Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966), sometimes called "Veer Savarkar" (Brave Savarkar), was a Hindu nationalist leader whose book, Hindutva, serves as an inspiration for the modern Hindu Nationalistic Movement. He has been an extremely controversial figure in the world of post-independence India, portrayed alternately as a "freedom fighter" and as a racist. Most of this controversy derives from his alleged involvement in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

The Freedom Fighter

After a member of the Free Indian Society killed an official in India Office (London), Savarkar was arrested and transported to the Andamans for life imprisonment. He reached the Andamans in 1910. He appealed for clemency in 1911, and again in 1913 during Sir Reginald Craddock's visit.

Controversial Political Views

However it should be noted that the Savarkar spoke these words in 1938 and Germany had yet to embark on the path of genocide and global destruction.

Assassination of Gandhi

No one contests that Nathuram Godse, Gandhi’s murderer, was a member of Hindu Mahasabha, and that he went to meet Savarkar days before he killed Gandhi. Digambar Badve, the approver, said that he heard Savarkar tell Godse, “Gandhichi shambhar varsha puri zhali” (Gandhi’s century is over) and “Yashasvi howun yaa” (“Come back with success”).

What irked Savarkar was that the Hindus overwhelmingly followed Gandhi. The Hindu Mahasabha sometimes won seats in local elections; but in provincial elections it was invariably trounced by the Congress. It could not even win the seat from Bombay, where Savarkar had made his home. The almost-barrister ex-terrorist who in his youth outshone the gentle Gandhi was ignored by everyone, even the British government to which he had become loyal. The reality was bitter; it poisoned Savarkar’s writings. Anyone who read Savarkar and believed him in the 1930s and 1940s would have wanted to kill Gandhi.

Delivering a lecture on Savarkar at the Asian College of Journalism here today, Mr. Noorani said three key factors contributed to the acquittal of Savarkar. There was no material that could, in legal terms, corroborate the evidence of the approver (Digambar Badge) in the case. None of the major witnesses was "forthcoming" (about the relationship between Savarkar and Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse).

Substantiating his statement that Savarkar organised the murder of Gandhi, the constitutional expert who authored "Savarkar and Hindutva: The Godse Connection," said even at the time of the trial, there was evidence about the political and ideological association of Savarkar and Godse. More material on this came to light a few years after Sarvarkar's deathin 1966 when his aides appeared before a Commission of Inquiry, headed by J.L. Kapur, former Supreme Court Judge. Also, the material accessed by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, authors of ``Freedom at Midnight," could also have fulfilled the requirements of corroborative evidence.

The Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Conspiracy to murder Mahatma Gandhi, was headed by Justice Jivanlal Kapur of the Supreme Court and was provided with evidence not produced in the court; especially the testimony of two of Savarkar's close aides - Appa Ramachandra Kasar, his bodyguard, and Gajanan Vishnu Damle, his secretary.

There was none of the ambiguity surrounding Godse and Apte's visits to Savarkar on January 14 and 17, 1948. Kasar told the Kapur Commission that they visited him on or about January 23 or 24, which was when they returned from Delhi after the bomb incident. Damle deposed that Godse and Apte saw Savarkar "in the middle of January and sat with him (Savarkar) in his garden."

Justice Kapur's findings concluded: "All these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group."

In his crime report No.1, the main police investigating officer, Jimmy Nagarvala, had stated that "Savarkar was at the back of the conspiracy and that he was feigning illness." Nagarvala's letter of January 31, 1948, the day after the assassination, mentioned, on the strength of what Kasar and Damle disclosed to him, that Savarkar, Godse and Apte met for 40 minutes "on the eve of their departure to Delhi" and that these two had access to the house of Savarkar without any restriction." In short, Godse and Apte met Savarkar again, in the absence of Badge, and in addition to their meetings on January 14 and 17.

On Hindus & Muslims

Savarkar has the honor of brewing Brahminical Hinduism with nationalism, and he was the first exponent of the doctrine of Hindutva. Savarkar's initial anti-British struggles were very impressive but after assuming the role of the proponent of Hindutva his major energies were channelised in strengthening the politics of hate, formation of communal Hindu Mahasabha and helping the RSS.

Savarkar's work `Hindutva: Who is Hindu' (1923) became and remains the basic text defining this political concept. With the simultaneous rise of Muslim communalism, . This nationalism consolidated itself on the ground of the 'threatening other', but this threatening other was not the British imperialist colonizers whose rule the country was suffering but was the Indian Muslim'.

Savarkar defines a Hindu as one "who regards this land of Bharatvarsha, from the Indus to the Seas as his Father-Land as well as his Holy-Land that is the cradle land of his religion"11. He said: "So with the Hindus, they being the people, whose past, present and future are most closely bound with the soil of Hindusthan as Pitribhu (fatherland), as Punyabhu (holyland), they constitute the foundation, the bedrock, the reserved forces of the Indian state. Therefore even from the point of Indian nationality, must ye, O Hindus, consolidate and strengthen Hindu nationality; not to give wanton offence to any of our non-Hindu compatriots, in fact to any one in the world but in just and urgent defence of our race and land; to render it impossible for others to betray her to or subject her to unprovoked attack by any of those 'Pan-isms' that are struggling forth from continent to continent."

1. Since Muslims and Hindus do not possess "unity of thought, religion, language and culture", they cannot coexist.

2. Muslims' allegiance to India is weaker than their allegiance to their holyland (which lies outside of India), and so their patriotism is suspect.

3. Being the minority, Muslims need to be at the mercy of Hindus.

Getting rid of Muslims is also justified, for that was what the Germans did to the Jews.

Savarkar's support for the two-nation theory is confirmed by his assertion: "I have no quarrel with Mr Jinnah's two-nation theory. We, Hindus, are a nation by ourselves and it is a historical fact that Hindus and Muslims are two nations. This position is easy to understand for Savarkar maintained that India bereft of Muslims was relatively inert to sabotage from within.

Literary Works

His other literary works in Marathi include "Kamala", "Mazi Janmathep", and most famously "1857 - The First war of Independence" about the Sepoy Mutiny, raising the claim that the Sepoy Mutiny was in fact the first war of Indian independence. He is also the author of poems like "Sagara pran talmalala", and "Jayostute", arguably the most moving, inspiring and patriotic work in Marathi literature. He is credited for several popular neologisms in Hindi like Digdarshak (leader, one who points in the right direction), Shatkar, Saptahik (Weekly, as in weekly periodicals/magazines) and Sansad (Parliament).

Sarvarkar Icon of the RSS

However, Sarvarkar is held as an icon by the BJP. Recently, the BJP also forced the government to unveil a statue at Parliament of India. Mani Shankar Aiyar who is now a union minister ordered removal of plaque of Sarvarkar found at Cellular jail, which found strong opposition from RSS and BJP. However BJP is non-committal about the recent media publications of letters confirming the link between Savarkar and Godse.

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