Founded in 1925, the RSS turns 100 this year. Columnist Diganta Chakraborty separates fact from a century of fiction.

Chakraborty traces RSS founder Dr. Keshav Hedgewar’s biography — from a child who refused the Queen Victoria sweet at age 8, to leading students in chanting Vandemataram during British inspections, to moving to Calcutta in 1910 specifically to join the revolutionary freedom movement. He dismantles the British-collaboration narrative, citing the 1947 Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha resolution formally recognising the Azad Hind Fauj as independent India’s first military force. The session also covers Hedgewar’s 1928 meeting with Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and the RSS prayer — “if one must give his life for the nation, that too is a noble deed” — as a direct echo of Netaji’s vision.

About The Speakers:
Diganta Chakraborty is a young author and columnist from West Bengal, India, currently studying at Scottish Church College, Kolkata. At a young age, he published three books: Manishi Gatha, Jemon Chhilo Amar Desh Bharatbarsha, and Prabandha Chaynika. His fourth book, The Unsung Heroines of Bharat, is his first in English. Diganta primarily writes on social issues, history, mythology, geopolitics, and current affairs, focusing on the lives of freedom fighters and social reformers. His columns have appeared in prominent Bengali and national English newspapers, including Anand Bazar Patrika, Ei Samay, Aajkaal, The Telegraph, The Statesman, The Hindu, and The Asian Age (including its London edition), as well as in regional media in Assam and Tripura. He has published over 200 articles. In March 2023, he received the ‘Jagran Josh Most Promising Talent’ award from one of India’s top newspapers, Jagran.

Debasis Sarkar is an Anchor at The Sangam Talks and an independent researcher in Indology.