Balasaheb Deoras’s 2nd Letters to Acharya Vinoba Bhave (February 1976) to request Indira Gandhi for the removal of the Ban on the Sangh

 Balasaheb Deoras’s 2nd Letters to Acharya Vinoba Bhave  (February 1976)


Balasaheb Deoras, the third Sarsanghchalak of the RSS, wrote at least two letters to Acharya Vinoba Bhave in early 1976 while detained during the Emergency. The 2nd letter Letter to Vinoba Bhave was undated or around late February 1976. This one was prompted by news that Indira Gandhi would meet Bhave at Paunar Ashram on or around 24 February. It is more explicitly pleading and is often quoted together with the January letter.

These letters were later placed in the Maharashtra Assembly and reproduced in sources like D.R. Goyal’s Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and appendices in Deoras’s own Hindi book Hindu Sangathan aur Sattavadi Rajneeti.

Letter

February 1976

At the feet of Respected Acharya Vinobaji,

I wrote a letter to you from Ekhra Jail on 12-1-76. You might have received that at the time when the Conference of the Acharyas was going to begin. I hope so. I wrote in that letter what the Sangh had to say in reply to the recent charges levelled against it, and I prayed to you that you should help for the removal of the Ban on the Sangh.

All of our friends became hopeful about the future, bright prospect as a result of your guidance at the Conference of the Acharyas, of deliberations and of unanimous verdict which we could read in the newspapers.

As far as I remember I think you and Guruji met at Keljhar (Nagpur-Wardha Road). When you had asked Guruji whether his angle of vision in respect of other religions was that of tolerance, Guruji had told you that we were not only tolerant to other religions, more so, we respected even those religions.

When you have walked on feet for BHUDAN in U. P., Bihar and other states, the RSS volunteers met you every where and participated in every programme of yours. What type of behaviour and thoughts of the Swayam Sewakas of Sangh have, you are well acquainted with that.

It has been published in the newspapers that the Hon’ble Prime Minister is going to meet you at the Pavnar Ashram on the 24th. Discussion relating to the present-day situation of our country will be held. This is my prayer to you that you kindly try to remove the wrong notion of the Prime Minister about the Sangh, and as a result of which the RSS volunteers will be set free, the ban on the Sangh will be lifted and such a condition will prevail as to enable the volunteers of the Sangh to participate in the planned programme of action relating to country’s progress and prosperity under the leadership of the Prime Minister.

Praying for your blessings,

Yours faithfully, 

Sd/- (MADHUKAR DATTATREYA DEORAS)

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

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Total eleven letter written by RSS in the six months of the Emergency (1975–1977)

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