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With the passing away of Shri Balasaheb Deoras, the third Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh one more link that connected the present mammoth organisation with the founder of this unique institution Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar has snapped. He was witness not only to the eventful years of the RSS but was instrumental in influencing and moulding the course of history of events that filled the major part of this century.
Joining the RSS almost from its inception as a bal swayamsevak at the age of eleven as he grew Balasaheb cast himself in the mould of his mentor, the visionary Hedgewar, the epoch-maker who condensed the age old wisdom of this land into an aphorism and an easy way to practice it - the shakha. And then there was no looking back for this man once he put his shoulder to move forward Lord Jagannatha's rath that is the RSS. Like Doctorji, behind his stem facade Balasaheb had a soft and considerate heart that beat in tune with million of swayamsevaks. Old timers in Nagpur recall how Balasaheb used to sit in the verandah of the Mahal RSS office under the banyan tree and exude an air of relaxed simplicity even while deliberating over many a ticklish problem of head and heart. Taking decisions came naturally to him. A hard task master he certainly was. it was only natural that being endowed with exceptional qualities of leadership, the mantle of Sarsanghchalak should fall upon him after the passing away of Shri Guruji in 1973. "We are old heads on a young body", he would say, referring to the set of selfless colleague who fanned out in different-directions to carry the message of the Sangh.
It was Balasaheb's conscious decision that brought new dimension to the RSS work. The vision of the Sangh's founder was translated into reality by an able architect- that Balasaheb was. A keen observer of political events, Balasaheb was quick to see the shifting power balance and the emergence of vote-bank politics that would damage the social framework besides weakening the democratic institutions. So when the anti-establishment agitation fueled by a desire to cleanse public life of corruption took the shape of a Nav-nirman andolan in Gujarat Balasaheb had no hesitation in ending active support to this yet another reform movement. But he was aware of its political overtones. It is probably divine dispersion that every Sarsanghchalak had to face a ban on the RSS, but for the organisation to invariably emerge with renewed vigour. Guruji became the Sarsanghchalak in the forties when the nation was passing through the crucial birth of Independence. The holocaust of Partition followed by the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi had torn the social fabric asunder and dealt a severe blow to the RSS. But the Sangh came out unscathed in spite of the insinuation and calumny. No doubt as a result Sangh's progress had a set-back. But the second ban after Independence followed by the "second freedom struggle" and the war against the Emergency only rejuvenated the Sangh. Balasaheb, pained at the miserable plight of the people under a draconian Emergency wrote to the Sangh leaders working underground of his decision to go on an indefinite fast to save the rashtra-dharma and restore democracy. A diabetic body would not have lasted long.
Author By Seshadri Chari
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