Savarkar (book): Difference between revisions

*''Savarkar'' Part 1: Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924

*''Savarkar'' Part 2: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

*Part 2: July 2021

'''''Savarkar''''' is a two part biography about Indian politician, revolutionary and writer [[Vinayak Damodar Savarkar]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/books/2019/sep/08/book-review--savarkar-echoes-from-a-forgotten-past-by-historian-vikram-sampath-2030415.html|title=Book review {{!}} 'Savarkar: Echoes from a forgotten past' by historian Vikram Sampath|website=The New Indian Express|access-date=2020-01-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livemint.com/opinion/columns/opinion-what-savarkar-could-yet-do-for-the-future-of-hindutva-1566754793317.html|title=Opinion {{!}} What Savarkar could yet do for the future of Hindutva|last=Joseph|first=Manu|date=2019-08-25|website=Livemint|language=en|access-date=2020-01-04}}</ref> written by biographer Vikram Sampath and published by [[Penguin/Viking|Penguin Viking]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/books/the-savarkar-revival/cid/1708584|title=The Savarkar revival|last=[[TCA Raghavan|TCA Srinivasa Raghavan]]|date=30 September 2019|website=Telegraph India|language=en|access-date=2020-01-05}}</ref> The first part is sub-titled '''''Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924''''' and the second part is '''A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966'''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Savarkar (Part 2)|url=https://penguin.co.in/book/savarkar-part-2-concluding-volume/|access-date=2021-07-26|website=Penguin Random House India|language=en-US}}</ref>

Sampath's research included ''Savarkar Samagra'', interviewing Savarkar's family, visiting memorials, reading newspapers from the time and conducting research at associated libraries and institutions.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/up-front/story/20191007-the-missing-pieces-books-1603478-2019-09-26|title=The missing pieces {{!}} Books|last=Bakhle|first=Janaki|date=26 September 2019|website=India Today|access-date=2020-01-04}}</ref> The first book covers Savarkar’s life from birth to his release in 1924.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/books-and-art/300819/in-the-shadows-of-time-the-life-of-veer-savarkar.html|title=In the shadows of time: The life of Veer Savarkar|last=Madhukar|first=Jayanthi|date=2019-08-30|website=Deccan Chronicle|language=en|access-date=2020-01-04}}</ref> There are details about other Indian independence activists like [[Shyamji Krishna Varma|Shyamji Krishna Verma]] and [[Virendranath Chattopadhyaya|Virendranath Chattopadhyay]].<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/brunch/lending-an-ear-to-the-echoes-of-the-past/story-Ad7DZiUTuXoTcvbZxZ53MP.html|title=Brunch bookmarks: Lending an ear to the echoes of the past|last=Singh|first=Veenu|date=2019-10-26|website=Hindustan Times|access-date=2020-01-04|quote=Sampath recalls:- 'Though there are hardly any references to him in our textbooks, Savarkar’s name is often used in contemporary political discourse...'}}</ref> The book narrates Savarkar's atheism and rationalism, and his strong opposition to orthodox Hindu beliefs and to whom Hinduism was a genetic and political force inbuilt into Hindus.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" />  

[[Bal Gangadhar Tilak]]'s recommendation helped get him a scholarship to London where he spent five years; in London he built a network of revolutionaries across Europe and helped provide the intellectual basis for the movement.<ref name=":3" /> Sampath reveals how revolutionaries like [[Bhagat Singh]] and [[Subhas Chandra Bose|Subhash Chandra Bose]] "considered Savarkar as a figurehead of the revolution."<ref name=":4" /> It describes about how Savarkar was held in an immense esteem until his imprisonment in the [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]] and how his experiences during that span led to his hatred of Muslims, which would be the subsequent cause of much antipathy:<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bloombergquint.com/opinion/what-does-hindutva-stand-for-outside-of-resentment|title=What Does Hindutva Stand For, Outside Of Resentment?|last=Varma|first=Amit|date=31 August 2019|website=BloombergQuint|access-date=2020-01-04}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/books-pro-patria-mori-meets-fire-and-brimstone/302276|title=Pro Patria Mori Meets Fire-And-Brimstone|last=Krishnan|first=P.A.|date=4 November 2019|website=Outlook India|access-date=2020-01-04}}</ref><ref name=":1" />

{{Quote|text="It was [the jailor] Barrie’s idea of creating discord between the Hindus and Muslims and hence he placed the Hindu prisoners under the most bigoted of Muslim warders and jamadars. Most of them were fanatical Pathans, Sindhis and Baluchis from Sindh and the North-West Frontier Province. It gave these men a special thrill to brutalize a Hindu kafir."|sign=|source=}}

During the launch of the book, [[Shiv Sena]] chief [[Uddhav Thackeray]], said that every school and college in the state should have the book, and that every MP and MLA should read the book too.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/there-would-have-been-no-pakistan-if-savarkar-was-pm-uddhav-thackeray/articleshow/71174801.cms?from=mdr|title=There would have been no Pakistan if Savarkar was PM: Uddhav Thackeray|date=18 September 2019|work=The Economic Times|access-date=2020-01-04}}</ref> [[Narendra Modi]], the incumbent Prime Minister of India (and leader of the [[Bharatiya Janata Party]], which largely subscribes to Savarkar's ideology) praised the work.

Janaki Bakhle, an associate professor of Indian history at [[University of California, Berkeley]], echoed concerns similar to Pillai.<ref name=":0" /> She praised Sampath's meticulously through research but noted the work to be a wholly uncritical biography, with him doing very little to distance from the subject and accepting every primary source at face-value.<ref name=":0" /> His interpretation of concurrent historical events were also faulted as non-objective and lacking of the recent radical developments in relevant scholarship.<ref name=":0" /> [[P. A. Krishnan]] noted the work to be a sympathetic biography in a review over at [[Outlook (Indian magazine)|Outlook]].<ref name=":6" /> Madhav Khosla, professor of Political Science at [[Ashoka University]], called the book a "useful historical narrative".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Khosla|first=Madhav|date=2019-11-29|title=Review: Books on VD Savarkar by Vikram Sampath and Vaibhav Purandare|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/review-books-on-vd-savarkar-by-vikram-sampath-and-vaibhav-purandare/story-mpBCS5DSKVsZPCOWPFA9EI.html|url-status=live|access-date=2020-01-09|website=Hindustan Times|language=en}}</ref>