Savarkar: The Architect of Hindu Nationalism

May 28 is the day of birth of Savarkarji. Let us hearken to the words of wisdom written and spoken by him and take to the path of activism that was his wont. The need for Hindu unity by the eradication of casteism has become all the more desperate. Society also needs to shed many of its shackles. Intense yearning for the reconversion of those who were converted to Islam or Christianity and to arrest further conversion, is also an acute need of the time.

 

Demographic change has been happening at an alarming pace, and now we have reached the brink of further partition of what is left after the partition of 1947. Regrettably, the Hindus did not heed the warning bell rung by the sages like Savarkarji, Swami Shraddhanand, and Doctor Hedgewar. Now, the mass media has provided us with the means to launch a movement for the defence of Sanatan. It is for us to gird up our loins and take up the stiff challenge.

 

 

 

“The person who considers the land from the river Indus to the sea as his fatherland and holy land may be called a Hindu.” The statement of this shlok of Brihaspati Agam was the dictum of Savarkarji.

 

 

 

The purport of this Shlok is loud and clear that Indic faiths such as Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism came under the purview of Hinduism, as for their followers, India is both ancestral and sacred land. But Muslims and Christians, even those born on Indian soil, were placed outside the definition. Their holy lands are in Mecca or Jerusalem, so for them, India could be a fatherland but not a holy land.

  

He was passionately committed to Hindu nationalism and the all-around development of the country. He dreamt of empowering Hindu society by eradicating certain social evils, of which casteism appeared to him as the biggest hindrance in the upliftment and unity of Hindu society. He projected Hindutva as the biggest anti-casteism force. "I know only one caste, that is Hindu!" was his beholden view. To him, casteism was the enemy within that destroyed Hindu society. To quote him, “The problem of untouchability has ceased to be merely a social question. It now threatens the very integrity of our Hindusthan. It now promises to be an important political calamity.” He believed that political and social reforms must go hand in hand.

 

From his perspective, Hindu unity was the panacea for all the evils that bedevilled our nation. Savarkarji hit the nail on the head when he said: “One country, one God, one caste, one mind, brothers, all of us without difference, without doubt.”

 

  

Unfortunately, his contribution as a social reformer and his vision for the reorganization of Indian society have remained a lesser-explored aspect of his life and work. His legacy is often overshadowed by debates about his contributions to India’s independence struggle and as a revolutionary freedom fighter. But very few authors and people are mindful of his devotion to social reform. Many Indian leaders bitterly criticized the state of our society and held the view that it was without redemption. However, he had a firm belief that Hinduism was reformable and instead of crying foul of our past generations, who had developed a sound social organization in a particular context, attempts should be made to reorganize to suit the present needs of society. The sound social organization of yore deformed in the course of history. It was the duty of the present generation to scavenge the dust that had deposited.

 

Savarkarji should really be remembered primarily as a social reformer and an organizer of Hindu society, or a Hindu-Sangathanist like Shraddhanandji and Dr. Hedgewar, the only difference being that the latter two distanced themselves from politics.

 

 

Even after release from Jail on January 11, 1924, he was not allowed to leave Ratnagiri District, and was asked: “to abstain from any participation, public or private, in politics”. He founded Ratnagiri Hindu Sabha immediately after his release from jail, for the consolidation of the Hindus. The period from 1924 to 1937 may be considered as the phase of social reform in Savarkarji’s life. During this period, he authored plays, poetry, and articles, and wrote  ‘Hindu Padpadshahi’, the first seminal book on the history of the Marathas.

 

To awaken the people about the crying need for social reform, he identified seven shackles that impeded the progress of society. Savarkarji likened his fight against the caste system and untouchability to his struggle against foreign rule, emphasizing the need for rebellion against these seven social impediments. But his detractors figured that he had taken to social reform as he was debarred from participation in politics. The fact of the matter is that, because of his rational approach to all matters, he found much in society that needed mending. He had written in a letter from the Andmans in 1920, "Just as I feel that I should rebel against foreign rule over Hindusthan, I feel I should rebel against caste discrimination and untouchability."  

 

 

(1)Sparsharbandi– To quote him, “To regard our 70 million co-religionists as ‘untouchables’ and worse than animals is an insult not only to humanity but also to the sanctity of our soul. It is my firm conviction that this is why untouchability should be principally eradicated. Untouchability should also go because its eradication is in the interests of our Hindu society.”

 

His contention was that ‘eradication of untouchability was essential for Hindu consolidation and in the national interest. He regarded untouchability as a political calamity and not just a social question.

 

He supported the demand of untouchables to be allowed to draw water at public places and enter public temples. He considered it desirable to build pan-Hindu temples and wrote that having separate schools for untouchables was also harmful.

 

He asked the right-thinking people not to wait for others and pledged to touch their untouchable brethren. He asked people in 1927- “Say, my hand that I use to caress my dog with affection, I shall with brotherly love place on the back of he who has been called untouchable, my brother in Hindu Dharma, my brother in the nation, my blood brother! Say I will touch! And lo! Untouchability shall be dead.”

 

He wrote,  “By publicly touching some untouchable brother, show the world that as far as you are concerned, you have acquired the boon of freeing the Hindu race from the sin of untouchability! Throw your house open to the untouchable to the extent you do for the caste Hindu. Those who have houses to rent should do so to untouchables and caste Hindus alike; those who own wells should throw them open to untouchables and caste Hindus alike…in short, let not a day pass without you publicly behaving with an untouchable as you would with a caste Hindu.”

 

Savarkarji called the so-called untouchables, poorvaasprushya or ‘ex-untouchables’ instead of “Harijan’ or ‘Dalit’.

 

Savarkarji determined that untouchability was a sin. He protested against the seating of children of untouchables separately in schools. Under the leadership of Savarkarji, the Sacred thread ceremony of ex-untouchables was held at Malvan in 1929.  He organized inter-community dining, mass haldi-kumkums, and distributed sweets to all strata of society on festival days.

 

 

 

In 1930, Savarkar started the pan-Hindu Ganeshotsav marked by ‘kirtans’ rendered by untouchables. Where listeners from higher castes would garland those who rendered kirtans.

  

Interdining with people of a ‘lower caste’ was organized by him in spite of the stigma attached to it. He was constrained to say, “working in the social field is like walking on a bed of thorns”. He contended that if the caste Hindus denied the so-called untouchables their lawful rights, then the latter were well within their right to resort to civil agitation (satyagraha). As compared to this,  Gandhiji advised the Shudras to migrate in order to keep peace, when there was a fight between Shudras and Savarnas in a village, Kavita, in Gujarat, in 1935, over using common schools in 1935. He believed voluntary migration and self-reliance were preferable to enduring systemic abuse or depending entirely on outside intervention, instead of resorting to satyagraha.

 

To the protagonists of untouchability, he retorted that Sanatan will not be destroyed if this abuse were done away with.

  

On 01 May 1933, Savarkar started a cafe open to Hindus of all castes, including untouchables. He employed a Mahar to serve water, tea, etc. Anyone who visited Savarkar had to first go to this café and have at least a cup of tea. This seemingly simple act required great courage in those days. NC Kelkar took tea in Savarkar’s café on 15 May 1933.

 

In January 1934, when Savarkar visited Malvan to launch the newspaper ‘Konkan Samachar,’ he arranged a ‘dining together’ on this occasion. Muslims and Christians also attended this programme.

 

Contrarily, in November 1932, Gandhi issued a statement, “I do not consider even in my dreams that ‘dining together’ and mixed (inter-caste) marriages are essential parts in the movement for abolishing untouchability. Such activities would indeed create obstacles and therefore should not be entertained.” But Savarkar carried out his programme undaunted. On 08 March 1931, some 35 participants of Gandhi’s Salt Satyagraha from Ratnagiri were released. Savarkarji publicly honoured them and organized a ‘dining together’ programme.

 

(3) Betibandi: Savarkarji was tolerant of caste intermarriage, as long as Hindu women did not marry non-Hindus, as he made clear in a letter he wrote to his younger brother in 1913. This was his assumption that caste should disappear in favour of everyone being Hindu and that one should be free to choose one’s life partner. 

 

(4) Vyavasaaybandi– About a century back, there was a social restriction on changing one’s profession. He considered that no profession is lowly. He wrote, scavenging cannot be considered a lowly profession as it is in the interests of society and inevitable. A reformer should show by his actions that a scavenger was worthy of equal treatment as other professionals provided, and he was as clean as they were.

 

Savarkarji referenced the Vyadha Gita, a story from the Mahabharata consisting of the teachings imparted by a vyadha (butcher) to a sannyasi occurring in the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata. Here, the Vyaadh tells Yudhishthira how an arrogant sannyasin is humbled by a vyadha and learns about dharma. The vyadha teaches that "no duty is ugly, no duty is impure," and it depends on the way in which the work is done. Savarkar broke the taboo about profession by doing ‘pinjari’ (carding cotton) work himself.

  

While Gandhi wrote in 1922, “hereditary occupation for maintaining societal order cannot be shaken”. He maintained that varna was a law of heredity, and individuals were required to earn their bread by following ancestral callings.

 

(4)Samudrabandi–No overseas travel. A country like Bharat, with a sea-faring mercantile tradition and whose monarchs like Rajendra Chola sent warships all the way to Malaysia, should never have entertained this idea.

 

(6)Vedoktabandi–No Vedas. Savarkar strongly believed that the knowledge of the Vedas was universal and could not be restricted based on anything, let alone caste. If anyone has the aptitude, discipline, and desire, then let him or her study it.

 

(7)Shuddibandi: During his days in Cellular Jail, he saw forced religious conversion and torture of Hindu prisoners by some Pathan Jamadars and wardens. Sadly, there was a tendency among Hindus to look askance at even voluntary re-conversion from Islam and Christianity. Savarkarji welcomed voluntary ‘ghar wapsi’ and tried to put a stop to Hindus converting to other religions. Compare this to Gandhi Ji, who played politics and was unhappy even at the willing reconversion of lakhs of Rajputs of U.P. to Hinduism. Gandhiji called his killer a brother. Savarkarji brought back into the Hindu fold several individuals and families who had been converted and personally arranged for their marriage and other rituals. Savarkarji launched Shranddhanand weekly in January 1924, a couple of weeks after the ghastly murder of Sharaddhanandji. In this paper, he advocated ‘ghar vapsi’. He also wrote in the Weekly ‘Balwant,’ founded in 1923 by Gajanan Patwardhan, in a similar vein. It should be remembered that Gandhi Ji opposed the Shuddhi movement as it would alienate Muslim leaders.

 

 

 

He asked Hindus of Ratnagiri thus: “On a Sunday, take along a couple of volunteers and roam around the village chanting slogans of re-conversion and asking for a handful of grain. From the proceeds of its sale, help our untouchable brethren. Open a school for them. Go to their locality, organize singing of devotional songs, and teach them the importance of cleanliness. Alleviate their grievances; protect them from the evil designs of other religionists. Convince people to remove obstacles to the public use of lakes and wells. (1927, Shraddhanand weekly, 23 June)

 

Temple entry: he expounded that all holy temples and historical sites, such as the Ram temple at Panchavati in Nashik, Sethubandh Rameshwar, etc., should be open with the same regulations to all Hindus, irrespective of varna or caste. He argued, was it not an atrocity on our part when we deny temple entry to so-called untouchables when God Himself threw His doors open to so-called untouchable saints such as Chokha and Ravidas? He said in 1927 who is polluted by darshan is no God and that Patitpavan is the most favourite name of God.

 

 

He thought that till other temples are opened for the ex-touchables, one temple should be built, which should be open for people of all castes. Patitpavan appeared appropriate name for the dedication of the temple to him. A rich builder, Bhagoji Keer, who did not belong to the upper caste, came forward and donated Rs one lac for the project. The foundation of this temple was laid on Mahashivaratri day, i.e., 10 March 1929. Shankaracharya Dr. Kurtakoti of Karveer peeth of Kolhapur, an outstanding figure in Advait Vedant tradition, laid the foundation stone for the Temple in Ratnagiri.

  

  

Munificent Bhagoji granted ₹1,500 annually for the upkeep and illumination of the temple. Ratnagiri became a pilgrim thanks to this temple. This town boasts 102 hotels because of visitors to the temple.

 

Savarkar named this temple ‘Patitpavan Mandir’ (‘one who purifies the degraded’). He said, “I will call Him who raises this entire degraded Hindu nation as Patitpavan. I will call only Him who restores all that we Hindus have lost as Patitpavan. 

 

To sum up: In 1941, Savarkar declared that if freedom was won without achieving social reform, it would not last even for three days. Savarkar launched a scathing attack on the shackles that undermined Hindu society.  He made an appeal to every Hindu to disavow untouchability,  whether others did it or not.

 

Instead of giving a helping hand in his laudable attempts for social reform, he was charged by narrow-minded politicians that his action was motivated not by sympathy for the lower castes but because he was politically motivated with a sectarian view of winning their support for Hindu consolidation.  

 

Another charge hurled at Savarkar is that he carried out social reform only because his political activities were forbidden by the British (since 1924). This charge is also not true. Savarkar continued his campaign for social reform after his unconditional release in 1937.   His tours as president of the Hindu Mahasabha (1937-43) were never complete without a visit to the homes of the ex-untouchables. 

  

Savarkar approached caste reform from the standpoint of strengthening and reforming Hindu society from within. He abhorred confrontational and structural critique of Hindu religious and social traditions. Those keen on reform should hold a broom and clean the home instead of attacking society like enemies.