Author: V Sundaram
Publication: News Today
Date: January 13, 2006
URL: http://www.newstodaynet.com/2006sud/06jan/1301ss1.htm
'Where injustice becomes greater than we are
Where injustice becomes swifter than we are
Where injustice becomes stronger than we are
Help us not to tire'
Shri Guruji, a man of indomitable courage
and invincible faith, categorically told Nehru and Patel that he would not
be cowed down by their intimidation or threats. Enraged by the firm stand
of Shri Guruji, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Patel, the close political followers
of Mahatma Gandhi, who fought with the weapons of non-violence and truth all
his life, strangely decided to let loose the forces of State violence and
Congress-orchestrated untruth against Shri Guruji and the RSS.
On 2 November, 1948 Shri Guruji called a press
conference in New Delhi and distributed two lengthy statements refuting every
single charge against the Sangh. He made it clear in his statement that he
would not be lured by the offer of Nehru or Patel to join the Congress party.
Government of India reacted by issuing a threat to Shri Guruji that unless
he returned to Nagpur immediately, he would be arrested. It became clear to
Shri Guruji that a national Satyagraha by the Swayamsevaks all over India
was the only solution open and that was the only way of making the Government
of India under Nehru and Patel see reason. On the night of 13 November, 1948
Shri Guruji was arrested under the notorious Bengal State Prisoner's Act of
1818 and sent to prison. This very Act had been strongly condemned by Nehru
and Patel before independence as a 'black law'. That 'black law' suddenly
became 'white' under the inspiring (!) leadership of Pandit Nehru in post-independent
India.
Shri Guruji sent a letter to all the Swayamsevaks soon after his arrest, in
which he wrote: 'This state of affairs is humiliating. To continue to submit
meekly to this atrocious tyranny is an insult to the honour of citizens of
free Bharath and a blow to the prestige of our civilised free State. I therefore
request you to stand up for our great cause. Truth and justice are with us.
Let the skies reverberate with the call 'Victory to Bharath' and rest not
till the goal is reached. Bharath Mata ki Jai!' The whole nation was electrified
by the resounding message of Shri Guruji.
Nehru and Patel wrongly calculated that Shri
Guruji and the Sangh could be intimidated into total silence. Nehru particularly
was of the view that any Satyagraha movement consisting of inexperienced youths
launched by Shri Guruji would peter out in a few days. Nor did he or Patel
expect the number of Satyagrahis to cross a few thousands. This wrong perception
was made clear by Nehru at a public meeting at Jaipur in the first week of
November 1948 when he said: 'This is a Duragraha of the urchins of the Sangh.
The government will use all its might to crush this agitation'. In this context
it will not be out of place to mention that Nehru spoke almost the same language
against the Government of China when he was in Ceylon on the first day of
the Chinese invasion in October 1962: 'We will throw out the Chinese'. The
harsh and bitter truth is that by the time he returned to New Delhi, Chinese
had overrun the greater portion of Arunachal Pradesh and were on their way
to Gauhati.
In a public meeting in Gwalior on 5 December,
1948 Sardar Patel said: 'Some people say the Sangh is going to start a Satyagraha.
But these people can never conduct a Satyagraha , their Satyagraha an never
succeed, because their minds are unclean. We had advised them to 'join the
Congress' and had tried to bring about a change of heart among them, but they
have chosen the path of confrontation. I warn them, we are ready to face such
challenges'.
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the great Russian poet,
had double-dealing men like Nehru and Patel in view when he came out with
the following lines of poetry:
'NERO, apparently thought
He was a poet.
HITLER thought that he
Would redeem the world from woe!
The man thinks: 'I am so generous'
The shallow man: 'I am profound'
Sometimes God will sigh: 'I am a worm'
The worm hisses: 'I am God'.'
Shri Guruji gave a call for total Satyagraha
on 9 December , 1948. As he was in prison, he nominated Sarkaryavaha Shri
Bhaiyyaji Dhani to lead the Satyagraha movement by holding Shakhas all over
the country. From that day, the Satyagraha gained momentum. Shouting slogans
like Bharath Mata ki Jai ! and 'Long Live Sangh', batches of Swayamsevaks
all over the country came out to hold Shakhas and the police took them into
custody. The nationwide Satyagraha launched by Shri Guruji led to an animated
and heated discussion among all sections of society in India about the illegal
ban imposed by the Government of India on the RSS. In many places, apart from
Swayamsevaks, even the common people not belonging to the RSS started putting
up posters with the demand: 'Prove the charges against the RSS or lift the
ban'. At the same time, lakhs and lakhs of copies of pamphlets legally refuting
the charges against the RSS and explaining its just and nationalist demand
were distributed from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. There was a great enthusiasm
among the Swayamsevaks for pushing the Satyagraha movement to its logical
conclusion, regardless of consequences. The Government of India had never
imagined that more than 80,000 Satyagrahis would come forward to do Satyagraha
and would be cheerfully willing to be thrown behind bars. It became virtually
impossible for the police administration in all the States to deal with this
very large number of 'cultural prisoners'. Simultaneously in many of the places
the Swayamsevaks went on a hunger strike causing great worry to the government
at various levels. The inhuman lathi charges on peaceful Satyagrahis in Madras
city was condemned by eminent men like T R Venkatrama Sastri of the Liberal
Party and Swami Venkatachalam, a Member of Parliament.
Shri Guruji was still continuing in prison.
There was no sign of the Satyagraha movement stopping and of the enthusiasm
of the Swayamsevaks abating. In January 1949, G V Ketkar, editor of the Pune-based
daily 'Kesari' met Shri Guruji in Sivani Jail twice and suggested to him that
if the Satyagraha was suspended, it would pave the way for public spirited
men like T R Venkatrama Sastri for initiating some moves for getting the ban
on the RSS lifted. Shri Guruji agreed and gave a written directive for suspending
the Satyagraha and finally on 22 January, 1949, the suspension of Satyagraha
was formally announced. The saga of the country-wide Satyagraha , that was
started on 9 December, 1948 on the call of Shri Guruji came to a remarkably
successful conclusion.
A wave of public sympathy for the RSS swept
throughout the country. For a change, this was also reflected in the media.
On 22 January, 1949, 'The Tribune' from Ambala remarked: 'The RSS leader has
paved the way for eventual settlement by calling off the movement without
any conditions. It is now for the Government of India to honourably withdraw
the ban. Let the Government of India remember that a policy of suppression
will never succeed in killing an organisation'. Likewise,'The Statesman' of
Calcutta paid a personal tribute to Shri Guruji for the manner in which he
conducted the agitation and stated that 'the ban on the RSS was causing the
youth power to go to waste by keeping them behind bars'.
Realising that the public opinion was going
against the Government of India, a request was made to Shri Guruji to prepare
a written Constitution for the RSS and to send it to Government of India for
information. (It may be noted that till then RSS was functioning in a most
disciplined way without even a written Constitution). Accordingly, some leading
office bearers of the RSS met T R Venkatrama Sastri in Madras and got a draft
Constitution ready for the RSS in June 1949. It was finalised by Shri Guruji
and forwarded to Government of India for their information.
In the meantime, angered by the authoritarian
and dictatorial attitude of the Government of India, T R Venkatrama Sastri
had prepared a long statement to the press and sent it to them on 6 July,
1949 with a request that it should not be published till 13 July, 1949. Government
of India was rattled by this move. T R Venkatrama Sastri's publication of
his indictment in all the newspapers in India and abroad would have brought
great shame to the government in the eyes of the people and so it was decided
to lift the ban just a day prior to its proposed publication on 13 July, 1949.
Yet, 'The Hindu' of Madras carried the entire statement of T R Venkatrama
Sastri on its 13 July issue which fully exposed the Government of India. Reacting
to Government of India's objection that 'The RSS Constitution was right enough,
but the leaders of this organisation cannot be trusted to function within
its scope', T R Venkatrama Shastri in his strong statement said: 'Apart from
being illegal, it would be hard on any organisation to say that in anticipation
of a not unlikely unlawful action on the part of its members, it is not allowed
to begin its work. A government or a State can be characterised as 'Fascist',
but not a private organisation like the RSS, to which no one is compelled
to belong. One may join it, or refuse to join it, or having joined it may
resign at will'.
On 12 July, 1949 the ban on the RSS was removed
unilaterally by Government of India. Shri Guruji was released from Betul Jail
on 13 July, 1949. The Government of India covered themselves with deathless
shame and Shri Guruji with immortal glory in the pages of history.
(To be continued...)
(The writer is a retired IAS officer - vsundaram@newstodaynet.com)