Heroic Hindutva 1: SAVARKAR / Heroic Hindutva 2: UMA BHARTI (Mukul Dube)

[Communalism Repository | Aug. 27, 2004
URL: http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/MDube26082004.html ]

Heroic Hindutva 1: SAVARKAR

Mukul Dube, 26 August 2004

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was the originator of the concept of “Hindutva”. The Sangh Parivar calls him a “freedom fighter” although he repeatedly gave undertakings and apologies to the British Raj. On 4 May 2002, L.K. Advani went to the Andamans, from where this “Hindu nationalist” had written cringing letters, to rename the Port Blair Airport as the Veer Savarkar Airport. Finally, even though Savarkar was tried as a conspirator in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, his portrait was unveiled in the Central Hall of Parliament on 26 February 2003, disregarding the protests of the Opposition.

In 2002, LeftWord Books of Delhi published A.G. Noorani’s book Savarkar and Hindutva: The Godse Connection. I have not seen the book but have read three reviews by historians, all of whom describe it as a carefully researched scholarly work whose every statement is based on unimpeachable documentation.

The news magazine Frontline invited Noorani to write an article on Savarkar, and his “Savarkar and Gandhi” appeared in the magazine’s issue of 15 to 28 March 2003. The following extracts are taken from that article. Words which are not Noorani’s appear in square brackets. _____________

[1. The Hindu Right has maintained, in an attempt to justify Savarkar’s repeated apologies and pleas for clemency to the colonial Government of India, that he was tortured when he was incarcerated on the Andaman Islands. Noorani nails this lie, politely but categorically.]

“It is disingenuous of apologists to argue that ill-treatment in the Andamans led to a collapse of his health and broke his spirit; hence the apologies. This is untrue. ”Savarkar was brought to the Andamans on July 4, 1911. Before the year ended, he sent his first petition for clemency. He was in perfectly good health. It is referred to in the second petition of November 24, 1913….”

[2. Savarkar was acquitted, for the reason given below, when those accused of conspiring to assassinate Gandhi were tried. However, when the Commission of Inquiry into the Conspiracy to Murder Mahatma Gandhi, headed by Justice Jivanlal Kapur of the Supreme Court, was set up in 1965, evidence was presented before it which had not been available at the original trial. This evidence was clinching. Savarkar had indeed conspired to murder the man whose portrait faces his own in Parliament.]

“Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who had a track record of complicity in at least two murders, was acquitted of the charge of conspiracy to Gandhi’s murder only because the approver, Digambar Badge’s evidence lacked independent corroboration; a common flaw in conspiracy cases. But Judge Atma Charan accepted Badge as a truthful witness. ‘He gave his version of the facts in a direct and straight-forward manner. He did not evade cross- examination or attempt to evade or fence with any question.’

“Justice Kapur’s findings are all too clear. He concluded: ‘All these facts taken together were destructive of any theory other than the conspiracy to murder by Savarkar and his group.’”

[3. Advani said, at the Andamans, “Today, Hindutva is considered an offensive word. But we must remember that the pioneers of Hindutva like Veer Savarkar and RSS founder Hedgewar kindled fierce, nationalistic spirit that contributed to India’s liberation.”]

“This is a brazen falsehood. Savarkar met the arch imperialist Viceroy of India, Lord Linlithgow, in Bombay on October 9, 1939– the month Congress asked its Ministers in the provinces to resign -and pledged his enthusiastic cooperation to the British. Linlithgow reported to Lord Zetland, the Secretary of State for India: ‘The situation, he [Savarkar] said, was that His Majesty’s Government must now turn to the Hindus and work with their support. After all, though we and the Hindus have had a good deal of difficulty with one another in the past… now that our interests were so closely bound together the essential thing was for Hinduism and Great Britain to be friends, and the old antagonism was no longer necessary.’”

[4. It is not necessary to repeat that in 1923 and again in 1937, Savarkar had made it abundantly clear that his fight was not against the British but against the Muslims. Yet this man was given the title “Veer” (brave) by those who, like him, did nothing towards making India independent. Perhaps this is fitting: no other freedom fighter in India’s colonial history showed the raw courage needed to spend the better part of his life on his knees before the imperial power. Noorani provides the dates on which Savarkar’s valour peaked.]

“Which other freedom fighter has so sustained a record of abject apologies and undertakings? They were given in 1911, 1913, 1925, 1948 and 1950. The last was given in the Bombay High Court on July 13, 1950 to secure release from preventive detention.”

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Heroic Hindutva 2: UMA BHARTI

Mukul Dube, 26 August 2004

The Sangh Parivar has an enviable history of turning lies on their heads and calling them the truth. Savarkar, who during British rule distinguished himself by writing many letters to the imperial power begging for mercy, was magically transformed into a great freedom fighter. It is still not clear why Vajpayee, who was arrested in August 1942 for having been in a procession which attacked a forest outpost and hoisted the tricolour on it, was not imprisoned under Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code for “unlawful assembly” as were so many others.

The same kind of miracle is being seen in the case of Uma Bharti, devotee of Lord Venkaiah, who renounced the world only to return to it in order to more rapidly see to its destruction.

On Independence Day in 1994 Uma Bharti, who says she was touring Karnataka as chief of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, defied prohibitory orders to reach the Idgah Maidan of Hubli in Karnataka and hoist the national flag there. As members of the BJYM had warned her of the likelihood of violence, and in view of the prohibitory orders in force, she took the permission of Lal Kishenchand Advani before embarking on her adventure.

What did Advani have to do with Hubli? Nothing. What did Venkaiah Naidu officially have to do with Uma Bharti’s resignation in Madhya Pradesh? Nothing. Whether the BJP breaks the law or plays at running a state, all authority vests in its own leaders.

But did Uma Bharti actually hoist the national flag at the Idgah Maidan in Hubli? Here is what one Uma Bharti said: “We were arrested before we could hoist the flag, but then we hoisted it because the police wanted us to do that.” But here is what another person, strangely also named Uma Bharti, said on being pointedly asked if she hoisted the national flag: “No, we did not.” I cannot see what the courts have to do with this business. Let the two Uma Bhartis fight it out and may the better liar win. It will be a close and bloody encounter which should be shown on television.

In Hubli there was communal violence as well as police firing, and some people–their number is variously given as 4, 5 and 6 in the few reports which I could find–were killed. Uma Bharti was charged under Section 307 IPC (attempt to murder), as well as for rioting and for giving an inflammatory speech. No less than 18 (eighteen) non-bailable warrants were issued against Uma Bharti, but she proved to be altogether too law-abiding to pay attention to them.

Just when did the Indian tricolour become so important to the Sangh Parivar? The only flag that is visible at the events organised by its various limbs is its own saffron one. Indeed, the comic books which it produces and uses in the indoctrination of the children who are to be its soldiers even show one Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi standing to attention and saluting the saffron flag. Maybe in this picture Gandhi is dressed in khaki shorts, but my heart was so full of pride that I paid no attention. Siddharth Varadarajan has pointed out that not only Uma Bharti but others of the BJP may well have violated, several times and in different ways, the code concerning the correct treatment of the national flag, a code passed by the government headed by that very party.

Just why did Uma Bharti have to show her patriotism in Hubli? She had no known connection with that town. Now she claims that it was a gesture of salutation towards Chennamma, rani of Kittur, who had challenged the British. One coincidence is that neither Uma Bharti nor her Parivar has been particularly active in honouring others who fought against the British. The second coincidence is that the place where this so-called act of honouring was performed is, as its name tells us, associated with a certain religion and was, moreover, the subject of a dispute. Uma Bharti could well have played her flag game at the District Magistrate’s office, in the local fish market, or at a municipal toilet. Why the Idgah Maidan?

We must conclude, most reluctantly because Uma Bharti is, after all, a Holy Being seven per cent political, zero per cent religious and ninety-three per cent pure poison, that in Hubli the national flag helped her only to further the communal agenda of the Sangh Parivar. It follows that those who are critical of her actions are, as she says, insulting the national flag.