ABSTRACT
In the old Hindu conception of the state, the sovereign, of the kshatriya caste, must be associated with a Brahmin, who reinforces his status and serves him as a counselor, who indeed legitimizes him by inspiring his actions. The Brahmin was materially dependent on the sovereign. Even if the Indian Constitution made no explicit reference to secularism until 1976, following an amendment proposed by Indira Gandhi, this was indeed the philosophy behind it from its promulgation in 1950. In Hinduism, the guru is usually a man or a woman, but it can be depersonalized and become a kind of principle which can also assume a much different form. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar's successor, Madhav Shiv Golwalkar, who, incidentally, was called 'Guruji' because of his past sojourn in an ashram and his appearance since then promoted the RSS as a social movement with a mission to influence politics, as a source of moral, or even spiritual, inspiration.
