Today is Swatantra Vir Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s birth anniversary. He was born on May 28, 1883, in Bhagur, a village near Nasik in Maharashtra. He was the second son of Damodar Pant and Radhabhai. Ganesh preceded him; his younger siblings were Narayan, another brother, and Mainabhai, a sister.
We all know Savarkar’s exploits as a school and college boy, his time at the India House in London, his arrest and the subsequent spine-tingling escape attempt from onboard a ship that was docked in Marseille in France and his days incarcerated in solitary confinement in the Cellular Jail in the Andamans. Former Prime Minister of Bharat, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in his famous speech, says, “Savarkar means speed, sacrifice, penance, philosophy, debate, youth, strength, hitting the bullseye, sharpness, power, astonishment, a free soul, sternness, a ray of light, imagination, valuable thoughts. What a multifaceted personality he was – a great poet and a revolutionary.“
One facet he might have missed inadvertently is his face as a reformer and advocate of Samajik Samarasata, or social harmony.
Samajik Samarasata, or Social Harmony, is one precious quality Bharat lost when it was under foreign occupation and a quality that Bharat is still searching for. Even today, we hear about the dual-tumbler system in the tea shops of the South and the differential treatment of people based on caste. We need to hang our heads down in shame, having allowed these inhuman practices to linger in our society well into the twenty-first century. The Sar Sangachalak of RSS, Dr. Mohan Bhagwat, has consistently said there shouldn’t be any discrimination and all Hindus should share temples, water and shamshan (cremation ground). Samajik Samarasata is one of the five key pillars RSS wants the society to stand on, which the Sangh would practice and urge the society to follow suit during its Centenary year (2024-25). The five pillars are: Social harmony (Samajik Samarasata), Promotion of familial values (Kutumba Prabhodan), Environmental protection, advancing ‘Swa’ (selfhood) based on Bharatiya values, and Duties and responsibilities of citizens.
When Mahakavi Bharatiyar from the South sang, “We’re one race, one community, and everyone is a king in our country,” it shouldn’t be surprising that Savarkar from the Western part of Bharat also felt the same way and was working towards creating an equal and fraternal society.
Savarkar thundered, “When I refuse to touch someone because he was born in a particular community but play with cats and dogs, I am committing a most heinous crime against humanity. Untouchability should be eradicated not only because it is incumbent on us but because it is impossible to justify this inhuman custom when we consider any aspect of dharma. Hence, this custom should be eradicated as a command of dharma.”
Source: Samagra Savarkar Vagmaya, Volume 3
On May 19, 1929, an ex-untouchable conference took place in Malvan in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra. On the second day of the conference, Savarkar distributed Janeu, or sacred threads, to all the participants. The participants were then administered the sacred thread in a Vedic ceremony and collectively chanted the Gayatri mantra. Savarkar, addressing the participants on this historic occasion, spoke thus, “A battle royal has been raging for the last seven generations over the right of studying the Vedas. Here are the Vedas. Here is the sacred thread. Take these two. Is that all? Even non-Hindus read the Vedas. Why can’t the Hindu Mahars read them? It was all hypocrisy. Both yours and ours quarrel over this problem was a useless task. Let us expiate the sins we committed. We are all responsible for our political subjugation. That is the past. Now let us declare on oath that we shall rectify our past blunders and win back our wealth and glory. The people who regard untouchability which has been a disgrace to humanity as a part of their religion are really the fallen people.”
Source: Dhananjay Keer, Savarkar and his times.
In the 1930s, the movement against untouchability was gaining traction. And so was the opposition to this movement by the regressive forces, the so-called upper castes. During Ganesh Chaturti festivals, a group of these regressive forces disallowed the people from the oppressed community to take part in the celebrations in the Ratnagiri Vittal Mandir. Savarkar decided to create a new Ganesh Pandal catering to all walks of the Hindu society, without any restrictions. A person from the oppressed community ritually installed the Ganesh Murti in the Pandal. Savarkar also conducted a Gayatri mantra reciting competition, which was incidentally won by a person from the (so-called) untouchable community.
This was the time when Savarkar felt the need for a temple that would cater to all sections of society, where people from all communities and castes would come together with one feeling: Bhakti. This is where the seed for the Patit Pavan Mandir (Temple of the saviour of the downtrodden) was sown. The temple came up quickly with support from a local businessman, Bhagoji Baloji Keer.
The temple opened with a Vedic ceremony on February 22, 1931. Bhagoji Keer performed the Prana Pratishta, declaring the temple open for worship. Historically, Bhagoji belonged to the Bhandari caste, who were traditionally toddy tappers and sea warriors (Bhandari comes from Bhandara or Treasury. It is also said that this community managed the treasury for the administrators).
In 1938, when Savarkar was the president, Hindu Mahasabha released a press statement which read, “Barrister Savarkar President of the Mahasabha even after he became the President addressed three or four hundred meetings throughout Hindustan and exhorted not less than one hundred thousand people to remove untouchability and as a piece of public demonstration to prove how he personally held all Hindus equal, made untouchable leaders in almost every meeting to offer him water or food and participated in it in the presence of all. He visited not less than a hundred habitations of untouchables and was received by them in public meetings, had organised not less than one thousand men, of whom five hundred invited untouchables participated in the anti-caste dinner last May. Even the intercaste marriages between touchables and untouchables received his public support for example in the case of the Kolhapur inter-caste marriage.”
Source: Veer Savarkar’s Whirl-Wind Propaganda (Statements, messages & extracts from the President’s diary of his propagandistic tours, interviews from December 1937 to October 1941)
Thus, Swatantra Veer Savarkar spent half his life fighting for Bharata Mata’s freedom from foreign occupation and the other half uplifting the downtrodden by bringing Samajik Samarasata. On his birth anniversary today, let us take a pledge to bring about Social Harmony by putting our hands to heart and say, “We will not discriminate, and we will fight discrimination against any Hindu. All Hindus are equal, and we will share temples, water, and cremation grounds with all my brethren. Bharat Mata Ki Jai!”
As Thiruvalluvar says
எவ்வ துறைவது உலகம் உலகத்தோடு
அவ்வ துறைவ தறிவு. (426)
Evva Thuraivathu Ulagam Ulagaththodu
Avva Thuraiva Tharivu
It is part of wisdom to conform to the ways of the world.
Let the way be equality and fraternity, shunning discrimination to create social harmony, as Swatantra Vir Savarkar taught us.
