Umakant Keshav Apte (29 April 1903 - 1971), also known as Babasaheb Apte, was one of the first pracharaks (full-time propagators) of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), taking initiation from its founder K. B. Hedgewar. Upon his death, the Babasaheb Apte Smarak Samiti was set up in his honour by RSS pracharak Moropant Pingle, which has been active in commissioning and publishing research on the history of ancient India.
Apte was born on 29 April 1903 into a Chitpavan Brahmin family in Vidarbha and was said to have been infused with patriotism from a young age. His father died in 1919 and he started working as a teacher right after matriculation. However, he resigned from the job when his headmaster prohibited from celebrating Bal Gangadhar Tilak's death anniversary. In 1924, he moved to Nagpur and joined the press of the Udyam magazine. He formed a Vidyarthi Mandal (student society) for discussing revolutionary ideas. Hedgewar visited the organisation in 1925 and provided enough inspiration to Apte for him to merge his fledgling organisation with the RSS. In 1927, he became one of the first people to become an RSS pracharak, even before the term itself was coined. [1] [2]
Apte was instrumental in spreading the network of the RSS shakhas (local branches) in Maharashtra in the early 1930s and, later, in the rest of the country. He became a key assistant to Hedgewar in the coordination of the RSS pracharak network. He travelled continuously and provided a special kind of help to the pracharaks by identifying and meeting persons of importance to win their patronage for the RSS shakhas. He toured the Punjab province in 1935 and established contacts with both the Hindu Mahasabha and Arya Samaj, laying the ground work for the spread of the RSS in Punjab. [3]
Apte died in 1971. He was honoured by RSS as a karmayogi. [4] To commemorate his keen interest in rewriting Indian history in the mould of Hindutva as well as popularising Sanskrit, Moropant Pingley set up Babasaheb Apte Smarak Samiti in 1973 for commissioning and publishing books on these topics. [5] This organisation in due course gave rise the all-India organisation Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana. [6] [7] The RSS has also instituted a "Baba Saheb Apte Birth Centenary National Sanskrit Award" given annually in recognition of efforts for promoting Sanskrit. [8]
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar, which has developed a presence in all facets of Indian society and includes the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling political party under Narendra Modi, the 14th prime minister of India. Mohan Bhagwat has served as the Sarsanghchalak of the RSS since March 2009.
Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, also known by his moniker Doctorji, was an Indian physician, Hindutva activist, and the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Hedgewar founded the RSS in Nagpur in 1925, based on the ideology of Hindu nationalism.
Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalkar, popularly known as Guruji, was the second Sarsanghchalak ("Chief") of the Hindutva organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Golwalkar is considered one of the most influential and prominent figures among Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh by his followers.
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh is a non-profit, social, educational, and cultural organization of the Hindus living outside India. It was founded in 1940s in Kenya, it is currently active in 156 countries and estimates 3289 branches.
Organiser is a mouthpiece of the Hindu nationalist and voluntary organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It was launched as a newspaper in 1947 in the weeks before the Partition of India. The newspaper has been edited by A. R. Nair, K. R. Malkani, L. K. Advani, V. P. Bhatia, Seshadri Chari and Dr R. Balashanker. It has promoted misinformation on many occasions.
Balraj Madhok was an Indian political activist and politician from Jammu. Originally an activist of the nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), he later worked as a politician in the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS).
Bhai Mahavir was an Indian politician who was governor of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh between April 1998 and March 2003. He was a pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and served as a leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party. He has authored many books and had served two terms prior to his governorship as a member of the Rajya Sabha. He had an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics and studied law (LLB) from the University of Delhi.
Chandikadas Amritrao Deshmukh, better known as Nanaji Deshmukh, was a social reformer and politician from India. He worked in the fields of education, health, and rural self-reliance. He was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award in 2019 by the Government of India. He was a leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and also a member of the Rajya Sabha.
Madhukar Dattatraya Deoras, was the third Sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The Rashtra Sevika Samiti is a Hindu nationalist women's organisation that parallels the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for men. Even though it is often referred to as the "Sister" of the RSS, the organisation claims that it is independent of the RSS while sharing its ideology. Membership and leadership is embraced to women and its activities are directed to nationalist devotion and mobilisation of Hindu women.
The Nagpur riots of 1927 were part of series of riots taking place across various cities in British India during the 1920s. Nagpur was then the capital of Central Provinces and Berar (CP&B) state of British India which covered most of the central India. The riots occurred on 4 September 1927. On that day, there was a procession for Mahalakshmi, which was blocked by Muslims when it came to the Mahal neighbourhood. In the afternoon, there was rioting near the Hindu houses of the neighbourhood, which continued for three days.
Mohan Madhukar Rao Bhagwat is an Indian veterinarian who is the 6th and current Sarsanghchalak (Chief) of the right-wing nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since 2009.
Dattopant Bapurao Thengadi, was an Indian Hindu ideologue, trade union leader associated with Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad and the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh. He was born in Arvi, Wardha, Maharashtra.
Eknath Ramakrishna Ranade was an Indian social activist and right-wing leader. He joined the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) while in school and served as its general secretary from 1956 to 1962.
The Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana (ABISY) is a subsidiary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an organisation. Envisioned in 1973 by Moropant Pingley, a pracharak of the RSS, and founded in 1978-79, ABISY holds that India's history was distorted by the British Raj, and seeks to correct the biases. Scholars state that the actual aim of the organisation is to rewrite Indian history from a Hindu nationalist perspective.
Laxman Vasudev Paranjape, was a member of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), along with its first Sarsanghchalak, K. B. Hedgewar. Paranjape also served as the acting Sarsanghchalak, when Hedgewar went to jail during the Forest Satyagraha.
Prabhakar Balwant Dani was a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organization in India. He served as a pracharak of the organization. He served in senior positions of the RSS and played a large role in spreading the RSS network in the erstwhile Indian state of Madhya Bharat.
Mauli Chandra Sharma was a senior Indian politician, originally of the Indian National Congress. He was a founding member of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, serving as its Vice-President and President, before being forced out by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activists in the party in 1954.
Venkatramaiah Shantha Kumari popularly called "Shanthakka" is the current Chief of the Hindu nationalist women's organisation Rashtra Sevika Samiti. She took charge as Chief in 2013.
Hedgewar Smruti Mandir (HSM) is a memorial in Reshimbagh, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India dedicated to K. B. Hedgewar and M. S. Golwalkar, who were the first two leaders of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It was inaugurated in 1962. It was granted tourism status on the recommendation of the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) in 2017, but this decision is mired in controversy.