Mohan Bhagwat’s statement on Golwalkar after much thought: RSS researcher

Mumbai: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s statement that the Sangh did not subscribe to parts of a compilation of speeches of its former head MS Golwalkar came after intensive discussions within the organisation, RSS researcher and author Dilip Deodhar told ET. Bhagwat had said at the recent three-day outreach of the Sangh that the organisation had discarded chunks of ‘Bunch of Thoughts’ – including the one categorising Muslims, along with Christians and Communists, as India’s “internal enemies” – since the speeches were made in a particular context and could not be eternally valid. Golwalkar, the second RSS chief who led the organisation for 33 years till his death in 1973, ranks among the organisation’s icons for its members.

Deodhar, who has close ties with the RSS and has written a number of books on the organisation, said the issue was discussed at the Akhil Bharatiya Prant Pracharak meeting held in July in Somnath, where pracharaks from across the country had come for the annual brainstorming meet. He said the gathering discussed that the philosophy of Hindutva did not mean that Indian society would be devoid of Muslims or other communities and Hindus could not co-exist with them.

He said that a consensus on unsubscribing from Golwalkar’s controversial views was reached after much deliberations. Thereafter, the issue was brought up at the coordination meeting in Amravati where other Sangh affiliates participated in discussions.


“Golwalkar’s views stemmed from his perception of what happened during Partition. There was a context to why he made those speeches then. Those no longer remain relevant,” said Deodhar.

“It is a fallacy that the Sangh is an organisation that is very rigid; the RSS moves with the times and this is a proof of that. The RSS chief was not articulating his own views but those of the organisation which believes that it must change with the times,” he said.

He said the Sangh had been deliberating on the issue for some time as many well-wishers outside the organisation had been impressing on it to distance itself from some of Guru Golwalkar’s controversial views. According to people close to the Sangh, Bhagwat’s statement has generated a “heated debate” among the lower rung of RSS cadres, who are likely to take some time to come to grips with the organisation’s new position.