First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"You may work, you may be lucky, but if you do something and it compromises your values, your inner heart and what you believe in and you go against that, nothing you ever do can get that back. It is very difficult to stand up for what you believe in, to let people know, “I’m not going to do that.” It is very difficult to see your peers rising in status and you’re still sitting back working your way up because you won’t do certain things. You have to be true to yourself. As a performer, as a human being you have to be true to yourself, because once you compromise, you sell out."
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.