(1883–1966) Hindu nationalist leader
and thinker whose ideas have had lasting influence. Savarkar spent his entire
life opposing British rule, often by violent
means. He was also virulently opposed to
Muslims, whom he saw as invaders and
intruders in the Indian homeland. After
being expelled from college for organizing
a political rally, he spent four years in
London, where he and his compatriots
learned bomb-making and planned
political assassinations. In 1911 he was
610
Satyavati
sentenced to life imprisonment in the
Andaman Islands but was released
because of political pressure in 1924,
although he was barred from politics
until 1937. In the time after that he
served for seven years as president of
the Hindu Mahasabha, until failing
health finally forced him to resign.
Throughout his life he had sharp differences with Mohandas Gandhi, first
over the latter’s commitment to nonviolence and later over the partition of
India, which Savarkar characterized as
the “vivisection” of the Indian motherland. Savarkar was brought to trial
when Gandhi was assassinated by one
of his former associates, Nathuram
Godse. Savarkar was acquitted, but the
accusation had a negative affect on the
rest of his life.
Savarkar’s keynote work, Hindutva,
was composed and committed to memory while he was imprisoned in the
Andamans. His central thesis was that
the Hindus were a nation, despite all of
their differences—social, regional, cultural, linguistic, and religious—because
for them India was their motherland,
fatherland, and holy land. He called on
Hindus to transcend the particular identities that divided them and to gain
strength through unity to resist the
oppression of outsiders. Sarvarkar’s formulation equates Hinduism and Indian
nationalism and thus marginalizes both
Muslims and Christians as “outsiders.”
His ideas profoundly influenced Dr.
K. B. Hedgewar, founder of the
Rashtriya Svayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The RSS and its affiliates have continued
to stress some of Savarkar’s ideas, which,
during the 1990s, have gained a national
audience with the rise of the RSS-affiliated
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). For further
information see Lise McKean, Divine
Enterprise, 1996; and Christophe
Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement
in India, 1996.