Chennai: “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it” was the main motivation behind Author Dr. Vikram Sampath embarking on an arduous journey of writing three books on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. During the launch of his book ‘Savarkar: A Contested Legacy’ in Chennai, the author said that the common people had every right to admire or hate a person, provided it was an informed opinion, rather than calumny or pre-conceived notions against the individual.
In conversation with Journalist Akhila Krishnamurthy and K Annamalai, Presiden of Tamil Nadu BJP, the author highlighted that Savarkar had aimed to consolidate and unite Hindu society, back in the 1920s, by ensuring that Vedas and Sanskrit were not the preserve of one community, giving sacred thread to everybody, advocating meritocracy over dynasty/ hereditary authority, eliminating untouchability and caste, enabling common dining of people from across castes, setting up temples that were open to all communities etc.
Referring to the demonizing and slander directed against Savarkar, Dr. Sampath said that it was common to hear the terms “British stooge, apologist, Islamophobe”, as a result of the political machinations against him.
“He strove to eradicate untouchability, but became a political untouchable; was a persona non grata in Indian history and everyone associated with him paid a heavy price. But, his political relevance is intense in contemporary India and his ideology of Hindutva is on the ascendant” the author added.
Sampath also threw light on how his books on Savarkar were not stocked by several bookstores and how he faced boycott from “eminent personalities and intellectuals”.
He made a mention of how the delegates had backed out of the Bangalore Literature festival (which Sampath had founded), thus forcing him to quit from his own venture. Half-jokingly, he also added that he was fortunate not to have a job and that he couldn’t be sacked for writing on Savarkar. However, it was on Thursday that Dr. Vikram Sampath got elected as the Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Elaborating on the torture perpetrated on Savarkar and scores of other Indian freedom fighters at the British-run Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, the author spoke of how they were fed inedible, unhygienic food, not provided toilets or medical facilities and how they were forced to perform hard labour such as grinding an oil mill, that was meant to be ground by cattle.
The prisoners were whiplashed, flogged, fed food that was crawling with insects, were subject to fixed, limited toilet timings, were subject to stress positions such as standing handcuffs, lying down handcuffed in their cells, all while eating and defecating within the cell etc. It was also added that Savarkar was subjected to 6-month solitary confinement in a cell that was overlooking the gallows.
On his experience of having visited the ‘Celluar Jail’ in Andaman, Annamalai said that he realized that solitary confinement and forcing a person away from his loved ones would do. He also read out a page from the book, that carried the vision that Savarkar had for Independent India (India of Savarkar’s dreams).
It referred to a democratic state that was home to different religions, where people of all sects and races lived in equality and there was no domination or deprivation of rights, and people had to discharge their common obligation to the state and how ‘Hindustan’ would extend from Indus to the seas. It also makes a mention of a country that was self-reliant in food, clothes, shelter, and defence, it emphasized on a Foreign policy of neutrality and peaceful and powerful centralized state of Hindustan.
Referring to Savarkar’s plea for release from the his over two-peace long arrest and torture by the British, Annamalai said that even Gandhi and Dr. Ambedkar had supported the cause of Savarkar’s release and pardon.
Touching upon how Savarkar was maliciously framed for Gandhi’s assassination, Sampath refers to how Dr. Ambdekar had shared his sympathy for Savarkar’s plight. Quoting Ambedkar’s lawyer on the trial of Savarkar in the Gandhi assassination case, the author said, “It’s a fixed match and the highest power ordered to fix him,” (a blatant reference to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru). However, it was also added that leaders after Nehru, including Indira Gandhi had publicly praised Savarkar.
On the lesser-known program that was orchestrated by the Congress party after Gandhi’s assassination, the author said that Gandhi’s killers’ community names were leaked out deliberately. Several thousand Marathi Brahmins (spread across Bombay, Pune, Nagpur, Belgaum etc) were either killed or forced to flee their homes forever.
Dr.Sampath said that history was a means of recounting horrors of the past and healing the wounds and ensuring that these crimes are committed again. He said that, had the then powers punished the perpetrators of the riots in 1948(against Maharashtrian Brahmins), the 1984 riots(against Sikhs) would not have happened. He connects the unfortunate and gruesome pogrom of Marathi Brahmins after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination to the Sikh program after Indira Gandhi’s Assassination, both the massacres which were perpetrated by the Congress party and its functionaries. After having spent a decade writing on fine arts and tracing the life and times of Savarkar, Dr. Vikram Sampath also dropped a hint about his upcoming biographies of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Tipu Sultan.
