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April 10, 2026
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"Some Herero people in Namibia recently have joked that if you squint at the multicolored national flag adopted after independence in 1990, you will see only the DTA or NUDO colors — that is, the red, blue, and white associated with these two Herero-based political groups. As the Namibian flag's actual dominant colors are red, blue, and green — colors associated with the mainly Ovambo-speaking, SWAPO-aligned (South West Africa People's Organization) majority — these pundits are asserting that if they try, they can find themselves in this image of the new nation. The joke implies that Herero identity is not plainly represented in the flag, but that it is submerged there, that it must be sought after, and that it can be found. The imagination of Namibian identity, the struggle both to choose representations of the polity and to assign lasting meaning to them, has been developing since the Germans claimed colonial control over the territory of South West Africa in 1884. The public use of political acronyms and specific color associations, which blossomed in Namibia just before independence, was not a trivial undertaking, nor was it simply characteristic of the southern African idiom of nationalist political expression."
"In brutally suppressing the Maji Maji War in Tanganyika and in attempting genocide against the of (South-West Africa), the German ruling class were getting the experience which they later applied against the Jews and against German workers and progressives."
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.