A new book written by former RSS pracharak (functionary) and journalist Narendra Sehgal claims freedom fighter Rajguru, who was sent to the gallows along with Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev was a swayamsevak with the Sangh.
Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh and his comrades, Sukhdev and Rajguru were sentenced to death by hanging for assassinating British police officer JP Saunders in Lahore in 1928 and hatching a conspiracy against the colonial government. In a chapter titled Swayamsevak Swatantrata Senani (RSS freedom fighters), the book attempts to 'clear the air' around RSS' participation in the freedom struggle, and claims that Rajguru visited the RSS headquarters in Nagpur after assassinating Saunders, reported The Hindustan Times.
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The book, with a foreward from RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, narrates incidents of Rajguru taking shelter in an RSS headquarter, a claim refuted by historians and not found in biographies written on the freedom fighter.
"The book claims that Rajguru met KB Hedgewar, the founding chief of the RSS, who arranged for a safe house for him and advised him not to visit his home in Pune while the police were on the look out for him. Sehgal also claims that Rajguru was a swayamsevak with the Mohite Bagh Shakha (unit) of the RSS," said the HT report.
Historian of science and modern political history S.Irfan Habib called it a 'feeble attempt to claim one of our martyrs by the RSS', but the latter insists history cheated them of mention for want of self-accreditation.
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The RSS is not mentioned in the anti-colonial freedom struggle because it never 'took credit', the HT report says quoting Sehgal.
The BJP-RSS has, in recent times, even more so for political reasons, tried to co-opt figures like Bhagat Singh, Gandhi and Ambedkar into their pantheon to secure their participation in India's freedom struggle, where history has conflicting records.
In an exclusive article for Outlook Magazine, RSS-affiliated BMS President CK Saji Narayanan had argued that founder of the RSS Hedgewar participated in the non-cooperation movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi, who was assassinated by right-wing advocate Nathuram Godse, and the Sangh was involved in the freedom struggle nine years before the Congress came into play.
"About nine years before the Congress demanded complete freedom for India, the Nagpur National Union, formed by Dr Hedgewar, submitted a resolution to the INC’s Subjects Committee demanding that the Congress declare “complete independence as its sole objective..Many Congress leaders attended or visited RSS shakhas, like Vithalbhai Patel and Madan Mohan Malviya. Mahatma Gandhi himself visited Sangh camps on December 25, 1934, at Wardha and on September 16, 1947, at Delhi....It is a part of history that in 1947 the Congress itself had requested the RSS to merge with it."
In a counter article, author and Delhi University faculty Shamsul Islam argues, "Those Hindutva intellectuals who are busy constructing RSS role in the freedom struggle need to be honest to the pre-Independence RSS documents. Both Hedgewar (RSS chief 1925-40) and Golwalkar (1940-73), were opposed to the united freedom movement as its goal was an all-inclusive India. Golwalkar denounced the freedom struggle (Bunch of Thoughts, 1966, RSS publication) as "territorial nationalism" which "had deprived us of the positive and inspiring content of our real Hindu Nationhood and made many of the ‘freedom movements’ virtually anti-British movements". It was this ideological commitment to building Hindu rashtr in India that apart from Hedgewar who went to jail as Congressman, Golwalkar, Deendayal Upadhyaya (prominent RSS cadre since 1937) and LK Advani (RSS activist since 1942) never participated in the freedom struggle."
