If there was any participation by the RSS in the freedom struggle (as is claimed by their supporters), then what explains the fact that people at large are not aware of it? The answer lies in the demands of the profession of history. You cannot write about the role of the RSS in the national struggle precisely because there are no sources to support this contention.

The present BJP government cannot count among its ranks intellectuals who can make even a feeble case for the role of the RSS in India’s struggle for independence. The chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research appointed by the BJP “does not know the difference between fact and fiction, or between history and myth.”

The paucity of historical works about the role of the RSS is also highlighted by the fact that, in television debates, Rakesh Sinha, an ideologue of the RSS, has to repeatedly quote the number of a file kept in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library which contains some information about the imprisonment of KB Hedgewar, founder of the RSS. The fact that he has to do this almost every time makes it clear that he cannot quote a credible historian (or his/her work) who would affirm the systematic participation of the RSS in India’s freedom struggle.