Eminent economist S Gurumurthy, delivered a lecture on ‘Sri Guruji Golwalkar and Contemporary India’ at Shashwati Auditiorium of NMKRV College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, in which he said, “Shri Guruji Golwalkar was not a Guruji in the ordinary sense of the word, but was a profound and visionary thinker and philosopher. In order to understand him, we should stop being reverential to him but start studying him deeply. The more you study his views and how he lead the RSS during its most challenging times, you realize he was a great visionary who foresaw things to come and led with moral conviction and clarity.”
In the lecture, organised by Manthana, Bengaluru, he said “Sri Guruji and the RSS are synonymous as he shaped the organization and its philosophy and vision for decades during its formative years. Before the Khilafat movement and around 1940, there was a national consensus on many issues such as Hindu Nationalism, Hindu identity of Bharat and how cultural unity is the basis on which we should operate. Gandhiji, Nehru and even Communist leaders like RP Dutt agreed on the Hindu identity and civilizational values of Bharat.” added Gurumurthy.
“After, 1940 and then after Independence in 1947, Nehru and others started veering away from the consensus because of the rude shock of the Partition by following a strange type of secularism which made Hindu nationalism a bad word and the RSS and Guruji, communal. The assassination of Gandhiji also brought a lot of pressure on the RSS through maligning accusations. Guruji valiantly led the RSS and the Hindu society during these turbulent times. He was the lone dissenter who struggled to keep the pre-1940 consensus on Hindu identity of Bharat alive, while others deserted the same.” said S Gurumurthy.
But, posterity has proved Guruji’s views and vision to be valid and correct. Be it the fundamentalism project of Chicago University or the Supreme Court of India, their views on validity of Hindu Nation and Hindu Nationalism or Militant Hinduism being fig leaf, have echoed Guruji’s views. On cultural assimilation of religious minorities, Gandhiji and Guruji held convergent views.” said S Gurumurthy.
“The greatness of a person is how posterity treats him and his views. When Guruji passed away, he was honored by the Indian Parliament. His views on Bharat and the path we need to follow, China and global affairs have been vindicated. We need to study him deeply and realize the full import of his views on the contemporary challenges we face. That will be best and fitting tribute to Shri Guruji Golwalkar.” concluded S Gurumurthy.
