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These were the demands the Sangh Parivar sought to advance in the tumultuous months of 1947. As India approached independence, the organisation opposed the emerging national symbols and sought to redefine the nation along explicitly Hindutva lines. The country’s name, language and flag were not merely questions of identity; they became instruments for drawing a line between Hindus and minorities. Even before India became independent, the experiment was already underway: turning the symbols of the new nation into instruments of exclusion.

Today, the same people present themselves as custodians of national symbols and the sole proprietors of patriotism. Yet the July-August 1947 issues of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mouthpiece, Organiser stand as a written record of the Sangh Parivar’s ‘lost battle’.

In July 1947, the Constituent Assembly debated the national flag. As the country moved towards adopting the tricolour, the RSS launched a fierce campaign against it in Organiser, using everything from editorials to letters to the editor.

The Bhagwa Dhwaj is the saffron flag that the RSS reveres and bows before as its guru at its shakhas. When a shakha is held in a temple courtyard, the flag is placed at the centre. It also flies at RSS-controlled temples, while some sannyasis carry it with them. The RSS attaches great sanctity to it.

From the editorial of the organiser July 17,1947

In its July 17 editorial, Organiser waxed eloquent about the greatness of the flag. As it became clear that the Constituent Assembly was moving towards adopting the tricolour, the editorial dismissed it as the Congress flag. Organiser reacted sharply to the Assembly’s argument that it was adopting a flag that was ‘acceptable to all’.

‘This is sheer nonsense. The Flag represents the nation, and there is only one nation in Hindusthan, the Hindu Nation, with an unbroken history extending over 5,000 years. That is the nation and the flag must symbolise that nation and that nation alone. We cannot possibly choose a flag with a view to satisfy the desires and wishes of all the communities,’ the paper wrote.

‘This is sheer nonsense. The Flag represents the nation, and there is only one nation in Hindusthan, the Hindu Nation, with an unbroken history extending over 5,000 years. That is the nation and the flag must symbolise that nation and that nation alone. We cannot possibly choose a flag with a view to satisfy the desires and wishes of all the communities,’ the paper wrote.

After elaborating at length on the greatness of the saffron flag, ‘handed down by their forebears’, the editorial concluded:

It is only the ignorant or the malicious who cannot find or appreciate this peculiar charm, nobility and grandeur........

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