First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"3 teerths in Rameshwaram temple were shifted from their original place without even hearing public opinion. Did it hurt religious sentiments? I demolished 100 year old temples of Lakshmi, Saraswati and Parvati on GST road in my constituency (Sriperumbudur). Many told me that I will not get votes because of this. I know that myself. But I know very well how to buy and garner votes. I also detonated rivers Ganga, Cauvery and Kollidam (a tributary of Cauvery on whose banks Srirangam Ranganatha Swamy temple is located) and built bridges. God didn’t do anything to me. If people really believe that Ram Setu is real shouldn’t there be a revolution against the project now?"
"DMK men take pride in demolishing 100-year-old Hindu temples. The very reason we want the HR&CE dissolved and want the temple freed from the clutches of government."
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.