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April 10, 2026
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"Here ... are the most significant lessons of modern air power: 1. No land or sea operations are possible without first assuming control of the air above. ... 2. Navies have lost their function of strategic offensive. ... The days when battle fleets steamed boldly within striking distance of enemy shores and proceeded to pound them into submission are now relegated to history. Today these fleets can approach only under the shield of a powerful umbrella of land-based air power. ... 3. The blockade of an enemy nation has become a function of air power. ... 4. Only air power can defeat air power. ... 5. Land-based aviation is always superior to ship-borne aviation. ... 6. The striking radius of air power must be equal to the maximum dimensions of the theater of operations. ... 7. In aerial warfare the factor of quality is relatively more decisive than the factor of quantity. ... 8. Aircraft types must be specialized to fit not only the general strategy but the tactical problems of a specific campaign. ... 9. Destruction of enemy morale from the air can be accomplished only by precision bombing. ... As a matter of plain fact, we have neither air power nor airmen, but only flying soldiers and flying sailors who do not even speak the same military language. ... 10. The principle of unity of command, long recognized on land and on sea, applies with no less force to the air. ... 11. Air power must have its own transport."
"It is though a bow-and-arrow army, having been routed by gunpowder, sought to win back lost ground by throwing in yet more bows and arrows."
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.