the nation, is entering its 100th year today. My heartfelt congratulations and infinite best wishes to all volunteers on this historic milestone of their uninterrupted journey. This resolve and dedication for Maa Bharati will inspire every generation of the country and will also fill new energy in realising ‘Developed India’,” the PM said on X. — TNS