Organization: Penn State University
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 12:14:21 EDT
From: Deepak Srivastava <DXS23@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Re: RSS ( MP Government's Silent revolution in Education)
 <1992Sep4.034304.20296@tamsun.tamu.edu>

In article <1992Sep4.034304.20296@tamsun.tamu.edu>, gagrawal@cs.tamu.edu (Gopal
Agrawal) says:
>
>In article <1992Sep03.153019.4583@ncrcae.ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM>
>indu@iss700.Columbia.NCR.COM () writes:
>>    As far a  Gandhi is concerned, WHO IS DISCOUNTING GANDHI's CONTRIBUTION
>>    TO FREEDOM STRUGGLE? In fact they are also giving a place to other
>leaders
>>    and freedom fighters like Chandra Shekhar Azad, Bhaghat Singh,
>>    Veer Savrkar etc,.
>....stuf deleted
>
>>
>>    ITS IDEOLOGY ACHEIVEMENT OF AKHAND BHARAT. AND THEY BELIEVE THAT THE
>>    BEST WAY FOR THAT IS THRU ATTENDING THEIR REGULAR BRANCHES (shakha)
>>    regularly.

Gopal Agrawal writes:

>
>Having attended shakhas for quite some time in India, I can
>confidently say that as far as Gandhi is concerned, none of
>the shakha goers believe that Gandhi had any role to play in
>the freedom movement. They firmly believe that he was a deterrent
>to the freedom movement and had it not been for him, we would
>have achieved freedom in a day. Only Bhagat Singh, C.S.Azad etc.
>are glorified

It is not to belittle their contribution, but Messrs Bhagat Singh,
Chandra Shekhar Ajad, Savarkar etc were not 'leaders' in the sense
that they 'led' masses to non-cooperate with the rulers (civil disobe-
dience movement) or to participate in the Quit India movement etc.
In this definition word 'masses' is the key and whether RSS people
like it or not Gandhi was and is the biggest 'leader' India has
produced in this century. The contribution of Bhagat Singh, Azad
and other militant freedom fighters was significant but not of
the level that it would have made British leave India as they did
in 1947.

In my views two factors contributed predominantly towards the
attainment of our freedom. First, the begining, the prolonging
and the end of World War II which made British considerably weaker
in their home land. Second, brillient movements and manipulations
of masses by Gandhi ( but no one else) to show British the level
of desire for freedom in ordinary Indian people. The RSS and the then
Hindu Mahasabha did not see (or wanted to see) Gandhi in the lime
light simply because they did (and still do) not like what he did
for muslims.

As far as contributions of militant freedom fighters towards our
freedom struggle is concerned I think it was complementary to
the overall movement (of ordinary people) led by Gandhi. Can I
also put this other way round, i.e., mass movements led by Gandhi
were complimentary to what militant freedom fighters did ? I
do not think so. And this is precisely what RSS, through Vidya
Bharati schools and changes in history books, is trying achieve
in BJP ruled MP and UP state schools.


regards..        Deepak

Amongst militants: any one who could be put in the category of a leader
was Subhas Chandra Bose. Unfortunately, his and Gandhi's philosophies
did not match and he took a different route. He and his efforts
were almost neutralized at the moment Japanese surrendered in WWII.


>