First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"every single strategy meeting continued to be held in the same cloistered confines of white male comfort."
"It would mean unquestioning loyalty and assumed support for his positions in debates and internal caucus votes β something I was not able to give at all times"
"βIt was not only that the tone of South African politics had altered and become ever more acrimonious, but that I could not ignore how ill at ease I felt in representing the DA."
"I was deeply averse to engaging in war-like posturing with ANC colleagues whose intentions and motivations were similar to my mine β although we held widely divergent views on how best to achieve our common goals,β"
"I left feeling somewhat uneasy about his defensive tone and his choice of words."
"On the surface, ours was an amicable conversation, but I could feel the latent anger in his seven-page hand-written let.β"
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.