RSS Leader Mohan Bhagwat announced that he would release a book on Mahatma Gandhi as the “biggest Hindu patriot”
On 1 January, Modi Government Ministers Prahlad Patel and V. Muraleedharan will participate in the release ceremony of the book ‘Making of a Hindu Patriot’ by authors J.K. Bajaj and M.D. Srinivas, at Rajghat here. In February of this year, Bhagwat also published a book calling for the creation of Gandhi’s dream of India. Bhagwat had said, “Gandhiji had always described himself as a staunch ‘Sanatani Hindu.’ He was never embarrassed to be a Hindu himself.
J.K.Bajaj is the managing director of the Centre for Policy Studies and a member of the Indian Council for Social Science Research, as well as a member of the Central Government Committee to Subclassify the OBCs. M.D. Srinivas is the founding member of the OBCs.
‘Gandhiji was a born Hindu, but he became a strong Hindu in the days of his experience in South Africa. What is it like to be a Hindu? He learned this during his struggle in South Africa. Gandhiji openly used to say – ‘My patriotism is increasing and this patriotism originates from my religion’.”
Bajaj said that Mahatma Gandhi refused when Christian and Muslim friends tried to convert him while living in South Africa. During this time he started an in-depth study about Sanatan Dharma which further strengthened his Hindu identity.
The book gives the background of Gandhi’s ‘Hind Swaraj’. There are many interesting details ranging from the development of Gandhiji’s personality and the campaigns he undertook during his stay in South Africa. The book also narrates the story of how Gandhi’s developed ‘Satyagraha’ at the historic meeting on September 11, 1906 at the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg. The chapter titled ‘The South African Jail Diary’ also tells the story of the torture in prison endured by Gandhi and his supporters.
The book also describes the correspondence between the great Russian writer and philosopher Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi. The book states that it was Tolstoy who first gave Mahatma Gandhi the title of ‘Hindu Patriot’.
The book claims Tolstoy was a fan of all aspects of Gandhi except his ‘Hindu patriotism’. It also has information about two meetings held in July 1914 during Gandhiji’s arrival from South Africa in which he received the title of ‘Patriot Mahatm
