A controversy has arisen in India over Rahul Gandhi’s recent remarks calling Savarkar a British agent. Consequently, Savarkar’s grandson has filed a police complaint against Rahul Gandhi. Interestingly though, Mahatma Gandhi’s great grandson has supported Rahul.
My own view on the matter is that a typical technique used by our British rulers was that when they noticed some Indian patriotic youth to have become very active against the British, they would arrest him on trumped up charges, and on the basis of false evidence, would get him sentenced by the court to long sentences in jail.
There the youth was often tortured and maltreated in many ways, and this would usually break his spirit in a few years. Then the British authorities would offer him a deal : we can set you free if you agree to become our agent, or you can rot in jail forever.
This would invariably do the trick. The young man, to get out of the hell he was in, would agree to any deal.
The same happened to Savarkar. Many people have praised him as a great freedom fighter, but what is the truth about him ?
The truth is that many nationalists during British rule were arrested by the British, and given long sentences. In jail the British authorities would give them an offer : either collaborate with us, in which case we will free you, or rot in jail for the rest of your life.
Most of them became collaborators, including Savarkar.
Savarkar was a nationalist only till 1910 when he was arrested, and given two life sentences. who was a patriot in his youth, but then he was arrested in 1910, and given two life sentences and sent to the penal colony of Andaman Islands, where he remained for 10 years in terrible conditions, and was then shifted to Ratnagiri, where he developed the ideology of ‘Hindutva’.
While in jail he wrote many petitions to the British authorities praying for clemency. After serving over 10 years in jail, the British evidently made the offer of collaboration, which Savarkar accepted. Probably he was offered a deal, and on agreeing to become a British agent, he was set free in 1924.
On coming out of jail he started preaching Hindu communalism, and became a British agent, serving the British policy of divide and rule. He consistently furthered the British policy of divide and rule, by propagating Hindu militancy.
Savarkar as president of the Hindu Mahasabha, during the Second World War, advanced the slogan “Hinduize all Politics and Militarize Hindudom”, he decided to support the British war effort in India seeking military training for the Hindus.
When the Congress launched the Quit India movement in 1942, Savarkar criticised it and asked Hindus to stay active in the war effort and not disobey the government, He urged the Hindus to enlist in the armed forces to learn the “arts of war”, but this appeal was made selectively to Hindus.
Can this man be respected and praised as a freedom fighter ?
The real veers were Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen ( Masterda ), Chandrashekhar Azad, Bismil, Ashfaqulla, Rajguru, Khudiram Bose, etc who were mostly hanged by the British. What was so ‘veer’ about Savarkar ? He had become a British agent after 1910.
But Savarkar was not the sole example of this technique; similar modus operandi was used by the British authorities in respect of several persons.
Take for instance Aurobindo ( 1872-1950 ). He was earlier a revolutionary, but was arrested and charged for a bombing in the Aligarh conspiracy case in 1908.
He spent some time in jail, but by the time he came out all his revolutionary zeal had gone, and he had became a ‘spiritual’ person, and shifted to Pondicherry where he built his ashram.
My guess is that probably while in jail he was offered some deal by the British authorities, which he accepted, for fear of the terrible consequences if he refused.
We may also consider the poet Iqbal ( 1877-1938 ). Iqbal was a good Urdu poet, and was a nationalist and patriot in his younger days. In 1904 he wrote ‘Saare jahaan se achcha Hindustan hamaara’, which was a patriotic song.
But then in 1905 he went to England, where he remained for 3 years, and probably during this period was offered a deal by the British, which he accepted. The proof of this is that by the time he returned to India all his patriotism and nationalism was gone, and he had been transformed into a highly communal person preaching pan-Islamism, as in his poems ‘taraana-e-milli’ and ‘shikwa’.
In his Presidential address in 1930 in the Allahabad session of the Muslim League he strongly proposed partitioning India and creating a separate state for Muslims.
This illustrates that Iqbal had become a British agent, promoting the bogus 2 nation theory, which led to the historical British swindle called Partition of 1947, which caused terrible suffering to millions.
