First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"The Potails of Guzerat are very inferior in dress, manners, and general appearance, to the Zemindars of Hindostan. Their manner, however, though less polished, is more independent; and here, as in Central India, instead of standing with joined hands in the presence of a superior, they immediately sit down even if they do not advance to embrace him. Almost all of them, as well as their Ryuts, and indeed all the inhabitants of the country, are armed, some with bows and arrows, and all, or nearly all, with sabres. Their dress is generally ragged and dirty, and they seem to pay less attention to personal cleanliness than any Hindoos whom I have met with. Some of the peasants who were assembled were tall stout men, but the average were considerably under the middle size…"
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.