Celebrating his 137th Birth Anniversary, it becomes
very important to understand Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s contributions to the
Indian society. Vinayak
Damodar Savarkar was born on 28th May 1883 in Bhagur district of Maharashtra.
He was a leading and prominent figure in the Hindu Mahasabha. His extraordinary
writing and oratory skills came in handy when he was a student of law in
London. He gathered several Indians there and started organizing and spreading
anti-British as well as revolutionary ideas. During that time, he wrote The Indian
War of Independence, 1857 (1909), in which he viewed the 1857 mutiny
as the first Indian mass rebellion against the British colonial rule. But he
was arrested soon for inciting sentiments of war in the minds of people, for
which he was sent to his ‘Bhoomi’, India, later convicted.
After getting convicted for the second time, he was
sent to the colonial cellular jail, Kala Pani in the Andamans. Being in the
jail for almost 3 years, he wrote another book called ‘Hindutva: Who Is a
Hindu?’ which forms the major tenet of the Hindu Nationalistic ideology
today. Following his release from the jail, he joined the Hindu Mahasabha,
until he returned to Bombay.
The reason it becomes important to look at Savarkar
today is due to his extraordinary sense of judgment regarding the progress of
the society. He was a man of reason and advocated the use of rationality along
with a scientific understanding when it came to religious customs. He staunchly
felt the need to fight against caste based discrimination and untouchability in
order to unite against the British. He motivated and ignited the spark in
several voiceless people across British as well. Savarkar’s ideas were
extremely futuristic in his times. His ideas of social and religious reforms,
having a scientific understanding and using technological tools continue to be
relevant today, and after the Pandemic as well.
In the times when Savarkar wrote his revolutionary
writings, it was wonderful to see that there was coexistence between
ideological rivals, which is absolutely unlike today. It was a space wherein
different people could come to a space and exchange ideas, however extreme they
were, without getting tagged to a particular identity. Of course, there was
existence of social evils in those times and that was a challenge to the
society, but writing and talking against them was a sensational thing in those
times.
E.g. – Savarkar and Ambedkar came from two diverging
spaces of the same society. But yet they had the space to articulate their
ideas in the open space, along with the space to borrow and discuss each
other’s ideas too. A similar link can be seen between Syed Ahmed Khan and
Savarkar. Both of them gave a nationalistic theory, with different ideas. Yet,
there was a respectable space for the coexistence of such ideas. The context today
has been highly misinterpreted by people at large, because sensationalisation
is what works while inciting people.
While understanding this, we also need to not one
important thing. When we understand Savarkar’s approach towards the British and
Bhagat Singh’s approach towards the British, we need to know the way in which
the two contemporaries addressed the British. Both were souls who raised their
voice against the injustices happening in the society, mainly by the British.
But there are some interesting things while looking at the way in which they
both wrote to the British. Bhagat Singh, being the extremist he was, wrote in a
bold manner. He dared the British to shoot him, instead of hanging him and
openly declared the fact the India shall fight the war against the ‘parasites’
that they were. Bhagat Singh was a ‘fearless’ freedom fighter, as many call him.
On the other hand, Savarkar apologized for his doings and pledged, if released,
he would leave politics. Many called him a stooge of the British. But that may
not have been the case, because he might have rather been tactical.
While understanding these two personalities, we can
say that Bhagat Singh was a young fearless man who had no regrets in life at
all. He never gave up on his stand and always believed that he would never come
under the clutches of the British, no matter what, as he always felt that
Indians are free souls, irrespective of the colonization. While Savarkar
strategically used his letters to apologise to the British so that he could get
out of jail. One of the reasons may have been that maybe being inside the jail,
that too in the Andamans, he couldn’t have been able to do much. Also, Savarkar
was a well-read man. He used the letters and also published articles from the
jail to express the inhumane conditions in the jail, because he was aware of
the laws for prisoners of war. He was aware that being a ‘freedom fighter’, he
wouldn’t have been able to do much being inside a prison. Thus, we can rather
claim that he used the opportunity to trick the British and find his way out.
Writer - Vijayasree
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