UPSC GK: Who was Vinayak Damodar
Savarkar and what were his ideas? (HISTORY)
Ever since Vinayak Damodar
Savarkar coined the term “Hindutva”
and wrote his famous ideological treatise, “Hindutva:
Who is a Hindu?,” scholars and politicians have been divided over the
interpretation of his ideas of what the Indian nation constitutes. Written and
published in the 1920s, while Savarkar was in jail, the pamphlet was
path-breaking in the sense that it promoted
the idea of Hinduism being a political and cultural identity, invested in
all those who lived in India regardless
of the faith they followed. Well over half a century since Savarkar’s
death, and especially at a time when the country is being ruled by the right
wing, the revolutionary politician’s views have over and again been held up to
a debate over Hindutva and its resonance in India.
Born on May 28, 1883, to a
Marathi Brahmin family, Savarkar had been attracted
towards the radical arm of the Indian nationalist struggle since his
college days. It was during his time as a law student in England that Savarkar began organising radical political
activities for which he was imprisoned. He widely read Indian and world history and wrote aggressively on the
oppressive British rule in India, his admiration
for fascism and his views on Muslims and Christians.
Towards the end of his life,
Savarkar was particularly noted for his detestation
for Mahatma Gandhi and
was one among those arrested for the
assassination of Gandhi, though later he was acquitted. On Savarkar’s 135th
birth anniversary, here are five lesser-known facts about him.
His book, ‘The history of the
war of independence’, on the 1857 rebellion, was banned by British authorities.
As Savarkar got involved in
radical activities while in London, he actively read up on the history of India
and decided to organise anti-British activities on the lines of the 1857
revolt. He was so deeply moved by the mutiny tales of 1857 that in 1909, when the British held the 50th
commemoration of the 1857 uprising to celebrate their own victory, Savarkar
came out with his work “The first war of independence” in which he described
the episode as being almost at par with the French and American Revolutions.
In the book, Savarkar propounded that the 1857 mutiny was a well-organised and
a collective uprising aimed at wiping out foreign power from India. “The seed
of the revolution of 1857 is in this holy and inspiring idea, clear and
explicit, propounded from the throne of Delhi, the protection of religion and
country,” he wrote.
The book was first published in Marathi. However, considering it to be
inflammatory in nature, the British
banned it across India even before it could be published. They even
pressured the French press to not publish it. Over the years, however, the book
has earned the scorn of Indian intellectuals as well who believe that it
advocates an aggressive form of Hindu nationalism. “Savarkar’s account of 1857 has served to legitimise retributive
violence in the name of Hindu nationalism,” writes political philosopher
Jyotirmaya Sharma.
Savarkar admired Hitler and
thought that he was best for Germany
Savarkar was president of the Hindu Mahasabha from 1937 to 1942. This was the
most important period in international history and it was during this period
that Savarkar repeatedly voiced his views on Indian foreign policy,
particularly towards Germany and Italy. Speeches made by Savarkar, during this
period, as collected by Italian researcher Marzia Casolari, show his deep admiration for Hitler and his Nazi
philosophy. “The very fact that Germany
or Italy has so wonderfully
recovered and grown so powerful as never before at the touch of Nazi or Fascist magical wand is enough to prove that those
political ‘isms’ were the most congenial tonics their health demanded,”
Savarkar is believed to have said.
Further, Savarkar publicly criticised the Jews for failing to absorb
into the German national fabric and compared
them to Muslims in India as well. In 1939, at the 21st session of the Hindu
Mahasabha, he is noted to have said that “the Indian Muslims are on the whole more inclined to identify themselves with Muslims
outside India than Hindus next door, like Jews in Germany.”
Savarkar supported the
establishment of Israel as he saw in the Jewish state a bulwark against Islamic
Arab world.
A staunch supporter of the view
that Hindu identity was part and parcel of the Indian nation-state, Savarkar
held the opinion that Muslims were to be
kept outside the country’s social and administrative fabric. In his
writings, he often held the colonial view of Muslim men as being aggressive and tyrannical in India.
“Intoxicated by this religious ambition, which was many times more diabolic
than their political one, these millions of Muslim invaders fell over India
century after century with all the ferocity at their command to destroy Hindu
religion which was the lifeblood of the nation,” he wrote in his work, “Six glorious epochs of Indian history.”
Consequently, while Savarkar
admired Hitler and Mussolini for their fascist views towards the Jews, he still
supported the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel. “This was not only
in accordance with his theory of nationalism, but he also saw in the Jewish
state a bulwark against the Islamic Arabic world,” write Subho Basu and
Suranjan Das in their article, “Knowledge for politics: Partisan histories and
Communal Mobilisation in India and Pakistan.”
He fiercely opposed the Quit
India movement launched by Gandhi
Savarkar was severely critical of Mahatma Gandhi and saw his methods as pretentious.
He also criticised Gandhi for his
appeasement of Muslims during the Khilafat Movement. Further, he also
rejected the Congress’ claim of representing the interests of all Hindus in
India. When Gandhi launched the Quit
India Movement on August 8, 1942, Savarkar
urged all members of Hindu Mahasabha to boycott it. He instructed Hindu
Sabhaites who are “members of the municipalities, local bodies, legislatures,
or those serving in the army…to stick to their posts across the country”.
Though members of the Sabha boycotted the
movement, they are believed to have still sympathised with the Congress’
struggle.
In 2015, Shiv Sena demanded
Savarkar be posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna
In 2015, the Shiv Sena wrote a letter
to PM Narendra Modi asking
him to “rectify mistakes” by posthumously honouring the revolutionary leader
with the Bharat Ratna. The Sena believes that despite the patriotic ideologies
propounded by Savarkar, the Indian government has continued to neglect him and
that needs to be changed now.
The matter was brought up once
again more recently during the controversy over Jinnah’s portrait in Aligarh
Muslim University. “In the new regime, Deen Dayal Upadhyay gets honour, his
portraits are installed on government walls. But there is no place for
Savarkar’s portraits… it (the government) should immediately announce a Bharat
Ratna for Savarkar. Otherwise, it should declare that its Hindutva is limited
to politics,” Sena MP Sanjay Raut wrote in his column titled Rokthok.
Credit: Indian Express Research (http://indianexpress.com/article/research/vinayak-damodar-savarkar-135th-birth-anniversary-he-admired-hitler-and-other-lesser-known-facts-about-him-5194470/)
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