Vijayadashami Address Archive, 1925–2026

Every Vijayadashami since 1925 the volunteer organisation founded that day in Nagpur has held a gathering at which its head gives an address. This archive lists every year from 1925 to 2026 and gives a page to each of the 64 years for which we found a published account — summarised in our own words, with sources and a note on how reliable they are.

How to read this archive

Speakers are the heads of the organisation unless stated: Dr K. B. Hedgewar (1925–1940), M. S. Golwalkar (1940–1973), Balasaheb Deoras (1973–1994), Prof. Rajendra Singh (1994–2000), K. S. Sudarshan (2000–2009) and Mohan Bhagwat (since 2009).

Dates marked * are the calendar date of Vijayadashami (Ashvin Shukla Dashami) calculated for Nagpur; our sources do not record the exact day of the gathering, which can differ by a day.

For 26 years we found no published account of what was said. We have not filled the gaps: those years are listed with a note rather than a summary. Early years rest largely on biographies written within the movement, the 1940–1972 addresses on the organisation's own compilation of Golwalkar's talks, and later years on news reports — critical and sympathetic accounts are both cited where they exist.

All years, 1925–2026

Year	Date	Address by	Chief guest	In brief
1925	27 September	K. B. Hedgewar	—	According to H. V. Seshadri's biography, Hedgewar picked Vijayadashami 1925 to launch the Sangh.
1926	16 October*	—	Bapurao (surname unclear in the source)	Seshadri describes the first anniversary on Vijayadashami 1926 as a simple function, at which Hedgewar also started a library for swayamsevaks.
1927	6 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1928	23 October	—	Vitthalbhai Patel	According to Palkar, Hedgewar decided to hold a military-style route march with a band for the first time, and about 500 to 600 uniformed swayamsevaks took part.
1929	13 October*	—	—	Palkar reproduces a 1929 Hedgewar speech, printed in the paper Maharashtra after that year's Guru Puja. (single or uncertain source)
1930	1 October*	—	Raja Laxmanrao Bhonsle (presided)	Hedgewar was in Akola jail at the time for joining the 1930 forest satyagraha, and Dr L. V. Paranjpe was acting Sarsanghchalak.
1931	20 October*	K. B. Hedgewar	—	According to Palkar, Hedgewar came back to Nagpur after a tour of Vidarbha and stayed there through Vijayadashami.
1932	8 October*	K. B. Hedgewar	—	Seshadri, Palkar and Sinha all report about 1,200 swayamsevaks in full uniform marching at Nagpur in October 1932.
1933	28 September*	—	—	Rakesh Sinha writes that about a thousand swayamsevaks marched in Nagpur on Vijayadashami 1933.
1934	17 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1935	7 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1936	25 October	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1937	14 October*	—	—	Palkar says Hedgewar returned to Nagpur from Banaras before Vijayadashami 1937, and that the uniformed route march with its band stirred the whole city. (single or uncertain source)
1938	3 October*	—	Dr Gokulchand Narang (presided)	Hedgewar invited Dr Gokulchand Narang of Punjab to preside while visiting Lahore earlier in 1938, and Narang came.
1939	22 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	B. C. Chatterjee (presided)	Seshadri says Hedgewar had Golwalkar, appointed Sarkaryavah in August 1939, speak at public occasions that year, including the Dasara function at Nagpur presided over by B. C. Chatterjee.
1940	10 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	—	This was Golwalkar's first Vijayadashami as Sarsanghchalak after Hedgewar's death in June.
1941	29 September*	M. S. Golwalkar	—	The Shri Guruji Samagra gives a short summary of Golwalkar's 1941 Vijayadashami talk.
1942	18 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1943	8 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1944	27 September*	M. S. Golwalkar	—	In his 1944 Vijayadashami talk, as summarised in the Shri Guruji Samagra, Golwalkar said the word 'Hindu' had become a byword for backwardness.
1945	16 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	—	The Samagra summary has Golwalkar marking twenty years of the Sangh.
1946	5 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	—	Speaking at the Nagpur Vijayadashami a few months after the 1946 communal violence, Golwalkar attacked the call for non-resistance, which both the Samagra and Palkar's biography record.
1947	24 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	—	In the first Vijayadashami after Independence and Partition, as summarised in the Shri Guruji Samagra, Golwalkar answered critics who called the Sangh both inactive and 'anti-national'.
1948	12 October*	—	—	Vijayadashami 1948 fell while the RSS was banned (from early February 1948). (single or uncertain source)
1949	1 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	—	This was the first Vijayadashami after the ban was lifted in July 1949.
1950	20 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Nilkanth Das	Only Golwalkar's Shastrapujan (eve-of-Dussehra) address is recorded in Shri Guruji Samagra.
1951	9 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	—	Speaking in the run-up to India's first general election, Golwalkar (as summarised in Shri Guruji Samagra) rejected the charge that the RSS was 'communal' and challenged critics to define the word.
1952	28 September*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1953	17 October*	—	Pranakrishna Parija	No published account of the address found.
1954	7 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Mathuralal Sharma	According to Shri Guruji Samagra, Golwalkar's Shastrapujan address called Indian life essentially Hindu life and blamed caste, language and regional quarrels for past defeats.
1955	26 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Virendra Kumar Ghosh	Only a Shastrapujan address is recorded in Shri Guruji Samagra. (single or uncertain source)
1956	14 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Swami Chinmayananda	In the Samagra summary, Golwalkar opens by referring to the distress expressed by the function's president, Swami Chinmayananda.
1957	2 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Pandit Bhagwat Datt	According to Shri Guruji Samagra, the Shastrapujan address described the world powers as expansionist, citing a Soviet film that called Moscow the future world capital.
1958	21 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Gurudutt	Golwalkar (per the Samagra summary) urged a will to win, contrasting it with the Rajputs' readiness to die.
1959	11 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Jaichandra Vidyalankar	In the Shastrapujan address recorded in Shri Guruji Samagra, Golwalkar said Communist China's aggression on the northern border had begun.
1960	29 September*	M. S. Golwalkar	V. K. Narasimhan	Per Shri Guruji Samagra, the Shastrapujan address condemned 'peace at any price': the transfer of Berubari, the creation of Nagaland and feared concessions on Kashmir.
1961	19 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	—	In the Shastrapujan address, as summarised in Shri Guruji Samagra, Golwalkar said talk of 'minorities' and 'majorities' blocked national integration.
1962	8 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Lalchand Hirachand	This address came about two weeks before China's main offensive of 20 October 1962.
1963	28 September*	M. S. Golwalkar	Burman (as given by Organiser)	In the first Vijayadashami after the 1962 war, Golwalkar (per the Samagra summary) said Chinese and Pakistani forces stood on India's borders while their propaganda swayed world opinion over Kashmir.
1964	15 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	A. D. Mani	According to Shri Guruji Samagra, Golwalkar described the RSS's aim as character-building and said the Sangh should eventually merge into society.
1965	4 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Fattesinghrao Bhonsle of Nagpur	This address came days after the September 1965 ceasefire with Pakistan.
1966	23 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Ratanlal Joshi	Golwalkar (per the Samagra summary) recalled the unity of the 1965 war and said, as he had feared, that the military gains had been lost through diplomacy.
1967	12 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Swami Satyamitranand Giri	According to Shri Guruji Samagra, Golwalkar pointed to Chinese shelling on the Sikkim border and unrest on the Kashmir ceasefire line as warnings, and said Indian communists sympathised with China.
1968	1 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	N. G. Ranga	Per Shri Guruji Samagra, the Shastrapujan address argued that a weak, divided Hindu society invites aggression and disrespect, even from 'friends' such as the Soviet Union.
1969	20 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Fattesinghrao Bhonsle of Nagpur	According to Shri Guruji Samagra, Golwalkar cited Vinoba Bhave's warning about the Assam–Bengal border, with hostile Pakistan and China on either side.
1970	10 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	V. Shankar	Per Shri Guruji Samagra, the Shastrapujan address argued that the character of those running a system matters more than whether it is a democracy or a dictatorship.
1971	29 September*	M. S. Golwalkar	—	Only a Shastrapujan address is recorded in Shri Guruji Samagra.
1972	17 October*	M. S. Golwalkar	Fattesinghrao Bhonsle (presided)	This was Golwalkar's last Dussehra as RSS chief; he died in June 1973.
1973	6 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1974	25 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1975	14 October*	—	—	Not held — the organisation was banned during the Emergency.
1976	2 October*	—	—	Not held — the organisation was banned during the Emergency.
1977	21 October	Balasaheb Deoras	—	At the first Vijayadashami gathering after the ban was lifted, Deoras said openly that the RSS had been founded in 1925 to mobilise Hindus.
1978	11 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1979	1 October*	Balasaheb Deoras	—	According to Andersen and Damle, Deoras used his 1979 Vijayadashami speech to restate the RSS's traditional revivalist goals: uniting the Hindu community and ridding it of untouchability, the caste system and dowry.
1980	19 October*	Balasaheb Deoras	—	He also urged Hindus to record themselves simply as 'Hindus' in the census, putting caste or sect only in brackets. (single or uncertain source)
1981	8 October	Balasaheb Deoras	—	Noorani reports that on 8 October 1981, Vijayadashami that year, Deoras warned that if Hindus were reduced to a minority, the country's face and culture would change.
1982	27 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1983	16 October	Balasaheb Deoras	—	Noorani describes Deoras's Dasara Day rally of 16 October 1983 as more explicit than his earlier remarks.
1984	4 October	Balasaheb Deoras	—	In his 4 October 1984 speech, Deoras lamented the loss of territory once Hindu-majority: Gandhara (Afghanistan) long ago, and in 1947 the regions where Hindus had become a minority.
1985	22 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1986	12 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1987	2 October	Balasaheb Deoras	—	Deoras's 1987 address was widely read as political.
1988	20 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1989	10 October*	Balasaheb Deoras	—	Ahead of the November 1989 general election, Deoras used his annual Nagpur address to urge people to vote for those who would protect Hindu interests, according to Noorani, citing The Indian Express of 11 October 1989.
1990	29 September*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1991	18 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1992	5 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1993	24 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1994	13 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1995	3 October*	—	—	No published account of the address found.
1996	21 October*	Rajendra Singh	—	In his 1996 Dussehra address, Rajendra Singh rebuked the BJP for straying from the path of Hindutva, which EPW read as support for the reassertion of Hindutva over 'Mandal' social engineering inside the party.
1997	11 October	Rajendra Singh	—	In an hour-long Dassera address, Rajendra Singh said English harmed India's interests and should be driven out.
1998	1 October	Rajendra Singh	Joginder Singh (presided)	Rajendra Singh's 45-minute address praised the Vajpayee government, calling the May 1998 nuclear tests its most significant achievement.
1999	19 October*	H. V. Seshadri	—	Frontline reported that RSS general secretary H.V. Seshadri addressed swayamsevaks at Vijayadasami in Nagpur.
2000	7 October	K. S. Sudarshan	—	Sudarshan's first Vijayadashami address as sarsanghchalak.
2001	26 October	K. S. Sudarshan	—	According to a report in The Hindu (27 October 2001), reproduced in a Communalism Combat/Sabrang research report, Sudarshan used his Dussehra address in Nagpur to ask Muslims and Christians to 're-interpret' their scriptures and to change leaderships he descri (single or uncertain source)
2002	15 October*	K. S. Sudarshan	—	No published account of the address found.
2003	4 October	K. S. Sudarshan	—	According to a PTI report in The Tribune, Sudarshan used his Vijayadashami address to attack the National Human Rights Commission for taking the Gujarat Best Bakery case to the Supreme Court after the accused were acquitted when witnesses turned hostile.
2004	22 October	K. S. Sudarshan	—	The first address after the BJP-led NDA lost the 2004 general election.
2005	12 October*	K. S. Sudarshan	—	No published account of the address found.
2006	2 October*	K. S. Sudarshan	—	No published account of the address found.
2007	20 October	K. S. Sudarshan	—	According to the RSS-linked weekly Organiser, Sudarshan devoted much of his Vijayadashami speech to the Ram Sethu (Adam's Bridge) dispute over the Sethusamudram shipping channel project. (single or uncertain source)
2008	9 October*	K. S. Sudarshan	—	No published account of the address found.
2009	28 September*	Mohan Bhagwat	Bhaiyyuji Maharaj	Bhagwat's first Vijayadashami address as sarsanghchalak, having succeeded Sudarshan in March 2009. (single or uncertain source)
2010	17 October*	Mohan Bhagwat	—	No published account of the address found.
2011	6 October	Mohan Bhagwat	—	According to PTI, as carried by The Tribune, Bhagwat attacked the draft Communal Violence Bill.
2012	24 October*	Mohan Bhagwat	—	According to the official text published by the RSS, the 2012 address covered national security and military modernisation, border protection, and competition with China. (single or uncertain source)
2013	13 October	Mohan Bhagwat	—	In the last address before the 2014 general election, Bhagwat blamed the UPA government's 'weak' policies for encouraging repeated border incursions by China and Pakistan, according to PTI as carried by The Tribune.
2014	3 October	Mohan Bhagwat	Dada J. P. Vaswani (message read)	The first address after the Modi government took office.
2015	22 October	Mohan Bhagwat	Dr V. K. Saraswat	Delivered in the RSS's 90th year and the 125th birth anniversary year of B. R. Ambedkar, the address, as published by the RSS and Organiser, called for a self-reliant, egalitarian Bharat.
2016	11 October	Mohan Bhagwat	—	Bhagwat praised the Army's September 2016 surgical strikes across the Line of Control, saying they had raised India's international prestige and that the firmness shown in defence and diplomacy should become permanent policy.
2017	30 September	Mohan Bhagwat	Baba Nirmal Das (message read)	Bhagwat defended cow protection, saying cow protectors had themselves been attacked and killed and that it was unfair to link them with violence or communal feeling.
2018	18 October	Mohan Bhagwat	Kailash Satyarthi	In the last address before the 2019 general election, Bhagwat asked the government to pass a law clearing the way for a Ram temple in Ayodhya, saying the Supreme Court case was being needlessly delayed.
2019	8 October	Mohan Bhagwat	Shiv Nadar	Bhagwat said 'lynching' was a Western construct that should not be used in the Indian context to defame the country, while urging everyone to stay within the law and maintain harmony, PTI reported.
2020	25 October	Mohan Bhagwat	—	Because of COVID-19 rules, the event was held indoors with about 50 swayamsevaks.
2021	15 October	Mohan Bhagwat	—	Held under COVID-19 rules, with no chief guest invited; the main programme at Smriti Mandir, Reshimbagh, was streamed live and smaller programmes were held at about forty places in Nagpur.
2022	5 October	Mohan Bhagwat	Santosh Yadav	Bhagwat called for equal rights and opportunities for women in all spheres, saying that revering women as mothers should not mean confining them to the home.
2023	24 October	Mohan Bhagwat	Shankar Mahadevan	The address highlighted India's G20 presidency and raised questions about the causes of the violence in Manipur; critics described parts of the speech as political in the run-up to the 2024 general election.
2024	12 October	Mohan Bhagwat	Dr K. Radhakrishnan	Bhagwat spoke of the insecurity faced by Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh, referred to the RG Kar hospital case in Kolkata in connection with crime and politics, called for legal control of obscene content on some streaming (OTT) platforms, and warned
2025	2 October	Mohan Bhagwat	Ram Nath Kovind	In the centenary address, reported by All India Radio, Bhagwat called for swadeshi and self-reliance (svāvalamban) at a time of rising international tariffs, while saying that trade relations should continue because no nation can live in isolation.
2026	20 October	Mohan Bhagwat	Sanjay Gupta	Mohan Bhagwat spoke of unity, arguing that the country had become weak in the past when its shared identity gave way to divisions of language, caste, sect and community.

Year pages

Frequently asked questions

When is the Vijayadashami address given?

On Vijayadashami (Dussehra), the tenth day of the bright half of the month of Ashvin, usually in late September or October, at the Reshimbagh ground in Nagpur.

Has the address been given every year since 1925?

The gathering has been held in most years, but not during bans on the organisation: there was no public gathering in 1975 and 1976 during the Emergency, and none is recorded for 1948.

Who gives the Vijayadashami address?

The head of the organisation gives the main address, and an invited chief guest also speaks. In a few years another senior office-bearer spoke instead.

Sources & copyright status

Each year page lists its own sources. — dates marked * calculated with the site's Panchang code for Nagpur
Historical facts: not subject to copyright. Speeches are summarised in our own words; quotations are short extracts as reported in the sources.

The Hindu Book is an independent educational platform. It is not affiliated with any political party, religious organisation or movement, and nothing here implies endorsement by any organisation. This page is published for education and review. If you hold rights in any material quoted here, or believe a source is misrepresented, please write to [email protected].