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Since 2014 a secret lying in plain sight has been revealed, that 80% of the Indian population is a potent vote bank. This revelation has been followed by myriad re-telling of the stories of this vote bank – some fictitious, some true. So, the balance which seemed to be skewed towards the minority, has now started to shift seemingly in favor of the majority. Please note that I use “seem to be” and “seemingly” instead of “is” and “definitely” because this observation is empirical and not backed by scientific method and data.
One aspect of this shift that has excited me is the popular discourse on national heroes. And while it has been intriguing me for a long time now, I’m pressed to write about it after watching the recent movie on Veer Savarkar. Now before you stop reading, or eagerly jump to read what’s written next, for context kindly note that I’m a general Hindu male who sits on the fence and reads. Now, what I have observed is that people are trying to paint that picture of Indian history which has been marshalled from our popular history text books allegedly by the “Marxist”/”Left” historians. And in doing so, an attempt is being made to vandalize the grand fresco that we’re all too familiar with, which has Gandhi Ji in its center.
I’m a fan of both Shri Savarkar and Shri Gandhi. Although I must confess that I came to know about what Savarkar (and many other revolutionaries) did for my country very recently, however I’ve seen Gandhi Ji’s picture for as long as I can remember. And hence I posit that a re-telling of missed stories has started and no one could be happier about this than me. Alas, a lot of this recent scholarship goes unread among the masses who ultimately get a few distilled drops of information on WhatsApp and now on seconds or minute long reels. And when years’ worth of scholarship is crushed to a few seconds or even hours of dopamine high, disagreement turns into disrespect. Before watching the movie, I had read a couple of books that talked about both these men. In fact, I’ve read even read a book each written by them. So, when I see a villainous Gandhi in front of a pragmatic Savarkar, I bow my head in respect to the Veer and at the same time I’m horrified to see the repugnant portrayal of the Mahatma. Albeit Savarkar’s character defends Gandhi during a scene in the movie, the creators seem less interested in doing that. I don’t hold a grudge against the creators for the portrayal, although in my opinion the same views could have been represented by a more agreeable Gandhi. Yet, I’m worried about what is going to happen when people who have not read their history see this. A woman did boo down Gandhi ji. Let that sink in.
Wrongs cannot be righted by more wrongs. The solution to missing history is to bring it back to textbooks, and not wantonly scrape away what already exists. Obviously when the books will start getting filled with untold stories, some of the excessively told ones must be cut short. But that act has to be done judiciously and must not be an act of revenge. The disagreements must not be allowed to turn into disrespect because that will be an act of self-harm – morally and practically. Morally because Gandhi Ji and his allies did bind the country together back then like noone could. I have first-hand account of this from my 93- year-old grandfather who had once burnt a post office during the British era. People did know about and respected Shri Savarkar back then, but they religiously followed Gandhi Ji, Pandit Ji and Netaji. So, bringing them down (the first two really) while bringing other heroes up is being ungrateful and unfair. And the practical downside of bringing Gandhi/Nehru down in popular consciousness is that a lot of “soft power” that India boasts about can be attributed to these two politicians. Even when India was a colony, world leaders like Mussolini wanted to have an audience with Pandit Ji. And no matter you like it or not, but we have bequeathed that rapport. So, if we denigrate those who built it, imagine what message will be received by the world outside. That Indians have become so stiff in their heads that they cannot even respect their heroes.
So, in this time of shifting scales from Left to Right, let’s make sure that we keep pulling the pendulum to the center. I’m hopeful that after a couple of swings in either direction, this discourse will dampen the swing and we will stop as close to the Truth as possible.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.