Friday, May 28, 2021

Fun facts about Savarkar on this auspicious day

 

1. Savarkar was one of the first people to propose the two-nation theory and he thoroughly supported it:

Savarkar, like the RSS ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee, was not averse to the two-nation theory. Savarkar was one of the original proponents of the idea. As president of the Hindu Mahasabha, he claimed in 1937 that “there are two antagonistic nations living side by side in India. Several infantile politicians commit the serious mistake of supposing that India is already welded into a harmonious nation… On the contrary, there are two nations in the main: the Hindus and the Muslims, in India.”

A few years later, after Jinnah had hijacked the two-nation theory, Savarkar expressed his approval thus: “I have no quarrel with Jinnah. We, Hindus, are a nation ourselves and it is a historical fact that Hindus and Muslims are two nations.”

2. Savarkar was an admirer of Nazism and Fascism:

The man was an admirer of both Fascism and Nazism. He sincerely believed both Italy and Germany needed these philosophies for their own good and criticised Indian politicians — read Jawaharlal Nehru — for opposing Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. (Many historians believe RSS ideologue BS Moonje’s meeting with the Italian dictator and his black caps inspired the idea of Sangh with its own khaki-clad, lathi-wielding volunteers).

3. Savarkar was one of the key conspirators in Gandhi’s assassination:

The Justice JL Kapur Commission that looked into Gandhi’s assassination concluded that Savarkar and his men were the key conspirators. Several years before the report was made public, the then-home minister of India, Sardar Patel, wrote to Nehru: “It was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha under Savarkar that (hatched) the conspiracy and saw it through.”

4. Savarkar’s Mercy petitions and serving the British Raj:

By 1913, Savarkar was ready to serve the British. In another mercy plea to the governor-general, he wrote: “I am ready to serve the government in any capacity they like… The mighty alone can be merciful, and therefore where else can the prodigal son return but to the parental doors of the government?”

In 1921, Savarkar’s pleas for mercy resulted in his transfer from Andaman to Pune, where he was incarcerated like a normal prisoner. In 1924, he was released and sent to Ratnagiri after vowing to not participate in politics. Unlike several other prisoners, Savarkar traded his loyalty to the cause of freedom struggle with his own freedom.

Some say that it was Savarkar’s ploy to continue the struggle, but evidence suggests that he continued to work for the British after being released.

5. Savarkar believed that Muslims should be treated as Negroes in the country:

https://www.dailyo.in/politics/tom-treanor-vd-savarkar-mahatma-gandhi-hitler-nationalist-hindu-mahasabha/story/1/20207.html

6. Savarkar justified the use of rape as a political tool against Muslim women:

https://scroll.in/article/808788/reading-savarkar-how-a-hindutva-icon-justified-the-idea-of-rape-as-a-political-tool

7. Savarkar opposed the Quit India movement:

https://thewire.in/article/history/quit-india-movement-hindu-mahasabha-british/amp

8. Savarkar the absolute loser wrote a self-glorifying autobiography while masquerading it as a biography and declared himself as “Veer”:

https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/amp/story/opinion%2Fis-a-bharat-ratna-in-the-offing-the-real-savarkar-and-his-brave-admirers

“Savarkar is born hero, he could almost despise those who shirked duty for fear of consequences. If once he rightly or wrongly believed that a certain system of Government was iniquitous, he felt no scruples in devising means to eradicate the evil.”

He wrote about himself.

9. Savarkar would dance with joy when Muslims would die:

Savarkar attacked a mosque in the aftermath of the Hindu-Muslim riots in Bombay and Pune in 1894-95. Holding back the Muslim boys of the village using “knives, pins and foot rulers”, Savarkar and his friends mounted their attack, “showering stones on the mosque, shattering its windows and tiles”. Recollecting the incident, he later wrote, “We vandalised the mosque to our heart’s content and raised the flag of our bravery on it.” When the news of Hindus killing Muslims in the riots and its aftermath reached him, little Savarkar and his friends “would dance with joy”.

10. Savarkar disliked that the British had banned Sati:

“What was to stop the British government, which had passed a law against the practice of Sati (widow burning), from meddling further with Hindu customs by passing a law against idolatry,” he asked. After all, “the English hated idolatry as much as they did suttee.” Describing a process he perceived to be the destruction of Hinduism and Islam in India, Savarkar wrote in his book.

“The Sirkar (government) had already begun to pass one law after another to destroy the foundations of the Hindu and Mahomedan religions. Railways had already been constructed, and carriages had been built in such a way as to offend the caste prejudices of the Hindus. The larger mission schools were being helped with huge grants from the Sirkar. Lord Canning himself distributed thousands of Rupees to every mission, and from this fact, it is clear that the wish was strong in the heart of Lord Canning that all India should be Christian.”

11. Savarkar believed that Muslims can never be loyal to the nation:

The love and loyalty of Muslims, he warned, “is, and must necessarily be divided between the land of their birth and the land of their Prophets… Mohammedans would naturally set the interests of their Holyland above those of their Motherland”. One might wonder whether this line of reasoning implies that Muslims cannot be nationals of Pakistan or Afghanistan either, because they would place the interests of Saudi Arabia, wherein lie Mecca and Madina, above the interests of their own country.