Gandhi's assassination, ideology of Savarkar

 
NEW DELHI: Even after 60 years of his death, Mahatma Gandhi's principles and his assassination continue to inspire authors and filmmakers for their works.  

"RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: The Hindu Communal Project", written by Jawaharlal Nehru University historians Aditya Mukherjee, Mridula Mukherjee and Sucheta Mahajan, undertakes the novel experiment of juxtaposing three apparently different issues  the nature of RSS school textbooks, the murder of Gandhi and the basic ideology of Savarkar and Golwalkar.
 
While deeply delving into all three aspects, the book brings out the deep connection among them.
 
The authors have highlighted the fact that communalism continues to be a threat in present-day India. The hatred that underlies both these cases can be violent and divisive, the authors argue and suggest that it is time that we capitalise on the presence of secular forces within the country.
 
The authors say Gandhi's murder was not an act of conspiracy.
 
"In November 1947, CPI kisan leader from Bihar Karyanand Sharma warned that the demand for a Hindu Raj was very bad and behind it there was a conspiracy to murder Gandhi and Nehru. When an abortive attempt was made on his life on January 20, 1948 and a co-worker suggested that the bomb blast has accidental, Gandhi's retort was: The fool; don't you see, there is a terrible and widespread conspiracy behind it?  

There is consensus that it was an extreme wing of the Hindu Mahasabha led by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar that was behind Gandhi's murder.

"Then why was Savarkar exonerated? What was his role in the conspiracy," the authors ask.
 
"After Gandhi was assassinated, Savarkar was arrested as he was suspected of being the mastermind behind the conspiracy. He was eventually exonerated in the murder trial for lack of evidence to corroborate the testimony of the approver, a technical point in criminal law," the book says.
 
"Given that Savarkar's trenchant criticism of Gandhi was well known, especially after he became the president of the Hindu Mahasabha, it is quite remarkable that he should have made such a hypocritical attempt to pass himself off as Gandhi's admirer. But then this is not surprising given his earlier history of apologies, undertakings and assurances of good behaviour.
 
"While the actual conspiracy may have been hatched by a small group directly under Savarkar's control, in the ultimate analysis it was the atmosphere of hatred and bitterness in the strife torn days of 1947 that made such a heinous crime possible. Hostility towards the Congress, towards Gandhi, had been promoted over the years but in 1947 there was a significantly qualitative and noticeable escalation in the language of vituperation," the book says. 

According to the authors, the role of the Muslim League representing Muslim communalism is quite well known and generally accepted.
 
However, the fact that the Hindu communalist played the same loyalist role is often overshadowed as the representatives of majority communalism tend to masquerade as nationalists just as the minority communalists resort to separatism.

Both the communalisms, however, fed on each other and apart from playing a pro-British, loyalist role in the colonial period they seriously endanger the values of secularism, democracy and national interest as envisaged now in independent India, they say.
 
"Part of the hate project is to portray all communities other than the Hindus as foreigners in India, who are disloyal and unworthy of trust. Particularly the Muslims, whom RSS founder K B Hedgewar described as hissing Yavana snakes had to be out in place or they were to face extinction  become dead as a dodo. It is claimed that Ashoka's advocacy of ahimsa (non-violence) and the growing influence of Buddhism spread cowardice and the struggle fro India's freedom became a religious war against Muslims, and so on.
 
"It is not surprising that Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence and the builder of the freedom struggle as a common struggle of the Hindus and the Muslims against British imperialism, got describes in the RSS lexicon as a 'dushatma' who had to be eliminated," the book says.  

In recent years, with the active use of state power the RSS has succeeded in spreading this hate agenda to unprecedented levels in the name of spreading education and culture.
 
(Name: "RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: The Hindu Communal Project"; Authors: Aditya Mukherjee, Mridula Mukherjee and Sucheta Mahajan; Publishers: Sage Publications; Price: Rs 195; Pages: 112)