The Visionary Who Turned the Wheel of History

Dr Hedgewar believed that only an organised and united Hindu society could rebuild the nation.

Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar’s vision and mission come into full view in the RSS centenary year. This year marks the prime of the Hindutva era and the beginning of a new phase in rebuilding a new India. Its success rests on two foundations. First, the RSS organised a vast section of India’s middle class, which became the backbone of Indian democracy over the decades, and gave democracy an Indian spirit in the line of Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Deendayal Upadhyaya. Second, it emerged as a powerful instrument of nation-building through social change. In a deeply plural society, Dr Hedgewar understood that caste, community and social divisions had to be overcome, and he worked to infuse among them a common feeling of nationalism, discipline and selfless service.

History taught him one clear truth: whenever Hindu society remained divided, India suffered defeat. This lesson appears from the invasions of Ghori, the Tughlaqs and Babur to the battles of Panipat and Plassey. The defeats of Ibrahim Lodi, Hemu, the Marathas and Siraj-ud-Daulah are presented as the result not only of foreign strength, but of internal division, betrayal and lack of collective national consciousness. After the death of Lokmanya Tilak, when political darkness seemed to descend on the country, Dr Hedgewar rose like a new sun and concluded that Hindu society had first to be united in a spirit of discipline, sacrifice and national purpose.

Born on 1 April 1889 into a Marathi Deshastha Brahmin family, Dr Hedgewar came from a lineage rooted in learning and Vedic tradition. His family later moved to Nagpur. Orphaned young during a plague epidemic, he grew up in adversity but with unusual resolve. As a schoolboy, he boldly chanted Vande Mataram despite official bans and refused sweets distributed on the birthday of the British Empress. He studied in Nagpur and later at the Rashtriya School in Pune before moving to Calcutta for medical education under the guidance of B. S. Moonje.

Calcutta was the turning point. There he entered a vibrant nationalist world, became vice-president of the Hindu Mahasabha in Calcutta province, and came into contact with revolutionary circles such as the Anushilan Samiti. He was also deeply influenced by Swami Vivekananda, whose call for India’s regeneration left a lasting mark on his mind. On returning to Nagpur, he joined the Indian National Congress, supported the resolution for complete freedom, and took part in Gandhi-led movements, including the Jungle Satyagraha in Vidarbha, for which he was imprisoned for a year.

Yet he remained restless, searching for a more enduring path to national emancipation. That search took him to Ratnagiri, where he met Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, then under strict surveillance after his release from the Andamans. Savarkar’s manuscript, Essentials of Hindutva, sharpened his thinking. He realised that political agitation alone would not be enough. India needed a disciplined, independent, non-political social and cultural organisation that could rebuild national character and unite Hindu society. With that conviction, on Vijayadashami, 27 September 1925, he founded the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Nagpur, at Mohite’s ground, with a small band of selected swayamsevaks.

From those modest beginnings, Dr Hedgewar built the RSS into a disciplined national force. Inspired by Vivekananda’s spirit of awakening, he spread shakhas across the country and made the Bhagwa Dhwaj the supreme guru of the Sangh. Festivals such as Vijayadashami, Guru Purnima and Raksha Bandhan became instruments of cohesion, discipline and Hindu awakening. By the time of his death in 1940, the Sangh had grown into a large and expanding national organisation.

Dr Hedgewar also recognised the next torchbearer. At Banaras Hindu University, with the goodwill of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, he encountered Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, later revered as Guruji, and saw in him the man destined to carry the mission forward. As the second Sarsanghchalak, Guruji gave the Sangh ideological depth and nationwide expansion. Through works such as We, or Our Nationhood Defined and Bunch of Thoughts, he carried forward the spirit of Dr Hedgewar.

Under his leadership, the Sangh expanded into the North-East through efforts such as the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram under Balasaheb Deshpande. Guruji also helped shape the wider nationalist current that later found political expression in the Bharatiya Jana Sangh under Syama Prasad Mookerjee, while Deendayal Upadhyaya deepened that stream through Integral Humanism. Seen in this continuity, the later rise of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi appears as part of the fulfilment of Dr Hedgewar’s vision. The RSS centenary, therefore, stands as the fruition of a dream and the reaffirmation of a civilisational mission set in motion a century ago.

(Dharurkar is a foreign affairs expert. Atkare is an assistant professor of English literature . Views personal.)