Well I think there is no doubt that the RSS has been involved in a lot of social work. There have been schools and social service programs and flood relief and other works done by them.
But it is a stretch of truth to say that they played a leading role in the independance movement. RSS and Hindu Mahasabha were opposed to the Congress and even opposed to the tricolor as a flag. They alongwith Muslim League at that time opposed the Quit India movement of '42 and infact the previous RSS chief actually termed it a failure as recently as 2004 if I'm not mistaken.
If you look at the letters writte by Sardar Patel and the RSS head after Gandhiji's assasination you can see what the scenario was. He mentions about how the RSS workers distributing sweets or stamping the Indian flag after Gandhiji's assasination has led to anger against the RSS. There were long discussions and eventually the then RSS head had to give an undertaking that it will abide by the Indian constitution. Then you have the visit of Dr. Moonje(mentor of RSS founder) to Italy in the early 30s were he appreciated what Mussolini was doing there and seems to have drawn inspiration what was happening in Italy and Germany at that time.
However, there has been reforms in the RSS and this is one of the reasons why "
A bunch of Thoughts" a book written by the RSS founder has been said to be expunged from the RSS booklist.
The other issue is probably the idea of religious nationalism or a political religious ideology that tends to produce fundamentalists and fanatical followers. So even though the RSS eschews from violence and kicks out those who talk about it, those who get kicked out form their own outfit that does not have to follow the RSS rules. So we have the myriad groups like VHP, Bajrang Dal e.t.c who don't follow the discipline of the RSS workers and tend to fall into riots and violence. The case of the recent Abhinav Bharat is something to make a note of which also consisted of ex-RSS members who had been kicked out for violating discipline.
Mohan Bhagwat I think is much more open-minded than say Sudershan and more importantly, he makes it a point to mention the importance of co-existence of people of different faiths. So lets hope that this philosophy filters down to the cadres as well. You also have the Muslim wing of RSS as well. Although personally, I would have preferred NOT having a seperate Muslim wing and allowing Muslims to particpate in general RSS functions if they wanted.
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A quick point I want to make is people confuse Sarvarkar thought(and by extension the Hindu Mahasabha) with RSS thought although both are different slighlty even though they had close links. The group alleged to be behind Ajmer Blasts e.t.c. is believed to be Abhinav Bharat which draws its name from an organisation run by Sarvarkar.
Sarvarkar's counterpart is probably best explained with Jinnah. This might sound like a controversial statement but the more you read about them, the more you realise how similar their lives and thought processes have been.
Initially both were staunch nationalist, with a nationalism that was inclusive. Both recognised the importance of Hindu Muslim unity. Jinnah was known as an ambassador of Hindu-Muslim unity, praised by Bal Gandahar Tilak for defending him in the British court of law against a sedition charge which would have resulted in death if convicted.
Similarly, Sarvarkar initally praised Hindu-Muslim unity effusively particularly in his book
India's First War of Independance which is an interesting read in this regard. He appreciates the way the maulvis and pundits preached "Jihad" against the British and stated that Hindu-Muslim unity is necessary to achive freedom from the British. This was in 1909, the book was banned afterwards, and Sarvarkar arrested a few years later.
Both also had to time for the religious aspect of being a Hindu or Muslim. Jinnah as it is well known was hardly a practicing muslim. He derided the Khilafat movement and was initially opposed to reservation on the basis of religion as brought out by the Muslim League. Similarly, Sarvarkar was pretty much an atheist, he advocated beef eating for Hindus and didn't allow Hindu rites when his wife died as he didn't want it and completely opposed the caste system as refressive (
Atheist fundamentalists - Times Of India)
Then around the late 1930s both turned towards a narrow vision for the future of south asia. While Jinnah articulated his final vision in the 1940 resolution. Sarvarkar was released from prison after writing an apology letter to the then British govt. in 1937 and soon after became the president of Hindu Mahasabha. He ofcourse developed his ideas in prison which can be seen from his work
Hindutva.
Both groups opposed the Indian National Congress move in 1942 to oppose the British. And while most of their leaders were in prison, Jinnah and Sarvarkar asked their respective followers to join the British war effort and in a way enflamed the communal relations where the pro-inclusive leaders like Nehru, Azad and other Congress leaders were behind bars and could not counter its effect.
However, towards the end, while Jinnah was able to get Pakistan, Sarvarkar's alleged involvement in Mahatma Gandhiji's murder came as death blow to the popularity and influence of the Hindu Mahasabha as anger spread against the assasination of Gandhiji. He lived a very quite life threafter and was restricted to the occasional speeches and a few writings.
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So IMO, what we see Aseemanand and Co. and the alleged blasts are more to do with the mutation of political Hindu ideology of Sarvarkar than with the RSS which tends to have a more social service/religious agenda. All of us should tackle our respectively political religious ideology as only Hindus can take on political Hinduism and only muslims can take on political Islam sucessfully. This doesn't mean that parties that have such ideologies should be banned or put down with force as this will only militarise them and make them more radical. They should be allowed to participate in a democratic process and their ideas scrutinised and it will eventually have a moderating effect on them. And RSS infact can play a leading and important role in having a moderating effect on extremist Hindu organisations by publicly denouncing acts of terrorism.
