The recent trailer launch of Randeep Hooda's upcoming movie on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar has once again brought one of the forgotten nationalist leaders of India. I prefer to tell him he is a nationalist as it doesn't matter what his religious inclination was, but yes, the person was intensely devoted to the nation's freedom.
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, joined the Hindu Mahasabha, a Hindu nationalist organisation, and popularised the term Hindutva, which Chandranath Basu previously coined. Savarkar used the term Hindutva to refer to a collective Hindu identity that he believed was essential to the essence of Bharat (India), thus portrayed himself as a Hindu Nationalist ideologue.
Let us see some facts about Savarkar and the idea of Hindutva promoted by him -
- Savarkar was born in 1883 in Nashik, Maharashtra, India. He was a lawyer by training and became involved in the Indian independence movement at a young age. The British colonial government imprisoned him on several occasions for his political activities.
- In 1923, Savarkar joined the Hindu Mahasabha. He quickly became one of the organisation's leading figures and helped popularise Hindutva.
Savarkar's Idea of Hindutva
Savarkar, along with his nationalistic idea, was trying to represent his religion similarly to how other "Religious Political Parties" were functioning. However, due to his differences with the mainstream political party, the person remained out of context for an extended period.
Let us see some more facts related to it:-
- Savarkar had launched the secret society, 'Abhinav Bharat,' in the early 1900s and shipped pistols and a bomb-making manual for Indian revolutionaries in London where he was studying law, was convicted of sedition and for the murder of A.M.T Jackson, the district collector of Nashik in 1910-1911.
- He was sentenced to two terms of twenty-five years which were to run one after the other and not concurrently, making it, in effect, a 50-year-long imprisonment. Thus Savarkar had most of his time spent in the jail. This meant he could not participate in the political process and build a mass following.
- Savarkar was a controversial figure. He was accused of being a terrorist and a collaborator with the British. His views on Hindutva were also seen as divisive and extremist.
- Savarkar was associated with the Hindu Mahasabha, a political party opposed to the Indian National Congress. The Congress was the dominant political party in India during the freedom struggle, and it controlled the historical narrative. As a result, Savarkar and his ideas were marginalised.