In the era of independence, the Sangh had secretly supported many revolutionaries. In order to help a companion of Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh, Dr. Hedgewar could have such a case that the dreams he had had for the Sangh would have remained incomplete. This is also a story in these 100 years of RSS’s 100 years.
Since independence, India has been swinging between Mahatma Gandhi’s call for non-violence and the vision of weapons in the hands of almost every Hindu deity. In such a situation, the thinking of Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, the founder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was clear that there is no harm in taking up arms to provide self -defense and freedom to the country. This was the reason that during medical studies in Kolkata, Dr. Hedgewar joined the revolutionary organization like Anushilan Samiti. Their thinking emerges in the Sangh’s volunteers running punishment (sticks) for self-defense, imparting training of imprinted (judo-karate) etc. and starting the tradition of arms worship on Vijayadashami on the day of establishment.
RSS was secretly supporting many revolutionaries. Sukhdev also took the help of Dr. Hedgewar during his absconding days. But the assistance of a Ghadar revolutionary was such that he would not have tried that day by Dr. Hedgewar himself, due to a revolver, he would have been in jail for a long time and many senior companions of the Sangh.
The objective of the Sangh was very different from the Congress, but the secret help to the revolutionaries
All interesting stories are hidden in the history of the Sangh’s 100 years. During the time of Dr. Hedgewar, it was a era of the Sangh when he had to not only form an organization in Nagpur, but also to deliver it to every corner of the central province including Maharashtra. But it was not easy because the Congress and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh started in 1885 after forty years later. In its first 40 years, the Congress did not demand independence even once, but even if someone did it, it was silenced.
A similar proposal of Dr. Hedgewar was rejected at the 1920 Nagpur session. But the Sangh had to think about how India became the most powerful, rich country in the world after independence. So the Sangh decided that he has to work quietly for decades, only to create an organization, no big movement has to start before that. If the Congress used to agitate, then the volunteers were allowed that they could take the decision to participate in that movement themselves. But the Sangh could go to any extent in the matter of quietly assisting the revolutionaries.
In the first year, the branches of the Sangh had increased to 18 in Nagpur, but no system was being made for money. In such a situation, he was also assisted by a revolutionary friend who was found in Calcutta while working with Anushilan Samiti. Apart from Ganga Prasad Pandey, Gadar Kranti of Punjab, Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh’s HSRA were also connected. When Ganga Prasad became ill, in Hoshangabad, he came to the ashram of his younger brother Ram Prasad Pandey, who had been living a life for years. When more health deteriorated here, Ganga Prasad came to Wardha to his youngest brother Anandi, who used to work to send a message among the revolutionaries.
Here Ganga Prasad also used to live in disguise. But there were revolutionary, so we used to hide weapons like revolver. A friend had seen his revolver. One day when the news of robbery was seen at the nearby railway station, there was a revolver on the robbers. Due to the information with the friend, Ganga Prasad knew that there could be a mess, in such a situation, he remembered Dr. Hedgewar. Realizing the seriousness of the Dr. Hedgewar case, he left for Wardha from Nagpur the same night and reached the house of Appaji Joshi at half past eight in the night.
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Doctor Hedgewar had beaten the British spy
Appa ji was the secretary of Congress in Central Province in those days and was also a member of AICC. His house was also keeping an eye on government detectives. Both also had an idea of ​​this. Despite this, Dr. Hedgewar insisted and took Appaji Joshi to Ganga Prasad’s house at night. Dr. Hedgewar himself sat on a platform around the Neem tree close to his house and sent Appaji Joshi to bring weapons from him. Ganga Prasad came with him with his revolver and grabbed Dr. Hedgewar’s hand which suddenly fell down from his hand, he would be able to handle that in such a time, one of the dark people came out of the darkness and grabbed his hands and said that ‘caught’.
Doctors Hedgewar had sensed the danger, he immediately threw the revolver at Appaji Joshi and attacked the person. The lean thin man suddenly got nervous with this beating and started folding his hands to forgive me, I will not say anything to anyone. By then Appaji Joshi and Ganga Prasad Pandey had fled from there. Doctor Hedgewar showed both his hands to the government spy, said ‘My hands are empty, nothing is’. By then the detective had come in awe. After he left, Dr. Hedgewar reached Manohar Pant. Anandi stayed there for a few hours, making an excuse for Pandey’s illness and came back.
However, after the disclosure of Appaji Joshi’s collector and the railway station robbery, later, the collector also stopped spying on his espionage. But this is an example how Dr. Hedgewar had gone to such an extent to save the revolutionary Ganga Prasad Pandey, the companions of Ras Bihari Bose and Bhagat Singh, that they could be sent to jail for years after prosecution of both robbery and illegal weapons. And in such a situation, the RSS would be in trouble without going out of Nagpur. But later the same Ganga Prasad Pandey and his younger brother Anandi Pandey played a big role in strengthening the roots of the Sangh in Punjab.
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