K.B. Hedgewar

The Story

Born in Nagpur, Keshav Baliram Hedgewar lost his parents to the plague of 1902 at the age of thirteen. The plague that orphaned him, and the sight of a colonial state that could not protect its people, shaped his resolve. He became a doctor — and a freedom fighter, participating in the Swadeshi movement and serving prison terms for his activism.

Disillusioned by the factional politics of the age, he conceived of a different kind of work: the building of individual character through disciplined training. On Vijayadashami, 1925, he gathered a handful of boys in a field in Nagpur and began the daily shakha — the morning and evening gathering of uniformed swayamsevaks trained in physical fitness, discipline, and national pride.

He lived the austere life he preached — never married, owned nothing, and gave every hour to the organisation. When he died in 1940, the RSS had thousands of shakhas and tens of thousands of swayamsevaks. His successors grew it into a national network that today serves education, relief, and the cultural life of Bhārat.