RSS’s Golwalkar & Bhagwat | On Muslims, Congress and Communism

Two RSS chiefs, each with a different view of India.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat didn’t himself speak about the longest serving RSS Sarsanghchalak MS Golwalkar (left) during a recently concluded 3-day event.

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

MS Golwalkar, the second and longest-serving sarsanghchalak of RSS, was not mentioned by RSS's current chief Mohan Bhagwat during the lecture series that concluded on 19 September.

At a three-day outreach event titled ‘Future of Bharat: An RSS perspective’ in New Delhi, Mohan Bhagwat laid bare his ideas of a future India.

Not only did Bhagwat not mention Golwalkar, but also made statements on Muslims, the Indian National Congress and Communists, which are in stark contrast to the ideologies of the Sangh’s iconic sarsanghchalak Gowalkar.

1. On Muslims

Mohan Bhagwat during the sessions said, “Sangh's ideology is Hindutva. (...) 'Unity is diversity' is our ideology which the world calls ‘Hindutva.’ And that’s why we call India a ‘Hindu Rashtra’.” Adding importantly,

Golwalkar held a contradictory view on this.

Golwalkar said, “On the contrary the Muslim menace has increased a hundred-fold by the creation of Pakistan which has become a springboard for all their future aggressive designs of our country."

In the book We, or Our Nationhood Defined, published in 1936, Golwalkar said:

2. On Communism and Communist leaders

Bhagwat not only celebrated CPI-M founder MN Roy but also other noted personalities. This included poet Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, nuclear scientist APJ Abdul Kalam, and Verghese Kurien, father of the white revolution. Golwalkar, on the other hand, negated the ideology Roy contributed to.

3. On the Indian National Congress

Mohan Bhagwat credited the Indian National Congress for initiating the freedom struggle, but Golwalkar felt the party was founded by the British to qwell the growing ‘nationalism’ in India.

The only time Bhagwat mentioned Gowalkar was when he was asked a question on Golwalkar’s Bunch of Thoughts where Muslims are called the shatru (enemy). To which he said, “As far as the Bunch of Thoughts is concerned, every statement is specific to a context and circumstance. His enduring thoughts are in another popular edition in which we have removed all remarks that have a temporary context and retained those that will retain value for ages. You won’t find the (Muslim-is-an-enemy) remark there.”