ABSTRACT
Gandhi began his talk by recalling his visit to an RSS camp several years back at Wardha where he had been taken by his associate and prominent businessman, Jamnalal Bajaj. A crucial admission on Gandhi's part during this speech was that his methods might not be applicable to the newly formed state of India: 'If he had his way, he would have no military; not even police. Gandhi tells the RSS that Hinduism, which they were striving so hard to protect, would die if it did not eradicate untouchability: 'One thing was certain, and he had been proclaiming it from house-tops, that if untouchability lived, Hinduism must die'. However, this the RSS had already accepted, even if most of their top functionaries were upper-caste and Brahmin, their official ideology was for Hindu, not caste identities. It is only when Hindu nationalists started treating Gandhi as less of an untouchable that they found favour with the Indian masses.
