Mohamed Tanveer
The unveiling of Savarkar's portrait in Parliament was an insult to the nation .Would one shake hands with a person who was acquitted of the charge of conspiracy to murder one's friend solely because the approver's evidence, though trustworthy otherwise, lacked independent corroboration as the law required? Gandhi was no ordinary mortal. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who had a track record of complicity in at least two murders, was fonund as consipartor to kill Gandhiji by Justice Kapur.
Savarkar pronounced the two-nation theory, first, in 1923 in his essay Hindutva and next in 1937 in his presidential address to the Mahasabha. In 1923 he wrote: "We Hindus are bound together not only by the love we bear to a common fatherland and by the blood that courses through our veins... but also by the tie of the common homage we pay to our great civilisation - our Hindu culture... we are one because we are a nation, a race and own a common Sanskriti (civilisation)." Sarvarkar formed a militant outfit Abinav Bharat to implement his ideology through armed struggle. After the death of Savakar Abhinav Bharat dissolved due to lack of leadership.
In post independence era the followers of Savarkar's hindutva ideology revived Abinav Bharat by forming it again in a form of trust in January 2002. The Hindu nationalist Abhinav Bharat organization is led and presided by Savarkar's granddaughter, Himani Savarkar. She is also related to Nathuram Godse, who was hanged for assassinating M K Gandhiji on 30 January 1948.
The latest version of Abhinav Bharat members were found to be conspirator in many bomb blasts including Malegaon.
Other side of the coin
Its less known to us about a Gandhian Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known locally as Bacha Khan or Badshah Khan. Khudai Khidmatgar literally translates as the servants of God, represented a non-violent freedom struggle against the British Empire was formed by Bacha Khan. In more than one occasion when Hindus and Sikhs were attacked in Peshawar, Khidmatgar members helped protect their lives and property.
"There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed. It was followed fourteen hundred years ago by the Prophet all the time he was in Mecca." - Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
The Khudai Khidmatgar (KK) movement faced a crackdown for its role in the quit India movement after 1940 by the British Rulers. Amidst negotiations for the British departure from India, the Congress party agreed to the partition of India, KK movement vehemently opposed the two nation theory and the partition. Pakistan's Independence in August 1947 marked the beginning of the end of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement.
Although the ban on the movement was lifted in 1972, the Khudai Khidmatgar movement had been broken. To revive the ideology of frontier Gandhi Bach Khan, Faisal Khan an activist from Delhi dedicated to social work with aid of few fellow activist formed a movement ‘Khudai Khidmatgar' on Gandhi Jayanthi October 2nd 2010.
This new off shoot is serving the society for the past one nine month and so on , they have helped many people under poverty line who have lack of drainage and clean environment and the most important thing is that the activists of Khudai Khidmatgar go live in the locality they serve or aid.
Not it is up to us who to choose between Savarkar and Gandhi. Few are conspiring to replace the national ideology of secularism with Hindutva and Gandhi as the Father of the Nation, with Savarkar who, the Kapur Commission found, had conspired to kill him.
The unveiling of Savarkar's portrait in Parliament was an insult to the nation .Would one shake hands with a person who was acquitted of the charge of conspiracy to murder one's friend solely because the approver's evidence, though trustworthy otherwise, lacked independent corroboration as the law required? Gandhi was no ordinary mortal. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who had a track record of complicity in at least two murders, was fonund as consipartor to kill Gandhiji by Justice Kapur.
Savarkar pronounced the two-nation theory, first, in 1923 in his essay Hindutva and next in 1937 in his presidential address to the Mahasabha. In 1923 he wrote: "We Hindus are bound together not only by the love we bear to a common fatherland and by the blood that courses through our veins... but also by the tie of the common homage we pay to our great civilisation - our Hindu culture... we are one because we are a nation, a race and own a common Sanskriti (civilisation)." Sarvarkar formed a militant outfit Abinav Bharat to implement his ideology through armed struggle. After the death of Savakar Abhinav Bharat dissolved due to lack of leadership.
In post independence era the followers of Savarkar's hindutva ideology revived Abinav Bharat by forming it again in a form of trust in January 2002. The Hindu nationalist Abhinav Bharat organization is led and presided by Savarkar's granddaughter, Himani Savarkar. She is also related to Nathuram Godse, who was hanged for assassinating M K Gandhiji on 30 January 1948.
Other side of the coin
Its less known to us about a Gandhian Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, known locally as Bacha Khan or Badshah Khan. Khudai Khidmatgar literally translates as the servants of God, represented a non-violent freedom struggle against the British Empire was formed by Bacha Khan. In more than one occasion when Hindus and Sikhs were attacked in Peshawar, Khidmatgar members helped protect their lives and property.
"There is nothing surprising in a Muslim or a Pathan like me subscribing to the creed of nonviolence. It is not a new creed. It was followed fourteen hundred years ago by the Prophet all the time he was in Mecca." - Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan
The Khudai Khidmatgar (KK) movement faced a crackdown for its role in the quit India movement after 1940 by the British Rulers. Amidst negotiations for the British departure from India, the Congress party agreed to the partition of India, KK movement vehemently opposed the two nation theory and the partition. Pakistan's Independence in August 1947 marked the beginning of the end of the Khudai Khidmatgar movement.
This new off shoot is serving the society for the past one nine month and so on , they have helped many people under poverty line who have lack of drainage and clean environment and the most important thing is that the activists of Khudai Khidmatgar go live in the locality they serve or aid.
Not it is up to us who to choose between Savarkar and Gandhi. Few are conspiring to replace the national ideology of secularism with Hindutva and Gandhi as the Father of the Nation, with Savarkar who, the Kapur Commission found, had conspired to kill him.
No comments:
Post a Comment