The interview of the ‘Heroine’ of the Quit India Movement in the famous Hindi daily Hindustan in 1967 is mentioned in many books including Ratan Sharda’s book ‘RSS 360 Degree…’. In which he told how to save him from the British, the Sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in Delhi, Lala Hansraj ji, had kept him in his house for about 15 days and maintained so much secrecy that no one should accidentally get the news.
Later he helped in finding many locations. Today’s generation would hardly know Aruna Asaf Ali, who is even called the ‘heroine’ of the Quit India Movement. This is not the only incident which shows that the Sangh had not completely withdrawn from the 1942 movement.
These were the challenges before Guru Golwalkar
When Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar took over the affairs of the Sangh after Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, many people were not happy with his selection. Golwalkar also had to win their trust, prove himself and also take the work of the Sangh to the entire country. Thus, during his time, Dr. Hedgewar had started work in the states like Sindh, Punjab, Bengal, Bihar, UP, Central Province (MP, Maharashtra), Gujarat, Andhra etc. But the legs were not firmly established yet. On top of that, the year he became the Sarsanghchalak, i.e. in 1940, the same year the Muslim League had passed the Pakistan resolution and the Second World War had already started. Guru Golwalkar kept a close eye on geo politics. Secondly, his trust was also waning from Congress, he felt that united India would break into two pieces.
In such a situation, to strengthen the Sangh, he decided to strengthen the promotional system. Till now, most of the work of the preachers was done by students studying in other cities. Golwalkar felt that an army of full-time campaigners would have to be created, who could forget their family and devote their time to the cause for the country and society. He appealed that people studying, working or involved in any business will have to give time to the Sangh. You will have to forget your family or any other work for at least a year. Following his call, several hundred youth postponed their important work like job or marriage and joined the Sangh and were sent as preachers to different parts of the country. A total of 48 preachers had come out from Lahore at that time. Of these, 10 were MA pass, 2 were doctors and 14 were scholars. Amritsar also broke Lahore’s record by giving a total of 52 campaigners.
Here the Sangh’s prayer had already been said in Sanskrit. After the British circular banning army-like activities, the uniform of the Sangh was replaced by a white shirt instead of a khaki shirt. The post of Sarsenapati was abolished, commands during parades were also changed from English to Hindi or Marathi.
Guruji wanted to keep the Sangh completely in Indian style, so work had started at many levels. Meanwhile, events were happening rapidly, Netaji Bose left India and Rash Bihari Bose handed over the command of Azad Hind Fauj to him, his army was slowly moving towards India.
Sanghchalak’s wife gave Ghagra Choli to Aruna Asaf Ali
As soon as Netaji Bose left, Gandhiji had announced the Quit India Movement in August. He thought that like other movements, he would get at least 6 months to plan and prepare for this movement, but perhaps he had no idea that due to the World War, he would be arrested on the same night. Other leaders also along with him. In which Aruna Ganguly’s husband Asaf Ali was also there. The next day, 33-year-old Aruna hoisted the tricolor at Gwalia Tank Ground in Mumbai. The police announced a reward of Rs 5,000 on him. Anyone greedy for reward could have got him arrested. The arrest of Congress leaders had started from the very first day, small and big leaders of every city were inside or absconding, in such a situation Aruna got support from Delhi Sanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Lala Hansraj. He kept them hidden in his house for several days. Risking the displeasure of the British, he helped them a lot. Later also they were sent to safer places.
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The story of his escape from there is also very interesting, because it was not wise to remain hidden in one place while living underground. So they planned to go to another location. Aruna told in the same interview that, “A procession was passing through the market, Lalaji’s wife brought me a ghagra choli, wearing it, I went out with the procession doing Bhangra. One day when I went to return it, he refused to even take it and said that you keep it, it is a gift from us”.
Why did the Sangh distance itself from the Quit India Movement?
Here, Guru Golwalkar was under constant pressure to participate in the movement, just as it was on Dr. Hedgewar during the Civil Disobedience Movement and Dandi March. Then Dr. Hedgewar did not stop the work of the Sangh, allowed the branches to function and after resigning from the post of Sarsarsanghchalak, giving this post to Dr. Paranjape, he then went for Satyagraha. But since then a lot of water had flowed in the Ganga. When Netaji Bose had expressed his desire to meet Dr. Hedgewar in Pune, local leaders had stopped him. The Congress had not supported the movement of Hindus against the Nizam and the wavering policy of the Congress on the Pakistan proposal of the Muslim League was making its position doubtful.
Despite all this, Guru Golwalkar adopted the old policy, allowed Sangh workers to individually participate in the Quit India Movement, but kept the Sangh away from it. CP Bhishikar has published the statement of Dattopant Thengadi, founder of a big organization like Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, in his book ‘Shri Guruji’. Dattopant Thengadi writes, “In September 1942, Guruji was preparing to go to Madras after ending the Mangalore section. At that time, many volunteers and even many preachers were worried about the movement of 1942 that if the Sangh was not doing anything even at such a critical time, then what was the use of building so much power? At that time, I was a preacher of Calicut, Calicut was near Mangalore, so I was also asked to come there. I met Guruji and raised this question arising in everyone’s mind.
Guruji told them that the Sangh would allow the workers to participate individually instead of joining the movement like before and also said that it would have been good if the Congress had taken the Sangh as well as other organizations into confidence before starting this movement. But we cannot give this reason because freedom is not only for Congress people but for everyone. But Congress had no plan for how the movement would run after he went to jail. Now anyone is taking part in this movement as per their own wish, the situation is beyond the control of even their leaders. There is no Congress leader available to talk about how any other organization should join the movement, all are in jail. In such a situation the movement is directionless. After a lot of discussion, especially thinking about the issue of strategy, the Sangh has decided that we will keep the organization out of this, the rest of the Sangh workers are cooperating in this movement at their own level. Guru Golwalkar had explained it clearly to Dattopant.
Sangh volunteers became patrons of Congress leaders
Despite Sangh not being involved as an organisation, you cannot deny the strong presence of Sangh volunteers in the ‘Quit India Movement’. The movement led by Ramakant Deshpande in Chimur, Vidarbha turned violent, many volunteers and policemen were also killed. In history it is known as ‘Chimur Ashti Revolt’, in which the incidents of rape of many women by European soldiers brought people’s anger to its peak, later 8 were sentenced to death, the trials continued for a long time.
Aruna Asaf Ali was not the only leader of the Quit India Movement who took shelter with a Sangh official or volunteer. Aundh (Pune) Sanghchalak Pandit Shripad Damodar Satwalekar had also given shelter to Congress leader Nana Patil. The famous ‘Battle of Khadki’ once took place in a village called Aundh. Nowadays it is a part of Pune. The Sanghchalak of Satara also hid Nana Patil’s associate Kishanveer from the British and kept him in his house for several days. Socialist leader Achyut Patwardhan was also able to escape arrest during this period only by taking shelter in the houses of not one but many volunteers. The main one who gave him shelter was Pune’s Sanghchalak Bhausaheb Deshmukh. Bhausaheb had given shelter not only to him but also to Gandhian leader Sane Guruji, a staunch opponent of the Sangh.
Congress leader resigns in protest against ban on Sangh
The effect of the help that the Sangh had given to the Congress leaders in escaping from the British in 1942 was also very interesting. When the Sangh was banned after Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, Congress leader Ganesh Bapuji Shinkar of Solapur in Maharashtra got angry and first resigned from the Congress, then sat on Satyagraha demanding lifting of the ban on the Sangh. He said that during our stay underground, the Sangh volunteers not only provided us shelter, but also took care of our families and helped us in many ways. It is absolutely wrong to ban such an organization.
Back story: How was Gandhiji’s first experience of Congress convention and RSS camp?
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