As in the recent past, on this Independence Day too, we shall hear a lot of chest-thumping from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Delhi, along with a call to immerse ourselves in patriotic passion. But when the present prime minister of India recalls the role of our immortal martyrs of the freedom struggle, will he really tell us the whole truth about this phase? No: he will not make the mistake of mentioning that the organisation that commands and inspires his political party did not participate in the struggle for independence, and that it actively opposed it at times. If we wish to understand the role of RSS in the freedom struggle, we have to read their second chief, MS Golwalkar’s essay “Towards a Masculine Nationhood”. There, he has clearly stated that he did not consider agitating against British imperialism an act of nationalism.
From historical records, it is clear that RSS had staunchly opposed the most important phase of our freedom struggle, namely, the “Quit India” movement initiated by Mahatma Gandhi. From records and documents available at the National Archives in Delhi, it is seen that the British police were quite happy with this development. History also tells us that the leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, Shyamaprasad Mukherjee, tried his best to scuttle the 1942 movement. He was then a member of the Fazlul Haque ministry of undivided Bengal. He is greatly revered by the Sangh fraternity as the founder of Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the predecessor of BJP. In a letter to the Lieutenant Governor of Bengal, John Herbert, on the 26 July, 1942, Shyamaprasad wrote, “As a minister of your government, I would like to express my total support to you.” He did not stop there, but added, “During the war, if anyone tries to incite people and disturb internal peace and security, government should act strongly”. And after offering complete cooperation to the imperialist government, Shyamaprasad wrote that he believed this struggle wasn’t necessary any more. His logic was that the freedom movement led by the Congress was redundant as the British had already handed over power to the elected representatives of people. Yet, it is this Hindu extremist leader who had tried his best to spike the freedom struggle that the present ruling party at the centre places on the highest pedestal. Recently, the prime minister has dedicated and named the Kolkata Port after Shyamaprasad, with a lot of fanfare.
But, every year, when the 9th of August arrives, the prime minister and his party are on the defensive. This year, he has asked us to celebrate this momentous day as the first day of the Garbage Free Week of India. He also announced that we should celebrate this cleanliness drive till the 15th of August, in the midst of the Corona pandemic. The more Modi tries to obfuscate the issue or erase this chapter of history, the more he compels us to project these truths.
Despite all these misadventures of the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha, when India did become independent in 1947, they retreated into helpless anger and began severely criticising Pakistan, Jinnah, and Gandhi. In particular, the Sangh began a toxic campaign by abusing the tricolour. The 17th and 22nd July issues of its mouthpiece “Organiser” openly attacked this flag of free India. The RSS chief Golwalkar wrote and said without any ambiguity that Hindus would never accept the tricolour because they considered ‘three’ as an inauspicious number. He seems to have forgotten that since ancient times, Hindus had worshipped the trinity of Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwar, and their three roles: creation-nurturing-destruction.
For two years at a stretch, the RSS kept remonstrating and opposing the national flag. Following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on 30th January 1948, home minster Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel banned the RSS and imprisoned its leaders. It was only Sardar Patel who could put the Sangh back in its place, with his iron hand. He did not give in to prime minster Nehru’s requests and refused to relax the restrictions or release any of the RSS leaders until 1949. Patel ignored the several mercy petitions submitted by Golwalkar. It was only when the Sangh submitted a solemn undertaking in writing and declared their allegiance to the national flag, did Patel lift the ban.
Unless we recall this chapter of history, we would not be able to appreciate why there is a sudden keenness to show extra respect to the tricolour in cinema halls. Underneath this excessive devotion to the national flag lies hidden a dark chapter of the RSS, which is likely to trouble them more on Independence Day. Modi government’s efforts to appropriate Patel is just a ploy to ensure that people do not remember how Patel had punished Modi’s ideological predecessors. He has even constructed a gigantic statue of Patel spending billions of rupees. This may have helped in window dressing the truth partly, besides offering the Hindutva lobby an opportunity to steal this courageous leader of the freedom struggle and place him on their empty pedestal.
Freedom does not simply mean hoisting the national flag on a few days every year, singing patriotic songs, or getting mesmerised by the speech of a wizard of words on television. Educated and discerning people do not forget history so easily. The truth that we cannot afford to forget is that the freedom struggle has not ended after the protracted movement against British rule was over. Thomas Jefferson has reminded us that “the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” We can ignore this painful truth only at our peril.
After 2014, however, we find that those who had played such a negative role during our freedom struggle have suddenly started proclaiming themselves as true patriots. And that is not all, they have been trying to impose their fake patriotism on other citizens, if necessary, through brute force. They are destroying, in a carefully orchestrated manner, our free and democratic state structure. The most worrisome question is, to what extent can we or the present generation hold on to the gift of freedom bequeathed by our ancestors. The signs are certainly not encouraging. During my experience of working in central and state administrations over several decades, one has had to face quite a few severe crises. But never have we witnessed such an organised attempt to destroy quite methodically the basic structure of our democracy and pluralism. The spine of every national institution has either been broken or they have been handed over to servile and destructive individuals.
Unfortunately, there has been no satisfactory response to this phenomenon that corrodes our democratic framework. One has never seen such shameful and completely one-sided activities of the Central Election Commission. Let us not waste time discussing the bureaucracy or the police that are whiplashed by Modi all the time. But no cynic could never imagine that the CBI, the Income Tax department, or ED would turn into such domesticated wolves let loose by him. About the judiciary too, a lot of extremely unfortunate questions are bothering a lot of people.
The last nail on the coffin of transparency in administration was seen last week when Prime Minister Modi brazenly placed his former secretary and his very loyal bureaucrat in the highest position as the Comptroller and Auditor General or CAG. The CAG is an extremely powerful and significant constitutional position. He has to keep an eye on the expenditures of the central and state governments, but a lot of people believe that this referee may have to play as the centre forward of Modi’s team. It is also expected that the new CAG will be after those state governments that are run by opposition parties. It does not appear as if the opposition leaders have realised this danger. When the CAG shows his true colours, they will. And will anyone be surprised if he goes on giving clean chits to the lakhs of crores of purchases by the Modi government?
Let us keep even these issues in mind on Independence Day. It is no longer clear how long we may be in a position at all to preserve our plural democracy and freedom.