Thread by @dhavalkulkarni

30 October 1883 marks the death anniversary of #SwamiDayanandSaraswati. This is a thread on the links between the #AryaSamaj & the #HinduMahasabha & the #RSS. It will also explain how the Samaj contributed to the growth of the #Sangh

#history #Hindutva #SanghParivar #BJP

The #AryaSamaj was founded on 10 April 1875 at Bombay (#Mumbai) by Swami #DayanandSaraswati. This monotheistic order laid stress on the values laid down in the #Vedas & was against idol worship.

As a counter to the proselytizing Abrahamic faiths like Christianity and Islam, the #AryaSamaj launched a reconversion campaign called #shuddhi. As the #HinduMahasabha grew in the 1920s, many #AryaSamaj leaders joined it. Shuddhi became one of the Mahasabha's driving forces

Scholar Christophe Jaffrelot states that the “Arya Samaj represents the militant strand from which, in particular, Hindu nationalism would spring forth.”

The #RSS was formed on #Vijayadashami day in 1925.

#Hedgewar #Savarkar #SanghParivar

The original prayer of the #RSS was in a mix of #Hindi and #Marathi and would be recited every day at the end of the shakha, followed by slogans of ‘Rashtra Guru Samarth Ramdas ki Jai’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai.’ This gave the organisation a ‘strongly #Maharashtrian complex.'

As the #RSS grew out of Maharashtra, its ‘Marathi colouring’ became irksome and a hindrance to expansion. In much of North India, the ground for the #RSS version of #Hindu culture and organisation had been prepared by the #AryaSamaj.

The #AryaSamaj, in turn, was wary of the idolatrous rituals and rites of the #Sangh.

In deference to such sentiments, the 1st sarsanghachalak #DrKeshavBaliramHedgewar changed the language of the prayer to Sanskrit and toned down the insistence on rituals

#DrHedgewar #Hedgewar

This new prayer, which was composed by Narhar Narayan Bhide, a secondary school teacher at #Nagpur, was introduced in 1939. This prayer is recited even today.

In 1937, #VinayakDamodarSavarkar was released from detention in #Ratnagiri.

He became the president of the #HinduMahasabha in December that year. In 1938, #Savarkar announced the #Bhaganagarstruggle which was a civil resistance movement against the policies of the #Nizam of #Hyderabad towards his #Hindu subjects

In Hyderabad, the Arya Samaj had established a footprint soon after its birth. It was launched in 1880 at Kille Dharur in Beed district. By 1938, the Samaj had 250 branches in the princely state, and 20 of these were in the capital Hyderabad.

The #AryaSamaj joined this unarmed civil resistance movement launched by the #HinduMahasabha under #Savarkar. The #RSS and #Hedgewar also supported it.

Sources:
Donald Eugene Smith, India as a Secular State
A.G. Noorani, The Destruction of Hyderabad
Anil Kathare, Hyderabadcha Swatantrya Sangram aani Mahatma Gandhi,Christophe Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement in Indi

Acharya Balarao Savarkar, Swatantryaveer Savarkar: Hindu Mahasabha Parva
Tapan Basu, Pradip Datta, Sumit Sarkar, Tanika Sarkar and Sambuddha Sen, Khaki Shorts Saffron Flags
D.R. Goyal, Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh
V.R. Karandikar, Teen Sarsanghachalak