identity – Cosmos|Hearth

July 25^th, 1925 – December 6^th, 1961

Frantz Fanon was a writer and political activist who invoked a revolutionary philosophy that had made him become an iconic figure since the 1960s to the 20th century. Growing up on the Caribbean island of Martinique, Fanon experienced difficulties as he possessed the darkest skin tone of his family in a very colour conscious society (Kuby, 2015). Maturing with this sensitivity, Fanon became aware of the discrimination present in his community and the colonialism that accompanied it. As a result, when Martinique had become occupied due to the Vichy Regime, Fanon left the island to fight for France in World War Two but realized that the discrimination present within the Free French movement was no different from the inequity he faced growing up (Zaller, 2017).

Fanon’s experiences pushed him to question the nature of racial identity, causing him to contribute to the critique of the self-identification ethnic movement. He published his first piece of literature named, “Black Skin, White Masks” in which he disclosed how acknowledging one’s racial identity perpetuates colonialism and racism, as well as utilizes existentialism to question the nature of one’s drives and identity (Zaller, 2017). Fanon states that those who indulge in the identification of race are driven by egoism, as they recognize their ethnicity in order to feed their drive to feel superior to one another. Fanon pursues this existentialist focus to explain that these values of superiority regarding racial identities are fueled by interactions, shaping cultures all over the world. He conveys the danger of this phenomenon, as the world will be led into desensitized discrimination from the integration of cultures incorporating this mindset. For example, Fanon argues that white men self-identify as powerful, therefore correlating this ideality with other white men. This perception of whiteness is maintained in order to achieve social control within society, creating a negative connotation projected on to the alternate race. Consequently, the idea of what it means to be black is a perception that is different from reality and races begin to compare themselves and build an aspiration to become like another or begin to form resentment for each another. This mindset creates division among races and begins to cause what Fanon feared: colonization aggravated by racism. As a result, in order to avoid such inequality among different racial categories, Fanon believed that populations should forbid from indulging in their own racial identity and seeing one another as equal regardless of appearance (Welcome, 2017). Even if one does not self-identify to put other racial categories down, the indulgence will cause division, as Fanon stated, “To us, the one who adores race is as sick as one who abominates” (Fanon, 1952).

Due to Frantz Fanon’s philosophy, an iconic standpoint has been etched in history regarding the critique of the self-identification movement. With his literature, Fanon was able to supply rich material used to decipher the struggle of independence racial groups have fought for overtime, as well as how to overcome such hardships perpetuated by colonialism and racism (Kuby, 2015). Whilst the world has not adapted to a complete lack of recognition of ethnicity, Fanon’s theory provides an outlook on humanity and their drives which aggravated the social divisions experienced today. As a result, society has grown to be more accepting towards others regardless of racial differences, which supports Frantz Fanon’s pursuits of a world that is less conscious of colour.

Rola Tuffaha

Works Cited

Kuby, Emma. “‘Our actions never cease to haunt us’: Frantz Fanon, Jean-Paul Sartre, and the

violence of the Algerian War.” Historical Reflections 41, no. 3 (2015): 60+. Academic OneFile (accessed November 12, 2017). http://go.galegroup.com.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=ocul_mcmaster&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA439109595&asid=31da12e566486045534e119dc74b559d.

Welcome H. Alexander. 2017. “Snow-blind in a Blizzard of Their Own Making: Bodies of

Structural Harmony and White Male Negrophobes in the Work of Frantz Fanon.” Critical Philosophy Of Raceno. 1: 91. JSTOR Journals, EBSCOhost (accessed November 9, 2017).

Zaller, Robert. 2017. “Frantz Fanon.” Salem Press Biographical EncyclopediaResearch Starters,

EBSCOhost (accessed November 9, 2017).

Other Relevant Reading

Fanon, Frantz. Black skin white masks. Translated by Richard Philcox. New York: Grove Press,

1952.

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.