At a time when majoritarian political figures are intent on overwriting history, Arun Shourie’s The New Icon: Savarkar and the Facts delivers a scorching blow to the image of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar carefully curated to portray him as India’s foremost patriot. In this hard-hitting exposé, Shourie digs deep into the life and legacy of this icon, unearthing startling facts bound to embarrass his diehard “bhakts”. Interestingly, Shourie not just dismantles some of the inflated narratives about Savarkar. He also throws light on his rationalism in a way that could make his admirers squirm. Savarkar critiqued the tendency to elevate the cow to a divine status, urging that it should be seen, not as a sacred entity, but as a useful animal akin to the buffalo, horse, or donkey. Savarkar observes: “The cow is a useful animal, as are the buffalo, the horse, the dog and even the donkey. It is a useful animal — it is not our mother, it is not one in which devatas (gods) reside, it is certainly not a devata itself.” On the eating of beef or pork, he suggests that these are not matters of religion but of personal taste and biology. But Shourie reveals that Savarkar’s “staunch rationalism” on these issues sharply contrasts with his other views. The author tears down the myth of Savarkar’s dramatic escape from the SS Morena. The BJP often mentions this story, describing Savarkar battling stormy seas for freedom. However, Shourie reveals, based on police records, that Savarkar’s escape was far less heroic. The ship had docked in Marseilles, and Savarkar jumped into the water just 10-12 feet from the shore after requesting to use the lavatory. Two Indian policemen chased him for about 200 yards before catching him. Savarkar himself admitted in his autobiography that he swam for only about 10 minutes before reaching the shore. Shourie also highlights that it was Savarkar, himself, who crafted this myth in the 1926 biography, Life of Barrister Savarkar, published under the pseudonym, “Chitragupta”. So it was not C. Rajagopalachari who had written it as touted by his admirers. Shourie consulted Rajmohan Gandhi, a biographer of both Gandhi and Rajaji, who dismissed that claim as “utterly baseless”, noting that it emerged only after Rajaji’s death. In his research, Shourie debunks Savarkar’s claims about his influence on Subhas Chandra Bose’s actions during the Independence struggle. Shourie highlights that Bose, in The Indian Struggle, describes Savarkar as out of touch with global affairs, focusing more on Hindu military training within the British Army. The book also dismisses the idea that Savarkar played a key role in Bose’s escape or in the forming of the Indian National Army. Shourie addresses the controversial issues of Savarkar’s mercy petitions to the British while imprisoned in Cellular Jail in 1933. When prisoners went on hunger strike in 1933, Savarkar and his brother, Ganesh, did not participate. Savarkar claimed his non-participation was to maintain communication with his family which would eventually help in propagating the plight of the prisoners to the outside world. But revolutionary Trailokyanath Chakraborty, a former inmate, reveals that the Savarkar brothers were favoured by the jail authorities and reluctant to give up their privileges. Chakraborty in his memoir revealed “the Savarkar brothers used to encourage us secretly but when we asked them to join us openly, they refrained”. Indeed, between 1911 and 1920, he filed several grovelling mercy petitions to the British government. The book challenges the myth of Savarkar as an uncompromising “ready-to-die” figure who filed those petitions only because Mahatma Gandhi urged him. Savarkar filed his first petition in 1911, when Gandhiji was in South Africa, and by 1915, he had already submitted three, including one pledging loyalty to the British government. Rajmohan Gandhi dismisses the idea that Gandhi influenced these petitions as “ridiculous”. Shourie refutes Savarkar’s claims during the Gandhi assassination trial that they were “friends” and “compatriots” with mutual respect, and that they stayed together at India House in London in 1908. The book reveals Gandhi was never in London that year and never lived at India House. The book is, therefore, bound to rattle all those who are engaged in a constant attempt to discredit Gandhi, Nehru and the Congress-led freedom movement. The New Icon: Savarkar and the Facts By Arun Shourie Penguin pp. 560; Rs 999
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