Did Gandhi tell Savarkar to file Mercy Petitions?

Did Gandhi ask Savarkar to File Mercy petitions? Ram Puniyani To create and promote the icons of Hindu Nationalism lots is being done through propaganda which is operating at multiple levels. One recently witnessed on 2nd October that a massive twitter storm in favor of Godse was created with tweets like Nathuram Godse Amar rahen (Long Live Nathuram Godse). The other person, Nathuram’s Guru, Savarkar is much in news currently. An image of him is being created through various books, written in his praise, are being released with big fanfare. Savarkar was the one who in the initial periods of his life was an anti-British revolutionary who encouraged his followers to use arms against the British officers. That one can say was Savarkar 1.0. Savarkar 2.0 begins with his imprisonment in the Andman prison, the imprisonment there was known as Kala Pani to reflect the extremely adverse and wretched conditions of the jail life. Here he developed the ideology of Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra. It is during this period that he wrote several mercy petitions to get released from the jail. So far his followers had been denying that he wrote any mercy petitions. With his biographies, which are primarily written to spruce up his image as a revolutionary and the chief ideologue of Hidnutva politics, his mercy petitions have become more known. So how to reconcile the image of a revolutionary with the one who has written the apologies times and over again. Here the Goebbelsian techniques are being put into service. One of the top leaders of BJP, Mr. Rajnath Singh, the defense minister at the release of Savarkar’s biography by Uday Mahurkar and Chirayu Pandit, “Veer Savarkar: The Man who could have prevented Partition”, made a statement which has no truth in it all. Mr. Singh stated that “Lies were spread about Savarkar,…Time and again, it was said he filed mercy petitions before the British government. But the truth is that he did not file mercy petitions for his release [from jail]. A prisoner has the right to file mercy petitions. It was Mahatma Gandhi who asked him to file mercy petitions. He filed a mercy petition after Gandhi’s advice. Mahatma Gandhi had appealed that Savarkar ji should be released. He also warned that the act of demeaning his national contribution will not be tolerated.” What is the truth? Savarkar was arrested on March 13, 1910. The charge was that he had sent the pistol to kill the Nasik District collector Jackson. It is true that the jail conditions were horrific. Writing a mercy petition is the right of prisoners. Mostly many prisoners do it on health ground or family ground or what have you. The claim that he wrote the petitions on formats, claimed by Rajnath and Company has no truth. In sum and substance, all his petitions are different and they pleaded for mercy on the ground that what he did was as a misguided youth. He has been given the just punishment, but now he should be released as he has realized his mistake and that he is willing to serve the British Government in whatever capacity they will like. This is a more than bending on the knees. His mercy petitions, nearly seven begin from 1911 and go on till his release. The tone and tenor of most the letters on these lines; and they are available as an example of how much one can bend to get released. Many authors have quoted them extensively. Now the claim that it was Gandhi on whose insistence these were written is a pure lie. Savarkar began writing his petitions from 1911 itself. Gandhi that time was in South Africa to return to India only in 1915. Gandhi, as he gradually assumed the leadership of Congress, received a letter from Savarkars' brother Dr. Narayan Savarkar, for helping his brother released. Gandhi in reply, on January 25, 1920, advised Narayan Savarkar to “frame a petition setting forth the facts of the case bringing out in clear relief the fact that the offence committed by your brother was purely political.” He also wrote that he is “moving in the matter” in his own way. The reply can also be found in Volume 19 of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. So should be clear that Gandhi is asking Savarkar’s younger brother to draft a petition, not writing to Vinayak Savarkar to write a mercy petition which he did! Gandhi knew the task is difficult so he does say it is difficult to advise you (Dr. Savarkar) On his part Gandhi wrote an article which can be seen in collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Volume 20, pages 369-371 in which he argues that Savarkar brothers should be released and be allowed to participate in the political life of the country in non violent way. He also appealed on similar lines for Bhagat Singh later. He had a broad and inclusive view of national movement due to which he undertook such endeavors. If one sees the pattern of Gandhi, it is not possible to think that he will advise for mercy petition. In the same collected works referred above there is the case of Durgadas in which Gandhi states, "I hope therefore that the friends of Durgadas will not advise him or his wife to petition for mercy nor add to the wife’s unhappiness by commiserating with her. On the contrary, it is our duty to ask her to steel her heart and feel glad that her husband is in jail for no fault of his own. The truest service that we can render to Durgadas would be to offer Mrs. Durgadas such assistance, pecuniary or otherwise, as she may need..." Now this falsehood is being deliberately concocted that it was on Gandhi’s advice that Savakar wrote those apologies. The contrast of the history is that Gandhi on one side asks for release of Savarkar, and same Savarkar is later one of the accused in Gandhi murder. As Sardar Patel wrote to Nehru, It was a fanatical wing of the Hindu Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that hatched the conspiracy...” Later Jeevanlal Kapoor Commission also came to similar conclusions. It is also true that Savarkar later tried to work for temple entry of dalits; he also said that cow is not a sacred animal etc. but the central point of his life remained to help the British in all the ways. He deepened the foundations of Hindu nationalism, in contrast to the Indian Nationalism, which was struggling for India’s independence. In 1942 when Gandhi gave the call of Quit India Savarkar gave the instruction to all the Hindu Mahasabhaites to stick to their posts and continue to discharge their duties for British. He was the one to help British in getting recruits for their army. Hindu nationalists today want to glorify Savarkar and interestingly they have to take the cover of Gandhi in whose murder the emerging Hindutva icons were involved. Rajnath Singh’s statement is an example of how blatantly lies are deployed by the likes of Rajnath Singh to gain credibility for the icons who serve their political goals.