Delhi: For almost three hours, a group of around 150 people listened spellbound to a panel—including JNU and Miranda House professors—talk about VD Savarkar at the launch of Hindi novelist Kamalakant Tripathi’s new book in the heart of Lutyens Delhi, at the India International Centre.
The panel discussed Savarkar’s courage, compassion, and contributions to India—even agreeing that only a true patriot would be able to depict Savarkar credibly.
Such a scene would have been unimaginable even ten years ago.
Tripathi’s book, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar: Nayak Benaam Pratinayak (Vinayak Damodar Savarkar: Hero vs Anti-hero) is a historical account of Savarkar’s life. It’s the novelist’s first—and possibly last—historical nonfiction book, he said.
And according to the panel, it’s not just the latest addition to the growing number of books on Savarkar. It’s also the best.
“Over the last ten years, Savarkar has come from being a khalnayak (villain) to a pratinayak (anti-hero),” proclaimed keynote speaker Prabhat Ranjan, a writer and the popular blogger behind Jankipul.com. “But he is not yet a nayak (hero).”
Tripathi’s book is an attempt to influence this narrative, agreed all members of the panel. The chief guest was Shiv Pratap Shukla, the governor of Himachal Pradesh, and the rest of the panel included JNU professors Omprakash Singh and Malkhan Singh, and Delhi University’s Miranda House professor Sonali Chitalkar, besides Ranjan. Tripathi, known to be reticent to take the stage, quickly slipped offstage after the book was launched and sat in the audience, which included eminent bureaucrats such as Ajay Singh, the Rashtrapati Bhavan’s press secretary.
The book is a product of all the research Tripathi has done for his previous novels, which includes historical fiction. He’d just finished a novel on the freedom movement, and said he came across Savarkar multiple times — so he decided to put it all together over a year-and-a-half for his seventh book.
“There is no right time for the truth to appear,” said Tripathi to ThePrint after the event ended, dressed in austere white, while those who attended the launch came up to him for autographs. “This is a burning issue and I couldn’t avoid it. Clearing the air is important for me—even in my novels, I have tried to clear the air around my characters, especially those who are depicted mischievously.”
He said that while researching for his earlier novel, he came face to face with the problems Savarkar faced during his time—regressive social customs, caste divide, lack of unity among Hindus, and brewing unity among Muslims.
“I am a man of sentiments, not of controversy,” said Tripathi, explaining why he chose to depict Savarkar in historical nonfiction instead of historical fiction. But he couldn’t ignore the contradictions he kept coming across while reading existing historical work on Savarkar. “I want to trust sentiments. History doesn’t trust sentiments, novels retain sentiments—so this work is a historical work.”
Also read: Savarkar accepted intercaste marriages for one reason—it kept Hindus within the community.
A fresh lens on Savarkar
The recurring theme of the conversation was Savarkar’s contribution to India’s nation building, which everyone insisted has been forgotten.
“Tripathi has had the bravery to write about Savarkar, which has given us the bravery to talk about it,” said Omprakash Singh.
Each panelist discussed his patriotism and bravery and touched upon how his importance was sidelined by both the Congress party and historians. They also talked about Savarkar’s relationship with Gandhi, and how historians like Tushar Gandhi—Gandhi’s great-grandson—have not blamed Savarkar for his death directly.
“Secular history has disappeared Savarkar and figures like him from our past. This book reminded me of how,” said Ranjan. “But the tides of history also change. And when that happens, people like Savarkar receive their due attention.”
The panel didn’t shy away from the fact that Savarkar is a controversial figure in Indian history. But this is exactly why they feel Tripathi’s book is an important contribution to the rapidly growing body of work around him.
“Savarkar’s personality has only been half-presented to us for so long. But this book attempts to complete the picture,” said Malkhan Singh, who added that no praise is enough for this book. “We all know we live in tough times. This book connects today’s society to all those great memories that will take us ahead as a nation,” he said, citing the dream of Akhand Bharat and the hope for it as one such example.
Omprakash Singh talked about the importance of placing Savarkar in the context of his time—the start of his life coincided with the establishment of the Congress party and he died shortly after Nehru’s death—and how his fight for freedom was not just political, but also a social and cultural.
“National love and patriotism have been taught to us. But this book teaches us that without a proper parichay (introduction), there can be no prem (love)—whether for a country or for a person,” he said. “As I read what I thought was a novel, katha (story) and kalpana (imagination) disappeared, and facts appeared. Then I began to believe it was history.”
Professor Chitalkar, who described herself as a proud and unsparing Savarkarite, pointed out the Indian mindset has relegated Savarkar to a villain—something she didn’t see in the book. She described how Savarkar is seen as a god in her native Maharashtra, and that people cannot deny his popularity amongst the common man.
She said that such a book could only have been written by a patriot who loves their country, and also spoke of how a translation could never capture the true depth of Savarkar’s love for India.
“The book deserves a round of applause for being in Hindi and accessible—please try and make it available in libraries, give it as gifts, and spread the word. Somewhere there must be a Hindi-speaking child who needs a book like this,” she said.
Also read: Lala Lajpat Rai was no Savarkar. He said Hindu Raj ‘would ruin India’
Other issues
Governor Shiv Pratap Shukla, who rounded up the panel, declared that Tripathi’s book presents the right version of history—in which Savarkar is undeniably among those who sacrificed a lot for their country.
He also talked about how Savarkar supported the idea of a national language that used the Devanagari Lipi script, something that Malkhan Singh brought up during his speech.
“If we need to unite states in this country, then it needs to be done by language, and the only one is Devanagari Lipi. When I placed this in Parliament, a journalist asked me why I raised this,” said Shukla. “The biggest problem is that this country is divided on linguistic lines,” he added.
He also said that those who talked about Savarkar in Parliament described him in such a way that showed they had never experienced the feeling of patriotism.
“I can definitely say that Kamalakant Tripathi’s book has done the job of presenting reality,” said Shukla.
The average age of the large audience was above fifty, made up mostly of people employed in government. While there were also a few students from JNU, the youngest members of the audience also happened to be those to whom the book is dedicated: Tripathi’s grand-nephew and niece.
“I felt connected to the talk, even though I already knew this history,” said 14-year-old Ojas Tripathi. “I think he dedicated this book to me and my sister to remind us that Savarkar had a one-man struggle. He wanted to pass this lesson on to us.”
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)