Savarkar haunts
By abhay mokashi
It is sad that once again political activists and ‘intellectuals’ in the country are debating Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and his role in India’s Freedom Movement. Controversy has started once again, following a statement by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh that Savarkar wrote the mercy petition to the British Government on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi.
Unfortunately, the stand on Savarkar is based more on whether one is a supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rashtriya Sawyamsevak Sangh (RSS) and/or the believers in the Hindutva philosophy on one hand or those opposed to it and less on Savarkar’s earlier work.
Rajnath Singh’s statement has brought two things to the fore. Firstly, the RSS brigade has accepted that Savarkar did write mercy petitions to the British Government, seeking pardon and his release from jail. Secondly, Singh’s statement makes it clear that Mahatma Gandhi was in a position to influence Savarkar and that the latter respected the Mahatma’s word. If that is the case, those standing up for Savarkar are insulting him by stating that he did not have a mind of his own.
There is enough evidence to show that Savarkar wrote mercy petitions to the British Government, but to call Savarkar a coward for that act, would be an insult of the courage he showed in the earlier years and his contribution to the Freedom Movement.
People are free to criticise Savarkar for his mercy petition, but it would be a falsification of history to deny his revolutionary role and his comraderie with the revolutionary freedom fighters in India and those fighting for India’s freedom from London. His courage in escaping British custody, while being deported to India from London and swimming the high seas, cannot be overlooked. Neither can it be denied that he spent years in the cellular jail in Andaman, in solitary confinement.
Savarkar is criticised primarily because many do not agree with his Hindu fanatism and his dream of a Hindu Rashtra or that he was leading the Hindu Mahasabha. He did sow poison of communalism in the minds of the people of the country and that has to be criticised.
Those who stand up for Gandhi and flay Savarkar, should remember that Mahatma Gandhi had said the crime should be hated not the criminal. This is conveniently forgotten by those who swear by the apostle of peace.
The defenders of Savarkar should also remember that he was as much a supporter of the two-nation theory as Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah is no doubt seen as a villain in India, but before he proposed the formation of Pakistan, he was a freedom fighter. One should not forget that Jinnah was Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s lawyer in a sedition case.
The BJP and RSS have a reason to stand up for Savarkar, for they have no leader of their ideology, who participated in the Freedom Movement. On the other hand, the Congress, which poses a major challenge to the BJP in country’s political arena, played the biggest role in fighting for India’s freedom. As such, the two organisations have to hijack leaders of other parties, including of the Congress, to divert public attention from the fact that the ancestral leaders of the BJP and the RSS have played no role in the independence struggle and some are said to have been police informers, passing on information about the freedom fighters, so they were the betrayers of the Freedom Movement.
Savarkar’s criticism over the social media, is making more and more people accept him, though they may not accept his ideology entirely, because, Savarkar advocated beef eating, something the BJP is opposed to.
Criticising Savarkar is as easy as flaying Jawaharlal Nehru. It is necessary to study the situation prevailing and the mindset of leaders of yester years, while analysing their decisions. It is easy to sit in the comforts of one’s office or home and post messages on the social media, about a man who spent years in solitary confinement. Many of such critics were restless when there was an outage of Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram or whenever there is an internet outage even for a while and felt they were in solitary confinement.
Those calling Savarkar a coward for his mercy petitions, should ask themselves what they are doing for the betterment of the country.
It is true that Savarkar’s ideology is causing great damage to the secular fabric of the nation and those opposed to him, should spend time on ensuring communal harmony, instead of merely tweeting against him.