By Shakir Mir
In 1946, Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s direct action day call catalysed large-scale conflagrations in Bengal, the fires of which would soon be carried across to the other parts of India by the headwinds of communal hatred that had been roiling the country in the run-up to the Partition. As religious hostilities tore India apart, MS Golwalkar, the monkish, bespectacled leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), saw an opportunity to reinvigorate the Hindu revivalist organisation he had been meticulously chiselling into shape as its second sarsanghchalak.
Six years before this episode, the RSS had faced a crucial setback following the British government’s decision to enact the Defence of India Act, the provisions of which restricted the public displays of militarism in India as imperial Britain navigated the travails of the Second World War. This had spelled doom for the organisation which largely drew upon the tenets of European fascist movements, and even adopted their outward trappings: Uniformed cadre, goose-stepping, and arms training.
As the British prepared to depart from India, the rigours of the 1940 law were loosened. Having led a rather circumspect life until that point, the RSS suddenly found its feet and reasserted itself with vengeance. Its cadre fanned out into parts of the United Provinces (modern-day Uttar Pradesh), Punjab and Delhi, organising training programs, military drills, conscriptions and, in the process, becoming the carriers for anti-Muslim feelings surging through the country.
Role in partition violence
Not only was Golwalkar – the moving spirit behind this mobilisation – “pushing the RSS into new areas, he was also shaping the battlefield in the strategically important region of the national capital” ahead of the Partition, writes DK Jha in his new book The Myth Behind The Man, The Man Behind the Machine, a comprehensive new biography of the Golwalkar.
Jha’s work illuminates the life of Golwalkar in a new light, laboriously picking out the facts from the legends built around him. The book shepherds the narrative through Golwalkar’s years as a laboratory assistant at Banaras Hindu University, a temporary job he had landed on account of his liaisons with the theosophical society of Annie Besant.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.
