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Savarkar in Ahmedabad 'declared' two-nation theory in 1937, Jinnah followed 3 years later

By Our Representative
One of the top freedom fighters whom BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi revere the most, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, was also a great supporter of the two nation theory for India, one for Hindus another for Muslims, claims a new expose on the man who is also known to be the original proponent of the concept of Hindutva.
A well-known Indian periodical in a 4,500-word article titled “A Lamb, Lionized”, claiming to have fresh documents on Savarkar, says that the founder of Hindutva declared in favour of the two-nation theory at Ahmedabad in 1937, where he was elected president of the Hindu Mahasabha.
While addressing the 19th session of the Hindu Mahasabha in the city, he declared: “There are two antagonistic nations living side by side in India”, underlining, “India cannot be assumed today to be a unitarian and homogenous nation. On the contrary, there are two nations in the main: the Hindus and the Muslims, in India.”
Further quoting Savarkar as saying that “several infantile politicians commit the serious mistake in supposing that India is already welded into a harmonious nation, or that it could be welded thus for the mere wish to do so”, the author of the article, Nirajan Takle, comments, he regularly criticised Gandhi and his “obsession for Hindu-Muslim unity”.
The article says, “The theory of two nations, first proposed in ‘Essentials of Hindutva’, was passed as a resolution of the Mahasabha in 1937. Three years later, the All-India Muslim League, led by Jinnah, adopted the concept in its Lahore session.”
Supporting Jinnah, on August 15, 1943, Savarkar said in Nagpur, “I have no quarrel with Mr Jinnah’s two-nation theory. We, Hindus, are a nation by ourselves and it is a historical fact that Hindus and Muslims are two nations.”
The man who served more than a decade-long prison term in the dreaded Andaman prison after he was arrested in London in 2010 for aiding the murder of Nasik district collector AMT Jackson, by 1930s had already turned quite a favourite of the British rulers, says the article.
Thus, on October 9, 1939, Savarkar met Lord Linlithgow, the viceroy of India, in Bombay. Linlithgow wrote a report of the meeting: “The situation, he [Savarkar] said, was that His Majesty’s government must now turn to the Hindus and work with their support….”
The viceroy added, “Our interests were now the same and we must therefore work together… Our interests are so closely bound together, the essential thing is for Hinduism and Great Britain to be friends and the old antagonism was no longer necessary.”
The journey of Savarkar, who set his foot on Andaman on July 4, 1911 and released from the Cellular Jail on May 2, 1921, began during the prison days. While in prison, he wrote three mercy petitions, the last of which said, “I am ready to serve the Government in any capacity they like.”
It added, “The mighty alone can afford to be merciful, and therefore where else can the prodigal son return but to the parental doors of the Government?” This was when he had served nine years and ten months.
From Andaman, Savarkar was brought to Yerwada Jail in Pune, where he served for two more years, and released in January 1924, on the condition that he would not participate in any political activity. But, even when he was in the jail, he was allowed to published “Essentials of Hindutva” was allowed to meet KB Hedgewar, the founding sarsanghchalak of the RSS, and revive Hindu Mahasabha.

Comments

Unknown said…
My belief:
Hindutwa and to achieve this is one Hindu first.
Two nation theory was not wrong for peaceful coexistence
but the way this happened was definitely not healthy.
The British managed the show ,and India desperately wanted
freedom.
Prabhakar Gupta said…
देश दो राहे पर नागपुरिया सोच के वजह से हो गया ,ये अंग्रेजों के तलवे चाटने वाले देश भक्ति नहीं राष्ट्र भक्ति की सीख दी
Anonymous said…
It seems that Hindus and Muslims could live together peacefully only ruled by British. It was therefore best that before leaving they partitioned the country. The tragedy is that even during partition the people continued to fightthough there was one last opportunity to live peacefully.
Boris Karloff said…
At the rate ModiShah enterprise is operating, India is very likely to split itself into 3/4 small and smarter countries. It is going to have negative impact on non Tech Savy areas, but it will open up great economy road map to certain portion, specially southern states comprising of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, & Telangana. These states work together well and in Harmony.

Country comprising with Maharashtra, Gujerat, Goa will have great stability, economically, but the constant feuds between the Gujarati & Maharashtrians, which back in the late 50’s early 60’s led to to split of Greater Bombay.

Northern states of Rajasthan, UttarPradedesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab & Delhi will be another country. This again though location wise makes sense, but culturally, a disaster. The religious Zealous Hindus will want to build itself with its vision of Hindutva and may result in an exodus of the liberals and Muslims, to which section of greater India is a mystery.

West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Jharkand, Orissa, and other North east states will form another country. These states have culturally, scientific, economic and Afro scholars as it’s populationhi and can work cohesively as a team

This is the vision, I see of India 15-20 years from now. The root cause of this split is the BJP& RSS under its current murderer leaders like Narendra Modi & Amit Shah
SHOVON said…
Who are you to predict such things about this nation ? Are you Indian ? Do u live here. Today we in India are discussing regarding the reclaimation of our lost land. We are aheading towards united Akhand Bharat. You seem to belong from the tukde tukde gang with confusing Identity. It's not about Modi or Shah or RSS, it's about the Indianness which is surging ahead..
Ramachandran N said…
Only if he is an Indian he should have an opinion about India or any other Nation. can he not otherwise is the question. What is tukde tukde gang I dont understand everyone is saying so you are also parrotting the same. Is it not.
skp@solar@ev said…
This article by tukde tukde gang who are irrelevant and of no consequence.
The two nation theory was first proposed by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan at Meerut in 1866, 17 years before Savarkar was born. A simple google search will yield the full text of the speech which also contains a justification for continued British rule in India. It is surprising that the writer of the article cited here did not deem it necessary to do this simple fact check and neither did those who base their opinions on such a poorly researched article.

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