Dr. Keshava Baliram Hedgewar (April 1, 1889 - June 21 1940) was an Indian nationalist. He was the founder of RSS in 1925.
Hedgewar founded the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) at Nagpur in 1925. RSS began as an organisation promoting the Hindu Rashtra. It successfully crystallised the concept of Hinduism and Nationalism and has become largest volunteer organization in the world (source: BBC).
Hedgewar was sent to Kolkata by Moonje in 1910 to pursue his medical studies and unofficially joined secret revolutionary organisations like the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar in Bengal.
He became a part of the inner circle of the Anushilan Samiti to which very few had access. He was also a member of the Hindu Mahasabha till 1929. He was imprisoned for sedition in 1921 for one year and again for nine months in 1930. After his spell in prison he instructed the RSS to remain aloof from political activities including the salt satyagraha (1930), Quit India movement (1942) and the Naval mutiny (1946) in Mumbai and continue mainly as a social organisation.
The RSS was formed on Vijaya Dashami Day in 1925 in Nagpur. It focussed primarily Hindu youth. Hedgewar wanted Muslims to join the mainstream. Since Hindus formed the core of the country, Hedgewar felt that if they could be strong, then Muslims would drop their separatist agenda and live together with the majority community as a country. Guided by a great vision of national unity, he built the RSS from scratch. He travelled extensively to expand and consolidate the organisation.
According to Hedgewar "at the heart of Hindu culture is Hindu religion, and its noble ideas are from the Vedas". He also asserted that the diverse languages of India are offshoots of Sanskrit, the dialect of the gods and Aryans the enlightened race. (R Robinson, Biography of Golwalkar, Oxford University Press 1967).
Hedgewar emphasised character building and arousing pride among Hindus in their culture. Character building was through physical exercises, bodybuilding, sports This is because Hedgewar spoke of samskars or good things by which he hoped to refurbish the Hindu character to make it nationalistic and defend itself against the "threatening others", namely the British and the Muslims.
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