Modiji and some RSS “ideologues” have quite shamelessly been trying to inveigle the RSS into the Quit India Movement, when in fact they actively colloborated with the British regime.

Modiji has even been increasingly speaking “passionately” about the Quit India Movement. The facts are thus:

On August 8, 1942, at the All-India Congress Committee session in Bombay, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi launched the Quit India movement. The next day, Gandhi, Nehru and many other leaders of the Indian National Congress were arrested by the British Government.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) kept aloof from the Congress-led anti-British Indian independence movement since its founding by KB Hedgewar in 1925. In 1942, the RSS, under MS Golwalkar refused to join the Quit India Movement. VD Savarkar even urged “Hindus” to join the British military and ordnance factories in large numbers to support the war effort.

The Bombay government appreciated the RSS position by noting that: "The Sangh has scrupulously kept itself within the law, and in particular, has refrained from taking part in the disturbances that broke out in August 1942.”

The British Government also asserted that at Sangh meetings organised during the times of anti-British movements started and fought by the Indian National Congress, "speakers urged the Sangh members to keep aloof from the Congress movement and these instructions were generally observed".

The RSS head (sarsanghchalak) during that time, MS Golwalkar, later stated that the RSS did not support the Quit India Movement. Such a non-committal attitude during the Indian freedom movement also led to the Sangh being viewed with distrust and anger, both by the general Indian public, as well as certain members of the organisation itself.

In Golwalkar’s own words: “In 1942 also, there was a strong sentiment in the hearts of many. At that time too, the routine work of the Sangh continued. Sangh decided not to do anything directly. ‘Sangh is the organisation of inactive people, their talks have no substance’ was the opinion uttered not only by outsiders but also our own swayamsevaks.”