Detention and Internment
No sooner was S released that L B Bhopatkar, S’s counsel and President of the Hindu Mahasabha demanded a government inquiry as to who was responsible for the sanction of S’s prosecution in the Gandhi murder trial. Subsequently S wrote to Bhopatkar expressing regret on his step and said, probably, the legal advice given to the Govt was hasty, misleading. He desired that in public interest they should let the curtain fall on the tragedy now that he was acquitted. In a letter to Morarji Desai, the Home Minister of Mumbai he said that he had already decided to retire from public life, as his health lay shattered. He thanked all his supporters for their support during this difficult period.
He said that the Indian Union was a Hindu state as every nation was called after the name of its national majority. However, the state was not a theocratic state since it was not based on religious texts. If the Muslims of India gave up hating the Hindus and were emotionally, loyally prepared for national integration, a state where no distinctions exist could be created. The tenets of Hinduvta were consistent with democracy and all minorities would be treated as equal citizens with Hindus.
S advocated that defence should have top priority, be it our borders or ammunition factories. S rested in Mumbai, Bangalore to recover. He greatly admired Sardar Patel’s action in the liberation of Hyderabad and in unifying India.
On May 10, 1949, the first part of S’s Marathi autobiography was published. After the Constituent Assembly passed an important article abolishing separate electorates, reservations and weightages, which were based on individual race and religious discrimination, S who had been demanding this for years, congratulated Patel for having made this change. Around this time, the Assembly was discussing the constitution of the country. S wired the President of the Assembly to adopt the country name as Bharat, Hindi as the national language and Nagari as the national script. After a great battle Hindi with Nagari script was declared as the national language.
Just then Master Tara Singh, the great Punjab leader who was interned for a few months was released. S congratulated him and appreciated his role during partition. Singh replied that the relations between Hindus and Sikhs in Punjab were under strain and asked S to study the problem and offer a solution. It goes to show Singh’s faith in S.
After great deliberation the Hindu Mahasabha had its annual session in Calcutta on 21/12/1949. All through the journey S had to make brief speeches at several stations. Thousands gathered in Calcutta to see him. During his inaugural address he said independence was not a political gift from the Brits but was accomplished by the Congress, revolutionaries and the sufferings of thousands of patriots from 1857 to 1947. He urged his party men to continue defending the cause of the Hindus. He exhorted Hindus to join the armed forces. He suggested that there should be a tit for tat policy in our dealings with Pakistan, Shri Vajpayee note.
In March 1950 East Bengal burst into a conflagration. The Noakhali tragedies were repeated. As foretold by S the peace and prosperity of Bharat was endangered by the creation of Pakistan. At this time S was going to attend the East Punjab Hindu Conference at Rohtak. About this time Nehru thought it fir to try his method of negotiations to solve the Bengal problem and invited Liaqat Ali, the Premier of Pakistan for talks to Delhi. Ali as has been followed by Pervez Mushharaf in July 2001 blamed the Hindu Mahasabha for its propaganda and to a Calcutta speech of Patel for the East Bengal tragedies. To create a serene read secular atmosphere for the talks S was arrested in Mumbai on 4/41950 along with many others.
This act was condemned aloud. By this offensive against Mahasahba and RSS leaders, Nehru chose to appease Pakistan and imperil the integrity, independence of India. The idea was to divert people’s attention from the govt’s policy of appeasement and make progressive elements support this appeasement policy. Nehru signed the pact providing for the right of refugees to return to their original places and guaranteeing the recovery of abducted women and the right to transfer all movable property, dispose off immovable property and non-recognition of forced conversions during that period. Nehru reared the pact and Liaqat Ali reaped the fruits. Be it Nehru, Atal, Indira why is that none of them can act tough with this rogue neighbor. Why? Baffles me.
S’s son filed a habeas corpus petition in Bombay High Court on 12/7/1950. The Advocate General said that he was authorized to state that if S gave an undertaking that he would not participate in any political activities and would remain in his own house in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, the govt would agree to his release. The undertaken given would last for one year or upto the next general elections in India or in case Indian being involved in a war, whichever event happened first. S’s supporters gave him a warm welcome on his return home. He resigned from the Hindu Mahasabha but became its BhismPitama.
S must have wondered, had life changed before and after independence. The Brits had confined him to Ratnagiri and prevented him from taking part in any political activity. Now he was restricted to Mumbai. Where was Nehru the great democrat? I think Nehru could not tolerate dissent and wanted to crush it. Why is it that Hindus cannot express their voice against oppression? If they do they are called communal. Friends please think, was it always the case. Who is responsible for this mindset? The Brits, Gandhi, Nehru, Congress or the English media. The whole attempt was to weaken S, by the Brits or the Congress. They were scared of facing a man with extraordinary knowledge and oratory skills, a man whose organization was weak, but whose speech could arouse Hindus as few others of his time could have.
In May 1951 he wrote two articles in the Kesari advocating a National Calendar as against the Christian calendar that the Brits had imposed upon us. Since there are multiple Hindu calendars he urged the Indians to take a leaf out of the book of the French revolutionaries to evolve a common Bhartiya calendar. The Govt however, adopted the Saka era, which is 78 years behind the Christian era. He next urged the Konkan Uplift Institution to refer to the Arabian Sea as the Sindhu Sagar and the Bay of Bengal as the Ganga Sagar.