Arun Shourie’s latest book is on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar a.k.a. Veer Savarkar.
I have personally known Arun Shourie Ji and met him a couple of times. First time in 1994 in his private bungalow in New Delhi, after he approvingly mentioned about my legal action against Christian Missionaries for fraudulent conversion of gullible poor Hindus in Nabarangapur district of Odisha where I was then District Superintendent of Police.
The second time was in 1997 when Sitaram Goel Ji took me for dinner at his friend’s place in New Delhi which was also attended by Arun Shourie Ji and Ram Swarup Ji. As it was about 30 years ago Arun Shourie Ji may not remember me. Savarkar was a prolific writer, an ideologue, a powerful orator, and a firebrand revolutionary leader during freedom struggle. He wrote ‘The Indian War of Independence-1857’ for its 50th anniversary, which the British banned even before it was published. Savarkar was never my ideal for the simple reason that, contrary to popular and populist perception, he was not a Hindu or Hindutva ideologue. On the contrary, he was an atheist, allegedly non-vegetarian and was not against cow-slaughter. However, I am least bothered about his personal beliefs and dietary preferences as I consider them to be trivial.
My objection is more fundamental to his ideas and prescriptions about who is a Hindu. According to Savarkar: आसिन्धुसिन्धुपर्यंता यस्य भारतभूमिका। पितृभूः पुण्यभूश्चैव स वै हिन्दुरिति स्मृतः।। It means that a person is Hindu only if he regards India extending from Indus River to the Indian ocean as his Fatherland and Holyland. The RSS paraphrases it as, “All Indians are Hindus” by ignoring the Savarkar’s Holyland prescription. What they essentially mean is that Hindu identity is same as or similar to the secular citizenship of the territorial nation state of India which they have deified as Bharat Mata. In other words, he denominates Hindu religious identity to a territory, which is absolutely unacceptable.
For, any religion or dharma is universal. If it is denominated to a territory, it loses its universality and will no longer be called a religion. A critical analysis of his “the Essentials of Hindutva” clearly bear the fact that all that Savarkar did was to paraphrase the Westphalian Territorial Nationalism of the Europe to Indian context by drawing some elements from Abrahamic theology and Hindu imagery and idioms.
Except for the name ‘Hindutva’ in the title, which he borrowed from Chandranath Basu’s book of 1892, there is nothing Hindu either in his book or in his ideology. All that he talks about was Indian Territorial Nationalism. Savarkar (and later RSS) erroneously synonymising their conception of Bharatiya Bhaugolik Rashtriyata as Hindutva, is my second fundamental objection. In other words, Savarkar simply borrowed the already popular term ‘Hindutva’ in the Bengal of the late 19th century CE, to name his socio-political ideology which has nothing to do with Hindutva or Hindu religion per se. Consequently, Hindu religion has been and continues to be vilified on industrial scale both nationally and internationally.
Yet, I don’t despise Savarkar. Why so? India’s independence movement produced freedom fighters from a kaleidoscope of ideologies, from the radical left to the right. The freedom that we enjoy today is the result of their cumulative efforts and collective sacrifice. Therefore, every Indian should feel proud of those sons of motherland who gave up the prime of their youth, underwent tremendous hardships, atrocities, and humiliation, with the sole aim to free the motherland from the foreign yoke. Our current ideological incongruence with theirs should never be a barrier in being grateful and reverential to them. As Disinvestment Minister in Vajpayee’s cabinet, Arun Shourie sold off many Public Sector Companies and their properties for pittance. The buyers who bought them made a killing. One such was one of the most luxurious hotels in India, Laxmi Vilas Palace in Udaipur which was sold to Lalit Group in 2002 for a pittance of only Rs 7.5 crore against the valuation of Rs. 252 crores and thereby caused a loss of Rs. 244 crores to the exchequer.
The Special CBI Court, Jodhpur had ordered criminal prosecution of Arun Shourie for corruption in the sale of the luxury hotel. Arun Shourie rushed to Rajasthan High Court and got a stay order. Present status of the case is not known. Probably it is still pending. A warrant of arrest was issued by a court against Arun Shourie’s wife Anita in a matter in which they allegedly have nothing to do. Yet, she had to go through the rigmarole of approaching the court for bail. Arun Shourie wrote a book titled, “Anita Gets Bail” venting out his angst against Indian judicial system. Neither Arun Shourie nor his wife Anita were arrested or jailed. Yet, he became so agitated and restless that he immediately rushed to the respective higher courts praying for relief for himself and his wife separately. Why did he not face trial in the Special CBI Court, Jodhpur? Why did he rush to Rajasthan High Court and got the trial stayed?
Because that is the legal avenue available for all. And he availed it. Perfect. On the charges of waging war against the colonial government, the British sentenced Savarkar to 50 years of imprisonment and transportation for life. He was lodged in the infamous Cellular Jail in the Andamans. The punishment there was inhuman. It ranged from hard labour to extra hours on the grinding mill, to standing handcuffed for a week, to bar-fetters for six months, to confinement in solitary cells, to four days of starvation diet and to cross bars for 10 days, a punishment which compelled the victim to keep his legs apart.
Savarkar endured all that inhuman torture for 11 long years, which others could not even imagine to be for 11 minutes. Based on his mercy petitions, which was a legal avenue available for all, he was shifted to Ratnagiri Jail and then released to be confined to only Ratnagiri district for 15 years. Was there any prominent leader of freedom movement from any ideological stream who underwent the kind of inhuman sufferings as did Savarkar? And why does Arun Shourie vilify Savarkar for sending mercy petitions to the colonial British government for his release from Cellular Jail in Andamans, for availing the legal avenue which was available for all? Is not what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander?
Freedom fighters like any human beings had their own follies and defects in their persona. Further, before the might of the State even the strongest break down. Many top leaders of all ideological shades including Arun Shourie’s demi-gods Gandhi and Nehru, too had at times cozied up to the colonial rulers to avoid adverse personal consequences. And as the British were most brutal to the freedom fighters from the Hindu-right, some of its leaders had to buckle to survive, for you can’t fight war unless you are alive. Therefore, maligning them by selectively highlighting certain of their deeds of sending mercy petitions out of context is both unfair and ungrateful. Arun Shourie has been criticising almost all political parties for much of his public life. He has freedom of speech and has freedom to criticise others.
Perfect. But why does he vilify Savarkar for criticising Gandhi, Nehru, et al ? Did Savarkar not have the same freedom of speech as Arun Shourie has? Freedom fighters belonged to various ideologies from radical left to civilisational right. Each had own methods. None was obliged to toe other’s line. Congress, and Left too, colluded with British on occasions. Savarkar suffered British brutality more than most. Ungrateful to vilify him. Sarojini Naidu once famously said, ‘It cost the nation a lot to keep Gandhi in poverty.’ She was so right. In 1930 the Government of Bombay Presidency
sanctioned an amount Rs. 100 per month for maintenance of M. K. Gandhi when he was jailed in Yerawada Central Prison. In 1930 gold was about Rs 18 per 10 gms. Today it is Rs 88,000 per 10 gms. So Rs 100 of 1930 at current value is Rs 4,86,000 per month. When people were dying of hunger Gandhi had such luxury life in jail. Even today not more than 10% of Indians earn that much money a month. Unless one was a stooge of the British why would they sanction such huge amount for his luxury in jail? How much maintenance amount did British sanction for Savarkar? ZERO. And who fought against the British and who was their stooge? Why Arun Shourie vilifies Savarkar as a villain and worships Gandhi as demigod? Arun Shourie is one of the prolific writers of modern India.
Text and context are two important components of anything. The idiosyncrasies of his writing often misses the contextual complexities. He forgets that the whole of something is greater than the sum of its parts because the ‘whole’ has properties that are beyond the collection of its parts.
H. D. Shourie, father of Arun Shourie originally belonged to Lahore in West Punjab, and escaped to India during Partition. Why did Arun Shourie’s family escape to India, and not stayed back in Pakistan? As his father was an IAS officer, Arun Shourie was born and brought up in comfort, got best of the education, best of the careers, good money, and luxurious living in his own bungalow in New Delhi. Has he ever experienced what is deprivation of freedom? Can he visualise what it means to be jailed let alone incarcerated in the notorious Cellular Jail in Andamans?
Arun Shourie should compare, contrast and reflect upon his own conduct when the court ordered his prosecution for alleged corruption of selling public property for pittance with what Savarkar underwent for almost entire life under the colonial British for fighting for independence of motherland, before he passes judgement on the latter. Arun Shourie’s docu-polemic style of writing often misses truth because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And neither his muckraking and ad hominem is scholarship; it is perversion.
Shameful and idiotic piece against Shourie one of the few honest intellectuals we have left who does not care to bow down to every Hindutva idol. Unless this author can provide substantive evidence to refute Shourie’s arguments and evidence on Savarkar these are just lazy and resentful comments against Shourie. Do your homework before you try and write a piece against Shourie.