Golwalkar: The Myth Behind The Man, The Man Behind The Machine
By Dhirendra K. Jha
Simon and Schuster India, 400 pages, Rs 899

Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, or “Guruji” as he is reverentially referred to by his followers, is regarded as the demigod of Hindutva ideology and politics, and often accorded a status higher than even the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), K. B. Hedgewar.

In 1940, when 34-year-old Golwalkar unexpectedly assumed charge of the RSS after Hedgewar’s death, the organisation was still in its nascent stage, with pockets of influence mainly in Maharashtra. Under Golwalkar’s leadership over the next three decades, the RSS and its allied organisations, known as the “Sangh Parivar”, extended its network across the entire country and penetrated almost every aspect of Indian society.

Golwalkar’s ideological influence was enormous – and it did not end with his death. Golwalkar’s prescriptions in his incendiary book, ‘We or Our Nationhood Defined’, published in 1939, now became central to the ideological training and radicalisation of youth dedicated to the idea of a Hindu Rashtra.

Dhirendra K. Jha, a Delhi-based journalist and the author of ‘Gandhi’s Assassin: The Making of Nathuram Godse and His Idea of India’, draws from a wealth of original archival material and interviews in the deeply researched and scholarly ‘Golwalkar: The Myth Behind the Man, the Man Behind the Machine’.

This biography, the first to be written by an independent scholar, counters many legends built around the man in the biographies written by his loyalists during his own lifetime. Jha traces Golwalkar’s path from a directionless youth to a demagogue who plotted to capture political power by countering the secularist vision of nationalist leaders from Nehru to Gandhi. Jha draws a compelling portrait of one of the most prominent Hindutva leaders, and of the RSS and its worldview that evolved under him.

Jha’s previous works also includes ‘Shadow Armies: Fringe Organizations and Foot Soldiers of Hindutva’ and ‘Ascetic Games: Sadhus, Akharas and the Making of the Hindu Vote’. He is a co-author of ‘Ayodhya: The Dark Night—The Secret History of Rama’s Appearance in Babri Masjid’.

Here is an excerpt from the book, about Golwalkar’s pre-RSS days when he attempted to become a sanyasi:
 
Diksha and Devotion

Golwalkar now decided that he wanted to become a monk. This choice was prompted equally by his obsessive leaning toward Hindu orthodoxy and the rather florid notion a caste elite unable to cope with the changing tides must have had of the free and untrammeled monk’s life. Never in the past did he reveal any sign of a passion for monkhood; he always focused on securing a definite job that could provide him a livelihood as well as social respectability. To be sure, such a decision can be explained as a way of using spiritualism to escape the uncertainties of the material world, to soar instead into realms of the ideal. However, the manic fervour with which he threw himself into his efforts to get ordained as a monk of Ramakrishna Mission, a Hindu religious and spiritual organization, in 1936, forgetting and rejecting everything else, shows that inside he was, during this period, a loner. The sudden eruption of this passion also meant that in a concentrated and obstinate manner, he lived only for himself. It would seem that Golwalkar sought elevation through monkhood in a social sense as well. He had so far been driven by an overpowering social ambition but had ultimately achieved what he seemed to regard as a paltry career—a fact borne out by his visible retreat from the legal practice within a year of joining it. Either he was still incapable of any systematic work or his own goals were pitched far higher. His new passion was related to his notion that in the orthodox Hindu society, monkhood was a pursuit of something ‘higher’.[1] As he looked for new stimuli and new goals, the monkhood seemed to satisfy his imagination of his self.

Golwalkar’s connections to Ramakrishna Mission ran through Raghuvir Dhongdi, his one-time chum from his days in the BHU.[2] Founded by Ramakrishna Paramahansa’s chief disciple, Swami Vivekananda, in 1897 and supported by Ramakrishna’s widow, Sarada Devi, the Mission had established a network of mathas and ashrams to propagate Hindu spiritual philosophy and carry out educational and philanthropic work. In Nagpur, the Ramakrishna Matha was established in 1928. In 1934, a hostel for poor students was added to it.[3] Raghuvir, a native of Nasik district of Bombay province, was one of the residents of this hostel.[4]

Like Golwalkar, Raghuvir had, after his days in the BHU, completed LLB. In 1935, when the two entered the legal profession, their acquaintanceship deepened into friendship. Raghuvir shared Golwalkar’s sentimental passion for spiritualism, and the two regularly met at the hostel. Here Golwalkar sat idly around, apparently depressed by the uncertainty of his future. Raghuvir had decided to become a monk. At the time he was preparing to shift to Sargachhi in Bengal’s Murshidabad district where Swami Akhandananda, the head of Ramakrishna Mission, lived.

Golwalkar’s true attitude toward monkhood—until Raghuvir made up his mind—is difficult to discern. But as he kept visiting Ramakrishna Math, Golwalkar’s inclination to spiritualism, which had so far been tempered by a sense of material ambition, seemed to stir suddenly. Swami Amurtananda, the monk who headed Ramakrishna Math at Nagpur, felt that a similar passion to become a monk was overtaking Golwalkar.[5] Before leaving for Sargachhi, Raghuvir had introduced him to the hostel warden, Swami Bhaskareshwarananda. Golwalkar continued to spend time with Bhaskareshwarananda, discussing Hindu philosophy, spiritualism and renunciation. When he seemed determined to go to Sargachhi and become a disciple of Akhandananda, Bhaskareshwarananda asked him to speak with Amurtananda.[6]

According to Amurtananda, Golwalkar asked him for permission to visit Sargachhi and be the disciple of Akhandananda. He looked up at him and said, ‘For that you will have to leave everything—your name, your prestige, your family, everything. Are you ready for that?’[7] Golwalkar replied in the affirmative. Amurtananda, thereafter, wrote to Swami Akhandananda, seeking his permission to send a new guest to Sargachhi ashram. ‘Eight days later the reply came, and it was decided that Madhu [Golwalkar] would go to Sargachhi,’ Amurtananda wrote in his reminiscence. ‘I told him not to waste any time and go straight to Sargachhi without giving a halt at Calcutta or Belur Math [the headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission]. That very day Madhu started his journey and reached Sargachhi three days later.’[8]

Golwalkar left Nagpur on 6 November 1936. The evidence suggests that he did not reveal his plans to his parents before leaving for Sargachhi. Instead, he handed over a letter addressed to his father to his advocate friend, Dattatreya Deshpande, with the instruction that it be posted after his departure from Nagpur.[9]

With a stubborn attitude, but without a coherent plan, he quietly passed into a new life of voluntary exile.

Footnotes:
1. ‘Shri Guruji Samagra’, Vol. 6, Suruchi Prakashan, Delhi, pp. 269-280.
2. Ranga Hari, ‘The Incomparable Guru Golwalkar’, Prabhat Paperbacks, New Delhi, 2018, p. 56.
3. Swami Amurtanand, Swami Akhandanand Smriti Charan, in ‘Swami Akhandanand Smorone’, Ramakrishna Mission Ashram, Sargachhi, Murshidabad, 2020, p. 655.
4. Ranga Hari, ‘The Incomparable Guru Golwalkar’, Prabhat Paperbacks, New Delhi, 2018, p. 56.
5. Swami Amurtanand, Swami Akhandanand Smriti Charan, in ‘Swami Akhandanand Smorone’, Ramakrishna Mission Ashram, Sargachhi, Murshidabad, 2020, p. 655.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., p. 656.
9. Ranga Hari, ‘The Incomparable Guru Golwalkar’, Prabhat Paperbacks, New Delhi, 2018, p. 57.

[The excerpt reproduced with the permission of the publishers.]