Now Reading: RSS and Hindu Mahasabha opposed Quit India, records show
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RSS and Hindu Mahasabha opposed Quit India, records show
The Hindu Mahasabha opposed the Quit India Movement in 1942, while the RSS stayed away from the freedom struggle, The Federal reports. In a July 26, 1942 letter to Bengal Lieutenant Governor…
The Story in Brief
The Hindu Mahasabha opposed the Quit India Movement in 1942, while the RSS stayed away from the freedom struggle, The Federal reports. In a July 26, 1942 letter to Bengal Lieutenant Governor John Herbert, Hindu Mahasabha leader Syama Prasad Mookerjee, then a minister in the Fazlul Haque ministry, backed the British administration’s effort to prevent Congress-led protests. He argued that wartime disorder could endanger Bengal as Japanese forces advanced in Asia.
The Federal also cites RSS chief MS Golwalkar’s writings opposing the idea that resistance to British rule was nationalism. After Independence, RSS publications attacked the tricolour and advocated the bhagwa dhwaj. The article contrasts this record with the BJP-led government’s recent support for Har Ghar Tiranga and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tributes to the 1942 movement.
The Indian Opinion
The lazy claim that every strand of the Hindu Right stood together in the freedom struggle cannot survive these documented positions. Nor does a later embrace of the tricolour erase them. But historical criticism should avoid treating present-day supporters as identical to leaders of 1942. The useful test is simple: will public commemorations acknowledge this record, including Mookerjee’s letter, rather than use the flag only for political symbolism?
Source: thefederal.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
