By Kalidas Basu
In his article titled "Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee-Rajya se Rashtriya Netritva tak" published in the 2000-01 annual issue of Presidency College Alumni Association, the renowned intellectual and former Union Education Minister Dr. Pratapchandra Chander wrote, "Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee founded his party Bharatiya Jana Sangh in May 1951 with the support of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh". This was the result of a growing natural affinity between RSS and Dr. Mookerjee that commenced in 1940.
Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar had established RSS on the auspicious day of Vijaydashmi in 1925. He was the first Sarsanghchalak and in his childhood had imbibed Swami Vivekanand's exhortation to all citizens for devoting themselves to the nation. He followed that principle throughout his life.
Dr. Hedgewar stayed away from politics and generated an awareness in society to serve the nation selflessly. To achieve that end and to organise people for that purpose, the work of RSS was started with the daily shakha where persons of different age groups gathered for conducting physical and intellectual programmes which brought for the better an internal change in them.
After two years, activities of the organisation were initiated in other parts of the country too. In 1939, Shri Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, disciple of Swami Akhandanand, the third sabhapati of Ramakrishna Mission, started Sangh's work in undivided Bengal.
In the beginning he was helped in every possible way by Dr. Santosh Kumar Mukherjee of Kolkata. Shri Guruji arrived in Kolkata in the course of Sangh's work. In those days the only shakha active in Kolkata was in the open ground near Raja Dinendra Street. A number of young men and teenagers would come for an hour to get physical and intellectual education.
Shri Devras was introduced to Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the then National Executive president of Hindu Mahasabha, with the help of Shri Padmaraj Jain and Dr. S. K. Mukherjee of Kolkata. Then Balasaheb invited Dr. Syama Prasad to offer valuable guidance in the shakha. In the words of Shri Golwalkar, "the shakha is about putting principles into practice in one's life and not mere sermonising".
Dr. Mookerjee accepted the invitation and came to the shakha in April 1940 where he was impressed by the soldier-like guard of honour presented to him by the swayamsevaks. In this guard of honour the author, who was a school student at the time, was an active participant. Dr. Mookerjee spoke intimately with some swayamsevaks on this first contact with the daily shakha. In order to learn more about the ideology and activities of RSS, Dr. Mookerjee wrote a letter to Dr. Hedgewar requesting him to spend a whole day in Nagpur for discussion on the subject.
