Hedgewar as a medical student in Kolkata had been a part of the revolutionary activities of the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar striving to free India from British rule.] He had been charged with sedition in 1921 by the British Administration and was imprisoned for one year. Hedgewar was educated by his elder brother. After matriculating he decided to go to Kolkata to study medicine. He was sent to
Kolkata by Dr. B. Moonje in 1910 to pursue his medical studies. There he lived with Shyam Sundar Chakravarthy] and learned the techniques of fighting from the secret revolutionary organisations like the Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar in Bengal. He immediately joined Anushilan Samiti and had contacts with revolutionaries like Ram Prasad Bismil. He took active part in the Historical Kakori conspiracy with the fake name of Keshab Chakravarthy and went underground. Although he had been an active member of Indian National Congress but he left it in the year 1925 to form the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. A rare group photo of six initial swayamsevaks taken on the occasion of a RSS meeting held in 1939
Since Hedgewar was primerly associated with the Hindustan Republican Association so he adopted the full constitution of erstwhile HRA and implemented it forcibly in his newly established organisation RSS later on. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) first met in 1925 just after two months of Kakori train robbery in a small ground of Nagpur with 5-6 persons on Vijaya Dashami. After the formation of the RSS, Hedgewar kept the organization away from having any direct affiliation to any of the political organisations then fighting British rule.But Hedgewar and his team of volunteers, took part in the Indian National Congress, led movements against the British rule. Hedgewar was arrested in the Jungle Satyagraha agitation in 1931 and served a second term in prison.
