Des Raj Goyal (1929-2013), also known as Desraj GoyalorD. R. Goyal, was an Indian journalist, academic and a well-known author of books on secularism and communalism. Having been a member of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in his younger days, he wrote a seminal book on the organisation in 1979, which is widely cited in academic works.[1][2]
Goyal became a member of the RSS in 1942, when he was still a school student. He joined it with the belief that it was an organisation fighting for India's independence and worked as a full-time pracharak. He subsequently got disillusioned with the organisation and left it in 1947. He continued with his interest in the organisation at an analytical level and published a book on it in 1979, which is considered authentic by academics.[3]
Goyal started working as a journalist since 1946, associated with several publications, including the Urdu weekly Sandesh, Urdu daily Sangram and Hindu daily Milap. While working at Milap, he was told by acquaintances in the Hindu Mahasabha Bhawan in Delhi to go to Gandhi's prayer meeting on 30 January 1948 because "something historic was to happen." By the time he reached the meeting, Gandhi had already been assassinated. Subsequently, Goyal was arrested on suspicion of involvement in a conspiracy to assassinate Jawaharlal Nehru. While in prison, he read various books borrowed from the prison library, which broadened his horizons and helped him get out of the indoctrination he has had from the RSS. Determined to find an organisation different from the RSS but opposed to the Congress, he joined the Communist Party of India.[2]
He was led to renew activism after noting the diatribes of M. S. Golwalkar against Nehru after the 1962 India-China War. He found it odd that Golwalkar had no issues with keeping aloof from the freedom struggle but was now prone to equate anti-Nehruism with patriotism.
Jointly with Subhadra Joshi, Member of Parliament from Jabalpur, he co-founded the organisation Sampradayikta Virodhi Committee (Anti-sectarian committee), which was later renamed to Qaumi Ekta Trust (National unity trust). It focuses on inter-faith dialogue and communal harmony in India and publishes the Seculary Democracy magazine. Goyal was the editor of the Mainstream Weekly from 1963 to 1967 and the editor of
Secular Democracy since 1968.[2][3][5][6]
Historian Ramachandra Guha has called Goyal's Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh the "best book on the RSS."[8]
Lloyd I. Rudolph called it a "polemically critical work" and included it among 3 best references for the RSS.[9]
