We know about this man as only a hindutva icon, who sow the seed of hindu muslim hatred, hindu nationalist, supporter of two nation theory and nothing else!! Well today we need to debunk this…
Vinayak damodar savarkar was from starting wants to overthrow British empire.. he was a hardcore nationalist and when he was in india house in London where Savarkar founded the Free India Society to organise Indian students studying in England to fight for independence. He writes many poems about Indian freedom.. When he was just merely teenager he supported Indias independence!! Savarkar involved himself in numerous organisations including the Free India Society
He was first man who shaped India's freedom struggle, when indians and British named 1857 revolt as merely a fight of some soldiers but Savarkar in his book “ The history of war of Indian independence” termed this as first war of independence.. only after him we say independence fight start from 1857.. His writings inspired a lot of indians!! This book was banned by britishers in fear of revolts..Not one but eight works of Savarkar were banned by British government. The list includes: Mazzini –his biography in Marathi, Indian War of Independence 1857, drama Usshaap, Shraddhanand –magazine by his brother that carried his articles and his biography by GP Parchure, among others. Madama Bhikaji Cama published the book in Netherlands, Germany and France, which eventually reached many Indian revolutionaries.
It is true that he support violence, he was unlike Gandhiji to follow path of non violence..he made manual bombs and guerrilla warfare and distributed among friends. He also provided legal defence to his friend Madan Lal Dhingra, who was accused in a murder case of a British Indian army officer named Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie.
While pursuing his B.A from Fergusson College in Pune, he was inspired by Lokamanya Tilak’s announcement to boycott British clothes. He went a step ahead and on October 7, 1905, during Dusshera, he set up a bonfire (holi) and burnt all his foreign clothes and goods. Before even Gandhiji arrived in india..
When he was arrested and sentenced to 50 Years jail, In cellular jail( Andaman and Nicobar island) he faced one of the harsh punishment ever known.. He was, reportedly, restrained in chains, flogged, and resigned to six months of solitary confinement.. He was severely tortured in the Jail. But his national freedom spirit continued and there he started teaching his fellow prisoners to read and write. numerous political prisoners who were driven to insanity or committed suicide, Savarkar showed remarkable resilience and was ultimately rewarded for it in January 1924.. he wrote many inspirational poems on walls of cellular jail.. he made rock his pen and wall his paper.. despite not have basic facilities with severe torture he still not lose hope..
Many people said him British Dog bcoz he wrote petition letter and ofcourse promised them to not to do such acts.. But this was just his tactics.. those who are left leaning or liberals always point on his hindutva writing but it was just a way to bring a social revolution among Indian society!! In book Savarkar; Epochs from history, he said that every revolutionary must get out of Jail to reform and fight britishers!!!
When he got bail with strict regulations so that he couldn't organize any such events, he shifts his ideology to inspire indian, bhagat singh and subhas Chandra bose were one of them..
It was on the advice of Savarkar that Rash Behari Bose wrote to Netaji Bose, the then Congress President, informing him of the activities of revolutionary freedom fighters abroad who were working under the Indian Independence League (IIL).
The radio broadcasts of Azad Hind Fauj from Singapore acknowledge the debt they owed to the vision of Savarkar.It appears that this book was a must read in the inner circles of Bhagat Singh’s Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA).
While discussing the famous Jail Note Book of Bhagat Singh, historians Malwinder Jit Singh and Harish Jain state:
Hindu Pad Padshahi by Veer Savarkar is one book which I would list among those he read thoroughly. May be for him, it was a re-reading as it was also found among the books seized by the police during raids on their hideouts after Sukhdev’s arrest.
An ex-comrade, Durgadas Khanna, mentioned in an interview that Bhagat Singh and Sukhdev had interviewed him for entry into the HSRA and one criteria for admission was whether they had read books on whether they had read books on and by Savarkar.
The The meeting reportedly took place at Latter’s Residence (some of the historians reports that it was held in Savarkar Sadan) in Dadar (Mumbai) On 21 June 1940, The main agenda of the meeting was to explore the possibilities of co-operation between Forward Block and Hindu Mahasabbha. The meeting was said to have changed Netaji’s course of action. Savarkar advised Subhas not to waste time in agitating for the removal of British statues like Holwell Monument in Calcutta - only to end up in a British prison during the invaluable war-time. Savarkar was surreptitiously in touch with Ras Behari Bose in Japan. He advocated that Subhas should smuggle himself out of the country and try to reach Germany and Japan (like Indian revolutionaries during World War I) to raise an Indian Army of liberation out of PoWsOn June 25, 1944, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in his speech on Azad Hind Radio showered praises on Savarkar. Netaji said:
“When due to misguided political whims and lack of vision, almost all the leaders of Congress party have been decrying all the soldiers in Indian Army as mercenaries, it is heartening to know that Veer Savarkar is fearlessly exhorting the youths of India to enlist in armed forces. These enlisted youths themselves provide us with trained men and soldiers for our Indian National Army.”
Rash Behari Bose and Netaji both had copies of the book based on the 1857 war of Independence, which was printed in Japan. More copies were found in several raids conducted on members of the Indian National Army (INA). In the April 1939 edition of Japanese magazine Dai Aija Shugi, Rash Behari Bose called Savarkar "a rising leader of new India" and a symbol of "heroism, valour, adventure and an epitome of patriotism". Netaji supposedly met Savarkar before leaving for Japan and in an address on the Azad Hind Radio on 25 June 1944, commended his efforts to enlist youths into the British army, who were then pulled into the INA.[6]
He did many great things to remove untouchability and uplift womem society ..I want to present some facts here below:
After undergoing nearly 15 years of torturous imprisonment in the Andamans, Savarkar focused on social reforms after his release.Savarkar once said, “He who gives up verbosity and acts as per the principle of ‘irrespective of whether others do it or not, as far as I am concerned, I will practice reform on a daily basis’ alone is a true reformer.”[ The Spirit of Hindutva; Samagra Savarkar Vangmaya, edited by SR Date, Vol. 3, p.75).]
Savarkar said, “Once the children are educated together, they will not observe caste hierarchy in later life. They will not feel the need to observe caste division. In addition, the government should abandon the title ‘special schools for low caste children’. This very title creates a feeling of inferiority among children attending the school.”On Hindu festivals like Dussehra and Makar Sakranti, Savarkar would visit houses, accompanied by people from different castes, and distribute traditional sweets. He himself brought up a girl child from a former untouchable community and taught people from untouchable communities to read, write and recite the Gayatri mantra.
The Public lectures by women and inter-caste dining by women were special features of these festivities. Savarkar was also behind many temple movements of Maharashtra, where the untouchables were encouraged to pray, recite Sanskrit hymns and conduct “abhishek” of the Vishnu idol.
In 1931, the Patitpavan temple was established in Ratnagiri; it had on its trust, representation from all castes, including those from the erstwhile untouchable caste. Savarkar also organised community meals in some temples. The first community meal for women in Maharashtra was held in the Patitpavan temple on September 21, 1931. Around 75 women were present on the occasion. By 1935, this count had gone up to 400…
In 1931, the Patitpavan temple was established in Ratnagiri; it had on its trust, representation from all castes, including those from the erstwhile untouchable caste. On May 1, 1933, Savarkar started a cafe for Hindus of all castes, including untouchables. This was the first pan-Hindu café in entire India. He had employed a person from the Mahar caste to serve food there. This was at a time when inter-caste dining was unthinkable.
I want to present an excerpt from [Samagra Savarkar Vangmay; Part 3, page 641] ~ achieve social revolution we first have to strike at the birth-based caste system and bridge the differences between the various castes”. In a letter to his brother Narayanrao on July 6, 1920, Savarkar wrote “I feel the need to rebel against caste discrimination and untouchability as much as I feel the need to fight against foreign occupation of India”.
Here are some arguments against Savarakar which I want to address, these are made by all liberals, secular, leftists of india..
- He proposed two nation theory:
Ans: Nope.. his writings are misunderstood.. here is exactly what he said ~ India cannot be assumed today to be a unitarian and homogeneous nation, but on the contrary there are two nations in the main; the Hindus and the Moslems, in India.” (Samagra Savarkar Vadmay- Volume 6, Maharashtra Prantik Hindusabha Publication, Page 296) now after this statement what he further said was this -"And as it has happened in many countries under similar situation in the world, the utmost that we can do under the circumstances is to form an Indian State in which none is allowed any special weightage of representation and none is paid an extra price to buy his loyalty to the State….. The Hindus as a nation are willing to discharge their duty to a common Indian State on equal footing.”
Also he added~ “ We shall ever guarantee protection to the religion, culture and language of the minorities for themselves, but we shall no longer tolerate any aggression on their part on the equal liberty of the Hindus to guard their religion, culture and language as well. If the non-Hindu minorities are to be protected then surely the Hindu majority also must be protected against any aggressive minority in India” [ Page no 296-299]….
Not just this, his writings were verily criticize.. he was against muslims demands of Pakistan.. I found a very good article from FIRTPOST “
~” his speech was criticised even while Savarkar was alive. Therefore, Savarkar clarified his statement to journalists on 15 August, 1943 in the office of the Marathi weekly Aadesh published from Nagpur. He also clarified his position in an interview given in Mumbai on 23 August, 1943. In the interview, he said, "People still do not understand the important thing that stating the fact of Mussulman and Hindu nations being present in Hindusthan is not to accept the Pakistani adamancy of carving a country of the Mussalmans….. While two or two hundred nations that consider themselves separate from the Hindus have presently entered Hindusthan by force and are demanding Partition of Hindusthan, it is not by a woolly-headed and cowardly denial of this fact but rather by understanding, facing and changing it shall an independent, undivided and indivisible Hindu nation alone shall without doubt, remain in Hindusthan. But as in our history when the Hindu Nation successfully rallied under the Hindu Flag, the Hindus should come forward and rise unitedly…..We should not confuse between nation and state. Even if the state goes, the nation remains. When the Mussulmans were ruling over us, the government (state) was theirs. But the existence of the Hindus was most certainly intact. Even so, there is no problem in a common state of Hindus and Mussulmans. In the past, we had nations (Rashtra) such as Maharashtra, Saurashtra, Devrashtra (near Berar). Where are these nations? They mingled with each other. The Shakas and Huns came to Hindusthan as nations. But what is the evidence of their existence today? We digested them. So if the Mussulmans want, they could amicably stay with Hindus as a minority community …. In the end, desire is the most influential and important factor for a nation.”
Also two nation theory was first proposed by Syyed Ahmed khan, founder of Aligarh muslim University.. before even savarkar was born!!
2. Second claim is je justifies rape as a political tool..
Ans: The gist of the article is that in his book, 'Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History now what he said clearly let's check( I had copied the text savarkar used in his book]
“Even now we proudly refer to the noble acts of Chhatrapati Shivaji and Chimaji Appa, when they honourably sent back the daughter-in-law of the Muslim Governor of Kalyan and the wife of the Portuguese governor of Bassein respectively. But is it not strange that, when they did so neither Shivaji Maharaj nor Chimaji Appa should ever remember, the atrocities and the rapes and the molestation, perpetrated by Mahmud of Ghazni, Muhammad Ghori, Alla-ud-din Khilji and others, on thousands of Hindu ladies and girls … Did not the plaintive screams and pitiful lamentations of the millions of molested Hindu women, which reverberated throughout the length and breadth of the country, reach the ears of Shivaji Maharaj and Chimaji Appa?
“If they had taken such a fright in the first two or three centuries, millions and millions of luckless Hindu ladies would have been saved all their indignities, loss of their own religion, rapes, ravages and other unimaginable persecutions.”
Savarkar do make criticism of Muslim rulers who abduct, convert, rape, distribute and sell hindu girls or from other religions.. Savarkar was staunch supporter of women and he dislike attitude of lust towards women… Savarkar had also see the partition time where lakhs of women were raped and killed.. no doubt women were treated like shit after Islamic invasions.. this legacy of islamic rulers was a wound on savarkar!! I openly challenged to readers of so called journalism of the The wire, Scroll, The Quint to provide facts.. theee news outlets have no shame for perpetrating lies only on Hindus..
Savarakar did say” The Muslim women never feared retribution or punishment at the hands of any Hindu for their heinous crime. They had a perverted idea of woman-chivalry.” but he wasn't advocating rape as political tool.. his words for those who considered Muslim rulers as great humanist.. he was bewildered by problems face by women due to Islamic invasion!!!
Also he doesn't hate muslims, infact in the book
The Indian War of Independence –1857, and considers them nationalists. In Page 114, Savarkar writes, “…Bharatmata (Mother India) proclaimed this divine mantra — henceforth, you are equal and brothers; I am equally the mother of you both! Hindustan is our country, and we are brothers, saying this Hindus and Muslims unanimously raised the flag of national freedom in Delhi.”
In page 169 he writes" The great national revolution of 1857 is unprecedented in the history of Hindustan, in which, Hindus and Muslims recognised their relationship as brothers and fought together for Hindustan…””
Vikram Sampath, historian who wrote about savarkar life listed this staunch advocate of a capitalist, market-driven, mechanised society, Savarkar wrote as early as in the 1930s about scientific temper alone being the foundation of a modern and prosperous India.
“It is through science, modern thoughts and industrialization and not by spinning wheels,” he held, “that we can ensure that every man and woman in India will have a job to do, food to eat, clothes to wear and a happy life to lead.”
Yes it is also said that the chitra gupta was no one else then savarkar.. this was confirmed by publisher of his books.. well if for this reason people are against him then let me tell there is also a dark side of Infact The father of India!!
Even today congress cursed him, hate him but Indira Gandhi praised Savarkar very much.. Responding to a letter written by Pandit Bakhle, secretary of the Swatnatray veer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak making plans for celeberating the birth centenary of Savarkar. In her letter dated May 20, 1980, Indira Gandhi writes back to Bakhle saying, “I have received your letter of 8th May 1980. Veer Savarkar’s daring defiance of the British Government has its own importance in the annals of our Freedom movement. I wish success to the plans to celebrate the birth centenary of remarkable son of india veer savarkar!!!
Indira Gandhi had also condoled Savarkar’s death in 1966. She (Indira Gandhi) had released a statement praising Savarkar as a revolutionary who had inspired many in the country.” she infact also print stamps for savarakar
I think this is enough for a great leader.. No one is perfect ..
Sources: Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924 by Historian and scholar Vikram sampath
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