1) Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, born on 1st April 1889 founded the RSS in Nagpur in 1925 on the day of Vijayadashami, with the intention of promoting the concept of a united India rooted in the Hindutva ideology. Hedgewar actively participated in Indian National Congress in the 1920s, but he became disillusioned with their policies and politics. The outbreak of the Hindu-Muslim riot in 1923 made him ponder over an alternate model of nation-building in India. He was deeply influenced by the writings of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Babarao Savarkar and B. S. Moonje . He considered that the cultural and religious heritage of Hindus should be the basis of Indian nationhood. After completing his education, Hedgewar joined the Anushilan Samiti in Bengal, which was influenced deeply by the writings of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Chatterjee's writings, especially Anandamath has been known to contain highly anti Islamic undertones. Hedgewar's initiation into this group, rooted in Hindu symbolism, was an important step in his path towards creating the RSS. During the Khilafat Movement, Hedgewar is known to have said that Muslims are “Muslims first and Indians only secondarily”, Hedgewar was also deeply influenced by Veer Savarkar's treatise Hindutva. The RSS carefully avoided any political activity that could be construed as being anti-British. Scholars differ on Hedgewar's motivations for forming the RSS, especially because he never involved the RSS in fighting the British rule. Christophe Jaffrelot a French political scientist specialising in South Asia, particularly India and Pakistan says that the RSS was intended to propagate the ideology of Hindutva and to provide "new physical strength" to the majority community. An alternative interpretation is that he formed it to fight the Indian Muslims. Savarkar merged his own youth organisation Tarun Hindu Sabha with the RSS and helped its expansion. V. D. Savarkar, after his release in 1937, joined them in spreading the RSS and giving speeches in its support.He died on the morning of 21 June 1940 in Nagpur after Chronic back pain and illness succeeded by Golwalkar.
2) Savarkar, commonly known as 'Swatantryaveer Savarkar' in Marathi language, was an Indian independence activist and politician who formulated the Hindu nationalist philosophy of Hindutva. He was a leading figure in the Hindu Mahasabha. As a response to the Muslim League, Savarkar joined the Hindu Mahasabha and popularized the term Hindutva (Hinduness), previously coined by Chandranath Basu, to create a collective "Hindu" identity as an essence of Bharat (India). Savarkar was an atheist and also a pragmatic practitioner of Hindu philosophy. During his incarceration in Ratnagiri jail in 1922, he wrote his "Essentials of Hindutva" that formulated his theory of Hindutva. When the Congress launched the Quit India movement in 1942, Savarkar criticised it and asked Hindus to stay active in the war effort and not disobey the government; he also urged the Hindus to enlist in the armed forces to learn the "arts of war". Hindu Mahasabha activists protested Gandhi's initiative to hold talks with Jinnah in 1944, which Savarkar denounced as "appeasement." Soon after Independence, Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee resigned as Vice-President of the Hindu Mahasabha dissociating himself from its Akhand Hindustan (Undivided India) plank, which implied undoing partition. He continued addressing social and cultural elements of Hindutva. He resumed political activism after the ban on it was lifted; wrote around 38 books, it was however limited until his death in 1966 because of ill health.
3) Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar born on 19 February 1906.He was the second Sarsanghchalak or, "Chief" of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from 1940 untill his death on 5th June 1973. He has been widely noted to be the most prominent ideologue of Hindutva. One of the early leaders for the nationalist RSS group. Golwalkar authored the books Bunch of Thoughts and We, or Our Nationhood Defined. Golwalkar and 20,000 swayamsevaks were arrested on 4 February, and the RSS was banned for promoting "violence" and "subversion" when Gandhi was assassinated in January 1948 and was released on 5 August, after the six-month statutory limit expired which was a shock to the RSS members. Ban on RSS was lifted by Sardar Vallabhai Patel in 1949 on accepting a written constitution and in view of Golwalkar's promise to make loyalty to the Constitution of India and acceptance of (and respect for) India's national flag explicit in the RSS' democratically-drafted constitution. Organisations founded and supported by RSS volunteers became collectively known as Sangh Parivar. Golwalkar describes the mission of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as the revitalisation of the Indian value system based on universalism and peace and prosperity to all. Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the worldview that the whole world is one family, propounded by the ancient thinkers of India, is considered as one of the ideologies of the organisation.
4) Deendayal Upadhyaya born on 25th September 2016 was an Indian politician and thinker of right-wing Hindutva ideology espoused by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and leader of the political party Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS), the forerunner of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Upadhyaya had come into contact with the RSS through a classmate, while studying at Sanatan Dharma College in 1937. He met the founder of the RSS, K. B. Hedgewar, who engaged with him in an intellectual discussion at one of the shakhas and started full-time work in the RSS from 1942. Upadhyaya started the monthly publication Rashtra Dharma in the 1940s, while involved with the RSS, to spread Hindutva ideology. He was briefly president of the BJS from December 1967 into 1968. He contested the Lok Sabha election and lost, then was found dead on a railway track near Mughalsarai Junction railway station on 11 February 1968 following a train theft incident. 50 years after his death, the railway station was later renamed to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction by the BJP government under Narendra Modi in 2018. He is believed to be Modi's political Guru.
KEY ORGANISATIONS
1) Hindu Mahasabha: The formation of the All India Muslim League in 1906 and the British India government's creation of separate Muslim electorate under the Morley-Minto reforms of 1909[5] was a catalyst for Hindu leaders coming together to create an organisation to protect the rights of the Hindu community members. In 1909, Arya Samaj leaders Lala Lajpat Rai, Lal Chand and Shadi Lal established the Punjab Hindu Sabha ("Assembly"). Madan Mohan Malaviya presided over the Sabha's first session at Lahore in October 1909. The Sabha stated that it was not a sectarian organisation, but an "all-embracing movement" that aimed to safeguard the interests of "the entire Hindu community". The Hindu Mahasabha, which was initially a special interest group within the Indian National Congress and later an independent party, started by Pandit Madhan Mohan Malvia, who also gave a legacy to the nation 'The slogan "Satyameva Jayate" (Truth alone triumphs)'in INC's session of 1918 at Delhi, by saying that this slogan from the Mundakopanishad should be the slogan for the nation; was an important influence on the RSS, even though it is rarely acknowledged. In the late 1920s, the Mahasabha came under the influence of leaders like Balakrishna Shivram Moonje and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. The Mahasabha suffered a setback when in 1925, its former member Keshav Baliram Hedgewar left to form the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu volunteer organisation that abstained from active politics. Although ideologically similar to the Mahasabha, the RSS grew faster across the nation and became a competitor for the core constituency of the Mahasabha. Gandhi supporters were against Godse and the Hindu Mahasabha for their involvement in Gandhi's murder. The Hindu Mahasabha found a way out of the situation. Its one-time rising star, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, established the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is today the ruling party in India under prime minister Narendra Modi. The Hindu Mahasabha remains active as an organisation and is recognised as the pioneer of the saffron movement.
Ideology
Although the Hindu Mahasabha did not call for the exclusion of other religious communities from government, it identified India as a Hindu Rashtra ("Hindu Nation") and believed in the primacy of Hindu culture, religion and heritage. The Mahasabha advocates that Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists are identical to Hinduism in terms of teachings and cultural, national and political identity. It argues that Islam and Christianity are foreign religions, with their holy places being in Arabia, Palestine and Rome, and that Indian Muslims and Christians are simply descendants of Hindus who were converted by force, coercion and bribery. At various points in its history, the party called for the re-conversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism. The Hindu Mahasabha stridently opposes Westernisation, which it regards as a decadent influence on Indian youth and culture. It calls for a revival of the Sanskrit language. The Mahasabha opposed socialism and communism as decadent foreign ideologies that do not represent India's indigenous needs and conditions. Although opposed to untouchability and caste discrimination, the Mahasabha continues to support the varna system. Although Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was in favour of abolishing the entire caste system. Currently its VP in 2015 is of the view, that it should be made legal to attack Christian and Muslim worship places. (http://abhm.org.in/)
2)Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, abbreviated as RSS : Is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, Hindu supremacist, paramilitary, volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (the "family of the RSS"), which have presence in all facets of the Indian society. RSS was founded on 27 September 1925. The initial impetus was to provide character training through Hindu discipline and to unite the Hindu community to form a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation). The organisation promotes the ideals of upholding Indian culture and the values of a civil society and spreads the ideology of Hindutva, to "strengthen" the Hindu community. RSS was founded in 1925 by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a doctor in the city of Nagpur, British India. They opposed the Indian Constitution and Indian National Flag.
Organisations that are inspired by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's ideology refer to themselves as members of the Sangh Parivar. In most cases, pracharaks (full-time volunteers of the RSS) were deputed to start up and manage these organisations in their initial years.
The affiliated organisations include:
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), literally, Indian People's Party (23m)
Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, literally, Indian Farmers' Association (8m)
Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, literally, Indian Labour Association (10 million as of 2009)
Seva Bharti, Organisation for service of the needy.
Rashtra Sevika Samiti, literally, National Volunteer Association for Women (1.8m)
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, literally, All India Students' Forum (2.8m)
Shiksha Bharati (2.1m)
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, World Hindu Council (2.8m)
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, literally, Hindu Volunteer Association – overseas wing
Swadeshi Jagaran Manch, Nativist Awakening Front
Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Nursery
Vidya Bharati, Educational Institutes
Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram (Ashram for the Tribal Welfare), Organisations for the improvement of tribals; and Friends of Tribals Society
Muslim Rashtriya Manch (Muslim National Forum), Organisation for the improvement of Muslims
Bajrang Dal, Army of Hanuman (2m)
Anusuchit Jati-Jamati Arakshan Bachao Parishad, Organisation for the improvement of Dalits
Laghu Udyog Bharati, an extensive network of small industries.
Bharatiya Vichara Kendra, Think Tank
Vishwa Samvad Kendra, Communication Wing, spread all over India for media related work, having a team of IT professionals (samvada.org)
Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, National Sikh Association, a sociocultural organisation with the aim to spread the knowledge of Gurbani to the Indian society.
Vivekananda Kendra, promotion of Swami Vivekananda's ideas with Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi as a public policy think tank with six centres of study
Although RSS has never directly contested elections, it supports parties that are similar ideologically.[citation needed] Although RSS generally endorses the BJP, it has at times refused to do so due to the difference of opinion with the party.
The Sangh Parivar (translation: "Family of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh" or the "RSS family") refers, as an umbrella term, to the collection of Hindu nationalist organisations spawned by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and remain affiliated to it. These include the political party Bharatiya Janata Party, religious organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad, students union Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, religious militant group Bajrang Dal and the worker's union Bharatiya Kishan Sangh. It is also often taken to include allied organisations such as the Shiv Sena, which share the ideology of the RSS. The Sangh Parivar represents the Hindu nationalist movement of India.
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