By Sunil Kumar
Save Hinduism from Hindutva is Arun Shourie’s earnest plea.
Hinduism is the inner search, Hindutva is the means for social control and state domination.
Nothing new under the sun. Heard this a million times from the vacuous opposition and a Wog media that seeks Western validation all the time.
What a volte face? A hitjob by the Punjabi Brahmin on the Chitpavan Brahmin.
Admittedly, a very serious and indepth study. This is not a hagiography like other writers, but it is clear that Shourie is biased against Savarkar from the get-go. Not that Savarkar is a paragon of virtue, but the vitriol and hatred the author seems to have for the current dispensation for not giving him an important position seems to have transferred to Savarkar. In that august attempt, he speaks like the Left, Islamist critics or the Congress under its brainless ogres seem to vilify and caricature Savarkar every day.
Whatever his faults, I think Savarkar was genuinely patriotic and definitely empathetic to the nonsense and appeasement spewed by the Congress of that era to the present day. Admittedly, Shourie has shown me many warts in Savarkar’s persona, many of which I was aware of and some I wasn’t. Yet, abandoning Dhingra, Bhagat Singh and fraternising with Khilafat types and blind appeasement without any rationale are admittedly Gandhi’s faults.
Rajagopalachari who I’ve admired since reading his Dharmic works as a child came up with the nonsensical Rajaji plan to bifurcate India admittedly at the supreme father of ahimsa’s behest. Indian tragedy that there were no strong leaders in the Congress after Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Gokhale who could have steered us in a slightly different direction. But what will be had to be. Que Sera Sera. The Shourie tendency comes from the same playbook that the distinguished Mr. Swamy and Yeshwant Sinha seem to have adopted. Prashasti or Qaseeda for the chosen master. Well, if you want to tell us tales about Hindu perfidy, the author needs to add himself to the list. Democracy and freedom of speech are still evident because of the very religion Savarkar sought to glorify and Shourie, a former so-called RW and nationalist icon seeks to vilify.
