APPENDIX 7: HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS WITH NAZI AND FASCIST IDEOLOGIES

V. D. SAVARKAR, FOUNDER OF HINDUTVA IDEOLOGY

If they grow stronger they can play the part of Sudeten Germans alright. But if we Hindus in India grow stronger in time these Muslim friends of the league type will have to play the part of German-Jews instead. We Hindus have taught the Shakas and the Huns already to play that part pretty well. So it is no use bandying words till the test comes. The taste of the pudding is in its eating. (V. D. Savarkar, Hindu Rashtra Darshan, G. Khare, Bombay, 1949, page 65)

Hitler knows better than Pandit Nehru does what suits Germany best. The very fact that Germany or Italy has so wonderfully recovered and grown as powerful as never before at the touch of the Nazi or Fascist magical wand is enough to prove that those political ‘isms’ were the most congenial tonics their health demanded…Pandit Nehru went out of his way when he took sides in the name of all Indians against Germany and Italy. Pandit Nehru might claim to express the Congress section in India at the most. But it should be made clear to the German, Italian or Japanese public that crores of Hindu Sangathanists in India who neither Pandit Nehru nor Congress represents cherish no ill-will towards Germany or Italy or Japan or any other country in the world simply because they had chosen a form of Government or constitutional policy which they thought suited best and contributed most to their national solidarity and strength (‘Speech on India’s Foreign Policy’, Poona, 3.11.1938 in V. D. Savarkar, Veer Savarkar’s Whirlwind Propaganda, A. S. Bhide, Bombay, 1941, pages 51-52.)

Germany was perfectly justified in uniting the Austrian and Sudeten Germans under the German Flag…The fact is that when Germany was weak, they [the British] partitioned [her] piecemeal. Now that Germany is strong, why should she not strike to unite all Germans and consolidate them into a pan-German State and realise the political dream which generations of German people cherished. (‘Speech on India’s Foreign Policy’, Poona, 3.11.1938 in V. D. Savarkar, Veer Savarkar’s Whirlwind Propaganda, A. S. Bhide, Bombay, 1941, page 53.)

In 1939, Savarkar’s Hindu Mahasabha celebrated Germany’s ‘solemn revival of Aryan culture, the glorification of the Swastika, her patronage of Vedic learning, and the ardent championship of the tradition of Indo-Germanic civilisation’ (M. Casolari, ‘Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the 1930s: archival evidence’, Economic & Political Weekly, 22 January 2000, page 224.)

The Nazi newspaper Volkischer Beobachter reported on Savarkar’s speeches in exchange for the promotion of Germany’s anti-semitic policies in India (C. Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement in Indian Politics, Hurst, London, 1996, pages 51-52). This resulted in Savarkar receiving a copy of Mein Kampf from Germany (M. Casolari, ‘Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the 1930s: archival evidence’, Economic & Political Weekly, 22 January 2000, page 224.)

B. S. MOONJE, K. B. HEDGEWAR, RSS FOUNDERS

British reports had highlighted that from 1927, B. S. Moonje, an RSS co-founder was inspired to model the RSS on Fascist and Nazi movements (M. Casolari, ‘Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the 1930s: archival evidence’, Economic & Political Weekly, 22 January 2000.)

In 1931, Moonje visited Fascist Italy and met with Mussolini, by whom he was extremely impressed. Of the Fascist Balilla movement, which organized military training and fascist indoctrination of young boys, Moonje said: The Balilla institutions and the conception of the whole organization have appealed to me the most…The whole organization is conceived by Mussolini for the military regeneration of Italy, Italians, by nature, appear ease-loving and non-martial, like the Indians generally. They have cultivated, like Indians, the work of peace and neglected the cultivation of the art of war. Mussolini saw the essential weakness of his country and conceived the idea of the Balilla organization…India and particularly Hindu India need some such institution for the military regeneration of the Hindus…Our institution, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of Nagpur under Dr Hedgewar is of this kind, though quite independently conceived. I shall spend the rest of my life developing and extending this institution of Dr Hedgewar all throughout Maharashtra and other provinces. (Moonje quoted in M. Casolari, ‘Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the 1930s: archival evidence’, Economic & Political Weekly, 22 January 2000, page 220.)

The Italy visit inspired Moonje to promote these ideas among Hindus in Maharashtra and begin the organization of Hindu youth movements based on this fascist model. This included a conference on Fascism and Mussolini’s political thought in 1934, presided by RSS founder K. B. Hedgewar and at which Moonje spoke. (M. Casolari, ‘Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the 1930s: archival evidence’, Economic & Political Weekly, 22 January 2000.)

…unless we have our own swaraj with a Hindu as a dictator like Shivaji of old or Mussolini or Hitler of present day Italy and Germany…But this does not mean that we have to sit with folded hands until some such dictator arises in India. We should formulate a scientific scheme and carry on propaganda for it. (Moonje quoted in M. Casolari, ‘Hindutva’s foreign tie-up in the 1930s: archival evidence’, Economic & Political Weekly, 22 January 2000, page 221.)

M. S. GOLWALKAR, RSS SECOND SUPREME LEADER

It is superfluous to emphasise the importance of Racial Unity in the Nation state. A Race is a hereditary Society having common customs, common language, common memories of glory and disaster; in short it is a population with a common origin under one culture. Such a race is by far the most important ingredient of a Nation…We will not seek to prove this axiomatic truth, that the Race is the body of the Nation, and that with its fall, the Nation ceases to exist. (Madhav Golwalkar, second RSS supreme leader, in We, or our nationhood defined, Bharat Publications, Nagpur, [1939] 1944, page 21.)

…in Hindusthan exists and must needs exist the ancient Hindu nation and nought else but the Hindu Nation. All those not belonging to the national i.e. Hindu Race, Religion, Culture and Language, naturally fall out of the pale of real ‘National’ life…All others posing to be patriots and wilfully indulging in a course of action detrimental to the Hindu Nation are traitors and enemies to the National Cause…all those who fall outside the five-fold limits of that idea can have no place in the national life, unless they abandon their differences, and completely merge themselves in the National Race. So long, however, as they maintain their racial, religious and cultural differences, they cannot but be only foreigners, who may either be friendly or inimical to the Nation. (Madhav Golwalkar, second RSS supreme leader, in We, or our nationhood defined, Bharat Publications, Nagpur, [1939] 1944, pages 45-6.)

For Golwalkar, no minority was deserving of any ‘right what-so-ever’ or ‘any obligations from the National race’. Minorities could: live only as outsiders, bound by all the codes and conventions of the Nation, at the sufferance of the Nation and deserving of no special protection, far less any privilege or rights. There are only two courses open to the foreign elements, either to merge themselves in the national race and adopt its culture, or to live at the sweet will of the national race. That is the only logical and correct solution. That alone keeps the national life healthy and undisturbed. That alone keeps the Nation safe from the danger of a cancer developing into its body politic of the creation of a state within a state. From this standpoint, sanctioned [by] the experiences of shrewd old nations, the non-Hindu peoples of Hindusthan must either adopt the Hindu culture and language, must learn to respect and hold in reverence Hindu religion, must entertain no ideas but those of the glorification of the Hindu race and culture i.e. they must not only give up their attitude of intolerance and ungratefulness towards this land and its age-long traditions but must also cultivate a positive attitude of love and devotion instead - in a word they must cease to be foreigners, or may stay in the country wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving no privileges, far less any preferential treatment - not even citizen’s rights. We are an old nation; and let us deal as old nations ought to and do deal with the foreign races who have chosen to live in our country. (Madhav Golwalkar, second RSS supreme leader, in We, or our nationhood defined, Bharat Publications, Nagpur, [1939] 1944, pages 48-9.)

German race pride has now become the topic of the day. To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the world by her purging the country of the semitic Races - the Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has shown how well nigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by. (Madhav Golwalkar, second RSS supreme leader, in We, or our nationhood defined, Bharat Publications, Nagpur, [1939] 1944, page 37.)