First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"It is, indeed unfortunate that Tripura, despite its age—old tradition, culture, natural wealth, beautiful landscape and archaeological treasures failed to attract the attention of the rest of the country. Only when the staccato of gunshots reverberated from the hills, Tripura attracted the world's attention. As the state slowly emerged from obscurity due to blood spilling tribal militancy to become a flash point of the South Asian conflict zone, people outside the region now could at least recognize the name—Tripura. But, still, Tripura to them meant—and perhaps continues to mean——-a land of tribal guerrillas where killing and kidnapping is the order of the day. For them Tripura is a place with high hills, rugged terrains and deep forests where death lurks in every road, at every bend. It is when you tell them that this is the place where literacy is more than 80 percent, where ONGC is now setting up its first mega power project or when you remind someone that music maestro Sachin Dev Burman actually hailed from the Royal family of this state and was a 'tribal' in ethnic sense or it is the Tripura king who first recognized Rabindranath Tagore in his teen, you will find a shade of amazement flashing across their eyes."
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.