Note: Strongly recommended to read
Part-01 before reading Part-02. If you haven't read Part -01, click here to open.
Sarvarkar’s HINDU MAHASABHA and British Government in India Together
On October 9, 1939, Savarkar met Lord
Linlithgow, the viceroy of India, in Bombay. Linlithgow wrote a report
of the meeting to Lord Zetland, the secretary of state for India.
“The
situation, he [Savarkar] said, was that His Majesty’s government must now turn
to the Hindus and work with their support…. Our interests were now the same and
we must therefore work together… Our interests are so closely bound together, the
essential thing is for Hinduism and Great Britain to be friends and the old
antagonism was no longer necessary.”
According to the historian, Islam, the
‘common interest’ of Savarkar and Linlithgow was to oppose the Congress and
drive a wedge between it and the Muslims. “His role during the Quit India
movement in 1942 was dubious and divisive. As large sections of Indians were
repressed and Congress leaders were jailed, Savarkar chose to cooperate with
the British,” said Islam.
Addressing the 24th session of the
Hindu Mahasabha in Kanpur in 1942, Savarkar justified his support to the
British. “The Hindu Mahasabha holds that the leading principle of all practical
politics is the policy of responsive cooperation,” he said. Savarkar also
declared that he was not bothered of breaking up the “so-called united front
against British imperialism” and asked Hindus to cooperate with the British.
THE HINDU MAHASABHA
launched ‘military recruitment boards’ across the country to help ‘Hindus’ join
the British army. Documents with THE WEEK show that Savarkar was issuing
circulars for the militarisation of Hindus. “This was clearly to help the
British against the advances of Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army,”
Savarkar against Quit India Movement
Under Savarkar, the Hindu Mahasabha
openly opposed the call for the Quit India Movement and boycotted it
officially.Savarkar even went to the extent of writing a letter titled "Stick to your
Posts", in which he instructed Hindu Sabhaites who happened to be
"members of municipalities, local bodies, legislatures or those serving in
the army...to stick to their posts" across the country, and not to join
the Quit India Movement at any cost.In the wake of the ‘Quit India’ call to
the British rulers on August 8, 1942, the British rulers dismissed the
Congress-led governments in many Provinces. While addressing the 24th session
of the Hindu Mahasabha at Cawnpore (now Kanpur) in 1942, Savarkar outlined the
strategy of the Hindu Mahasabha of co-operating with the rulers in the
following words:
“The Hindu Mahasabha holds that the leading
principle of all practical politics is the policy of Responsive Co-operation.
And in virtue of it, it believes that all those Hindu Sangathanists who are
working as councillors, ministers, legislators and conducting any municipal or
any public bodies with a view to utilize those centres of government power to
safeguard and even promote the legitimate interests of the Hindus without, of
course, encroaching on the legitimate interests of others are rendering a
highly patriotic service to our nation. Knowing the limitations under which
they work, the Mahasabha only expects them to do whatever good they can under
the circumstances and if they do not fail to do that much it would thank them
for having acquitted themselves well. The limitations are bound to get
themselves limited step by step till they get altogether eliminated. The policy
of responsive co-operation which covers the whole gamut of patriotic activities
from unconditional co-operation right up to active and even armed resistance,
will also keep adapting itself to the exigencies of the time, resources at our
disposal and dictates of our national interest.”
Hindu Mahasabha led by ‘Veer’ Savarkar
ran coalition governments with Muslim League in 1942. Savarkar defended this
nexus in his presidential speech to the 24th session of Hindu Mahasabha at
Kanpur in 1942 in the following words:
“In practical politics also the Mahasabha knows
that we must advance through reasonable compromises. Witness the fact that only
recently in Sind, the Sind-Hindu-Sabha on invitation had taken the
responsibility of joining hands with the League itself in running coalition
Government. The case of Bengal is well known. Wild Leaguers whom even the
Congress with all its submissive-ness could not placate grew quite reasonably
compromising and socialable as soon as they came in contact with the HM and the
Coalition Government, under the premiership of Mr. Fazlul Huq and the able lead
of our esteemed Mahasabha leader Dr Syama Prasad Mookerji, functioned
successfully for a year or so to the benefit of both the communities.”
Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League
beside Bengal and Sind ran coalition government in NWFP also during this
period.
The second-in-command of the Hindu
Mahasabha, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee who was also the deputy chief minister in
Bengal Muslim league ministry in a letter to Bengal governor on behalf of Hindu
Mahasabha and Muslim League made it clear that both these parties looked at the
British rulers as saviours of Bengal against Quit India Movement launched by
Congress. In this letter he mentioned item wise the steps to be taken for
dealing with the situation. It read:
“The question is how to combat this movement (Quit
India) in Bengal? The administration of the province should be carried on in
such a manner that in spite of the best efforts of the Congress, this movement
will fail to take root in the province. It should be possible for us,
especially responsible Ministers, to be able to tell the public that the freedom
for which the Congress has started the movement, already belongs to the
representatives of the people. In some spheres it might be limited during the
emergency. Indian have to trust the British, not for the sake for Britain, not
for any advantage that the British might gain, but for the maintenance of the
defense and freedom of the province itself."
Hindu Mahasabha led by ‘Veer’ Savarkar ran coalition governments with
Muslim League in 1942
Details are described in above topic.
One needs to access the Hindu Mahasabha
and RSS publications and documents of that period to know the shocking reality
of the Hindutva gang turning into stooges of the British rulers against Netaji.
Savarkar while addressing 23rd session of Hindu Mahasabha at Bhagalpur in 1941,
he said:
“The
second most important and urgent item on which the Hindu Sanghatanists [Hindu
Mahasabhaits] all over India must bend all their energies and activities is the
programme for the militarization of Hindus. The war which has now reached our
shores directly constitutes at once a danger and an opportunity which both
render it imperative that the militarization movement musts be intensified and
every branch of the Hindu Mahasabha in every town and village must actively
engage itself in rousing the Hindu people to join the army, navy, the aerial
forces and the different war-craft manufactories.”
To what extent Savarkar, the Hindutva
icon, was willing to help the British would be clear by the following words of
his:
“So far as India’s defence is concerned, Hindudom
must ally unhesitatingly, in a spirit of responsive co-operation with the war
effort of the Indian government in so far as it is consistent with the Hindu
interests, by joining the Army, Navy and the Aerial forces in as large a number
as possible and by securing an entry into all ordnance, ammunition and war
craft factories…Again it must be noted that Japan’s entry into the war has
exposed us directly and immediately to the attack by Britain’s enemies.
Consequently, whether we like it or not, we shall have to defend our own hearth
and home against the ravages of the war and this can only be done by
intensifying the government’s war effort to defend India. Hindu Mahasabhaits
must, therefore, rouse Hindus especially in the provinces of Bengal and Assam
as effectively as possible to enter the military forces of all arms without
losing a single minute.”
Savarkar called upon Hindus “to flood
the [British] army, the navy and the aerial forces with millions of Hindu
warriors with Hindu Sanghatanist hearts” and assured them that if they,
“stick
to this immediate programme and take advantage to the fullest extent possible
of the war situation with the Hindu Sanghatanists ideal full in view, pressing
on the movement for the militarization of the Hindu race, then our Hindu nation
is bound to emerge far more powerful, consolidated and situated in an
incomparably more advantageous position to face issues after the war— whether
it be an internal anti-Hindu Civil War or a constitutional crisis or an armed
revolution.”
While continuing his address at
Bhagalpur, Savarkar once again stressed upon the Hindus of India to join war
efforts of the British government. He categorically stated:
“Whatever, again, be the position and the fate of
nations after the war, today under the present circumstances taking all things
together, the only feasible and relatively beneficial attitude which the Hindu
Sanghatanists can take up is doubtless to ally ourselves actively with the
British government on the point of Indian Defence, provided always that we can
do so without being compelled to betray the Hindu cause.”
The following concluding words of his
Bhagalpur address made it clear that as per his wisdom, sub-serving the British
war efforts would herald a great future for the country:
“If
ever the saying was true that the darkest hour of the night is nearer the
golden rise of the morn, it holds good today. The war that has approached our
shores from the East and may threaten us in due course even from the West is a
danger which may prove unparalleled in its magnitude, ravages and results. But
it is also bound to break into a new day for the world and there are no signs
wanting to show us that not only a newer but a better Order [sic] may ensure
out of this world chaos. Those who have lost all may gain much in the end. Let
us also bide our time and pray and act for the best.”
His presidential address at Madura is a
living testimony to his unabashed support to the British imperialistic designs.
He out-rightly rejected Netaji’s plan to liberate India. He declared:
“Not only on moral grounds but on the grounds of
practical politics we are compelled not to concern ourselves on behalf of the
Hindu Mahasabha organisation with any programme involving any armed resistance,
under the present circumstances.”
If on the one hand, Bose was working on
the military strategies to take help of the German and Japanese forces to
liberate India, on the other hand, Savarkar was busy in directly assisting the
British colonial masters. This amounted to the betrayal of the cause espoused
by Netaji. Savarkar and Hindu Mahasabha openly stood with the British
government which later was able to kill and maim thousands of brave cadres of
the Indian National Army (INA). While greatly eulogizing the British masters,
Savarkar told his followers at Madura that due to the ever-advancing forces of
Japan with a declared objective of freeing Asia from European influence, the
British government needed Indians in large numbers in its armed forces which
must be helped.
Savarkar spent the next few years in
organizing recruitment camps for the British armed forces which were to kill
large number of the INA personnel in different parts of North-East later. The
Madura conference of Hindu Mahasabha concluded with the adoption of an
‘immediate programme’ which stressed “to secure entry for as many Hindus
recruits as possible into army, navy and the air forces”.12He also informed
them that through the efforts of Hindu Mahasabha alone, one lakh Hindu’s were
recruited in the British armed forces in one year.
Conclusion
Astonishingly, despite all these
terrible anti-national ideas and practices of Savarkar, there are people who
continue declaring him as a great patriot. How sturdily Savarkar and Hindu
Mahasabha rode the British bandwagon can be known by simply peeping into a
pre-Independence publication of the Hindu Mahasabha.
Read the truths and decision is yours. Still
you believe, Sarvarkar is really a Role
Model?
Note: Strongly recommended to read
Part-01 before reading Part-02. If you haven't read Part -01, click here to open.
Books
Referred:
1.
Savarkar
Myths and Facts
2.
Vinayak
Damodar Savarkar’s Whirlwind Propaganda: Extracts from the President’s Diary of
his Propagandist Tours Interviews from December 1937 to October 1941
3. Hindutva: Savarkar Unmasked by Shamsul Islam (historian and former professor at Delhi University)
4. Hindutva: Savarkar Unmasked by Shamsul Islam (historian and former professor at Delhi University)
Sites
Referred:
http://www.theweek.in/theweek/cover/life-and-legacy-of-veer-savarkar.html
