On Vijayadashami 1972, M. S. Golwalkar gave the annual address at the gathering in Nagpur, where the chief guest was Fattesinghrao Bhonsle (presided). This page summarises what was reported about it.
The day
- Date: 17 October 1972 — the calendar date of Vijayadashami; our sources do not record the exact day of the gathering
- Place: Nagpur
- Address by: M. S. Golwalkar
- Chief guest: Mahadev (invited but absent through illness); Raj Bahadur Fattesinghrao Bhonsle presided
What the address covered
This was Golwalkar's last Dussehra as RSS chief; he died in June 1973. Only a Shastrapujan address is recorded in Shri Guruji Samagra. He described Vijayadashami as a call to build organised strength and said India's historical boundaries went beyond today's 'truncated' map to include Tibet, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He said Indians abroad were facing hardship and urged self-respect. He invoked the Buddha in defence of using strength, and said that partition had not bought Pakistan's friendship.
Context
Final utsav under Golwalkar. Organiser says the invited guest, a former head of philosophy at Madras University, could not attend.
How sure is this?
This account rests mainly on one source, listed below; details may be incomplete. For these years the main source is the organisation's own compilation of Golwalkar's talks (Shri Guruji Samagra), which prints edited summaries rather than verbatim transcripts.
In the archive
Sources & copyright status
- Shri Guruji Samagra Vol. 5, 'Shastrapujan 1972'
- Organiser (Webdesk), RSS Vijayadashami guest list since 1925 (23 Oct 2026)
- ThePrint, MS Golwalkar, the RSS chief who remains 'Guruji' to some, a 'bigot' to others
- Historical facts: not subject to copyright. Quotations are short extracts as reported in the sources cited; speeches are summarised in our own words.
- Commentary and translations on this page: original to The Hindu Book. © The Hindu Book, all rights reserved.
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