The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has a defining history in Kashmir the various facets of which have already been published in previous columns of this author. It needs to be retold that the accession of the state of Jammu & Kashmir with the Indian Union in 1947 has a great and archival RSS connection. The then chief of the RSS, M.S.Golwalkar paid an urgent visit to Kashmir in October 1947 (having concurrence of Sardar Patel, Union Home Minister) and met the then Maharaja of the state, Hari Singh in his Stately home called Karan Palace at Srinagar. He discussed with him the whole gamut of accession in presence of Mehar Chand Mahajan, the then Prime Minister of the state who was instrumental in arranging the historic meeting.As a follow-up measure, some swayamsevaks of RSS in Jammu and Kashmir were also told to be ready to help the State authorities and the Indian forces to help the Indian Air Force to land their planes at Srinagar on 26 and 27 October, 1947. Accordingly, hundreds of RSS activists at Srinagar helped the army in preparing a temporary airport at a very short notice and created a history of immense political relevance.

RSS was banned thrice in its journey of one hundred years of existence. The first ban was executed by the government of India headed by Jawahar Lal Nehru in 1948 consequent upon the murder of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1975, as an aftermath of Emergency, RSS was again banned by the Indira Gandhi regime. In 1992, ban was imposed, for the third time, upon the RSS by the Government of Narsimha Rao as a fallout of the demolition of the Ramjanambhumi-Babri disputed structure in Ayodhya. All the three times, the ban on the organisation was lifted by the same governments that imposed them.

The bans had their deep impact on the organisation throughout the country including Kashmir. The most regressive and the eventful ban was experienced by the activists of RSS during the Emergency era from 1975 to 1977. Here, it becomes obligatory to mention that during the first and the second ban in 1948 and 1975 respectively, Jammu and Kashmir state was ruled by Sheikh Mohd. Abdullah. His political equation with Nehru and Indira Gandhi is well known to all and forms an important part of political history.

The NC government of Sheikh Abdullah didn’t leave any........

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