Veer Savarkar- The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition

About the Book If India looks forward to its 75th year of Independence, it is also looking at 75 years of the country's partition. Perhaps the biggest human tragedy of the twentieth century, it was marked by unparalleled violence that was suppressed by interested parties for their own political and ideological reasons. In the analysis of the real factors that led to Partition lies the lesson to protect India's unity and integrity, as exemplified by the relentless bur unsuccessful attempt by Veer Savarkar to prevent the birth of Pakistan. Arguably the greatest symbol of India's national integration, Savarkar's warnings on the threats to India's security have come true in the past seven decades.

Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition uncovers Savarkar, the thinker and the father of India's national security who has shown the pest possible pathway towards one nation that rises above religious, caste and regional feelings. It also proves the falsity of charges leveled against him from time to time and exposes the motives behind them. It reveals, for the first time, the manner in which the Narendra Modi-led government has implemented Savarkars national security and diplomatic vision.

This book has the potential to change the course of history by presenting before the country and its new generation the true story of India's partition embedded in the politics of appeasement through the lens of Savarkarism and its message to keep the nation united.

About the Authors Uday Mahurkar is a central information commissioner with the Government of India. A former senior deputy editor with India Today magazine, he has penned two books on PM Narendra Modi's governance. He is credited with developing a new narrative on Savarkar based on his national security vision.

Mazurka’s deep understanding of radical Islamic movements has enabled him to understand Savarkar's philosophy better. He has marshaled evidence to prove that Savarkars Hindutva is essentially unalloyed nationalism based on true 'Nation First'. He strongly believes that the Savarkar era has arrived.

A civil engineering lecturer at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Chirayu Pandit is the founding coordinator of the Institute of Leadership and Governance at M.S. University, a one-of-a-kind institute focusing on public leadership. Pandit is a researcher on nationalist issues and has an appreciable grip on issues relating to Savarkar, having studied Mararhi literature on him.

Foreword It is said that the true measure of an individual's greatness is the length of the shadow he casts over posterity. By this measure, one has to agree that Shri Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was not only a great patriot but also the cornerstone of our national vision, which forms the basis of today's Bharat emerging after 70 years of learning through trials of various alternative policies and conflicting ideologies in conducting the affairs of our nation and society.

The Savarkar family offered everything it had for the attainment of their only goal-an independent, strong and prosperous Bharat.

The sacrifices made for the nation by the Savarkar brothers- Babarao, Vinayakrao and Narayanrao-have few parallels in modern history. The elder brothers Babarao and Vinayakrao faced long and extremely harsh prison sentences, back-breaking labor and mind-breaking humiliation for the sake of the nation.

This book does great service to the nation by placing before it Savarkar, the visionary of India's national security and free India rather than Savarkar, and the revolutionary. For, the nation knows the latter but not the former, whose vision is much needed today to fight the divisive forces and feeble ideologies caving into appeasement politics and which are almost. as active today as they were before Independence, when they managed to force Partition on the country. They are still the impediments to Bharat emerging as one nation. Indeed, Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition is one of those rare books that delve deep into the real reasons behind India's partition and how the nation could have prevented it had it followed Savarkar's repeated warnings against the Congress's appeasement politics.

Unfortunately, Savarkar did not get his due even in free India.

Savarkar himself never wished for any favors or returns. He was, in fact, a selfless sage serving the motherland. His recognition along with that of many others who were inadvertently or deliberately ignored or forgotten, would have established an ideal path for generations to follow and would have given some sense of the value of freedom we have earned.

In fact, just the reverse happened in Savarkar's case. He was portrayed as a communal leader and his doctrine of Hindutva as an exclusive, discriminatory and hateful evil. There was a heinous attempt to frame him in the Mahatma Gandhi assassination conspiracy. All this and much more happened in independent Bharat, for which Savarkar had dedicated his all. The political establishment, out of its fear of losing power as well as other unwarranted reasons, along with communists, who are known haters of everything that is national, stooped to do this to him.

It is not difficult to find the reasons behind this 'Hate-Savarkar campaign: For he and his vision remains the bulwark against the forces of separatism, conversion and exclusion and so these divisive forces must do their utmost to put Savarkar down.

Preface SCENE ONE: FEBRUARY 1947

That India will be partitioned at the point of the Muslim League's loaded gun in the guise of Direct Action is now final. Riots start engulfing various parts of India, killing thousands. However, the worse massacres in Punjab, such as the one in Sheikhpura that took a toll of over 10,000 lives-mostly Sikhs and Hindus-and that resulted in the dishonor of hundreds of women, are yet to happen. A Congress structure, based on the slogan of complete non-violence and Hindu-Muslim unity at any cost is clueless about the Muslim League violence and, therefore, caving in under influence. In this atmosphere of distrust and violence, Vinayak Damodar (Vs.) 'Veer' Savarkar receives a letter from a distraught Dr Syama Prasad (S.P.) Mukherjee. One line in the letter says it all: 'Had the Hindus listened to your call, they wouldn't have remained slaves in the land of their birth."

SCENE TWO: MAY 1963

While addressing a meeting as the chief guest at the militarization week of the Hindu Mahasabha in Bombay (now Mumbai), General (later Field Marshal) K.M. Cariappa remarks that had the nation listened to Savarkar and adopted the militarization policy propagated by him and prepared itself, it wouldn't have been placed in such a predicament' He was referring to the debacle of the 1962 Indo-China War.

There comes a moment in the history of a nation when it should ponder over its past and indulge in deep introspection, cutting across the various 'isms' to secure its future. Such a moment has arrived for India today. Interestingly, the canvas of history is sometimes very deceptive. On its turf, people who look like eternal heroes in their lifetimes degenerate into pale figures after some decades or after their demise. Inversely, as history unfolds, some who seem unacceptable during their lifetime emerge as heroes and their true character and contribution emerge before the world. In the first category falls Jawaharlal Nehru, who, despite his extraordinary work in institution building, doesn't carry the tag of a hero anymore, except among a small band of Nehru lovers?

This is largely owing to a series of blunders he committed on the national security and foreign policy fronts, for which India has paid a huge price. In addition, his cultural disconnect with the core Indian identity and his Muslim-appeasement policies that have kept the country divided have contributed to his loss of face.

In the second category comes Veer Savarkar, one of the longest-surviving revolutionaries on India's canvas. Born in 1883 in Nashik's Bhagur, he participated in both forms of Indian freedom struggle before Independence, revolutionary as well as political. Even though he neither participated in politics nor in apolitical public activism after Independence, very few know that his contribution to India's vision as a nation was very significant during the 19 years that he lived after 1947. In fact, the insights and political recommendations he offered for free India during the last phase of his life were invaluable. Many. of his principles and suggestions were. in fact. incorporated in the Constitution.

Introduction DAWN OF THE SAVARKAR ERA

In the past seven decades, quite a few books and thought- provoking articles have appeared in the English language on Savarkar-deemed a political pariah when the Marxists, pan- Islamists and, in the later scenario, their extended brothers (the pseudo-Gandhians) held sway over the system. Some of the literature written by die-hard Savarkar admirers was largely limited to Savarkar the revolutionary. Of course, they devoted significant space to the social revolution that he brought about during his internment (nazarqaid (nazarbandi) in Ratnagiri from 1924 to 1937.

During this period, he led the most potent movement against untouchability in Indian history and called this the Hindu Sangathan (consolidation). Its high point was the opening of the first-ever Hindu temple in Ratnagiri in recent history that allowed the entry of untouchables-namely the Patit Pavan Mandir. Top leaders, from Gandhi to Ambedkar, lauded the movement.

Another set of writers of the far Left, pan-Islamist and of exclusive Muslim mindset condemned Savarkar either in their books or in their newspaper columns for his 'divisive thinking' and 'his harsh treatment of Muslims'; some going as far as accusing Savarkar-not Mohammed Ali Jinnah-of being responsible for the nation's partition! The same lot has gone to great lengths to defame Savarkar and make him unacceptable to the new generation by focusing on his clemency petitions to the British seeking his release from rigorous imprisonment-first from the Cellular Jail in Andaman and Nicobar and then from the Ratnagiri jail, where he passed the last three years of his rigorous imprisonment before being set free by the British in 1924 and allowed to do non-political work within the precincts of Ratnagiri district.

Most of his petitions to the British rulers sought clemency for all the prisoners who were with him in the jails and not only for himself. 1 Interestingly, even Savarkar himself didn't try to hide these clemency petitions, which he saw as quite normal in revolutionary thinking in which the best way out in such a situation was to get out of the enemy's clutches and continue the fight.

He has described his motive behind these petitions in detail in his Marathi book Andamanchya Andheritun (From the Darkness of Andamani' and also threw light on this in his famous work, My Transportation for Life". He says he tried to impress his fellow prisoners by giving the example of Chhatrapati Shivaji, the national hero who tried the same ruse to come out of Aurangzeb's captivity at Agra in 1666. Savarkar also gave them the example of Shivaji's treaty with Aurangzeb's general Mirza Raja Lal Singh-the Treaty of Purandar-when he was cornered by the Rajput general in 1665. The rationale behind Savarkar's thinking was that emerging victorious in a national battle was more important than anything else." In a situation where you are in captivity, the only way to achieve your objective is to free yourself from the shackles at any cost. A die-hard follower of Shivaji Maharaj, Savarkar had even tried to flee British custody after his arrest in London in 1910, when he jumped into the sea near the French coast from the ship in which he was being brought to India. Unfortunately, he was caught again in a few hours. So to weigh Savarkar's action against Gandhian tools is travesty of truth.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages