#savarkar

And people say he based Hindutva on Nazism and all that. Is this really true? I respect Hindutva but I'm feeling uncomfortable with this now that I just learned about it and I'd like to clarify with someone who knows more than I do. I hope this is not rude. I genuinely want to learn about it and you always have good analysis so I just wanted to ask.

Every time a Bharat Ratna is announced, the first thing a journalist does is look at the winner’s caste, religion, state, mother tongue, etc to decipher the logic behind the honour.

So when Pranab Mukherjee wins it, it is an outreach to Bengal, an insult to the Congress, which apparently didn’t do justice to his talent and a reward for visiting the RSS headquarters.

The ratna to Bhupen Hazarika is an outreach to the Northeast, the one to Sachin Tendulkar is to win the support of the youth, the honour for Lata Mangeshkar is well, how can anyone say no to Lata tai?

The point is Bharat Ratna has been devalued beyond repair. It is not anymore an award to honour builders of modern India.

So we have given Bharat Ratna to Lata Mangeshkar for singing songs, thousands of them. Her songs entertained us, no doubt. 

Her songs made us happy or sad, philosophic or patriotic, depending on our varying moods. If she wasn’t there, Suman Kalyanpur would have done that, or someone else. May be Asha Bhonsle.

Sachin Tendulkar got a Bharat Ratna for scoring centuries, exactly 100 of them. He also entertained us. If he didn’t play cricket, we would have had some other cricketer as our icon.

The country honoured a few classical musicians as well. One of them apparently put pressure on the govt, another got it because he was senior and more accomplished than the earlier winner. Now there is another fad.

My freedom fighter vs your freedom fighter. So we are looking up history books to confer awards on heroes of the independence movement.

After Madan Mohan Malviya, we will be giving one to Veer Savarkar soon. One day I hope one of my great grandfathers also gets one. A Bharat Ratna in the showcase is always a matter of pride.

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar: The Revolutionary Who Dreamed of a United India

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, popularly known as Veer Savarkar, a name that continues to inspire admiration, debate, curiosity, and controversy in equal measure. Yet before political labels, ideological battles, and modern interpretations, there existed a young man who lived in a period of fear, humiliation, and colonial oppression—a man who belonged to a generation that saw India not as a secure independent nation but as a wounded civilization struggling to breathe under foreign rule. On his birth anniversary, beyond the arguments and slogans, perhaps the most important thing is to understand the intensity of that era and the emotional fire that shaped people like Savarkar. Many in today’s generation may find it difficult to imagine what it meant to grow up in a country where freedom was absent, where speaking openly against rulers could mean imprisonment, exile, or death, and where even dreaming of independence required extraordinary courage.

Two Nations Theory: वीर सावरकर के द्विराष्ट्र सिद्धांत को लेकर इतिहासकारों और राजनेताओं में गहरे मतभेद हैं। कुछ विद्वानों का दावा है कि मोहम्मद अली जिन्ना से तीन साल पहले ही सावरकर ने इस सिद्धांत का समर्थन किया था। वहीं दूसरी ओर कुछ लोग मानते हैं कि सावरकर के बयानों को संदर्भ से बाहर निकालकर गलत प्रस्तुत किया गया है। सावरकर ने 1937 में हिंदू महासभा के अध्यक्षीय भाषण में कहा था कि भारत में मुख्य…