THE HIJACKED MOVEMENT

In May 2014, 282 seats of the Lok Sabha were painted saffron. After 25 long years, India finally managed to decide upon a leader they wish to be led by. The BJP government came to power with a thumping majority, the Modi wave turned out to be much stronger than anticipated. But what came along BJPs victory was something traditional. Something which most of the people who probably voted for the BJP never wanted to come in scene. I talk of the Rashtra Swayamsevak Sangh or more commonly known as the RSS.

Just within months, RSS had started showing its presence by commenting on certain deistic as well as caitiff figures of Indian freedom struggle. And here I refer to none but Mahatma Gandhi and Nathuram Godse.

RSS demands Nathuram Godse being declared a Martyr. This demand definitely seems completely insane from the eyes of a prosaic man. But it is something that does makes sense when seen from the virtual third eye.

Both the East India Company and the British crown had left no stone unturned in their attempts to create communal differences between the Indian Hindus and Muslims. Creation of the Indian National Congress by A.O.Hume could also be regarded as means to the same end because the creation of INC initiated a chain of events; it was followed by the setting up of The Muslim League in 1906 and then The Hindu Mahasabha in 1914 later in 1925 from The Hindu Mahasabha came the much cursed RSS.

India received independence in 1947, while the organizations like The Hindu Mahasabha were present since 1914 which means that they too shared some 33 years under the British regime and that they too took steps to uproot the xenophobic British rule and pretty much same implies to the RSS. But never since the day had I first picked up a history book in my school till I almost left it for subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, did I ever come across even terms like the Mahasabha or the RSS, leave alone their contributions to the Indian freedom struggle. But today when I go through the official site of these organizations and certain authentic papers, I come across a list of events wherein they had contributed and had played a crucial role. These lists are soo long that the possibility of any sort plagiarism is also ruled out. Such wide discrepancies leave me wondering, what is the truth, what are the real fact? Is it possible that the true history is never revealed to us until we make genuine efforts?

The image that a modern Indian has for the RSS in particular, is completely diminished when one goes through the complete course of history and all the actors that were truly involved in the freedom movement and suddenly all its weird demands start making sense.

In his last speech before the court, Nathuram Godse clearly justifies the fact that Mahatma Gandhi and the INC had become the sole ambassadors of the freedom struggle and the sole judge of the fate of the country. Though Mahatma Gandhi and the INC had done much to claim their say in almost everything, but was blindly relying on them justified, were they invincible and what they did was always correct, did the nation belong only to them alone? Gandhi ji definitely didn’t have any plans to cope up with the massacre faced in the revolts of 1946 which rendered thousands and lakhs of people homeless and dead, records show that it was the RSS members who gave shelter and food to numerous such refugees, do they not deserve any credits for what they did, or should that too suffer the might of the colossal INC and Mahatma Gandhi?

In my opinion, the Indian freedom struggle was one of the most peculiar one. For 300 long years, India was under the despotic British rule and the only weakness it ever had was the communal divide. Fortunately no such foreign power rules us anymore but the fact that we are finally independent is still quite debatable for even today we are held by forces which prevent us from knowing the real past. Mahatma Gandhi was a man before being India’s father of nation, he wasn’t infallible and surely not the sole representative of our freedom struggle. With no charges against either the INC or Mahatma Gandhi, I feel that our freedom struggle was hijacked by them and sadly even today after years of freedom and comparatively much freedom of research and expression, their might still prevails.

- Umang, student Political Science