BY DEMANDING BHARAT
RATNA FOR SAVARKAR RSS/BJP IS ONLY REAFFIRMING THEIR ANTI-NATIONAL HERITAGE
(PART 1: BEGGING MERCY FROM THE BRITISH MASTERS)
BJP; the political
appendage of the RSS on October 15, 2019 released its manifesto for the
Maharashtra Assembly elections. Apart from making miscellaneous promises it
made a specific promise to the Maharashtra voters that BJP would secure Bharat
Ratna, the highest national honour for the Hindutva icon, 'Veer' Vinayak
Damodar Savarkar and two of the greatest thinkers and warriors of
anti-Brahmanical Dalit resurgence, Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule. It is
interesting that no such promise which has national ramifications was made in
the Haryana which also goes to the polls with Maharashtra.
This Maharashtra
promise is shocking for two major reasons. Firstly, Savarkar cannot be honoured
as a national hero with the anti-national and anti-humanity legacy which he
finally left behind. He did start as a fighter for an all inclusive India but
ended as a British stooge both ideologically and action wise. He propounded the
concept of Hindutva which was synonymous with Casteism, subjugation to the
British and Hindu separatism. Secondly, to tag Phules with Savarkar is a huge
insult to the former who lived and died for a Caste-free and egalitarian
society.
BHARAT RATNA TO
SAVARKAR WILL AMOUNT TO DINEGRATION OF MARTYRS/PARTICIPANTS OF INDIAN FREEDOM
STRUGGLE
(1) This Hindutva
'Veer' wrote not one or two mercy petitions but six mercy petitions (1911, 1913, 1914,
1915, 1918 and 1920) to the British masters begging forgiveness for his
revolutionary past. A perusal of parts of the two mercy petitions will prove to
what lower depths this 'Veer' consigned himself before the British rulers.
The 1913 petition ended
with the following words:
"I am ready to
serve the Government in any capacity they like, for as my conversion is
conscientious so I hope my future conduct would be. By keeping me in jail
nothing can be got in comparison to what would be otherwise. The Mighty alone
can afford to be merciful and therefore where else can the prodigal son return
but to the parental doors of the Government? Hoping your Honour will kindly
take into notion these points."[i]
His mercy petition of
1920 was also a comprehensive one which offered total surrender. It submitted:
"Whether you
believe it or not, I am sincere in expressing my earnest intention of treading
the constitutional path and trying my humble best to render the hands of the
British dominion a bond of love and respect and of mutual help. Such an Empire,
as is foreshadowed in the Proclamation, wins my hearty adherence. For verily I
hate no race or creed or people simply because they are not Indians!"
He went on to promise that
"if
the Government wants a further security from me then I and my brother are
perfectly willing to give a pledge of not participating in politics for a
definite and reasonable period that the Government would indicate...of
remaining in a particular province or reporting our movements to the police for
a definite period after our release - any such reasonable conditions meant
genuinely to ensure the safety of the State would be gladly accepted by me and
my brother… The brilliant prospects of my early life all but too soon blighted,
have constituted so painful a source of regret to me that a release would be a
new birth and would touch my heart, sensitive and submissive, to kindness so
deeply as to render me personally attached and politically useful in future.
For often magnanimity wins even where might fails. [ii]
NOTHING WRONG IN WRITING MERCY PETITIONS
It
is true that there was nothing wrong on part of the Cellular Jail detainees in
writing petitions to the British officials. It was, in fact, an important legal
right available to the prisoners. There were other revolutionaries in the
Cellular Jail who, too, wrote petitions to the British Government. Apart
from Savarkar, Hrishi Kesh Kanjilal, Barindra Kumar Ghose and Nand Gopal also
wrote petitions. However, these were only Savarkar and Barindra Ghose
(Aurobindo Ghose’s brother) who pleaded to renounce their revolutionary past in
order to secure personal freedom.
Unlike
Savarkar and Barin, the two revolutionaries, Hrishi Kesh Kanjilal and Gopal
Gopal, instead of pleading for personal favours, demanded a humane
treatment for the whole lot of political prisoners. They showed no remorse for
their past. Kanjilal, while
referring to the general persecution of political prisoners in the Cellular
Jail, wrote that though he himself suffered immensely,
"MANY OF MY CASEMEN [SIC] SUFFERED MUCH MORE INSIDE THE
JAIL. ONE OF MY CASEMAN [FELLOW CONVICTS] HAD TO COMMIT SUICIDE. SO HARSH WAS
THE TREATMENT AND SO GREAT WERE THE TROUBLES WE HAD TO UNDERGO, THAT ONE OF MY
CASEMAN TURNED MAD."
If there was anything personal in his petition,
it was the following plea, “If the
Government is not pleased to send me to Indian jails, Government ought to grant
me those privileges, which convicts in Indian jails always get…”
Nand
Gopal,
Editor of the newspaper Swaraj of Allahabad, was sentenced to
transportation to life for seditious writings. He too, did not make any
personal plea but like Kanjilal raised the issue of terrible persecution of the
political prisoners in the Cellular Jail. He wrote:
"I REQUEST THE OFFICERS OF THE MOST POWERFUL
GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD, AND TO THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT SPECIALLY, NOT TO RENDER
OUR CONDITION WRETCHED AND MISERABLE IN ORDER TO KILL THE GERMS OF SEDITION
WITHIN US. IF THE RELIGIOUS MARTYRDOM PRACTISED BY THE ENEMIES OF CHRISTIANITY
AGAINST CHRISTIANITY HAS NOT DESTROYED CHRISTIANITY FROM THE FACE OF THE
GLOBES, SURELY, POLITICAL MARTYRDOM SHALL NOT EXTIRPATE THE INDIAN NATIONALISM
FROM THE HOLY SOIL OF BHARATVARSHA."
Tilak
who was serving a six year term (1908-1914) at Mandalay Jail (then in Burma)
also wrote two mercy petitions (February 12, 1912 and August 5, 1912) but
instead of seeking forgiveness for his seditious acts simply made the following
identical request:
"That as a
matter of grace the petitioner now seeks to obtain His Majesty's merciful
consideration of his case. He has undergone 2/3rds, or four out of six years'
term of his sentence, is now 56 years old, and is suffering for a long time
from chronic diabetes; while his family affairs have been brought to a sad crisis
by a heavy bereavement which he has recently suffered...The petitioner,
therefore, humbly and loyally prays that His Majesty may be graciously pleased
to grant…the unexpired portion of the petitioner's sentence may be remitted by
pardon or a remission…"[iii]
The total surrender to the British masters bore results. His
two life time sentences of 50 years at the Cellular Jail were reduced to less
than 13 years, spending less than 10 years at the Cellular Jail. Moreover,
despite ban on his political activities he was allowed to organize the Hindu
Mahasabha in order to break the united freedom struggle. He was the only
beneficiary of such large-heartedness of the British masters in the history of
the Cellular Jail!
SHOULD THE PEOPLE OF INDIA ALLOW SUCH A FAKE VEER SAVARKAR
TO BE HONOURED AS BHARAT RATNA?
Shamsul Islam
OCTOBER 18, 2019
Link for some of S.
Islam's writings in English, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali,
Punjabi, Gujarati and video interviews/debates:
Facebook: shamsul
Twitter:
@shamsforjustice
http://shamsforpeace.blogspot.com/
Email:
notoinjustice@gmail.com
|
Government
of India, Delhi, 1975, pp. 211-213.
|
|
[ii]
National Archives, Delhi. Also reproduced by A. G. Noorani, ‘Savarkar’s Mercy
Petition’, Frontline, 12-15 March 2005.
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