SAVARKAR CONTROVERSY ONCE AGAIN!
With the recent assertions of our Home Minister Rajnath Singh, releasing the book, “Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition,” by Uday Mahurkar and Chirayu Pandit (3 above), that the image of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar is being unjustly tarnished by the ‘leftists and liberals’, and his citing of a 1920 letter by Mahatma Gandhi in his support, the Savarkar controversy has raked up again with all the fury. This editor remembers to have earlier also once refuted some wild allegations against the great patriot V.D. Savarkar and pointed to the many laudatory references to Savarkar by stalwart communist leaders like Prof. Hiren Mukherjee, CPI MP, Indira Gandhi, then PM, etc. Firstly, it has to be made clear that much before the Rajnath-cited Gandhi’s letter, Savarkar had already submitted a few mercy petitions in 1911-1920. Then, it is also true that Gandhi was encouraging the revolutionaries to shun their violent policies/measures and surrender/submit such petitions. Gandhi had gone on record stating: “The Savarkar Brothers' talent should be utilized for public welfare. As it is, India is in danger of losing her two faithful sons, unless she wakes up in time. One of the brothers I know well. I had the pleasure of meeting him in London. He is brave. He is clever. He is a patriot. He was frankly a revolutionary. The evil, in its hideous form, of the present system of Government, he saw much earlier than I did. He is in the Andamans for his having loved India too well. Under a just Government, he would be occupying a high office. I therefore feel for him and his brother.” (Gandhi, CW, Vol. 23). Savarkar and Gandhi, two poles apart, knew each other well. Savarkar was a pioneer; much before Gandhi he organized the freedom movement. He even invited Gandhi to speak in one of the meetings at the India House, London. Gandhi demanded full independence only after 1929, but Savarkar was advocating it right from the 1900s. So, there was no question of Savarkar heeding Gandhi's advice to submit mercy petitions. Once sentenced to two life transportations, finding the life in the Andamans horrible and also realizing that unless they changed their policies, they could make no further headway except to languish and die in prisons, Savarkar thought it better to appeal to the British Government for his release declaring he had changed and wanted to follow the 'constitutional' path. And this change facilitated Gandhi's efforts for conducting his "release political prisoners" campaign also. Here Gandhi's and Savarkar's interests converged. Savarkar was a pioneer; a great patriot. As Lenin said of Roza Luxemburg – “sometimes eagles may fly quite low, lower than chicken - but mind it, chicken can never fly to the great heights of eagles” - so it applies to Savarkar too. He was a great eagle of the freedom movement. That he later drifted to Hindu religious trends to counter the Muslim League is an entirely different matter. §§§
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