August 29, 2022

"In the room where Savarkar was jailed, there was not even a small keyhole. However, bulbul birds would visit the room from somewhere, on whose wings Savarkar would sit and fly out to visit the motherland every day." This is a passage from a chapter on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966), in an 8th grade Kannada language textbook, used in government-run and government-subsidized schools in Karnataka state.

The state’s capital is Bangalore where the main Indian operations of Google, Microsoft, Facebook and other global technology companies are based, as well as where Infosys, Wipro and other major Indian technology companies have their headquarters.

From 1911 to 1924, Savarkar was imprisoned by the British rulers of India for his alleged role in the killing of a judge. Savarkar was criticized for not joining the popular struggle to free India from British rule. He reportedly earned a pension from the British government.

Savarkar was suspected of being involved in the 1948 assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s freedom struggle. Savarkar was acquitted in a trial because of insufficient evidence.

An admirer of Nazi Germany, Savarkar wanted the Hindus to deal with the Muslims in India in a manner similar to how the Nazis treated Jews, according to several researchers.

“A Nation is formed by a majority living therein. What did the Jews do in Germany? They being in minority were driven out of Germany,” Savarkar wrote, according to research published by Marzia Casolari, an Italian historian. The “Indian Muslims are on the whole more inclined to identify themselves and their interests with Muslims outside India than Hindus who live next door, like Jews in Germany,” Savarkar added.

In a June 2022 Telegraph, India opinion piece, Ramachandra Guha, an Indian historian, pointed out that Casolari’s work is based on extensive archival research compilation from Italy, India, and the United Kingdom.

In 1923, while in prison, Savarkar wrote a book Hinditva: Who Is a Hindu?  Hindutva is now the ideology of the Hindu far right which seeks to establish the hegemony of Hindus in India. It is now a major tenet of Hindu nationalism, propagated by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). The secretive militant hierarchical organization is said to control the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The inclusion of the chapter on Savarkar was among at least 27 changes made in school text books, from grades 5 to 10, by the Textbook Revision Committee appointed by the BJP government, which rules the state of Karnataka. Chapters removed or modified include ones by Dalit (low caste), reformist and Muslim writers discussing caste hierarchy, communalism, gender discrimination and child trafficking. Also, chapters on Mahatma Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar, a leader of the Dalits, and Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, were removed while new ones on K.B. Hedgewar and other RSS ideologues were added, Harshakumar Kugve, who researched the changes, told TheNewsMinute.com

The chapter on Savarkar, with the description of his flight on a bulbul’s wing, was written by K.T. Gatti, a Kannada writer, after visiting the prison in the Andaman Islands where Savarkar was jailed, TheNewsMinute.com reported. Bulbuls are a species of birds, about six inches long, found in India and elsewhere.

The textbook’s description of Savarkar’s flight from prison generated several comments on social media. Looks like “the Bulbul used to lay eggs in Savarkar’s cheeks during the daily trips,” suggested one post on Twitter. Another tweeter asked, having fled solitary confinement in prison “on the wings of a bulbul…what earthly wisdom forced him BACK into the…(cell)? The lure of the (British) pension?”

Cartoon by John Gracias. Text by Global Indian Times staff.

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