Veer Savarkar Jayanti

In News 

• Recently, the Prime Minister of India  has paid tributes to Veer Savarkar on his jayanti.

About Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 

• Popularly known as Veer Savarkar, was born on 28 May 1883 in Nashik.
• He was a multidimensional personality – a freedom fighter, social reformer, writer, poet, historian, political leader and philosopher – all combined into one
  • He is known for coining the term ‘Hindutva’

• He was a visionary social reformer, a forward-looking liberal, an iconoclast in many ways and an eminently  practical strategist who wanted to free India from colonial rule, if necessary,  by violent armed resistance.

Roles played in Freedom Struggle: 

• He got involved in radical activities while in London and  he actively read up on the history of India and decided to organise anti-British activities on the lines of the 1857 revolt. 
• He was against foreign goods and propagated the idea of Swadeshi. In 1905, he burnt all the foreign goods in a bonfire on Dussehra.
• He was arrested in 1909 on charges of plotting an armed revolt against the Morley-Minto reform. In 1910, he was arrested over his association with the revolutionary group India House. 
• He was sentenced to two life sentences i.e. 50 years in the cellular jail of Andamans, also known as Kala Pani, in 1911.
• He was released in 1924 under strict conditions of not participating in politics for 5 years.
• Mitra Mela
  • In his teenage years, Savarkar formed a youth organisation. Known as Mitra Mela (Group of Friends), this organisation was put into place to bring in national and revolutionary ideas.
• Patit Pavan Mandir
  • He started one of the most powerful social reform movements against untouchability in India”, built Patit Pavan Mandir in the Ratnagiri district to allow entry to all Hindus, including Dalits. “He was the first to envision a casteless India”

Views on Quit India Movement of 1942:

• He opposed the Quit India Movement of 1942. 
• He was accused of having a role in the conspiracy to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi but was later acquitted by the court. 

Organisations Related to Him

• Abhinav Bharat Society (Young India Society)(1904):
  • He established a secret organisation called Abhinav Bharat Society in 1904 with his brother, Ganesh Damodar Savarkar.
  • He was associated with India House and founded student societies like Free India Society.
• Hindu Mahasabha: (1933)
  • As the President of the Hindu Mahasabha:
    • He was a nationalist and one of the most important figures of the Hindu Mahasabha (“Great Society of Hindus”), a Hindu nationalist organisation and political party.
    • He also served as the President of the Hindu Mahasabha for seven years. He endorsed the idea of a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation).

Ideologies 

• He believed in global mobility and the need for Indians to venture out into foreign lands so as to “bring back the best of the world and carry the fragrance of India and her culture to every corner of the globe.
• He wanted to popularise Vedic literature to everyone, not only to a particular caste. 
• He called Vedic literature civilizational knowledge for the entire human race and India’s unique gift to mankind
• He was very forthright in saying that India’s relations with other countries should depend on how conducive they are to India’s security and its interests, irrespective of what kind of government there was

Writings

• He wrote ‘The Indian War of Independence, 1857‘ during his jail time.
  • In the book, he indicated the view that the Indian Mutiny of 1857 was the first expression of Indian mass rebellion against British colonial rule.

• He also wrote Hindutva: Who Is a Hindu? coining the term Hindutva (“Hinduness’ ‘), which sought to define Indian culture as a manifestation of Hindu values; this concept grew to become a major tenet of Hindu nationalist ideology.
  • He also founded the two-nation theory in his book ‘Hindutva’ calling Hindus and Muslims two separate nations. In 1937, Hindu Mahasabha passed it as a resolution.

Death:

• It was in 1964, when Savarkar declared his wish to attain Samadhi and started the hunger strike on February 1, 1966, and passed away on February 26, 1966. 

Initiatives to honour him 

• In 2002, Port Blair airport at Andaman and Nicobar Islands was renamed Veer Savarkar International Airport.
• Historian Vikram Sampath’s concluding volume on the life and works of Veer Savarkar will hit the stands on July 26.
• The book is titled “Savarkar: A contested Legacy (1924-1966).
• Recently, a book named “Veer Savarkar: The Man Who Could Have Prevented Partition” was released.

Source:PIB