Samarth Ramdas: Cultivating the Social and Cultural Ground for Swarajya
The establishment of Hindavi Swarajya cannot be understood as the achievement of a single individual, a single battle, or even a single stream of thought. It was the product of a long historical process in which political ambition, military organisation, social mobilisation, religious consciousness, local traditions and individual leadership converged. At the centre of that transformation stood Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who translated the idea of self-rule into an organised political reality. But alongside the political and military movement ran another, quieter process: the preparation of the mind, character and social will necessary for such a transformation. It is in this parallel process that the contribution of Samarth Ramdas deserves examination. The argument need not be that Ramdas "created" Shivaji's Swarajya, nor that he was the political mastermind behind it, there is insufficient historical basis for so sweeping a claim. Equally, it would be reductive to dis...