With his new book “Golwalkar: The Myth Behind the Man, The Man Behind the Machine (Simon and Schuster; 2024)”, Dhirendra K. Jha continues his relentless study of the history and making of the Indian right. This book is preceded by his biography of Godse and his books “Shadow Armies: Fringe Organisations and Foot Soldiers of Hindutva” and “Ascetic Games: Sadhus, Akharas and the Making of the Hindu Vote.”
This book is a biography of Madhav Sadashiv Rao Golwalkar. People know Golwalkar as the second chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). What is the significance of Golwalkar? Golwalkar is the name of the person who created a machine of hatred and violence.
RSS is that machine. It can be said that RSS was founded by Hedgewar, but it is true that the credit or responsibility for the form in which this organisation exists today goes to Golwalkar. Golwalkar transformed RSS from a single body to a hydra-headed beast or a satanic machine with hundreds of faces but with a single purpose: manufacturing a Hindu who is supremacist, exclusivist, insecure, and hateful of others.
Golwalkar: The Myth Behind the Man, The Man Behind the Machine (Simon and Schuster; 2024). Photo: https://www.simonandschuster.co.in/
RSS is the most important organisation in today’s India. Its people are running the union government of India. They are running governments in many states of India. Bharatiya Janata Party, the political wing of RSS, is the most powerful and rich political party in India today. It is the head of RSS who has been given security matching that given to the Prime Minister of India.
Today, almost every important institution of India is under the control of RSS. From universities to all the institutions related to science, social science, and culture, all are directly or indirectly under the control of RSS. Now this organisation is also working in other countries of the world under many names. Therefore, it is appropriate that we know about the person who imagined such a huge and multi-faceted organisation.
The purpose of RSS is to organise Hindus. But it is to be done to protect Hindus from three permanent enemies. Those three enemies are Muslims, Christians, and Communists. It needs to be kept in mind that RSS never inspires Hindu society to look within itself and to improve itself. It is not concerned about the spiritual life of Hindus.
It is also not concerned about the hierarchical order in the social life of Hindus, which is embodied in the form of the institution of caste. Unlike Ambedkar, it never aimed at the destruction or eradication of caste. Unlike Gandhi, it never led a movement to end untouchability. It did not do any awareness work against child marriages ever. It did not speak against the evil of Sati. It never campaigned for the right of widows to live a full life. The RSS did not lead any movement or campaign for inter-caste marriages or relationships or for the abolition of other evils of Hindu society, such as the dowry system.
It prepares Hindus to always be outward-looking and vigilant: they have to be vigilant against external enemies, which in its worldview are Muslims, Christians, and Communists. Thus it turns Hindu society into a society which is perpetually fearful, insecure, and suspicious of others. Along with this, it also creates a superiority complex in Hindus.
Hindus are the best beings in this world or universe, God has created them in his own image, they are naturally tolerant and liberal. Such qualities are not to be found in any other religion. Hindus are also the first beings in this universe. When there was nothing, there was Hindu religion. It is the oldest, the best, and eternal. God chose the land of India for this religion. So Hindus have the first and the last right on this land. In this way, Hinduism goes beyond religion and turns into nationalism. Hindu and India are one. Hindu means the first Indian. Others have to take permission from him to call themselves Indian and live as Indians.
An RSS Hindu is always defined in relation to others. He is not self-contained. RSS Hindu is the one who either fears or hates Muslims, Christians, and Communists. In this way, these three are the essential reference points of RSS Hindu. RSS Hindu does not have the ability to introspect because he has been made to believe that he is the best. If someone points out any deficiency in his social life, he feels offended.
Golwalkar, taking inspiration from Savarkar, defined Hindu in this form. In ‘We and Our Nationhood Defined’, the ‘We’ of Hindu has been defined in this manner. It can be said that this became the ideological basis of RSS.
Golwalkar is important not only because he is the ideological guru of RSS, but the present form of RSS has also been imagined by Golwalkar. It is not just an organisation: it is an organisation of organisations.
The contribution of the book to the study of the Indian right is that it establishes Golwalkar as the central figure of Indian fascism and his text ‘We, our Nationhood Defined’ as the foundational text of this project. He is right in pointing out that while Savarkar defined the past for the project of Hindu Rashtra, it was Golwalkar who through his ‘WE’ chalked out the blue print of this future Hindu Rashtra.
Jha analyses the text and proves that Golwalkar was its author and this is vey important as Golwalkar had tried to distance himself from the text. This is actually a Nazi text as it proposes to solve the Muslim problem the Nazi way.
Jha wonders why professional historians readily agreed with Golwalkar’s attempt to deny his authorship and why did they absolve him of the responsibility for fascist turn of the project of Hindu Rashtra.
In Dhirendra Jha’s book, the picture of Golwalkar emerges as a person who is self-obsessed, suspicious, conspiratorial, and whose life is based on untruth. The driving force of whose life is not love, but hatred and resentment. He fabricates and propagates lies about himself.
Coming out of the launch event of the book, a young man said that after all it should not be forgotten that Golwalkar ji was a professor. This book tells that to create respect for himself, Golwalkar fabricated and propagated this first big lie. Golwalkar’s post was that of a demonstrator in Banaras Hindu University, but it was propagated that Golwalkar was made a professor at a very young age.
Similarly, later on, a lie was propagated about his own book ‘We and Our Nationhood Defined’. That book was written by Golwalkar, but when he himself was in danger because of it, he started saying that it was a translation, not his own book.
Dhirendra Jha’s book tells that under the leadership of Golwalkar, who was an expert in fabricating lies, RSS propagated the lie that Nathuram Godse had no connection with RSS, while the poor man continued to consider himself a member of RSS. This was to save RSS from the consequences of its association with the murderer of Gandhi’s assassination.
There was so much anger against Gandhi in the RSS that in December 1947, in a meeting held at Rohtak Road in Delhi, Golwalkar himself issued a threat that if Gandhi persisted with his insistence on keeping the Muslims in India, he could be silenced. Just three weeks after that, an RSS man Godse with other RSS people murdered Gandhi.
The book asks if, like a true RSS man, Godse treated the threat like a diktat or fatwa by his leader and executed it. But then after Gandhi was killed, the RSS and Golwalkar faced an existential threat, they declared a 13-day mourning to save themselves. The Gandhi whom every person of RSS hates is also placed in their pantheon of those with whose names they have to begin their day. Is the RSS, which was created by Golwalkar, deceiving itself or others with the help of such lies?
Just as Golwalkar’s definition of Hindu and India is false, similarly the story of his life that Golwalkar got propagated is also mixed with a lot of lies. This is what the book tells you. Then the question arises that why is there a need for the biography of such a person, Golwalkar? We need it because the constant glorification of Golwalkar has made us forget that it was he who sowed the seeds of Indian fascism and imagined a machine to excite it slowly and steadily.
RSS or Golwalkar or Savarkar before him were constantly lying or creating myths about themselves. Their supporters argue that it was necessary because they wanted to create an illusion about themselves. This illusion was necessary so that they could escape law. For example, if it was proved that Godse was a member of RSS, then the result would have been very bad for RSS.
Therefore, they had to lie about the relationship of Godse with the RSS. Similarly, if they had to lie that RSS believes in the Constitution of India, then that too is justified because they had to get the ban on themselves lifted. If they can be safe by resorting to lies, why call it wrong? It is, after all, strategy.
The lies of RSS leaders can be understood, but the real question is why has a large part of India’s political class, elite, and intellectuals been willing to believe their lies? Why has the influential section of India been deferential towards the RSS?
Why did a large section of India’s elite refuse to accept that what the RSS professes is a hate-based violent ideology? Gandhi and Nehru considered RSS dangerous for India. But why did Gandhi’s closest disciples and friends refuse to listen to him on RSS? Why did leaders like Vallabhbhai Patel or Govind Vallabh Pant show constant reluctance in taking decisive action against the Sangh despite Nehru’s repeated requests?
Pant and Patel were also constantly being told by intelligence agencies that RSS was involved in violent activities, but they refused to take it seriously. They kept insisting that RSS was after all a disciplined force of patriots. Why were they ready to ignore their hate-filled ideology or violent ways?
A tense episode is described in Dhirendra Jha’s book. He refers to a description of a meeting in which Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was present: “Jawaharlal said with deep sorrow that he could not tolerate the situation in Delhi, where Muslim citizens were being killed like cats and dogs. He felt humiliated that he was helpless and could not save them. His conscience would not let him rest, for what answer could he give when people complained of these terrible happenings? […]
We were completely taken aback by Sardar Patel’s reaction. At a time when Muslims were murdered in Delhi in open daylight, he calmly told Gandhiji that Jawaharlal’s complaints were completely incomprehensible. There may have been some isolated incidents, but the Government was doing everything possible to protect the life and property of Muslims and nothing more could be done. […]
Jawaharlal remained speechless for some moments and then turned to Gandhiji in despair. He said that if these were Sardar Patel’s views, he had no comments to make.”
Why was Patel so upset with Gandhi that he announced a fast unto death demanding an end to violence against Muslims that he decides to leave his dear Guru alone in this critical juncture and continues with his travel plan? Was it because violence against Muslims had some justification in the eyes of leaders like him and therefore RSS did not look repugnant to them?
This book does not elaborate in this direction but it points to the attitude of a great leader like Patel towards Muslims. Patel does not understand how to trust the Muslims of India after the formation of Pakistan. The Muslims of India are looked at with suspicion and they are repeatedly asked to prove their loyalty towards India by a leader like Patel.
If crores of Muslims have stayed in India for a reason and they are suspicious then an organisation like RSS becomes very necessary and useful. Despite the evidence of RSS’s violent activities being in front of everyone, they were ignored on the argument that RSS is after all a disciplined organisation of patriots. Such an organisation would be useful if it could keep Muslims and Christians under control.
Golwalkar, along with Savarkar, can be called the father of Indian fascism. Dhirendra Jha has written the biography of Indian fascism through the biography of Golwalkar. Reading it, we are forced to ask why there is tolerance among the Hindus of India towards this form of fascism. The hints that the book gives are disturbing.
