Veer Savarkar and modern Hindutva

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Veer Savarkar is one of the unsung heroes of Bharat. Over the past several decades, Savarkar has been demonized in various ways by his enemies. He has been called as a stooge of the British, murderer of Gandhi and what not. Veer Savarkar has very few true followers in Bharat and sorry to say, even the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh steers clear of this great son of Bharat Mata. 

Image Courtesy- savarkar.org


In this article, I will try to demolish some of the popular misconceptions about Veer Savarkar. I will also bring out his role in the evolution of modern Hindutva. 

First, I would like to ask a question- how many Congress leaders or even those from the Muslim League were sentenced to life imprisonment? Nobody. 

Life in Prison


In the case of Savarkar, he was sentenced to jail for 100 years in the year 1910. At that time, there was no Gandhi around in our country. There was no Nehru, no Patel, and definitely no Bose either. Obviously, Savarkar had proven himself as a dreaded enemy of the British Empire well before the onset of Congress and Gandhi as a political force. 

In those days, a life imprisonment a tenure of 50 years, and Savarkar was given 2 life imprisonment terms! And to top it all, he was sentenced to solitary confinement! Savarkar could not see anyone during his jail days. There was nobody to share his cell. All day long, he was made to stand in his cell, with his arms stretched upwards and tied to the ceiling by chains. For meals, all he got was stale food sometimes infested with worms. For cleaning himself, Savarkar was given two bowls - one for bathing and the other to be used as a latrine. 

As part of his punishment, Savarkar was forced to perform hard labor. His daily duties included working in an oil press and extract a few liters of oil from grain. If you have been to any Indian village, you would have seen a ' kolhoo', a wooden pivot that is rotated by a pair of buffaloes to extract oil. In Savarkar's case, the buffalo was him 

The only sight that Savarkar was allowed was of men being led to the gallows. The British thought they would break Savarkar this way and make him an obedient servant of the Empire. But this tactic failed and Savarkar continued to oppose his captors and the British government. 

Many prisoners could not bear this extreme punishment and some of them committed suicide. Just place yourself in their position; would you bear this inhuman treatment? 

There was another evil side to this punishment. Muslim prisoners were given lighter tasks. These prisoners were treated leniently, given better food and generally, their sentences were cut short by a few years. 

Some Hindu prisoners converted to Islam after watching this unfair treatment but Savarkar remained steadfast to his dharma. And this is where his greatness lies. 

So this was how Savarkar lived during those horrible years from 1910 to 1921- a life full of struggle and fortitude. 

It was in the Cellular Jail that Savarkar developed the idea of Hindutva. He quickly realized that Hindus need to be united without being mindful of one's varna (caste). Savarkar had observed how the British were conspiring to make Hindus weak in spirit and numbers. 

Did Savarkar plead guilty?


Did Savarkar plead for forgiveness with the British? Of course, he did. And there was a strategic reason behind it. 

He realized that it was futile to remain in prison for long. There were no means of communication between the Cellular Jail and mainland India so nobody knew what was happening in that horrible prison. In fact, from 1919 to 1921, India was engulfed in two major political movements- Khilafat and Non-Cooperation. There was hardly any scope for a discourse on the prison conditions of the Cellular Jail. 

Savarkar was a wise man. He did not want to die an unknown man. His ideas needed to be propagated among millions of Indians and for this, a release from his jail was necessary. It was in these conditions that his friends approached Gandhi for the latter's intervention. 

Gandhi had a ready solution; Savarkar should plead for forgiveness with the British. And this how and why Veer Savarkar wrote that controversial letter to the British government. And mind you, the Brits released him only after Savarkar had spent 10 long and lonely years in the cruel Cellular Jail. Even after his release, Savarkar was confined to house arrest in Ratnagiri and other parts of India. 

Savarkar was one of the few who was also scorned by their home governments. After India gained her independence, Savarkar, like Bose, led an invisible life far away from the arclights of power and pelf. The Congress party under Nehru did its level best to brand Savarkar as a murderer of Gandhi but that charge did not stick. The courts did not find any evidence against this brave son of India. 

References



3. Court Cases of Veer Savarkar- http://legal.un.org/riaa/cases/vol_XI/243-255.pdf



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