(The Hindu - Oct 28 2004
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/10/28/stories/2004102803831000.htm )
Assassination of the Mahatma
By K.N. Panikkar
The real assassin was not Nathuram Godse, but Hindu communalism of which Savarkar was the most ardent ideologue and practitioner. THE AGITATION, both inside and outside Parliament, unleashed by the Bharatiya Janata Party, over the removal of the plaque from the Cellular Jail in the Andamans extolling Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as a great patriot and nationalist hardly aroused any public enthusiasm.
Even in Maharashtra, where Savarkar is supposed to be a cult figure because of his earlier revolutionary involvement, the controversy did not appeal to the people, as evident from the drubbing the BJP received at the hustings. In fact, if anything, the agitation turned out to be counter-productive. The unprecedented disruption of the parliamentary proceedings raised doubts, even in the minds of its liberal supporters, about the party's commitment to democratic values and practice.
..The undoubted participation of Savarkar, who represented the rising force of Hindu communalism, in the conspiracy preceding the assassination raises the question why the Mahatma was assassinated. Was it because Gandhi was perceived to be pro-Muslim by a group of Hindu fanatics?.. Or are there deeper causes, which do not necessarily lie in the political domain but in the contradiction between two different worldviews? In different interpretations of the nature of Indian civilisation? Or in the way in which Hinduism was understood and practised?
In all these spheres, there was sharp contradiction between the two. Gandhiji expressed this difference in outlook in the following words: "Those Hindus who like Dr. Moonje and Shri Savarkar [and] believe in the doctrine of the sword may seek to keep the Mussalmans under Hindu domination. I do not represent that section." Gandhi was a deeply religious person who like many of his predecessors such as Rammohan Roy, Keshab Chandra Sen and Ramakrishna was engaged in the quest for religious truth... ..Therefore, despite the acquittal of Savarkar due to a technical reason he cannot be absolved of the responsibility for the murder of the Mahatma. Nor can his contemporary disciples, so long as they defend him. For, the real assassin was not Nathuram Godse, but Hindu communalism of which Savarkar was the most ardent ideologue and practitioner.
http://www.thehindu.com/2004/10/28/stories/2004102803831000.htm
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