Golwalkar in Electoral Politics

Elections were also made a pretext for dragging Golwalkar into controversy. Once we became politically independent, elections had cast their dark shadows over the whole gamut of our national life. Being obsessed with politics no aspect of the society remained untouched by it. Even in remote villages politics created barriers between man and man. People also have begun to look only to the Government for fulfillment of everyone of their needs. As a result, the spirit of self-reliance has gradually declined. For workers and leaders in the political field nothing else mattered apart from power politics. Even ‘service’ has become vote-oriented. In such a situation, many such political groups wanted to secure the help of a powerful organisation like the Sangh. But Golwalkar, on his part, remained firm in keeping the Sangh scrupulously aloof from the mire of power politics. This aloofness immensely helped the Sangh to sustain its independence and grow according to its national perspective. Dr. Hedgewar, the founder of the Sangh, had already accepted two basic principles in his own life and insisted on the Swayamsevaks’ strict adherence to them. They were fearless and uncompromising advocacy of Hindu Nation, and aloofness from day-to-day politics and race for power.

Golwalkar not only kept these principles intact but became an erudite commentator on them. Many people tried to tag on the Sangh to the Jana Sangh and indulged in the tendentious propaganda that the two were just two sides of the same coin and complementary to each other. Some newspapers, indulging in kite-flying, even reported that Golwalkar was going to contest elections! But Golwalkar kept on forcefully repeating that no organisation could take to the enduring task of national rejuvenation if it was subject to the ever changing pulls and pushes of power politics.

Golwalkar not only kept these principles intact but became an erudite commentator on them. Many people tried to tag on the Sangh to the Jana Sangh and indulged in the tendentious propaganda that the two were just two sides of the same coin and complementary to each other. But Golwalkar kept on forcefully repeating that no organisation could take to the enduring task of national rejuvenation if it was subject to the ever changing pulls and pushes of power politics.

He even warned the leaders of the Jana Sangh that they should disabuse their minds if they were under the impression that the Sangh Swayamsevaks would work as volunteers of the Jana Sangh. He also added that Swayamsevaks engaged in other fields should always conduct themselves in accordance with the Sangh’s philosophy of thought and action.

Golwalkar was basically a nation-builder, never a politician. So he was free to speak out the truth fearlessly, even if it was bitter, if it was in the interest of the country. While criticising the anti-national policies he never compromised under political pressure while suggesting alternative solutions to the national problems. He also never differentiated between the Congress and the Jana Sangh, or the Communist Labour movement and the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh. While talking to a leader of the BMS, he firmly said, “collective bargaining is a highway robbery.”

Golwalkar had once met Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri when Shastri was the Home Minister. Before this meeting there was a demonstration before him, in which thousands of demonstrators had displayed banners saying ‘Hindus, awake’, in opposition to Bangladesh infiltration into Assam. On this background, naturally that question came up in the meeting. Shastriji said it was difficult to identify the Muslim infiltrators because they mixed with the local Muslims. Thereupon Golwalkar suggested that local citizens should be warned that those who sheltered infiltrators would be severely dealt with and disenfranchised. If they did not respond they too would be driven out. At the same time, Golwalkar told Shastriji “Probably you would not be able to do this, because it is not in keeping with the election arithmetic of the Congress party.” Finally, this was precisely what happened. As time passed, the problem has become more and even more serious.

It was Golwalkar’s firm resolve to keep the Sangh away from political and all other types of fissiparous tendencies that endowed him with singular success in the building up of such a vast reservoir of youth power infused with a spirit of innate national oneness. For Golwalkar, man came first, never the chair. He had undertaken the tremendous task of pulling individual after individual out of the snare of greed and sensual pursuits and energizing him with the spirit to conquer all odds in life-whether internal or external. Had this not been so the country would not have had hundreds of selfless and capable pracharaks and even house holders working constructively all their life in various fields of activity without any regard to their own personal joys and sorrows and expectations of any kind of material gain or even name or fame.