First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"I said if I want to do this I would want to live in a community. The Franciscans are always really down to earth and that appealed to me. They also have a very big outreach to the poor and that's something I was very drawn to. It's been life-giving to be able to give back to people who are in great need."
"If I thought that God was asking something of me, I've always tried to respond positively. I never thought I'd be out here in Chicago. I never thought that I would be a bishop. But when you say "yes" to God, there are all kinds of surprises along the way - and they're good."
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.