Salt of the earth, ye virtuous few,
Who season human kind;
Light of the world, whose cheering ray
Illumes the realms of mind;

In every faith, thro’ every clime,
Your pilgrim steps we trace;
And shrines are drest, and temples rise,
Each hallow’d spot to grace

– Anna Laetitia Barbauld

The earth is made livable by those noble souls who often remain lesser known and lesser celebrated by the state powers.

They remain in the heart of the millions, who remember them, cherish their memories and give their examples to their sons and daughters to emulate their actions and personal virtues.

They are, in the real sense of the term- ‘salt of the earth’.

Bhaskar Rao was one such enlightened person who became one with the lofty ideals of Gandhi and Deendayal Upadhyaya devoting his life for the Dharma, nationalism and tribal development all over India. His centenary year is being observed and a huge conference on his life and works is being organized in Kochi (Ernakulam) on his birth anniversary, 5th October.

Bhaskar  Rao Ji

Recently the social media was talking about Yamuna Bharathi, the brilliant daughter of Kerala’s RSS intellectual fighter Sadanand Master whose both legs were cut barbarically before his students in the class room, where he was teaching, by CPM goons. He stood firm on his ideals and reared his family in a cool, graceful way, never yielding an inch to the opponents of his school of thought.

How such firmness was built in a million RSS swayamsewaks? The only answer to it can be given in one name- Bhaskar Rao.

The family values and the firmness on Dharma and nationalist school of thought comes from those who live by their example and become a source of inspiration to the workers.

He was born in Yangon on 5th October 1919, where his father Dr Shiv Ram Kalambi was a popular medical practitioner and a RSS Swayamsewak. His mother Sms Radha was instrumental in giving Bhaskar the values of a Hindu family. Unfortunately both his parents died too early, forcing Bhaskar to return to Mumbai with his uncle and pursue studies. He graduated from St Xavier’s College and took LLB degree from Bombay university. But destiny had a different field reserved for him. He felt the plight of the Hindus who were struggling for independence from the British yoke on one side and the attacks of the Islamists and Christian evangelists on the other. He decided to be a Pracharak in the RSS and was sent to Kerala in 1946.

It was the most difficult time for the Hindu consolidation in Kerala those days. Muslim intransigence and offensive against the Hindus was on a rise, Christians were forcibly trying to take over many Hindu shrines and their zeal to convert Hindus was unstoppable, Hindu society was deeply divided in caste and community segments The influence of Sri Narayan Guru, Mahatma Ayyankali saved Hindus to a great extent, still the flood of assaults on Hindus was continuing.

RSS had hardly twenty shakhas in the entire Kerala region, then known as Travancore-Cochin or Thiru-Kochi (1949–1956), – originally called United State of Travancore and Cochin. The Malabar area, was a Muslim hub of Jihadist activities, which was the first Muslim majority district carved out by the Communist government led by EMS Namboodiripad (Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad).

The Hindus of Kerala needed a strong helping hand to regain confidence that was shattered by the barbaric Moplah violence about which Dr B.R Ambedkar had written, “The Hindus must have the courage and the faith to feel that they can protect their religion in spite of such fanatical eruptions. A verbal disapproval by the Mussalmans of Mopla madness is no test of Mussalman friendship. The Mussalmans must naturally feel the shame and humiliation of the Mopla conduct about forcible conversions and looting, and they must work away so silently and effectively that such a thing might become impossible even on the part of the most fanatical among them. My belief is that the Hindus as a body have received the Mopla madness with equanimity and that the cultured Mussalmans are sincerely sorry of the Mopla’s perversion of the teaching of the Prophet”- B. R. Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Bhimrao. Pakistan or the Partition of India. Chapter 7).

Kerala was nourished and saved from the assaults of forces inimical to The Hindu survival by the noble teachings of Sri Narayan Guru and Mahatma Ayyankali. K. Bhasakar Rao had a huge challenge before him to hold the flood of assaults on Hindus while keeping the morale of the society high. His focus on the low income groups, making new sangha swayamsewaks among fishermen, poor artisans, farmers, rickshaw drivers, teachers and students was a big success. RSS grew leaps and bounds in rural areas, and among the poorest of the poor sections.

It drew the brutal ire of the communist leadership that saw their ground slipping away. The long list of the martyrs of the Sangh is testimony to the bewildered CPM leadership that found refuge in killing the young RSS workers. It goes to the credit of Bhaskar Rao that he remained an unwavering source of solace and strength to the bereaved Sangha families as well as created a new generation of Swayamsewaks who won’t be fearful of CPM violence.

Bhaskar Rao ji with Shri Tarun Vijay, and his mother in their Dehradun house- where an idea of Vanavasi hostel took shape. Behind are his Kalyan Ashram workers ( extreme right Dr Tapu Mohanty, editor, Van Swar) 

Bhaskar Rao is revered as the creator of the Veer- Kerala that will not yield before the violence and keep on working to build the edifice of a humane, tolerant, and a civilized society, dedicated to a greater national glory.

Among the tribals

His life’s second avatar was to join India’s largest tribals service organization Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram in 1984. The Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram saw best of the service projects, new hostels, medical centres, schools, and late evening literacy classes for tribal farmers under his guidance. He helped and each swayamsewak never ever felt as if his help is like a ‘burden’ to be repaid.

He was kind, soft spoken, suave and too humble.

When I look at his early years it surprises how a young lad in his twenties would decide to give his life for the society, inspite of having a LLB degree in his pocket in those days when being a solicitor meant a high profile, comfortable rich life.

His simplicity, unassuming nature, an extraordinary ability to bring out the best from the most ordinary youth- was his forte.

His contribution to the growth of Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram is phenomenal. He helped thousands of schools, hostels, all over India- in tribal pockets. It was a new world for him— as tribals form a are very distinct fabric of the Indian milieu, brilliant and yet clouded by various inhospitable factors that makes them vulnerable to exploitation by the rich urban traders, miners, bureaucrats and of course foreign funded conspiracies of proselytization. It is often ignored that though the tribals form just eight percent of Indian population, more than ninety eight percent incidents of insurgency, terrorism and foreign controlled activities like conversion to other faiths through agencies inimical to India’s growth occur in the tribal region alone.

Very soon Bhaskar Rao grasped the situation and he focussed on giving quality education to the tribal students so that they become aware of their environment, are able to understand the threats and reduce their vulnerability to falliing prey to exploitative forces. You can’t teach a person who wont understand what exploitation means and neither can you teach religious texts to a hungry boy. Make them economically empowered, give them good education and you have brilliant, awakened patriotic Indians ready to rebuild a new India, he would say. Good education is the key to not only prosperity and health but also to produce patriotic Indians who can contribute enormously to the growth of motherland.

Great ideas were so beautifully explained by him and there was hardly any more need for further elaborate or get into a reactionary, offensive mode.

He was everything to us, to India, that we see in the personalities of Mahatma Gandhi and Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya. Bhaskar Rao was truly a Mahatma of our times.