Vinayak Damodar Savarkar

28 May 1883 – 26 February 1966

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar born in Bhagur, British India, was an Indian poet, lawyer, politician, writer and pro-independence activist. Savarkar is considered to be the intellectual founder of Hindu Nationalism. He is the author of “Hindutva” (1923), a book which explains what it means to be a Hindu. “Hindutva” is considered to be one of the most influential works that shaped Hindu Nationalism, it has influenced many nationalists and revolutionaries in India. He was described as an extremist, revolutionary, anarchist, terrorist and a militant nationalist and has greatly influenced these groups in India and other places. His early writings had a wide audience of anarchists, nationalists, anti-imperialists, revolutionaries, socialists, Nazis and Fascists alike. He was also an atheist, but none the less identified as an Hindu and was a known spiritual and a believer in mysticism.

Savarkar was a revolutionary figure who played a major role in framing Indian national identity as a Hindu national identity. He was involved in liberation movements since the age of sixteen. He was involved in Mitra Mela, a Hindu movement in Pune and Nasik. He founded the secret anti-colonial society Abhinav Bharat. His focus on writing the history of revolutionaries has inspired many young Indian men to become revolutionaries themselves. His work, “The Indian War of Independence of 1857” (1909), glorified the revolutionaries, even Muslims, in an attempt to recruit more people to his cause. This book was later banned by the British Government, but it was still published secretly.

Savarkar was involved in the assassinations of two British Colonial Officials and he was also responsible for circulating bomb-making instructions among his colleagues, which he learned from a revolutionary that was involved in the Russian revolution of 1905. From these events, it is evident that Savarkar was central for promoting political violence against colonial oppressors and in popularizing the concept of an Indian national identity based on a Hindu platform.

His concept of national identity was to create a nation of India that included Hindu’s, Jain’s, Buddhist’s and Sikh’s, while excluding the Christians (British and converts) and Muslims. Later on he became the president of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, A Hindu chauvinist party, which was highly anti-Muslim. Many sources claim that he transformed from a revolutionary that was willing to work with Muslims to a Hindu Nationalist who was an anti-Muslim, during his imprisonment by the British.

He is alleged to have played a central role of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, for the person that assassinated Gandhi was Nathuram Godse, a member of Hindu Mahasabha and an editor of a daily newspaper, which Savarkar had invested in. Due to this, he was under suspicion and after the assassination of Gandhi, he was put on a trial, but he was not found guilty. After this, he was forced to agree to not get involved with politics, and he was mostly forgotten until 1980s, where his ideology started to have a greater impact on politics. Now, he is being remembered by many Hindu nationalists as an important figure and he was even paid tribute by the Indian Prime minister.

Savarkar died in 26 February 1966 at the age of 82, he stopped eating for he believed that his mission in life was over and decided to die. Savarkar is seen as a key figure in the anti-colonial movement in India and has greatly influenced anti-colonial and anti-imperialist sentiments among the Indian population. Even though he was in jail for 10 years, he did not give up on his dream of an independent India and consistently worked towards his goal. He was at odds with Gandhi, for he believed that India can only be independent through a violent revolution and actively encouraged and created political violence. His idea of Hindutva has influenced many Indians and is still used in Indian politics today. In conclusion Savarkar was known for his idea of Hindutva, Hindu nationalism and the Indian independence movement.

Jaan Parekh

 

Works Cited

1. Pincince, John. “On the verge of Hindutva: V.D. Savarkar, revolutionary, convict, ideologue, c. 1905–1924.” Dissertations Publishing, 2007. ProQuest

2. Chaturvedi, Vinayak. “ A Revolutionary’s Biography: The Case of V. D. Savarkar.” Postcolonial Studies, vol. 16, no. 2, June 2013, pp. 124–139. ProQuest, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2013.823257.

3. Nandy, Ashis. “ A disowned father of the nation in India: Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and the demonic and the seductive in Indian nationalism.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, vol. 15, no. 1, 2 Jan. 2014, pp. 91–112. ProQuest, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2014.882087.

Other Relevant Reading

1. Hindutva
2. The Indian War of Independence of 1857

Narendra Modi

Well-known for his Hindu nationalist approaches, Narendra Modi was appointed as India’s Prime Minister in India’s general election of 2014 (Hindu Nationalism in India’s Heartland, 2017). He was born on September 17, 1950, a few years after the Partition, in a small town in Gujarat, India. Even with tension between Hindus and Muslims at the time, Modi was raised in a community mixed with Muslims, and grew up with many Muslim friends throughout his childhood (Marino, 48). At the age of eight, Modi joined the RSS youth wing, where he began to realise his interest in debating about issues concerning the world. The RSS is an organization that was formed in 1925, with the purpose of promoting Hinduism, and after many years with the RSS, he was offered the position of the sambhag pracharak, which was the regional organizer. He was later promoted in 1990, becoming one of the seventeen members of BJP’s National Election Committee (Marino, 51). With each promotion leading up to his election as Prime Minister of India, Modi was determined to work towards his goals of remaking India and making Hindu nationalism a priority (Marino, 53).

In recent years, the Indian state has attempted to spread the religion of Hinduism across the country through reform and favouritism. Otherwise referred to as Hinduisation, this has been a particular goal for Narendra Modi and the BJP Party (Khalidi, 2008). Modi has been referred to as anti-Muslim because of his efforts in implementing Hindu culture across the country. His resentment for Muslims is associated with the Partition in 1947, which created tension that continues to remain amongst Muslims and Hindus even today. On February 27 of 2002, the Ram temple in Godhra was presumed to be attacked by Muslims, killing over 59 people. That same evening, Modi had televised the ceremony to the public, which unleashed violence towards Muslims as he blamed them for the attack (Jaffrelot, 2015). In many instances, Modi has been given credit for his use of both body language and different intonations, as they are said to demonstrate his strength as an orator for the public (Marino, 47). After the attack on Ram temple, one of Modi’s key tactics involved the manipulation of television with the means to provide reassurance and protection to the public. During the election period, one of his BJP television commercials consisted of a train pulling into the Godhra station, followed by terrified screams and the sounds of rifles being fired. Afterward, his image would be shown in order to demonstrate the protection he could offer against Muslim violence (Jaffrelot, 2015). This has remained to be one of his key tactics for gaining attention and popularity amongst Indian citizens.

In Hinduism, cows are seen as sacred animals as they are thought to represent different deities, motherhood and wealth (Lodrick, 71). To further prioritize Hindu nationalism in India, Modi had stigmatized the consumption of beef and slaughtering of cows in general. He created a ban on the consumption of beef, which was supported by many Hindus as the slaughter of cows is considered taboo (Hindu Nationalism in India’s Heartland, 2017). In one incident, a Muslim labourer was beat to death with bricks by Hindu nationalists for slaughtering a cow. These Hindu nationalists claimed that Muslims’ consumption of beef demonstrated disrespect to Hindus (What Hindu Nationalism Means for India’s Future, 2016). This incident along with others emphasizes the anti-Muslim sentiment many Hindus hold today as a result of Narendra Modi’s beliefs.

In September 2006, Modi’s BJP legislature passed a law against conversion to Islam, but enabled conversion to Hinduism, as Hindu assimilationists argued that conversion to Islam was viewed as a form of denaturalisation (Khalidi, 2008). This anti-Muslim sentiment held by many in India is also commonly held amongst others in different countries, and is also referred to as Islamophobia. The heightening of Islamophobia over recent years has become an important issue, as many Muslims are targeted for their culture. Although Donald Trump may be more of a well-known political figure that holds Islamophobic beliefs, Narendra Modi has proven more than once the resentment he holds for Muslims as well. He has played a significant role in India by trying to prioritize Hinduism over other religions, while also spreading anti-Muslim sentiments across the country. As he remains the Prime Minister of India, he is viewed as an influential leader, and therefore the beliefs he holds will continue to have a great impact on Indians as well as Muslims (Jaffrelot, 2008). In India’s current state, discrimination is most apparent through certain institutions restricting religious freedoms other than Hinduism, and Modi’s goal to remake India as a prominently Hindu nation continues to exist (Khalidi, 2008).

Mira Kashyap

Works Cited

“Hindu Nationalism in India’s Heartland.” Stratfor Analysis, Apr. 2017, p. 33. EBSCOhost, libaccess.mcmaster.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=123510972&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Jaffrelot, Christophe. “Narendra Modi and the Power of Television in Gujarat.” Television & New Media, vol. 16, no. 4, May 2015, pp. 346-353. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/1527476415575499.

Khalidi, Omar. “Hinduising India: Secularism in Practice.” Third World Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 8, 2008, pp. 1545–1562. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20455129.

Lodrick, Deryck O. “Symbol and Sustenance: Cattle in South Asian Culture.” Dialectical Anthropology, vol. 29, no. 1, 2005, pp. 61–84. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/29790728.

Marino, Andy. Narendra Modi: A political biography. HarperCollins Publishers India, 2014.

“What Hindu Nationalism Means for India’s Future.” Stratfor Analysis, June 2016, p. 1. EBSCOhost,libaccess.mcmaster.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=116776789&site=ehost-live&scope=site.