Independence from Dictators too

Kerala Governor Rajendra Arlekar asked the state to observe ‘Partition Horror Day’ on 14 Aug instead of celebrating the country’s Independence. His organisation, the RSS, as well as its ideological sibling the Hindu Mahasabha, had explicitly directed its members not to celebrate the Independence on 14-15 Aug 1947.

From Bombay Chronicle, 9 Aug 1947

Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins gave us a graphic description of what the RSS did on 15 Aug 1947, in their classic book Freedom at Midnight. When the rest of India celebrated its new Independence, the RSS hoisted its own flag, “an orange triangle, emblazoned upon which was the symbol that, in a slightly modified form, had terrorized Europe for a decade, the swastika.”

About 500 RSS men stood saluting the swastika on 15 Aug 1947 in Poona. Lapierre and Collins describe the RSS as a “para-fascist movement” whose members “saw themselves as the heirs to those ancient Aryans.”

Rajendra Arlekar is an RSS man. He has been doing whatever he could to infuse the state of Kerala with the saffron-tinged hatred that fuels his organisation, ever since he took charge as the Governor. Now he wants to poison the Independence Day celebrations too with his and his organisation’s hatefulness.

The mouthpiece of the RSS, Organiser, wrote on 14 Aug 1947: “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 and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil and a flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological effect and is injurious to a country.”

M S Golwalkar, one of the patriarchs of the RSS, told his followers that “It was the saffron flag which in totality represented Indian culture. It was the embodiment of God. We firmly believe that in the end the whole nation will bow before this saffron flag.” (Shri Guruji Samagra Darshan, Vol. 1) This same man had written in his Bunch of Thoughts that “such persons (as the martyrs of the freedom struggle) are not held up as ideals in our society. We have not looked upon their martyrdom as the highest point of greatness to which men should aspire. For, after all, they failed in achieving their ideals and failure implies some fatal flaw in them.”

Golwalkar’s views on sacrifice, which correspond with those of his organisation, dismiss sacrifice as a virtue. In most liberation struggles, martyrdom is seen as the highest form of commitment: people risk their lives for a cause larger than themselves. By calling it failure, Golwalkar and his followers shifted the moral frame from valour to incompetence. Now, in 2025, Golwalkar’s organisation is running the country in the person of Narendra Modi who has dishonoured the erstwhile heroes like Nehru and Gandhi on too many occasions. Ironically, people like Modi have nothing of any greatness to show.

The problem with Golwalkar and Modi is that their logic equates success with achieving one’s end goal within one’s own lifetime. It is a personal achievement, personal glory. We are witnessing day in and day out how the person of Modi towers far above the nation of India. That is a catastrophe for any nation. No individual can ever be greater than the nation.

A nation embodies millions of people, centuries of history, shared culture, and collective aspirations. An individual, no matter how gifted or virtuous, is one thread in that fabric. Even Modi draws his identity and legitimacy from that fabric. Without the nation, all that he does as the prime leader of the nation will lose the broader context that gives them meaning.

Leaders like Gandhi, Ambedkar, and Nehru are celebrated because their lives aligned with the nation’s cause. If their personal ambitions or narrow visions had directly harmed the country, they would be remembered as cautionary tales, not heroes, not even nursery rhyme heroes.

When an individual begins to believe that he is above the nation’s laws, will, and/or institutions, the door to dictatorship opens. Is India moving from the spirit of its first Independence Day towards the dictatorship of a man who has placed himself above the nation?

Let me wish all my compatriots a Happy and Meaningful Independence Day.

Independence from a Dictator is even more important than independence from a colonial power.

Below is an image I took from an article in Swarjya, a publication that was relaunched online in the year Modi became the PM. In the article, Modi is shown to be far greater than Nehru. Nehru’s legacy is described by Swarajya as “civilisationally-retarding.” I leave it to history to decide who will outlive whom out of the two. In the meanwhile, I wish a better legacy for India than the one that Modi is bestowing on it.

From Swarajya