Why I cannot worship Savarkar

If I have to choose between Bhagat Singh and Savarkar, should I be beaten up if I prefer to emulate Bhagat Singh rather than Savarkar

I do not know why Vinayak Damodar Savarkar is referred to as “Veer”. For that has not been his most enduring quality, given that he could not even bear the hardship of imprisonment and wrote mercy petitions to the British authorities, by promising to be a good boy and serve them to the end of his days if they let him out of jail.

Savarkar, though there was no doubt about his love for the nation, I personally hold him responsible for the break-up of India at independence. (HT File)

There is no doubt that he wrote those letters, which are part of historical records. The only dispute now is whether he wanted to keep the fact of those mercy petitions hidden, as some researchers and journalists have written, or was not wary of acknowledging them, as others insist.

Be that as it may, if Savarkar was indeed Veer, then what was Bhagat Singh, jailed for similar violence around the same time by the British but condemned to death, while Savarkar got only a life imprisonment? Friends and well-wishers begged Bhagat Singh to seek clemency, but he steadfastly refused. He took his sentence like a man and went to the gallows, smiling with a prayer for his motherland on his lips. Is there a word in either Hindi or English that surpasses “Veer” to describe such a phenomenal man, a man with the courage of his convictions, as Bhagat Singh?

So if I have to choose between the two freedom fighters, should I be beaten up if I prefer to emulate Bhagat Singh rather than Savarkar? I would rather die in the service of my nation than conspire with its colonisers. So why does Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray want to beat up people who root for courage over poltroonery?

But there are more reasons why I have a problem with Savarkar. You can overlook his mercy petitions as a strategic retreat and dismiss Bhagat Singh as a hot-headed man who could have served his nation better by continuing to live. Though personally I do not think there was any honour in the kind of life where there were no qualities of self-respect and commitment to the nation above all else.

As for Savarkar, though there was no doubt about his love for the nation, I personally hold him and another Hindutva icon, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, responsible for the break-up of India at independence. Mookerjee and his cohorts in Bengal, who were mostly zamindars and landed gentry, had a major issue with their labour force, which was largely Muslim. The politics of upper caste majoritarianism at the time led to the partition of Bengal in 1905, which set the tone for the partition of Punjab and thus India in 1947.

However, it was Savarkar who first articulated the two-nation theory in 1937 which was endorsed by Mohammad Ali Jinnah only three years later in 1940, and acceded to by the British seven years later in 1947. Savarkar and Mookerjee probably recognised the bargaining power Muslims would have had in an undivided India and Jinnah, despite all his erudition, was quite stupid in failing to recognise the same.

Had India not been partitioned, we would have had five Muslim chief ministers – in Bengal, Punjab, Sindh, North West Frontier Province – and, of course, Jammu and Kashmir. Given the demographic and geographical spread of these states, I am not surprised that Savarkar and Mookerjee did not want Muslim domination. But their paranoia led to India’s break up. So why am I supposed to regard them as patriots or nation-builders?

Then, of course, as a feminist, my only religion is womanhood. Neither caste nor religion gets in the way of my commitment to gender justice. So how am I supposed to worship Savarkar,who, in his own book – Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History – advocated rape of Muslim women as a political tool for the subjugation of the Muslim community? How am I expected to respect a man in my own religion, caste or even family, who advocates rape with impunity and thinks his manhood is greatly served by such subjugation?

So does Uddhav Thackeray really believe in beating up people who believe in fighting back those who are following Savarkar‘s footsteps? If Uddhav Thackeray idolises Savarkar, then I believe Mister Thackeray is both historically and patriotically challenged and humanitarian-wise in deficit.

So be it. But may I please be excused from upholding Savarkar as the epitome of not just patriotism, but even humanitarianism? I will not worship Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.