What if, I say the North Pole was in India some 8000 years ago somewhere between Patna and Orissa, and it ran away from India almost in a ZigZag fashion, what will you do? Either laugh at me or question my mental balance! But hold on, before you do that, you should know that the most learned man in RSS and the founding father M. S. Golwalkar (Guruji), wrote a book on it.
So how it started and what was the reason for it? When Savarkar was conceptualizing Hindutva, making the subcontinent fatherland of chosen few, another development already happened which could have questioned it. A fatherland means your ancestral property and a motherland means if you are born here. You can read my article Hindutva by Savarkar-Part 1: It is all about the land to understand this fatherland and motherland debate. Hindutva Fatherland basically gives entitlement to few to the land which comes under the jurisdiction of India and excludes others. You can read another article on entitlement Hindutva by Savarkar-Part 4: Entitlement of Fatherland.
While Savarkar was conceptualizing the Hinduvtva and assigning it to its original inhabitants, another learned and well-respected researcher and freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote another piece of his research, “The Arctic Home In The Vedas”. In this research, he studied the planetary positions mentioned in Vedas, related them to a geographical location in the arctic and close to the North Pole. Hence, some 8000 years ago, those who wrote and practiced Vedas were near the north pole. True, the modern DNA findings route the map which the Aryans took also has a close resemblance to this, and hence it is a matter of further study. Besides, this complements the research conducted by William F Warren (First President of Boston University), “Paradise Found or the Cradle of the Human Race at the North Pole”. Tilak and Max Muller had earlier discussed these findings, Max Muller conveyed it to Warren.
The situation is complicated here. If Aryans lived near the North Pole, how come India or the subcontinent is their fatherland? Suddenly, the politics of Hindutva was under the scanner. The confusion of Tilak versus Savarkar was hard to handle, and hence MS Golwalkar (Guruji)took charge to resolve. It was important to keep Hinduvtva alive.
Golwalkar, who was fondly called Guruji, wrote a book to solve the dilemma based on his own research. MS Golwalkar, in his book “We or Our Nationhood Defined” (PAGE 45) based on some conversation of a botanical expert concluded in his infinite wisdom that the North Pole was somewhere between Bihar and Orissa and moved northwards in a zigzag march. So this settled the controversy created by another learned scholar Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Hinduvtva’s theory of Savarkar was stitched well with the north pole concept of Tilak. Below is the original image of the relevant page mentioned here from his famous book.
With the advent of better understanding and globalization, post-Guruji’s death, RSS found it to be too hard to sell or digest as some contemporary researchers started questioning the ideology and concept. Latter, some thinkers in RSS disowned it completely. Some RSS ideologues claim that MS Golwalkar never wrote that book. If he has not written, the question arises, why it was not opposed or questioned by MS Golwalkar, why he did not go to court to make it clear, and why he never issued any statement. The RSS rebuttal is as ridiculous as the concept of the North Pole in India for many logical thinkers.
Note: If you like my articles please do like and share. If you find factually incorrect, please comment on the factual errors so that I can correct them. Improvement is a journey and constructive criticism is welcome.
