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I Hindu Nationalists and Italian Fascism

II Moonje’s Plans for Militarising Hindus

III Eve of Second World War

IV Savarkar and Nazism

V Waiting for the Right Enemy

VI Conclusions

Notes

[My stay in India for collecting material for the present paper was made a lot easier and more profitable by Partha Sarathi Gupta. T R Sareen, A R Kulkarni and Bhanu Kapil. While writing this paper in Italy I was able to count on Michelguglielmo Torri's criticisms and suggestions, which forced me to considerably rework my first draft. I wish to warmly thank all of them for their help and friendship. Of course, the usual disclaim stands that I am the only one responsible for the contents of and any error left in this article.]

1 In the following pages I will treat the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS as two different organisations, belonging to the same political milieau. This, in spite of the attempt made by the BJP or RSS oriented intellectuals and scholars to deny, or at least to minimise any reciprocal affinity between the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha. Speaking about a topic ,shich has nothing to do with the relations between the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, I will indirectly show that the two organisations shared a specific ideological background.

2 Regarding this aspect, Jaffrelot asserts that "As distinct from Nazism, the RSS's ideology treats society as an organism with a secular spirit, which is implanted not so much in the race as in a socio-cultural system ... Finally, in contrast to both Italian fascism and Nazism the RSS does not rely on the central figure of the leader" (op cit, pp 63-64).

3 The details mentioned in the text are in Kesari, May 13, 1924, June 24, November 10 and 24, 1925. I will just summarise the content of the articles, having had this material translated from Marathi by a young Indian colleague of mine.

4 The article quotes a speech of Mussolini, without specifying its date.

5 Regarding this aspect, see Paolo Beonio Brocchieri and Giorgio Borsa(eds), Garibaldi, Mazzini e il Risorgimento nel risveglio dell'Asia e dell'Africa (Garibaldi, Mazzini and the Italian Risorgimento in the awakening of Asia and Africa), Franco Angeli, Milan, 1984.

6 Unfortunately there is no Italian report of the meeting, not even among the prime minister's papers. But there are the routine papers, recording Moonje's request for an audience, dated March 16, 1931 and the response of the cabinet of the minister of the external affairs, dated March 18: Archivio Storico Ministero degli Affari Esteri (Historical Archives Ministry of External Affairs ASMAE). Rome, Udienze (Audiences), 193(-33, bundle 27, letter from the British Embassy in Rome, to the Ministry of External Affairs, March 16, 1931 and reply from the cabinet of the minister, n 1102, March 18,1931. The British authorities in Rome managed Moonje's audience.

7 It was indeed Moonje who brought up the young Hedgewar in his own house and, later sent him to Calcutta, officially to study at the National Medical College, but with the secret aim to get in touch with the revolutionary organisations in Bengal (B V Deshpande and S R Ramaswamy, Dr Hedgewar the Epoch-Maker, Sahitya Sindhu, Bangalore, 1981, pp 14-32).

8 The Mahratta, April 12, 1931, 'Dr B S Moonje on Round Table Conference'. Special Interview for The Mahratta, paragraph entitled 'National Militia'. A report of Moonje's tour of Europe is in M N Ghatate, 'Dr B S Moonje - Tour of European Countries' in N G Dixit (ed), Dharmaveer Dr B S Moonje. Commemoration Volume. Birth Centenary Celebration 1872-1972, Nagpur, 1972, p 68.

9 Moonje was interested in the problem of military education already by the end of 1920s. He was in favour of Indianisation of the army. In 1927 he worked at the foundation of the Aeroclub of India, while in 1929 he was a member of the commission for the selection of candidates to Sandhurst Military Academy. In the same year he founded the Rifle Association in Nagpur (see correspondence in NMML, Moonje papers, microfilm, Letters, rn 7, 1926-28).

10 References to the above-mentioned activities of the Italian consulates in Bombay are in Giovanni Gentile Foundation, Rome, Cor- respondence from third parties to Gentile, f Carelli Mario, undated letter, certainly written on June 29, 1938 and letter dated October 11, 1938.

11 The articles are in the issues of July 6, August 10 and July 27, 1939 respectively: Central State Archives (ACS), Minculpop (Ministry of Popular Culture), b 17 bis, f 26, Gran Bretagna, subfile 14, R Consolato Bombay (Royal Consulate Bombay), report n 1904/St 3, August 4, 1939, from Italian Consulate, Bombay, to the Ministry of Popular Culture A copy of Carelli's article is in MSA, Home Special Dept, 830 (I) 1939.

12 "Di idee fasciste, ha fondato un'organizzazione da lui chiamata 'Iron Guards' prendendo a modello le nostre, ma adattandole alle peculiari condizioni dell'India. Egli e i suoi amici vestivano la camicia nera: le prime camicie nere dell'India. Lo sviluppo di questa organizzazionee stato compromesso dallo scoppio della guerra": ACS, Minculpop, 17 bis, cit, report n 2298/St 3, from Italian Consulate, Bombay, October 4, 1939, to the Ministry of Popular Culture.

13 It seems, moreover, that Hedgewar was deeply influenced by the ideas expressed in Savarkar's Hindutva. When Hedgewar decided to found his organisation, he went to Ratnagiri to meet Savarkar, in order to obtain from him suggestions and advice. Subsequently, during Sarvarkar's internment in Ratnagiri, Hedgewar had continuously been in touch with Babarao Savarkar. See, respectively, Deshpande- Ramaswamy, op cit, p 65 and 74; Walter K Andersen, Shridhar D Damle, The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya Swavamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism, Vistaar Publications, New Delhi, 1987, p 33; Dhananjay Keer, VeerSavarkarand His Time, Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 1988, pp 170- 71. Among Hedgewar papers, in Nagpur, I found several letters exchanged between Hedgewar and Babarao Savarkar, who was closely connected to the RSS.

14 On several occasions, after having been released, Savarkar congratulated "the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh of Dr Hedgewar of Nagpur on its work and discipline". At the 'guru purnima' celebrated by the RSS on July 29, 1939, Savarkar gave a speech to approximately 5,000 people, while several years later, during the RSS officers' training camp (OTC) which took place in Pune during May 27 to 29, 1943, in the presence of Golwarkar, Babarao Savarkar, B S Moonje and about 5,000 people, the former president of the Hindu Mahasabha expressed his pleasure to see the display by swayamsevaks in great number and said that he was "proud to see the branches of the Sangh spread throughout India during his visits to various places...He was pleased to see the Hindu youths, boys and girls,joining the institutions, based on Hinduism, in great number". Militants had also the habit of collecting donations for their leader. In August 1937 in Pune, the local Hindu militants and sympathisers offered him Rs 250. Several years later, on the occasion of Savarkar's 61st birthday, considerable donations were collected by the exponents of the Hindu organisations Savarkar visited during one of his propaganda tours. At the above-mentioned OTC camp, where Savarkar celebrated his birthday, Rs 1,80,000 had been collected by Hindu organisations, Pune municipality, and private citizens. Respectively in MSA, Home Special Dept, 60 D (g) Pt II, 1937, Extract from the Bombay Secret Abstract for week ending January 15, 1938, entitled 'Hindu Affairs' and 'Summary report of the meeting held in the Tilak Smarak Mandir on behalf of Poona students', August 3, 1937; Maharashtra State Archives (MSA), Home Special Dept, 60 D (g) Pt III, 1938, 'Extract from the Bombay Province weekly letter No 31, dated August 5,1939'; MSA, Home Special Department, 1009 III 1942, police report entitled 'A summary report of the concluding ceremony of the Officers' Training Camp of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, at Poona on the May 27, 1943' and note from the Home Department Special, dated June 10, 1943.

15 NMML, Savarkar papers, microfilm, rn 23, part 2, Miscellaneous Correspondence January 1938-May 1939, 'Press Note issued by the Hindu Mahasabha Office Bombay Branch', undated A summary of Savarkar's speech is also in MSA, Bombay, Home Special Department, 60 D (g) Pt III 1938, 'Extract from the weekly confidential report of the District Magistrate, Poona, dated the August 11, 1938'. The Italian consul in Calcutta sent to the ministry of external affairs in Rome an accurate abstract of an article about Savarkar's speech, reported in Ananda Bazar Patrika of August 3. The abstract is entitled 'Critiche al viaggio di Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in Europa' (Critiques of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's trip to Europe), in ASMAE Affari Politici (Political Affairs AP), India, b 7, 1938, resoconto della stampa indiana (summary of the Indian press), enclosure to express telegram n 3489/46, from Italian Consulate, Calcutta, August 12, 1938, to the ministry of external affairs.

16 Immediately after the great anti-Jewish pogrom of November 9, 1938, known as 'Crystal night', the Congress expressed its condem- nation of the German policy with the declaration of December 12, and subsequently supported the concession of asylum in India to the Jews. Regarding this matter, see Milan Hauner, India in Axis Strategy: Germany, Japan and Indian Nationalists in the Second World War, Klett-Cotta Stuttgart, 1981, p 67.

17 A summary of the presidential speech is in Bombay Chronicle of December 29, 1939.

18 Hindutva had been written clandestinely during Savarkar's detention at the Andamans, sent to India secretly in 1917 and published underground in 1923.

19 Savarkar, as well as most of the militants belonging to his milieu, considered the Indian Muslims either as successors of the Mughal invaders, or as original Hindus who were forcibly converted to Islam. In any case, according to the main ideologues of political Hinduism the pole of attraction of Indian Muslims was outside India and Hindu system of values. Not only was Islam a 'foreign' religion, which had its main institutions outside India, but the Indian Muslims were, according to Savarkar and his companions, more interested in creating a separate nation, instead of recognising India as their homeland. Apart from the fact that this must have not been the attitude of most of Indian Muslims, militant Hindus had exaggerated claims towards the Muslims. For militant Hindus it was not sufficient that Indian Muslims considered themselves first Indians and secondly Muslims, as most of them probably did. According to the Hindu fundamentalists, indeed, Muslims should conform themselves to the Hindu system of values, which was, of course, unacceptable.

20 An article entitled 'The Savarkar Method of rejuvenation of the Hindudom: New Drive in Hindu Thought and Action', published in The Mahratta of January 6, 1939 repeated the opinions already expressed by Savarkar in the speech of December 11, 1938.

21 April 28, 1939, 'Why Italy Invaded Albania?', May 26, 'How Germany's National Socialism Arose?' and 'Inciting Mussolini against Hitler', May 19 and June 2, 'Germany-Rome Axis Strengthened' and 'German-Italian Pact Concluded: Reaction to Encirclement Policy'. At p 51 of his book, Jaffrelot quotes some articles in favour of Franco, Mussolini and Hitler published by the Hindu Outlook of November 2 and 30, 1938 and The Mahratta, of November 6, 1939.

22 To the two letters, dated March 7 and August 11, 1938 respectively, there is a reference in NMML, Savarkar papers, microfilm, r n 23, letter dated May 23, 1938 from the secretary, Hindu Mahasabha, Bombay Office to Rash Behari Bose; unsigned letter dated August 11 to the editor of The Mahratta, Gajantrao Ketkar; August 18 from J D Malekar, secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha to Rash Behari Bose.

23 Copy of the press note containing the text of the speech had been sent also to Rash Behari, so that he would not only publish, but also show it to the Japanese government: NMML, Savarkar papers, rn 23, cit, letter from the secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha to Rash Behari Bose, November 4, 1938.

24 NMML, ibid, letter from Malekar to Leszczynski, December 7, 1938 and reply, December 9, 1938. At the ministry of external affairs, in Rome, among the papers from the cabinet of the ministry, I could find a copy of Savarkar's The Indian War of Independence of 1857: it is not possible to establish if the book arrived in Italy during this period, before, or later. We are, however, allowed to suppose that Savarkar was not totally unknown to the Italian authorities: ASMAE, Gab 409, b3.

25 In favour of this thesis are: (1) Vikram Savarkar, Vinayak's grandson, whom I met in Bombay in March 1997; (2) Vishvas Savarkar, author of a script entitled 'Veer Savarkar INA's Source of Inspiration', in Savarkar, commemoration volume published by Savarkar Darshan Pratisthan, Bombay, 1989, pp 147-51. In the same volume; (3) Shivramu (pseud), 'Savarkar's Role in The British Quitting India', pp 183-88; (4) D Keer, op cit, p 257; (5) N B Khare, Political Memoirs, Nagpur, 1959, p 52; (6) U Mukherjee, op cit, pp 159-60; (7) S V Bhalerao, Savarkar: His Socio- Political Thought and Leadership, a PhD thesis submitted to the Nagpur University, faculty of social sciences, p 234-35.

26 Regarding the collaborationist attitude of the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS, see D R Goyal, Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, Radha Krishna Prakashan, New Delhi, 1979, p 86.

27 NMML, Savarkar papers, microfilm, rn 24. Unfortunately, the photocopies of this document have never been mailed to me by the staff. I could only summarise from my notes, instead of quoting the original text.

Hindutva's Foreign Tie-up in the 1930s

Archival Evidence

To understand militant Hinduism, one must examine its domestic roots as well as foreign influence. In the 1930s Hindu nationalism borrowed from European fascism to transform 'different' people into 'enemies'. Leaders of militant Hinduism repeatedly expressed their admiration for authoritarian leaders such as Mussolini and Hitler and for the fascist model of society. This influence continues to the present day. This paper presents archival evidence on the would-be collaborators.

By Marzia Casolari

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Jan. 22-28, 2000, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Jan. 22-28, 2000), pp. 218-228

'Fascist' was in Sumit Sarkar's words, "till the other day a mere epithet" ('The Fascism of the Sangh Parivar', Economic and Political Weekly, January 30, 1993, p 163). It has come to define the ideology and practice of the Hindu militant organisations. It is a common place, accepted by their opponents, as well as by those who have a critical, but not necessarily negative, view of Hindu fundamentalism. Defining the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and, in general, the organisations of militant Hinduism I as undemocratic, with authoritarian, paramilitary, radical, violent tendencies and a sympathy for fascist ideology and practice, has been a major concern for many politically oriented scholars and writers. This has been the case with the literature which started with Gandhi's assassination and continues up to the present day with works such as Amartya Sen's India at Risk (The New York Review of Books, April 1993) and Christophe Jaffrelot's The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India (Viking, New Delhi, 1996), the latest book published on the subject, or the well known Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags (Orient Longman, New Delhi, 1993), which came out soon after the destruction of the Babri masjid. As a result, the fascist ideological background of Hindu fundamentalism is taken for granted, never proved by systematic analysis. This is an outcome that is, to a certain extent, explained by the fact that most of the above-mentioned authors are political scientists and not historians.

It is a fact that many of those who witnessed the growth of Hindu radical forces in the years around the second world war were already convinced of the Sangh's fascist outlook. Particularly acute was the perception that the Congress had of these organisations and their character. There is no need to mention the already well known opinion of Nehru, who, right from the beginning, had pointed at these organisations as communalist and fascist.

Less well known is the fact that, as shown by a confidential report circulated within the Congress most probably at the time of the first ban of the RSS, after Gandhi's assassination, the similarity between the character of the RSS and that of fascist organisations was already taken for granted. In fact, the report itself states that the RSS

...Started in Nagpur some sort of Hindu Boys Scout movement. Gradually it developed into a communal militarist organisation with violent tendencies.

The RSS has been purely Maharashtrian brahmin organisation. The non-brahmin Maharashtrians who constitute the bulk of C P and Maharashtra have no sympathy with it.

Even in the other provinces the chief organisers and whole-time workers will be found to be inevitably Maharashtrian brahmins.

Through the RSS the Maharashtrian brahmins have been dreaming of establishing in India 'a Peshwa Raj' after the withdrawal of Britishers. The RSS flag is the Bhagwa Flag of the Peshwas - Maharashtrian rulers [who] were the last to be conquered by the British - and after the termination of British rule in India, the Maharashtrians should be vested with political powers.

The RSS practises secret and violent methods which promote 'fascism'. No regard is paid to truthful means and constitutional methods.

There is no constitution of the organisation; its aims and objects have never been clearly defined. The general public is usually told that its aim is only physical training, but the real aims are not conveyed even to the rank and file of the RSS members. Only its 'inner circle' is taken into a confidence.

There are no records or proceedings of the RSS organisation, no membership registers are maintained. There are also no records of its income and the expenditure. The RSS is thus strictly secret as regards its organisation. It has consequently... (National Archives of India (NAI), Sardar Patel Correspondence, microfilm, reel no 3, 'A Note on the RSS', undated). Unfortunately the document stops abruptly here, but it contains enough evidence of the reputation the RSS already had by the late 1940s.

This document, however, is by no means exceptional. An accurate search of the primary sources produced by the organisations of Hindu nationalism, as well as by their opponents and by the police, is bound to show the extent and the importance of the connections between such organisations and Italian fascism. In fact the most important organisations of Hindu nationalism not only adopted fascist ideas in a conscious and deliberate way, but this happened also because of the existence of direct contacts between the representatives of the main Hindu organisations and fascist Italy.

To demonstrate this, I will reconstruct the context from which arose the interest of Hindu radicalism in Italian fascism right from the early 1920s. This interest was commonly shared in Maharashtra, and must have inspired B S Moonje's trip to Italy in 1931. The next step will be to examine the effects of that trip, namely how B S Moonje tried to transfer fascist models to Hindu society and to organise it militarily, according to fascist patterns. An additional aim of this paper is to show how, about the end of the 1930s, the admiration for the Italian regime was commonly shared by the different streams of Hindu nationalism and the main Hindu leaders.

Particular attention will be devoted to the attitude adopted by the main Hindu organisations during the second world war. During those crucial years, Hindu nationalism seemed to uneasily oscillate between a conciliatory attitude towards the British, and a sympathy for the dictators. This is in fact far from surprising because - as will be shown - in those years, militant Hindu organisations were preparing and arming themselves to fight the so-called internal enemies, rather than the British.

More generally, the aim of this paper is to disprove Christophe Jaffrelot's thesis that there is a sharp distinction between nazi and fascist ideology on one side and RSS on the other as far as the concept of race and the centrality of the leader are concerned.^2

I. Hindu Nationalists and Italian Fascism

None of the works mentioned above, Jaffrelot's included, deals with what I consider a most important problem, namely, the existence of direct contacts between the representatives of the fascist regime, including Mussolini and Hindu nationalists. These contacts demonstrate that Hindu nationalism had much more than an abstract interest in the ideology and practice of fascism.

The interest of Indian Hindu nationalists in fascism and Mussolini must not be considered as dictated by an occasional curiosity, confined to a few individuals, rather, it should be considered as the culminating result of the attention that Hindu nationalists, especially in Maharashtra, focused on Italian dictatorship and its leader. To them, fascism appeared to be an example of conservative revolution. This concept was discussed at length by the Marathi press, right from the early phase of the Italian regime.

From 1924 to 1935 Kesari regularly published editorials and articles about Italy, fascism and Mussolini. What impressed the Marathi journalists was the socialist origin of fascism and the fact that the new regime seemed to have transformed Italy from a backward country to a first class power. Indians could not know, then, that, behind the demagogic rhetoric of the regime, there was very little substance.

Moreover, the Indian observers were convinced that fascism had restored order in a country previously upset by political tensions. In a series of editorials, Kesari described the passage from liberal government to dictatorship as a shift from anarchy to an orderly situation, where social struggles had no more reason to exist.^3 The Marathi newspaper gave considerable space to the political reforms carried out by Mussolini, in particular the substitution of the election of the members of parliament with their nomination (ibid, January 17, 1928) and the replacement of parliament itself with the Great Council of Fascism. Mussolini's idea was the opposite of that of democracy and it was expressed by the dictator's principle, according to which 'one man's government is more useful and more binding' for the nation than the democratic institutions (ibid, July 17, 1928).%4 Is all this not reminiscent of the principle of 'obedience to one leader' ('ek chalak anuvartitva') followed by the RSS?

Finally, a long article of August 13, 1929, 'Italy and the Young Generations', stated that the Italian young generation had succeeded the old one to lead the country. That had resulted in the 'fast ascent of Italy in every field'. The article went on to describe at length the organisation of the Italian society according to fascist models. The principal reasons of the discipline of the Italian youths were strong religious feelings, widespread among the population, attachment to the family, and the respect of traditional values: no divorce, no singles, no right to vote for women, whose only duty was to sit at home, by the fireplace. The article focused then on the fascist youth organisations, the Balilla and the Avanguardisti.

One may wonder how the Indian journalists could be so well informed about what was going on in Italy. Very possibly, among their sources there was a pamphlet in English, published by an Italian editor in 1928, entitled The Recent Laws for the Defence of the State (copy in NAI, Foreign and Political Department, 647G, 1927). Emphasised, right from the beginning, was the importance of the National Militia, defined as "the bodyguard of the revolution". The booklet continued with the description of the restrictive measures adopted by the regime: a ban on the "subversive parties", limitations to the press, expulsion of "disaffected persons" from public posts, and, finally, the death sentence.

Significantly, the shift from the liberal phase to fascism is described by the pamphlet in strikingly similar terms to those employed by the above-mentioned articles:

This step [the shift to fascism] has struck a death blow to the thread-bare theories of Italian liberalism, according to which the sovereign state must observe strict neutrality towards all political associations and parties. This theory explains why in Italy the ship of state was drifting before the wind, ready to sink in the vortex of social dissolution or to be wrecked on the rocks of financial disaster.

Another inspiring source of the literature published in Kesari must have been the work by D V Tahmankar, the correspondent of the Marathi newspaper from London and admirer of the Italian dictator. In 1927 Tahmankar published a book entitled Muslini ani Fashismo, (Mussolini and Fascism), a biography of the dictator, with several references to the organisation of the fascist state, to the fascist social system, to the fascist ideology, and to Italy's recent past. An entire chapter, the last, was devoted to description of fascist society and its institutions, especially the youth organisations.

One can easily come to the conclusion that, by the late 1920s, the fascist regime and Mussolini had considerable popularity in Maharashtra. The aspects of fascism which appealed most to Hindu nationalists were, of course, both the militarisation of society and what was seen as the real transformation of society, exemplified by the shift from chaos to order. The anti-democratic system was considered as a positive alternative to democracy which was seen as a typically British value.

Such literature made an implicit comparison between fascism and the Italian Risorgimento. The latter's influence on Indian nationalism, both moderate and radical, is well known.^5 However, whereas the Risorgimento appealed to both moderates and extremists, fascism appealed only to the radicals, who considered it as the continuation of the Risorgimento and a phase of the rational organisation of the state.

The first Hindu nationalist who came in contact with the fascist regime and its dictator was B S Moonje, a politician strictly related to the RSS. In fact, Moonje had been Hedgewar's mentor, the two men were related by an intimate friendship. Moonje's declared intention to strengthen the RSS and to extend it as a nationwide organisation is well known. Between February and March 1931, on his return from the round table conference, Moonje made a tour of Europe, which included a long stop-over in Italy. There he visited some important military schools and educational institutions. The highlight of the visit was the meeting with Mussolini. An interesting account of the trip and the meeting is given in Moonje's diary, and takes 13 pages (Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), Moonje papers, microfilm, m 1).^6

The Indian leader was in Rome during March 15 to 24, 1931. On March 19, in Rome, he visited, among others, the Military College, the Central Military School of Physical Education, the Fascist Academy of Physical Education, and, most important, the Balilla and Avanguardisti organisations. These two organisations, which he describes in more than two pages of his diary, were the keystone of the fascist system of indoctrination - rather than education - of the youths. Their structure is strikingly similar to that of the RSS. They recruited boys from the age of six, up to 18: the youths had to attend weekly meetings, where they practised physical exercises, received paramilitary training and performed drills and parades.

According to the literature promoted by the RSS and other Hindu fundamentalist organisations and parties, the structure of the RSS was the result of Hedgewar's vision and work. However Moonje played a crucial role in moulding the RSS along Italian (fascist) lines. The deep impression left on Moonje by the vision of the fascist organisation is confirmed by his diary:

The Balilla institutions and the conception of the whole organisation have appealed to me most, though there is still not discipline and organisation of high order. The whole idea is conceived by Mussolini for the military regeneration of Italy. Italians, by nature, appear ease-loving and non-martial like the Indians generally. They have cultivated, like Indians, the work of peace and neglected the cultivation of the art of war. Mussolini saw the essential weakness of his country and conceived the idea of the Balilla organisation...Nothing better could have been conceived for the military organisation of Italy...The idea of fascism vividly brings out the conception of unity amongst people...India and particularly Hindu India need some such institution for the military regeneration of the Hindus: so that the artificial distinction so much emphasised by the British of martial and non-martial classes amongst the Hindus may disappear. Our institution of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh of Nagpur under Dr Hedgewar is of this kind, though quite independently conceived. I will spend the rest of my life in developing and extending this Institution of Dr Hedgewar all throughout the Maharashtra and other provinces.

He continues describing drills and uniforms:

I was charmed to see boys and girls well dressed in their naval and military uniforms undergoing simple exercises of physical training and forms of drill.

Definitely more meaningful is the report of the meeting with Mussolini. On the same day, March 19, 1931 at 3 pm, in Palazzo Venezia, the headquarters of the fascist government, he met the Italian dictator. The meeting is recorded in the diary on March 20, and it is worth reproducing the complete report.

...As soon as I was announced at the door, he got up and walked up to receive me. I shook hands with him saying that I am Dr Moonje. He knew everything about me and appeared to be closely following the events of the Indian struggle for freedom. He seemed to have great respect for Gandhi. He sat down in front of me on another chair in front of his table and was conversing with me for quite half an hour. He asked me about Gandhi and his movement and pointedly asked me a question "If the Round Table Conference will bring about peace between India and England". I said that if the British would honestly desire to give us equal status with other dominions of the Empire, we shall have no objection to remain peacefully and loyally within the Empire; otherwise the struggle will be renewed and continued. Britain will gain and be able to maintain her premier position amongst the European Nation (sic) if India is friendly and peaceful towards her and India cannot be so unless she is given Dominion Status on equal terms with other Dominions. Signor Mussolini appeared impressed by this remark of mine. Then he asked me if I have visited the University. I said I am interested in the military training of boys and have been visiting the Military Schools of England, France and Germany. I have now come to Italy for the same purpose and I am very grateful to say that the Foreign Office and the War Office have made good arrangements for my visiting these schools. I just saw this morning and afternoon the Balilla and the Fascist Organisations and I was much impressed. Italy needs them for her development and prosperity. I do not see anything objectionable though I have been frequently reading in the newspapers not very friendly criticisms about them and about your Excellency also. Signor Mussolini: What is your opinion about them? Dr Moonje: Your Excellency, I am much impressed. Every aspiring and growing Nation needs such organisations. India needs them most for her military regeneration. During the British Domination of the last 150 years Indians have been waved away from the military profession but India now desires to prepare herself for undertaking the responsibility for her own defence and I am working for it. I have already started an organisation of my own, conceived independently with similar objectives. I shall have no hesitation to raise my voice from the public platform both in India and England when occasion may arise in praise of your Balilla and Fascist organisations. I wish them good luck and every success. Signor Mussolini - who appeared very pleased - said - Thanks but yours is an uphill task. However I wish you every success in return. Saying this he got up and I also got up to take his leave.

The description of the Italian journey includes information regarding fascism, its history, the fascist 'revolution', etc, and continues for two more pages. One can wonder at the association between B S Moonje and the RSS, but if we think that Moonje had been Hedgewar' s mentor, the association will be much clearer.^7 The intimate friendship between Moonje and Hedgewar and the former's declared intention to strengthen the RSS and to extend it as a nationwide organisation prove a strict connection between Moonje and the RSS. Moreover, it makes sense to think that the entire circle of militant Hinduism must have been influenced by Moonje's Italian experience.

#hindutva #Hindutva's Foreign Tie-Up in the 1930s #Marzia Casolari

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