Fadnavis; Shiv Sena object to Rahul Gandhi’s Savarkar remark
The BJP/RSS leader Devendra Fadnavis as well as his erstwhile allies in the Shiv Sena are having fits of outrage over a sarcastic remark about V.D. Savarkar made by Rahul Gandhi. They want an apology. The Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut has called Savarkar a god ('daivat') of the entire country.
Fadnavis and Raut should not presume to speak for all of us - many of us do not share their view of Savarkar. Would they like to revise Sardar Patel's views on Gandhi's assassination, or else censor his February 27, 1948 letter to Nehru (Selected Correspondence, vol 6, edited by Durga Das)? In that letter he discounted the involvement of the RSS, but said that "it was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that hatched the conspiracy and saw it through" - p. 56. If Patel's assessment of the RSS was correct, was his belief in the guilt of their hero Savarkar also correct? In the same letter, reflecting on the problem of identifying RSS members, Patel wrote "in the case of secret organisation like the RSS which has no records of membership, no registers etc., securing of authentic information whether a person is an active member or not is a very difficult task.." (p 57).
Interested readers may also consider the following: Justice Jeevan Lal Kapur's opinion, expressed in the findings of the Commission of Inquiry, was this: "All these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group" : p. 303. On p. 301 it is clearly stated that the conspirators had met Savarkar prior to setting out for Delhi. A link to the Report may be found here.
Ideologues of the RSS & Shiv Sena may also tell us whether they agree with Savarkar's endorsement of the Two Nation Theory: "I have no quarrel with Mr. Jinnah's two-nation theory. We Hindus are a nation by ourselves and it is a historical fact that Hindus and Muslims are two nations" (Savarkar's declaration on August 15, 1943; Indian Annual Register 1943 vol 2 p 10).
Here are some facts about Savarkar's and the Mahasabha's ideological sympathy with Nazism and anti-Semitism: Some information for Israelis (and the rest of us
Some historical research on Savarkar: A subaltern fascism? - by Kannan Srinivasan
Read more about these and connected issues here:
Do our leaders want to certify political assassination?
The Supreme Court,Gandhi and the RSS
The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Inquiry Commission Report (1969)
Fadnavis and Raut should not presume to speak for all of us - many of us do not share their view of Savarkar. Would they like to revise Sardar Patel's views on Gandhi's assassination, or else censor his February 27, 1948 letter to Nehru (Selected Correspondence, vol 6, edited by Durga Das)? In that letter he discounted the involvement of the RSS, but said that "it was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that hatched the conspiracy and saw it through" - p. 56. If Patel's assessment of the RSS was correct, was his belief in the guilt of their hero Savarkar also correct? In the same letter, reflecting on the problem of identifying RSS members, Patel wrote "in the case of secret organisation like the RSS which has no records of membership, no registers etc., securing of authentic information whether a person is an active member or not is a very difficult task.." (p 57).
Interested readers may also consider the following: Justice Jeevan Lal Kapur's opinion, expressed in the findings of the Commission of Inquiry, was this: "All these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group" : p. 303. On p. 301 it is clearly stated that the conspirators had met Savarkar prior to setting out for Delhi. A link to the Report may be found here.
Ideologues of the RSS & Shiv Sena may also tell us whether they agree with Savarkar's endorsement of the Two Nation Theory: "I have no quarrel with Mr. Jinnah's two-nation theory. We Hindus are a nation by ourselves and it is a historical fact that Hindus and Muslims are two nations" (Savarkar's declaration on August 15, 1943; Indian Annual Register 1943 vol 2 p 10).
Here are some facts about Savarkar's and the Mahasabha's ideological sympathy with Nazism and anti-Semitism: Some information for Israelis (and the rest of us
Some historical research on Savarkar: A subaltern fascism? - by Kannan Srinivasan
This is an
examination of certain aspects of the history of the Hindu Mahasabha and
the political career of its sometime leader, Vinayak Damodar
Savarkar. By the time he came to head the Mahasabha in 1937 it had
been in existence for two decades, but his agenda directly opposed to the
Congress and the Muslim League and to the national movement for
independence. A former revolutionary terrorist, Savarkar had been
incarcerated in the Andamans Cellular Jail after being sentenced in
December 1910 to transportation for life and forfeiture of property for
masterminding the conspiracy to assassinate A.M.T Jackson ICS, Collector
of Nasik in Bombay Presidency in December 1909 and conveying the
revolver employed for that purpose.
Read more about these and connected issues here:
Do our leaders want to certify political assassination?
The Supreme Court,Gandhi and the RSS
The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi: Inquiry Commission Report (1969)
See also
The Broken Middle (on the 30th anniversary of 1984)
