Nagpur, 1925. In a dimly lit room in the Mahal area, five avuncular men, all Brahmins from Vidharbha, met on September 27, the auspicious day of Vijay Dashmi.

The five–KB Hedgewar, his mentor BS Moonje, Ganesh Damodar ‘Babarao’ Savarkar, LV Parajpe and BB Tholkar–converged in a modest house not to celebrate the past, but to create their own history.

The humid air carried whispers of communal tension and recent riots as the host Hedgewar broached the problem: how to create a trained cadre of Hindus?

The discussion was a cold assessment of weakness. They had to successfully meet the challenge of frictions among Hindus, and the challenge posed by non-Hindu “rowdyism,” especially since the 1923 riots near a mosque in Ganesh Peth.

The decision was swift: The privileged must be trained physi

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