On Vijayadashami 1977 (21 October 1977), Balasaheb Deoras gave the annual address at the gathering in Nagpur. This page summarises what was reported about it.
The day
- Date: 21 October 1977
- Place: Nagpur
- Address by: Balasaheb Deoras
What the address covered
At the first Vijayadashami gathering after the ban was lifted, Deoras said openly that the RSS had been founded in 1925 to mobilise Hindus. Since Hindus made up 85 per cent of the population, he argued, organising them was necessary for the country's healthy growth. Noorani, a critic, sets this against RSS assurances to Jayaprakash Narayan around the same time that 'Hindu' and 'Bharatiya' were synonymous, and reads it as evidence of the organisation's double discourse.
As reported
What is wrong in mobilising the Hindus?
Context
First post-Emergency Vijayadashami. The Janata Party, which included former Jana Sangh members, was in power and the 'dual membership' debate was under way.
How sure is this?
This account rests mainly on one source, listed below; details may be incomplete.
In the archive
Sources & copyright status
- A.G. Noorani, The RSS: A Menace to India (LeftWord, 2019), digitised text on Internet Archive
- 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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