It may be surprising for many people that there was some commander in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. But this is true and this post was also maintained in the Sangh for about 14 years. As long as this post remained in the Sangh, only one person remained on it. However, according to the tradition of Chhatrapati Shivaji, the name of this post was ‘Sarasenaapati’.
In fact, 4 years after the establishment of the Sangh i.e. in November 1929, when senior volunteers of the Sangh created the administrative system of the Sangh in Nagpur and the first ‘Sarsanghchalak’ was given the responsibility of the post of ‘Sarsanghchalak’ to Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, two more designations were also kept – Sarkaryavah (General Secretary) and Sarasena. The first SASTAP was elected Martand Rao Jog. And he was the first and final SASTAP of the Sangh.
Why was Sarasenaapati in the union?
However, the Sangh was not an organization of any military or revolutionary nature. So in such a situation, the question may arise in your mind that then the post of Sarmpanapati, who once created Chhatrapati Shivaji for the supreme officer of his Maratha army, why was the Sangh adopted by the Sangh? Actually, this was the post of training officer, whose responsibility was to set up a camp to the volunteers to provide training from physical exercise to punishment (sticks) etc. You must have seen the huge but disciplined pathos of the Sangh, Martand Rao Jog started it.
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Jog retired from the Army in 1920 and in 1926 when Dr. Hedgewar asked him to get the weekly parade of volunteers, he was also associated with the Congress Seva Dal at that time, sometimes like Dr. Hedgewar. But later he wrote in a letter to Guru Golwalkar, “I am now completely with the Sangh, the Sangh developed my personality. It was Dr. Hedgewar’s huge affection that I gave me a place in the Sangh”.
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Why was the post of Sarsenaapati removed?
For almost 14 years, this system continued and the post continued, but the situation changed as soon as the second world war started. On August 5, 1940, the British government took out an ordinance that under the India Security Act, no organization would be allowed to wear uniforms of the soldier nor did any kind of military training. Nevertheless, the brainstorm continued for the next 3 years.
Meanwhile, the British government also took action on some union officials in Delhi, Punjab and Madras. Finally, on 28 April 1943, the second Sarsanghchalak Guru Golwalkar ended the military training by sending a letter to all the branches. Actually Guru Golwalkar became Sarsanghchalak in July 1940 and this order came in August itself. So it was not appropriate to take such a big decision immediately, and without seeing all the aspects, it would not have been easy.
Guru Golwalkar had also written that ‘Our goal behind this training was just to give the rites of civil discipline, we will work within the purview of law’. In such a situation, posts like the Union’s Department of Sainik Department, Communications and Sarasena were abolished, Martand Rao Jog also resigned from his post after 14 years.
But this incident brought another major change, before the Union’s uniform (Uniform) Khaki Nikar and Khaki shirt used to be, which was a military uniform in a way. The Sangh turned the color of the shirt white, the nikar remained khaki and there was a black cap. So this was a big change in the history of the Sangh, neither the post of Sarisenaapati came back again nor did the khaki shirt come back again. An alternative to Khaki Nikar has definitely become khaki pants.
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