Historians associated with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have given great importance to the Nagpur riots of 1927. Many feel that these riots changed the thinking, direction and people’s faith in Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and RSS to a great extent. After the breakup of Khilafat-Congress friendship, according to a data, on an average 381 people were killed in riots every year for the next 10 years. In such a situation, Nagpur also did not remain untouched. The issues were objection to cow slaughter, objection to processions passing in front of the mosque with music, throwing meat etc. in temples etc. Before that, there is a need to know the ‘red advertisement’ of Muslim League also.
This red pamphlet distributed in the Dhaka convention read, “O Muslim brothers! Arise, wake up! Do not study with Hindus in the same school. Do not buy any goods from a Hindu shop. Do not touch any article made by Hindus. Do not give any employment to a Hindu. Do not accept any inferior position under the Hindus. You are illiterate, but if you acquire knowledge you can immediately send all the Hindus to hell. You are in majority in this province. Hindus.” He has become rich only by snatching away your wealth. If you develop enough awareness then Hindus will die of hunger and will soon become Muslims.
In such a situation, after the riots in Nagpur in 1923, the Hindu Mahasabha called for the adoption of this weapon, appealed not to buy goods from Muslims, and some people even organized a bandh in anger. Such appeals still happen today, and often make no difference. Two years later, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was established in the same city. Gradually, its form started being decided, what posts there would be, what uniform there would be, student volunteers would be sent to study in other cities so that Sangh work could be started in other cities also. But in 1924, 18 riots took place across the country, the next year only 16 remained, but in 1926, 35 riots took place and its impact was visible in Nagpur also. Sangh workers also started getting pressured to provide security to Hindu settlements. There were constant reports that groups of Muslims would come from outside and attack. Here the local Muslims used to explain to the other castes that our fight is only with the Brahmins, who have appealed for our economic boycott.
These were the ‘Super Seven’ of the Sangh.
Under the leadership of Hedgewar, the Sangh did many things. Firstly, he raised money to start a weekly in the memory of Swami Shraddhanand in his name in Mumbai, and also helped in opening an orphanage in his name. Then amidst the tension some more incidents happened, Dr. Hedgewar started receiving threatening letters, stones were also pelted at his house, so from the next night the volunteers started keeping guard. One day a Hindu girl was abducted by some Muslims, such incidents had happened earlier also. Then the Sangh formed a group of 7 senior officers, which included Hedgewar, Govindarao Cholkar, Ramchandra Koshti, Bhauji Kavre, Anna Sohoni, Balaji Sakhdev and Krishna Joshi. All seven had the same uniform. Black cap, white shirt, khaki jacket and a dhoti. He had such an impact that the girl was brought back from the Muslim area. The presence of these seven had a great impact in every difficult situation. During this period, the Association’s Summer Class (OTC) was organized in the summer. Hedgewar’s house, where he was busy in class, was pelted with stones and even burning pillows were thrown.
When Dr. Hedgewar received Khukri as a birthday gift
In those days, the informal topic of people associated with the Sangh was that when the king is a foreigner, his police are engaged in surveillance instead of protecting the citizens or in making goods for themselves and the officials, then should one quietly die in front of the crowd of rioters? In such a situation, Arjun Karna dialogue in Geeta and Aapdha Dharma written in the scriptures were also discussed. Should they take the girls away and should we continue to preach the path of non-violence or at least take up arms to respect our mothers and sisters? Although Anna Sohoni’s job was to give training to the volunteers in sticks etc., but as the danger of riots had increased and the police seemed inactive during the British rule, she also set up a small arms factory at her house, where she started making Khukris, knives, swords etc. On the birthday of Dr. Hedgewar, a Khukri was also presented to him for his safety. However, no one saw her again. The interesting thing was that many Sangh workers like Appaji Joshi also had direct posts in Congress, but during this period they too were not ready to accept Gandhiji’s mantra of non-violence as self-defense.
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After the class ended, in the months of June and July, activities suddenly increased in Muslim areas, they started forming groups and going to Hindu areas. On the day of Eid, when Munje received a threatening letter, everyone went to his house to provide security. Dr. Hedgewar started receiving information that Muslims were sending their wives and children out of there and outsiders were beginning to gather there. Here Dr. Hedgewar was engaged in eradicating caste discrimination, he used to tell everyone that we are not Brahmins, Mahars, Marathas but 35 crore Hindus… If we remain united then no one will think of attacking, hence there will be no violence. But he knew that in order to fight with arms, he would have to take up arms, so he was more in touch with the volunteers of the areas of Nagpur where there was greater possibility of attack.
Conspiracy of procession with weapons on the day of Lakshmi Puja
It was the last week of August. Mahalakshmi festival was being celebrated throughout Marathwada during Ganeshotsav. Muslims knew that this time too there would be processions, so this time there were preparations to teach them a lesson. There were preparations for protest. Meanwhile, it was announced from the Muslims that on September 4, a program will be organized with a big procession on the completion of three years of the death of Syed Mir Saheb, who passed away three years ago. An appeal was made to all Muslims to attend, and thousands of Muslims from nearby cities started gathering at Nawabpura Masjid. That is, it was not the day of any Muslim festival, rather some Muslim leaders had deliberately prepared to throw the entire society into the fire of riots.
Every year during Ganeshotsav, Dr. Hedgewar used to go to nearby cities to participate in programs. So this day he was out. Perhaps due to this, the enthusiasm of those Muslim leaders was high. But his preparations were already complete. The volunteers had started gathering at Mohite Wada from 12 o’clock in the day, several hundred volunteers had reached there with full force. Anna Sohoni was given the responsibility to deal with any untoward incident that day. British police officers had an idea that if foreign Muslims were coming on such a large scale, the incident of three years ago could be repeated, but they did not take any action to stop it. Here Anna Sohoni had started deploying 16 battalions of volunteers, one of which was also at BS Munje’s house.
Didn’t follow the law of not carrying weapons in the procession
As expected, it happened; there was no discipline in the procession of Muslims with slogans of Allahu Akbar. Only after the riots in Calcutta in 1926, the British government had issued an order that one cannot carry weapons, play music or raise slogans in Muharram processions. But hundreds of swords, Khukris and knives were waving in the procession in Nagpur. After coming to Munje’s house, it seemed as if he went mad, but seeing the police standing silently, the volunteers themselves started taking charge. The organizers of the Muslim procession had no idea of ​​Anna Sohoni’s preparations. Clashes continued throughout the city for 3 days. The areas which Muslim leaders considered weak proved to be the strongest. For the first time, Hindus of Nagpur showed unity.
The first volunteer to be martyred fighting the rioters!
The Muslim mob also attacked a Hindu funeral procession, but people could no longer tolerate it and came together to take revenge. But in the same clash, a Hindu volunteer Dhundiraj Lahgaonkar was killed by the rioters. This was probably the first time that someone had killed a Sangh volunteer. After that, the anger of the Hindus flared up even more, then for the first time the British Army came into action and when the Muslim men fled from the city, their wives and children were taken to a safe place.
When Dr. Hedgewar received the information, he immediately returned to Nagpur, it was the afternoon of the third day. Everyone refused, but he did not agree and walked alone from the empty station to his home. Many Hindus were killed, some volunteers also went to their homes and consoled them. Later the riots ended, but there were no riots again in Nagpur till independence. After that the respect of Hedgewar and Sangh increased among the Hindu community. People started inviting him to every auspicious function, started joining the branches, the influence of the Sangh increased rapidly and he started being discussed in the entire country. The message was sent that if Hindus come out of casteism and unite, then no other community can attack them. Even if he attacks, he will get a reply. However, today the police, law and courts are more active than the inactive institutions of that time. But at that time everything for Hindus depended on Sangh or Ram.
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