There have to be bastards to spoil everything, right? Look at this.

I quote:

"Unfortunately in our country, we are being guided by chauvinist type of ideas. Today, you cannot criticise any major Bengali leader, you can't say a word against, say, Subhas Chandra Bose. You can't criticise any Akali leader, you can't criticise any major Marathi leader in Maharashtra."

Now, all those who feel that Netaji was a Bengali leader, raise your hands. All those who think that ViDaSa was a Marathi leader, raise your hands.

How plainly vulgar can people be? Nehru wasn't a Kashmiri Brahmin leader. He was a national leader. Gandhi wasn't a Gujarati Bania leader. He was the "father of the nation". Netaji's army was not called Azad Bengal Sena, it was called Azad Hind Sena. Savarkar's organisation in London was not called Marathi House, it was called India House.

This Bipan talks as if Savarkar begged for clemency as his sentence was being read out. Savarkar was given clemency after 16 years in Andaman. Why would Savarkar beg for clemency after 16 years in Andaman? He didn't. The British offered to release him because he made life hell for them there, constantly campaigning against unjust treatment to prisoners, against proselytisation by Muslim guards. Also the idea was to clip his wings and make him tell his followers that armed aggression was not the right way. Savarkar accepted the clemency for two reasons, he wasn't being really catalytic in Andaman, and he had realised the futility of individual terrorism. But he still thought that organised armed revolt could effectively throw the British out, which is why Netaji considered him as his guru and the leader of the Hindus, not Gandhi.

Savarkar had realised that his survival was essential because there was no one left alive who could and would champion the cause of Hindutva on a political level. All major revolutionaries had been killed off by the British and the statue of complacency, Gandhi, had been instated as the leader of the masses.

50 years down the line, as the country faces terrorism, casteism and other problems, there are lessons that might be learnt from Savarkar as yet. That is why he is a role model. Gandhi supported the caste system, Savarkar was all for its demolition, as was Ambedkar. But I guess Gandhi and Nehru did not want to give up their uberstatus in the Indian social circles.

Arun Shourie has ripped this Bipan Chandra apart, albiet on a different topic, here. It's in his own backyard, history books. Arun Shourie is the man! Too bad the righties in the house are constricting his freewheeling liberalisation ideas.