Hedgewar: A Definitive Biography – The Companion Podcast

Hedgewar’s journey was coming to an end – and he knew it. In his final days, how did he lay the foundations for the RSS to continue on its path beyond his lifetime? Who, if anybody, could take forward his vision in the battles to come? 

As Hedgewar’s health declined, his world was on fire. The RSS was growing, but not fast enough to be the bulwark that Hindu society needed. How could it manage the three-pronged threat of Muslim nationalism, the stirrings of World War II that would further drain India’s resources, and a growing fallout with Savarkar?  

10 years after its inception, the RSS had grown but still could not accommodate half of India’s population: its women. In a time of rising tensions, this is the story of how one woman – Lakshmi Kelkar – changed this, and helped to propel Hedgewar’s movement forward. 

As the RSS continued to spread across India and build bonded social capital, it risked creating a Hindu ‘us’ opposed to a ‘them’. Yet Hedgewar was not creating a divisive patriotism, but a more open sense of desh bhakti that raised the Hindu community beyond caste and creed – catching the eye even of Gandhi himself. 

‘The RSS is fascist’ – a common refrain of contemporary academic discourse about it. But was it really so, or is the reality rather more messy? Hedgewar, with his emphasis on social capital, soon found himself at odds with Vinayak Savarkar and his brand of ethno-nationalism. 

Hindu society was being fractured from within, and nobody within the Congress was willing to stop it. Yet against the controversy over independent India’s national flag and the Congress’ continued support for separatist leaders, the RSS only continued to expand as a protective force in times of disorder and national betrayal. 

How did the nascent RSS combat its greatest challenge – itself? Hedgewar’s leadership and deep strategic thinking pulled his young organisation back from the brink of religious extremism and militancy, towards discipline and restraint, championed by a core of selfless and dedicated workers. 

With the British state receding, who would protect Hindus in a world increasingly riven by religious divisions? As tensions spilled over into the streets of Nagpur, it was to the RSS – Hedgewar’s new creation – that Hindu families looked to in their hour of need.  

The RSS had arrived: a movement that would outlast British rule, Hedgewar’s own life and become, 100 years later, the largest volunteer organisation in the world. Hedgewar’s answer to the fragmentation of Hindu society was to train individuals physically and mentally to create the social capital that would sustain India’s future. 

With his credentials as a pro-independence political leader established after his jail time, Hedgewar had a choice to make – should he seek political influence, or take the road less travelled and rebuild strength in the society around him? 

Hedgewar is put behind bars by the British for sedition – yet this hardly stopped him in his tracks. Throughout his year in prison, his mind constantly churned: what made the British so successful in ruling such a vast country, and what were Indians lacking?  

Hedgewar was losing faith in India’s political leaders. The Indian National Congress had split. Gandhi had tried to cover up the atrocities committed by Mappila Muslims in Kerala to please the Khilafat movement following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. In this crisis of faith and identity, what was Hedgewar to do? 

With the seeds of doubt about armed revolution growing in Hedgewar’s mind, he returned to Nagpur to start a new movement to coordinate the resistance against the British. But was the problem just the British, or were there divisions in Indian society that needed to be overcome before India could become free? 

Hedgewar attends medical school – but not to study! His time in Kolkata brought him in contact with the gun-runners and bomb-makers of the Anushilan Samiti, but also left him with new perspectives on British rule and the way forward for Hindu society. 

With the support of the well-connected Dr Moonjay, the young Hedgewar was exposed to ideas of power and strategy in his nationalist education, and began to understand the need for organisation and discipline that would shape the organisation he would go on to build. 

What made the young Hedgewar turn against British rule? This chapter journeys through the famines and plagues of the early twentieth century, and the systematic British exploitation of India’s resources that left a bright and restless young man an orphan with no faith in the system that governed him. 

What does a man’s childhood tell us about his life? This first chapter, ‘Roots’, explores the young Hedgewar’s upbringing in a deeply religious household at a time of social change, and the impact of his early English education on his later life.