Sunday, June 7, 2009

Sri Guruji - A mighty symbol of national integration

Sri Guruji - A mighty symbol of national integration
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V Sundaram | Tue, 06 Nov, 2007 , 02:08 PM
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By 1961, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru had come to realize that his artificial anti-national and anti-social philosophy of ‘pseudo-secularism’ (now known as the Nehruvian Brand) based on Minority Appeasement had completely failed to create a united and integrated nation and instead the forces of national disintegration were marching to the forefront. Taking note of this, a National Integration Conference was convened by Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru from 28 September, 1961 to 1 October, 1961 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. 153 thinkers from different parts of the country were invited. These included Union Ministers, State Chief Ministers, prominent Leaders of various political parties in the Lok Sabha, Vice Chancellors of Universities, Educationists, Scientists and prominent Industrialists. In all, nearly 130 gentlemen participated in the Conference.

The Conference began on 28 September 1961 with the inaugural address by President Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. In his speech, as usual, he quoted a Sanskrit verse: “TAM VARSHAM BHARATANNAM BHARATI PYATRA SANTATIK”. Translated into rough and ready English, it only means “The Bharatiya generations of that nation of BHARATAM”. The decision to establish the National Integration Council was taken at this Conference and the Prime Minister was appointed as its Chairman. The first meeting of the National Integration Council was held on 2-3 June, 1962. At this meeting, politically compelled by the circumstances beyond their control, a decision was taken to invite Sri Guruji Golwalkar, Sirchanchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to participate in the deliberations of the National Integration Council. As Sri Guruji was unable to attend the meeting, he sent two senior colleagues from the RSS. Sri Hansraj Gupta, Sangchalak of the Punjab State RSS and Sri Narendrajit Singh, Sangchalak of the Uttar Pradesh R.S.S., to deputise for him. Both of them were very highly respected leaders of the RSS at that time.

Sri Guruji’s public work in any sphere was marked by great thoroughness, courage, balanced judgement dedication, devotion, concern for exactitude and perfection, clairvoyant vision and above all an over-riding emotion of burning patriotism. For the guidance of the participants in the first meeting of the National Integration Council, Sri Guruji had noted down some of his views regarding the course of deliberations and the issues which he felt ought to be discussed at the Council Meeting.

 I have carefully gone through the NOTE prepared by Sri Guruji on that historic occasion. From the point of view of the Hindus of India, it was a great document like the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights. It was marked by profound insight and Sri Guruji had analysed basic meaning of frequently used words like ‘Communalism’, ‘Majority and Minority Communalism’, ‘Loyalty to Religion in contradiction to or in opposition to Loyalty to the Country’ and ‘Secularism’. In a dark atmosphere of pseudo-secular anti-Hinduism which was over-shadowing the country at that time, Sri Guruji fearlessly expressed the Hindu vision of life ingrained in the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS).

I am giving below some excerpts from the historic note of Sri Guruji for the benefit of our readers:
Indian National Life:

“Indian National life is very ancient. Built on the edifice of one metaphysical knowledge, the life stream of the people is co-related to and inter-woven with common cultural tradition and heritage which is constituted by similar values of life and the establishment of metaphysical knowledge or the realization of the supreme truth. It has been present much before the arrival or the aggressive intrusions of the Christians and the Muslims. Although a number of creeds, sects, castes and sometimes, division of states are visible, its unity and integrity has been continuous and uninterrupted. The group of people whose identical life has been this, is called Hindu. Hence, Indian National Life is actually the Hindu National Life. The thought of National Integration ought to begin from this pure introduction. National Integration is nothing but the construction of a constant flow from this primordial fund of actual Nationalism and its traditions, hopes and aspirations.”

Thus Sri Guruji made it clear that the roots of National Integration cannot be traced to Russia or China or England but to our ancient Bharat Varsha.

Hindu Communalism:
“The Hindus in India can, in no way, be called ‘communal’. They have always been devotees of entire India and have always been ready and keen to work hard for its progress and glory. The values of India’s national life have been installed or established from the bedrock bricks of Hindu life only. Hence, it is national and in no way, communal”.

Majority Communalism:
“Majority Communalism is nothing but a myth, a mistake. In a democracy, it is essential to respect the opinion of the majority in day-to-day life. Hence, it will be right to consider the practical existence or entity of the majority as the ‘National Entity’. From this point of view also, efforts made for the Hindu life and its excellence are ‘national’ and not ‘communal’. The expression (experiment!) of Majority Communalism is against the sentiments of democracy. In various States, the various leaders use words like ‘Majority-Minority Communalism’ because they consider the entire public as their slaves….”

Communalism:
“The Hindu has always been respecting the collective opinion of others. He does not believe that the differences in the way of worship are in any way opposed to the unity of the nation. He does, however, oppose the using of these differences as an excuse to accept the policy of differentiation in the mundane life and the tendency to hurt national life by making a demand for special rights for the so-called minorities; although it has always been his natural duty to oppose, with determination and alertness, such a tendency. Fostering such tendencies (the tendency to hurt national life), adopting a policy of appeasement of minorities by fulfilling their anti-national demands, carrying on transactions with them for immediate political benefits, trying to hurt the good relations, etc. is fatal to national life. National Integration can never be achieved with such efforts. Calling the good intentions of the Hindu society to oppose such anti-national sentiments as ‘communalism’ will be a big mistake and will be in opposition to truth and reality. It is the sign of a disturbed mind. Actually, such opposition to special rights is the primary duty of every citizen who has any patriotic feelings.”

Sri Guruji could speak with great authority and moral force because he was not interested in becoming either a cheap Prime Minister or a criminal Chief Minister or for that matter a slavish Cabinet Minsiter.

Official Language:
“Every sovereign country has a language for its use. From the point of ease and convenience, the Constitution has accepted Hindi as a ‘National Language’. Making it obscure on the pretext of ease and making it more Urdu is like adulterating the universal sovereignty of the nation with communalism and communal appeasement. Changing the official language into the colloquial language or by being a slave to a foreign language, putting English on the same level as the national language will destroy the pure sentiment of patriotism. Because the feeling of National Integration is dependent on the intensity of patriotism, the language-related wrong policy must be immediately given up or stopped.”

Imperative Need for a Unitary Form of Government:
“We are one Nation, one society, one emotional life, one mutual relations, one country; therefore, one nation must be administered by one rule. Therefore, it is natural to look at it as a Unitary Form of Government. The Federal Form of Government today creates and fosters separatism. In a way, it derecognizes the true feeling of Nationalism. As such it disintegrates the country. Parochial Federalism must be taken out from the roots. For this, amendments must be made to the Constitution of India and a Unitary Form of Government must be established”.

Patriotism of the Hindus:
“Hindus do not have any divided loyalty. Loyalty to religion, in contradiction with or in opposition to the loyalty to country, is absolutely impossible in the context of the Hindu. This is a strong proof of the fact that he belongs to a pure National Society. Therefore, calling him Communal or making him stand on the same level as those whose loyalties are divided and sometimes questionable, is unwise and adjust. The thought of special or partial rights on the basis of caste or creed is contrary to Hindu opinion”.

Verily Sri Guriji was the embodiment of the call of the Upanishads, Charavedi-Charavedi (Move on, move on!) – ever on the move, arousing and awakening our Nation to its self- awareness and self-assertion. He was a symbol and spearhead of the mighty movement of National Renaissance—the R.S.S.—for more than three decades. In Him, the post—independent Bharat found the Man of Destiny who gave the call and the blueprint for the country’s re-construction in the light of its pristine National Genius. He has left behind Him not merely the legacy of a great philosophy but also thousands of Hindu Missionaries in every State pledged to the fulfillment of his chosen mission.

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