For months, no shakhas were organized, no classes were organized, even if meetings were held, they were held secretly and that too focused on the ban on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh or on making strategies to free Guru Golwalkar from jail. Satyagraha plans continued to be made. After coming out, Guru Golwalkar had to resume the stalled work of the Sangh. Everyone had to be filled with enthusiasm once again. Swayamsevaks from all over the country were eager to meet him, so Guru Golwalkar planned to travel across India for this. It is believed that Guru Golwalkar had traveled across the country 66 times in his life. But this was probably the first visit, when a conspiracy was being hatched to kill him in Marathi areas itself.
After immediately completing all the work which had become sluggish or delayed due to his absence in the organization, Guru Golwalkar planned to start his journey from Delhi on 20 August 1949, but Sardar Patel was ill, so he went to Bombay (now Mumbai) to meet him. According to Guru Golwalkar’s autobiography written by CP Bhishikar, in a one-hour conversation, Sardar Patel discussed with him the increasing activities of Christian missionaries. Patel also expressed concern to him about the newly formed country of Pakistan that its creation would create a lot of problems.
5 lakh people gathered in Delhi after the ban was lifted
Guru Golwalkar was again in Delhi. Looking at his reception, it seemed that RSS has emerged stronger after the ban, because the message has gone out among the public that he was deliberately implicated in the assassination of Gandhiji, was banned without any reason and was kept in jail for so many days. Thousands of people were on the streets and just wanted to get a glimpse of him. It is claimed that there were five lakh people in his meeting at Ramlila Maidan. Seeing the crowd at his meeting, BBC wrote in its report, “Shri Guruji is a shining star that has arisen on the Indian firmament. The only other Indian who can draw such huge crowds is Pt. Nehru.,
He was being welcomed like this in every city. People everywhere felt that only Guru Golwalkar’s announcement against the government could cool down their anger. They were hopeful that he would say something that would make the government lose sleep, but Guru Golwalkar, who had returned to his spiritual life in jail, calmly understanding his feelings, used to explain something like this, “Sometimes our tongue comes under our own teeth, it hurts a lot, so do we take revenge with our teeth? Even if we take it, we will still be in pain. Those who did wrong to us are also our people. Forgive them and do the same work of nation building again.” Get involved in what was left incomplete”.
After the ban was lifted, Guru Golwalkar met Pandit Nehru thrice from August to November 1949. First of all, just a week after the meeting of 23rd August, i.e. on 30th August. In all three meetings, many issues like Hindu cultural nationalism, religious tolerance, non-Hindus coming into the mainstream, work and organization of the Sangh, policy of non-violence were discussed extensively. But Guru Golwalkar himself felt that Pandit Nehru had a specific thought about the Sangh, and he did not seem ready to change it in his mind. He did not think that Nehru would ever be able to think well about the Sangh.
Although S.R. Goyal’s book History in the Making: Nehru and the Nehru Era There is mention of a letter from Nehruji to Sardar Patel, when Nehru was on a visit to England. In this he had written that British MPs here in India are raising questions regarding the action against communists in India. Lady Edwina herself was also worried. Sangh people are being released from jail and communists are being sent to jail. Everyone knew Nehru’s inclination towards socialism and Marxism, but very few people knew that Edwina herself was a communist.
Here in many areas of today’s Maharashtra, the intentions of those who did not like the Sangh did not appear to be pure. He felt that if the Sangh was banned then the Sangh would surely come to an end, but the way the Sangh has emerged stronger after the ban was lifted, the applause like Guru Golwalkar has received, Sardar Patel and Pandit Nehru themselves are calling him to meet him, all chances of the Sangh coming to an end have ended and as long as Guru Golwalkar is alive, the Sangh will continue to grow.
There was a conspiracy to kill on the road between the fields
For this reason, they all had in mind that if Guru Golwalkar comes here during his visit, he will be dealt with, if it does not happen, then who can stop him from pelting stones and fighting in their own area? Some groups were busy planning attacks in areas like Miraj, Sangli, Kolhapur. When he reached Kolhapur, there were many demonstrations, his effigy was made and it was burnt. Crowds gathered at many places, but Guru Golwalkar continued to participate in his pre-determined programs peacefully. Even went to visit the temple of Mahalakshmi. The police remained alert and more so the volunteers, who knew that Guruji would refuse security just like he had done on the second day of Gandhi’s assassination. But neither had he obeyed Guruji then nor was he going to do so this time.
After that, Kolhapur officials dropped him in their vehicle till the border of their city. Next he had to go to Sangli. Despite all these arrangements, the crowd even pelted stones at that vehicle. The car of famous film director (Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner) Bhalji Pendherkar was standing to take him from Kolhapur to Sangli. Bhalji made his first film, ‘Bajirao Mastani’ in 1925. As usual, Guru Golwalkar sat in the front of the car with the driver and Baba Rao, the local pracharak, sat in the back seat.
At a place where Miraj meets Kolhapur-Sangli Road, some volunteers were waiting on bicycles. He told that a big crowd is hiding and waiting in the fields just before Sangli, they will stop your car and then attack. Those volunteers suggested that Guruji should sit in the back seat and a busload of volunteers should be behind his car. But Guru Golwalkar rejected this, saying, “No, the car will not stop, don’t worry, nothing will happen”.
It was Guruji’s order, so the car had to be taken. Babarao had explained to the driver that the car should not be stopped under any circumstances. As soon as the car reached Sangli, people suddenly started gathering on the road after coming out of the deserted fields on both sides. He was standing in the middle of the road in such a way that the car could not move forward without trampling him, if he had stopped the car he would have attacked Guruji. Babarao neither thought anything nor asked Guruji, he directly ordered the driver to increase the speed of the car, do not stop at all, no matter what happens. The crowd who were thinking that they would stop the car easily, now started getting really worried after seeing the speed of the car increasing. Perhaps the driver also felt that if he stopped, he too would die along with them. All this happened so fast and the atmosphere in the car was tense but Guru Golwalkar remained sitting quietly without speaking. Even so, the intentions of the crowd did not appear to be noble at all.
As soon as the car reached very close to the crowd, all the parts were released and the car rapidly passed through them. After that, by the time he reached Sangli, the news had reached there and everyone was happy to see him safe. Even in Sangli, people did not desist, and there were incidents of stone pelting at two or three places, but there was no major loss. Guru Golwalkar himself did not discuss this incident with anyone, neither said anything from the stage nor to the media.
Later, he wrote about this incident in ‘Purusharth’ magazine, and also wrote, “These are our own people, whom we have to serve. They can give us garlands of flowers as well as shoes. They can praise us as well as abuse us. The society can treat us very well or harshly, this is our test. One day they will be with us. Seeing our complete devotion, they will also accept to become our supporters. Society is the incarnation of Almighty God, and God has said that he is the servant of his worshippers, hence there is a need for us to prove ourselves as true worshippers.
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