The Leadership of an Ideological Movement: A Study of ‘Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Movement’in Bharat

A social movement without organization or leadership can hardly be thought of. The basic premise behind the analysis of leadership is that they are the chief architect of the phenomenon we call social movement and that social movement can never occur in a vacuum. Leadership in a social movement plays a major role in mobilizing the mass base. The individual who performs this task of mobilizing people for action is called the leader. Although we are accustomed to identifying a social movement with a single leader, it is more accurate to think in terms of a group of leaders often organized in a hierarchy.In the present paper, the question of leadership has been studied in the context of the ‘Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Movement’.The study tries to investigate the life history of the leaders in general and founder in particular which includes various aspects such as their family background, education level, and bringing up, extraordinary talents of the leaders. Further, an attempt has been made to depict the contributions which different leaders have made to this organization. Data were collected from the available literature and interviews of knowledgeable members who themselves have been involved in the activities of movement for more than five decades.