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        'Come! Come, let us listen to, and be inspired for ever by, the saga of selfless self-sacrifice, unparalleled devotion to duty, immortal martyrdom and super human courage that Swayamsevaks of the Sangh wrote with their own blood in the Punjab immediately before and after partition!'

Looking at the contemporary records of the period, both official and unofficial, there is no doubt that there was a complete concert between the Muslim League and the Muslim masses which followed virulently a Hindu, Sikh and other non-Muslim eradication programme and policy on the one hand and Muslim officials and police on the other. The British bureaucracy which still held supreme power was more inclined to favour the Muslim League, not as such, but as the one force in the country which could be relied upon to pursue a policy of dissention and strife, and to create a situation of civil war and strife in the country which would make it politically impossible for ensuring the survival of a United India.         The total number of Police Constables in the undivided Punjab in January 1947 was estimated at 24,095 out of whom 17,848 were Muslims, 6,167 Hindus and Sikhs combined and 80 Europeans and Anglo Indians. Muslims accounted for a percentage of 74% of the total police force. This overwhelming Muslim majority in the Police Force was not justified with reference to the population figures at that time —56% were Muslims and 44% non-Muslims. The longstanding demand for greater recruitment of Hindus and Sikhs to the Police made by Hindu and Sikh public bodies, mainly by the R.S.S., was never considered favourably by the British Government. The above proportions were always allowed to stand and even sturdy Hindu and Sikh youths were very often rejected while Muslims of very much inferior physique were taken into the Police. The result of all this was that the Punjab Police was for all practical purposes Muslim. Under the Provincial Autonomy Scheme of 1937, the Police Minister was also a Muslim.

Two forgotten RSS martyrs killed in Punjab in 1947. Martyr Lalchand shot dead by Jehadist. Martyr Nand Lal gunned down by Biloch Army.

        Thus in the months immediately preceding and after partition, the Muslim Police Minister, the Muslim Police Force, the Muslim League under Jinnah and the British Government played havoc with the lives, honour and property of Hindus, Sikhs and other non-Muslims with gay abandon. Every Muslim, deriving strength from this overarching Muslim umbrella of total protection, behaved like a blood-thirsty dictator in Western Punjab. The Civil and Military Gazette of Lahore said in its issue dated December 1947, that each Muslim in Punjab thought that he had become a NAWAB. The only force that protected the non-Muslims against these 'Cruel Nawabs' in those heart-rending days were the Swayamsevaks of the R.S.S. acting under the Generalissimo of Sri Guruji, Sar Sanghchalak of the R.S.S. The R.S.S. volunteers were the only beacon lights of hope, courage, mercy, compassion, and all categories of relief in the manner and measure required.

        The proportion of Hindu and Sikh population in the districts in which the Muslim attacks on the Hindus and the Sikhs were made can be seen in the table below:

        In the above 10 districts, virulent, savage and inhuman attacks were made by the Muslims on Hindus and Sikhs on a scale unequal in the history of mankind from March 1947 till September 1947.

        Under the unmatched leadership of Rao Bahadur Badri Das Devan, Pranth Sanghchalak, Punjab and Sri Madhav Rao Muley Ji, Pranth Pracharak, Punjab, the R.S.S. Swayamsevaks swung into action to protect the lives and properties of all the Sikhs, Hindus and other non-Muslims not only in the worst affected 10 districts referred to above, but in the whole of Punjab. All the Sikhs participated in this defensive action for survival against the Jihadic forces of the Muslim League in Pakistan. In order to collect individual accounts of the victims, the 'Akhil Bharathiya Ithihas Sankalan Yojana' conducted a wide campaign from district to district in every Province under the leadership of Sri Devendra Varma, who was earlier a Pracharak of the R.S.S. This is a source document for contemporary social history which can never get sidelined, silenced or obliterated by one million Antulays, 10 million Arjun Singhs, 50 million Ram Vilas Paswans, 100 million Mulyam Singh Yadavs and above all one billion silent Sonia Gandhis. All the mighty enforcement instruments of the Government of India and the State Governments cannot confiscate public thoughts and memories, of anguish, sorrow, despair and death, which lie embedded in these documents for public scrutiny — sacred documents which mock at Time —— for centuries to come.

        Wherever the Hindus in the Punjab were organized and alert and the R.S.S. had a strong presence, the Muslims behaved differently. They chose to live amicably with the Hindus even after that particular area went to Pakistan. This was because an organized Hindu community was not a danger for the Muslims, rather it was a guarantee of safety. A few civilized Muslims in stark minority came to realise that the R.S.S. leadership did not force a danger to good and law-abiding people even if they belonged to another religion.

        Let me give a few snapshots of the barbarous behaviour of the marauding Muslims in Sialkot district in Punjab in those hectic days. Sialkot was a leading centre of sports goods manufacture in British India. The guts for Badminton and Tennis Racquets were made of intestines of goats. And for making footballs you require hides. Extracting it from dead animals and making guts was the traditional speciality of a harijan community known as 'Megh'. Muslim workers handled other jobs, but kept away from hides and goats. When Pakistan was created, the Meghs like all other Hindus, decided to migrate to India. The Muslims of Sialkot wanted to drive out all the Hindus but retain the Meghs. They thought that when the Hindus leave, they would become the owners of the factories, as most of the factories were owned by the Hindus. But if the Meghs left, the work would come to a standstill. So they urged the Meghs not to leave. They promised them a life of security. Many inducements were offered. They were told that they would be married to beautiful Hindu Brahmin Girls. But the Meghs were not moved. They chose to come back to India. Many of them were slaughtered and killed.

        A classic instance of how implicitly the people trusted the R.S.S. was narrated by Sri Chamanlal, working for the Sangh Vishwa Vibhag (International Division). He said when people were fleeing Lahore in 1947 to come to India, it was not possible for them to carry their gold and other valuables with them. Their trek to India was full of grave and moral risks. Had they carried their valuables with them not only would they have been robbed, they would surely have been killed as kafirs. So, many people went to a R.S.S. Karyalaya to deposit their valuables there and say 'we trust you; when we meet again we will take these from you'.

        In those days of horror and sudden death, working for the R.S.S. was no bed of roses for the Swayamsevaks. Each of them had to face many challenges and make his way through many hurdles and adversities. How difficult things were, can be seen from the fact that even Madhav Rao Muley Ji, sent to Punjab as Pranth Pracharak by Sri Guruji had to earn his livelihood by vulcanising tubes of truck and bus tyres. He had even taken out an agency of Estrela Batteries. They were ordinary men and women dedicated to the great and noble cause of selfless service of Bharat Mata.

        Sri Guruji once on a tour in one of the interior parts of riot-torn Western Punjab paid his tribute to the young Balasevaks who had attained their martyrdom at the hands of Muslim Jihadists. During the course of his inspiring speech he said: 'The Mahabharat mentions only one Abhimanyu, but in these days Punjab is producing many Abhimanyus every day. By their heroic deeds of glorious self-sacrifice, they have raised the stature of Hindu society and the R.S.S. Even in their martyrdom they have become immortal'.