Unsung RSS heroes of partition days-3

'There is no doubt that the RSS has served the Hindu society in times of crisis. In riot-torn areas where their help was needed, the youths of the Sangh protected the women and the children and did a lot for them. No one can doubt that the R.S.S. provided succour and safety to Hindus in times of difficulty.'

- Sardar Patel to Sri Guruji Golwalkar on 11 August, 1948.

In both West and East Pakistan, the Congress government and the Congress party had left the Hindus to the tender mercies of the Muslim League and the blood-thirsty Pakistani Army and police on the eve of Partition. Many of the local Congress leaders in these areas rushed back to Delhi from distant places like Karachi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore in the West and Dacca, Chittagong in the East, catching the first flight. In those turbulent times, only the Swayamsevaks of the Sangh came forward without any concern for their own families and risked everything to protect the fellow Hindus. Dare, Do and Die became the working slogan for all the Swayamsevaks of the RSS. This message was given to them by Sri Guruji Golwalkar, Sar Sanghchalak of the RSS.

Rao Bahadur Badri Das Devan Prant Sanghchalak, Punjab a forgotten RSS hero of 1947.

When the Muslim League declared the 'Direct Action Day' in August 1946, it became very clear that that party under Jinnah was already in a state of preparedness and combat readiness to wage war on a large scale against Hindus in India as a whole. And in the Punjab in particular the Muslim League had succeeded in gathering a private Army of its own to which training was imparted in fighting, stabbing and assault. Arms were collected and demobilised Muslim personnel of the Indian Army were freely enlisted in the Muslim League Army. This Army which was created in a small way in 1938, continued to expand and grow year after year, better equipped and trained. It had two famous organisations; one was the 'Muslim League Volunteer Corps' which was parallel to the Congress Seva Dal and the second was 'The Muslim National Guards'. As the then English Chief Secretary of the Punjab wrote in 1946: 'Every town with any Muslim population has a large proportion of its Muslim inhabitants who could only be counted as Riff-Raff, and who very often with the connivance of the black sheep among the Muslim elements in the police force, live on crime. Such unprincipled elements are the favourite recruiting ground for the Muslim League Volunteer Corps.' The Muslim National Guards was a private Army of Marauders, Murderers and Gangsters. Though this private army did not owe any formal allegiance to the Muslim League, yet it had the same flag as that of the Muslim League. The Muslim National Guards were the secret arm of the Muslim League. Its membership was secret and it had its own centres and headquarters.

The unit commander of the Muslim National Guards was known as 'SALAR,' over whom were higher officers, but all functioning secretly and with such instructions as would make them formidable in rioting against unarmed non-Muslim populations. Akhtar Hussain, Chief Secretary to the Punjab Government reported to the Governor of Punjab that the number of Muslim League National Guards in the province at that time exceeded 49,000. Thus the seeds of global Islamic terrorism in the 2nd half of the 20th century were sown in the districts of Rawalpindi and Campbellpore in Western Punjab (now in Pakistan) in the months preceding the Partition of India.

Thus, for the creation of a Muslim Nation, Jinnah and the Muslim League inculcated in the Muslims of India a creed of intolerance, arrogance and hatred. This trend of Islamic terrorism which was set in motion before India's independence and soon after partition, has been accentuated and aggravated in post-independent India under the benign umbrella of Nehru-sponsored Hindu-baiting pseudo-secularism and has touched new heights today.

Shri Khanchand Gopaldas with Shri Guruji, Shri Vasantrao, Shri Hansraj Gupta and others on reaching Delhi after his release from jail in Pakistan.

To go back to the soul-stirring midnight of 14/15 August, 1947. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had just sat down for dinner. His daughter Indira and a guest Padmaja Naidu were with him. Suddenly the phone in the study rang. Somebody from Lahore was on the line and he had terrible news to give. The water supply of all Hindu, Sikh localities in the old city of Lahore had been cut by the Muslim marauders. People were dying of thirst in the unbearable heat. If any woman or child ventured out of her house to beg for a pail of water, she or it was killed on the spot. More than one dozen localities of the city was on fire and the fire was getting out of control. The helpless and terrified voice on the phone was too much for Pandit Nehru. He came out and crumbled into a chair. His face went pale and he covered it with his hands. Then with eyes full of tears he looked at Indira and Padmaja Naidu and muttered in a low, gruff tone: 'How am I going to talk tonight? How am I going to pretend there is joy in my heart for India's independence when I know, our beautiful Lahore is burning?' I am quoting this from Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.

Two hours later on that day, Pandit Nehru made his famous Tryst with Destiny speech. He made no reference to the atrocities that were being let loose against the Hindus and other non-Muslims in West and East Pakistan at that time. For three days on 14, 15 and 16 August, Delhi gave itself up to unrestrained rejoicing. On all these three days, endless speeches were made by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Dr. Rajendra Prasad and the new Governor General Lord Mountbatten and functions and feasts were held. Not one of these so-called tall leaders had any word of sympathy or comfort for those unfortunate refugees who were on their way to India and who were getting attacked by the Muslims.

When such bumptious oral humbug was being dished out by the Congress Leaders in New Delhi, the Swayamsevaks of the RSS, under the inspiring leadership and clear and categorical instructions from Sri Guruji Golwalkar, Sar Sanghchalak of the RSS, were working round the clock in the riot-torn areas of West and East Pakistan to protect the fellow Hindus and other non-Muslims against the murderous attacks of Muslims. To help the refugees flowing into India as sudden flash floods, the Swayamsevaks opened up Relief Centres and Medical Centres in towns like Amristar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Jallandar, Ludiana, Karnal, Sonpet, Gurgaon and New Delhi. They provided food and shelter to lakhs of displaced fellow-countrymen for months together.

A N Bali, in his moving book Now It Can Be Told, gives an elevating account of the role Sri Guruji and the Swayamsevaks of the RSS played in those dark days: 'Non-violence and the advice given by Suchetha Kriplani, Mahatma Gandhi and Rajendra Prasad and Nehru to stay put where they were with the firm trust in God could only be given from a safe distance. Who else came to the rescue of the besieged people at this stage, but a band of young selfless Hindus, popularly known as the RSS?... 'When the situation on the eve of partition became very serious and law and order utterly broke down or it would be more correct to say, was now used only to suppress the Hindus and the Sikhs, several members of the RSS showed their proficiency in the use of fire weapons. It almost became a tit for tat. These RSS young men were the first to come to the help of the stricken Hindus and were the last to leave their places for safety in the East Punjab. I could name several Congress leaders of note in the various districts of Punjab who openly solicited the help of the RSS even for their own protection and the protection of their kith and kin. No request for help from any quarter was refused and there are cases which came to our notice, where the Muslim women and children were safely escorted out of the Hindu Mohallas and sent to Muslim League refugee centres in Lahore by the RSS men. 'Their discipline, their physical fitness and their selflessness in the face of dangers came to the rescue of the people in the Punjab when the whole province was burning.'

Against all this background, it should be clear that under the exalted leadership of Sri Guruji, all the Swayamsevaks of the RSS rose to supreme heights in the months preceding and after independence on 15 August, 1947 and naturally the people looked upon the Swayamsevaks as the ultimate saviours of the people. They showed unparalleled courage and capacity in saving many families. During those days, whenever Sri Guruji visited the RSS relief camps, the refugees prostrated themselves before him and declared with great passion: 'Indeed but for you, Sri Guruji, and the RSS we and our women and children would never have been saved. You and your Swayamsevaks have put us all in perpetual debt which can never be redeemed.'