The RSS: Icons of the Indian Right

by Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay

After a few months of his death, the proposal to merge the Jana Sangh with the Hindu Mahasabha was revived yet again, but Deendayal Upadhyaya had rejected it outright. His ideological commitment to the RSS notwithstanding, there were three other reasons which had made the merger impossible—first, there were major differences, albeit nuanced in their definitions of what constituted Hindu nationalism; second, certain influential RSS leaders, especially M.S. Golwalkar, were sceptical about V.D. Savarkar’s overt opposition to RSS’ continuous efforts in organisation-building; third and most importantly, despite Savarkar’s acquittal in Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination case, the incident was not only fresh in public memory, but had resulted in a national outrage. It was precisely for these reasons that Upadhyaya had openly declared his opposition to the viewpoint that, ‘since the Hindu Mahasbha has a galaxy of leaders and the Jana Sangh none, the two organisations should merge (into one).’20