The RSS since its inception in 1925 hated anything which symbolised the united struggle of the Indian people against British rule. The case of the tricolour, the Indian National Flag, is the most pertinent one. In December 1929, Congress at its Lahore session, adopted ‘Purna Swaraj’ or complete self rule as the national goal & called upon the people to observe January 26, 1930 as Independence Day by displaying & honouring the tricolour (the Tricolour was by consensus considered the flag of national movement by this time).
In response to this Hedgewar as Sarsangchalak issued a circular to all the RSS shakhas to worship the Bhagwa Jhanda (Saffron Flag) as the national flag. The RSS leaders like Murli Manohar Joshu might have gone to unfurl the Tricolour in 1991 at Lal Chowk of Srinagar, Kashmir, in order to hypocritically demonstrate their patriotism, but the fact is that the RSS openly decries & denigrates the National Flag.
Golwalker while addressing a Gurupurnima gathering on July 14,1946, stated- ‘It was the saffron flag which in totality represented Bhartiya culture. It was the embodiment of God. We firmly believe that in the end the whole nation will bow before this saffron flag’
On the eve of independence when Indian Constituent Assembly adopted Tricolour as its National Flag, the English organ of the RSS, Organiser, in its issue dates August 14,1947, denigrated this choice in following words- ‘The people who have come to power by the kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour but it will never be respected & owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil & a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect & its injurious to a country’
According to RSS Indian National Flag was never to be respected by Hindus. It was a bad omen & injurious for the country. Even after independence it was the RSS which refused to accept it as the National Flag. Golwalker while denouncing the choice of Tricolour as National Flag in an essay entitled ‘Drifting & Drifting’ in the book Bunch of Thoughts wrote- ‘Our leaders have set up a new flag for our country. Why did they do so? It is just a case of drifting & imitating. Our’s is an ancient & great nation with a glorious past. Then, had we no flag of our own? Had we no national emblem at all these thousand years? Undoubtedly, we had. Then why this utter void, this utter vaccum in our minds?‘
unbeatenknight 