Golwalkar Philosophy of Nation

 According to Golwalkar: “The first requisite for a nation is a contiguous piece of land, delimited as far as possible by natural boundaries to serve as the substratum on which the nation has to live, grow and prosper. Then the second requisite is that the people living on that particular territory should have developed love and adoration for it as their motherland, as the place of their sustenance, their security and prosperity! In short, they should feel that they are the children of the soil. These people should not be just a mass of heterogeneous individuals but comprise a homogeneous group. They should have evolved a definite way of life moulded by common ideals, culture, feelings, sentiments, faith and traditions. If people thus become united into a coherent and well-ordered society having common traditions and aspirations, a common memory of the happy and unhappy experiences of their past life, common feelings of friendship and hostility and all their interests intertwined into the one identical whole, then such people living as children of that particular territory may be termed a ‘nation’” (Golwalkar, 1939: 63).

Golwalkar was of the opinion that nationalism could not and should not be destroyed. He felt that many thinkers after witnessing the present state of strifes and wars resulting in human destruction and misery had concluded that the sentiment of nationalism which nourished exclusive self-interest was the major obstacle in the way of world unity and human welfare. He believed that all attempts to harmonize national ambitions so far had also utterly failed and the world was on the brink of a nuclear holocaust. Golwalkar, therefore, endeavoured to find answers to a few fundamental questions that materialism had so far failed to provide. He formulated three such questions: “Why at ail should people aspire for world unity and human welfare? Why should they at all feel pained at the sight of man set against man? Why should we at all love each other?”.

The national identity requires that the whole of national society including minorities should share in the best values of the past. They should appreciate national dharma – the code of ethical principles and ways of life enshrined in the best usage. In cultural history, they should all give their mind and hearts whole-heartedly to an appreciation of the best types of Rama and Krishna may be appreciated by non-Hindus as secular examples while the Hindus will see them as full spiritual exemplars (avatars). This thoughts go on to delineate quietly and patiently the portrait of the best Indian society and pattern of values in all spheres of life and culture, philosophy, art and social order, that the Sangh seeks to hold before the mirror of the national mind. Pride in the cultural heritage of the past is the main pillar of Indian nationalism.

In Golwalkar’s opinion, Indian nationalism had a unique mission to fulfil. According to him, it was the grand world unifying thought of Indian nationalism alone that could supply the abiding basis for human brotherhood, that knowledge of the inner spirit which would change the human mind with the sublime urge to toil for the happiness of mankind as a whole opening up a free scope for every life especially on the face of the earth to grow to its full stature.