Chicago, Oct. 6: More than a decade of research across archives in India, Britain and the United States has led Indian American scholar Sridhar D. Damle to a portrayal of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar that he says differs significantly from the political image surrounding one of modern India’s most contested figures.
Damle, a long-time scholar of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is completing a book on Savarkar after examining tens of thousands of pages of archival material, including British intelligence records, US diplomatic papers, banned literature, court-related documents and Indian police files.
Speaking to IANS in an hour-long interview, Damle said his research began in 2010 and eventually expanded to archives and collections in India, Britain, the United States and elsewhere. He said he has collected more than 30,000 pages documenting how governments, diplomats, police officials and others viewed Savarkar.
Damle described Savarkar as a revolutionary, social reformer and political thinker who combined what he called a scientific outlook with political pragmatism and idealism.
Among the documents he considers significant is a 1906 document from Savarkar’s years in London. Damle said a copy survived among material confiscated by British authorities and was later found by him on microfilm at the University of Chicago.
According to Damle, the document envisaged an independent India based on democracy, equality before law, merit in public employment and one person, one vote. He said it left the question of whether India should have a president or monarch to a future constituent assembly.
Damle argued that the document provides an early indication of political ideas that are often overshadowed by later debates surrounding Savarkar’s Hindutva, Hindu nationalism, Partition and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
He said Savarkar’s political positions need to be examined in the context of different stages of his life — from his revolutionary activities under British rule and imprisonment in the Andaman Islands to his years of political restriction in Ratnagiri and later leadership of the Hindu Mahasabha.
Damle also disputed what he described as the simplistic portrayal of Savarkar’s petitions to British authorities during his imprisonment as straightforward acts of capitulation. According to him, the petitions have to be examined in the context of the colonial prison system and the legal categories under which Savarkar was held.
He said Savarkar had argued that if he was treated as an ordinary criminal prisoner, he should receive the rights available to such prisoners, while a classification as a political prisoner should carry the corresponding rights.
The Gandhi assassination case is another major component of Damle’s research. Savarkar was prosecuted in the conspiracy case but was acquitted by the trial court.
Damle said the archival material he examined includes the raw police investigation report and a US diplomatic account concerning a conversation involving the government’s chief prosecutor. He said a report sent to Washington recorded that the prosecutor had told the American ambassador early in the trial that Savarkar was likely to be acquitted because the prosecution lacked sufficient grounds against him.
Damle said the archival material, in his interpretation, raises questions about attempts to establish Savarkar’s personal involvement in Gandhi’s assassination. He distinguished Savarkar from individuals who were convicted in connection with the assassination, arguing that political association alone could not establish responsibility.
His research also presents what he describes as a democratic dimension to Savarkar’s political thought after Independence.
Damle recalled meeting Savarkar on January 14, 1960, when he was a college student. He said he had approached Savarkar after noticing what he considered a derogatory reference to him in a biography. According to Damle, the meeting lasted about an hour.
Damle said he asked Savarkar about his criticism of the dismissal of Kerala’s elected Communist government. He recalled Savarkar responding that accepting democracy meant accepting electoral outcomes and changing governments through elections rather than executive intervention.
Damle also recalled Savarkar arguing that secret societies and political violence had no place in an independent democratic country.
Another aspect of the research concerns Savarkar’s rationalist and agnostic outlook. Damle said Savarkar regarded religions and holy books as products of human beings rather than infallible authorities, while maintaining respect for India’s cultural inheritance.
According to Damle, Savarkar believed science and human welfare should ultimately guide society.
At the same time, Damle’s account acknowledges Savarkar’s advocacy of Hindutva and Hindu organisation. He said Savarkar believed minorities should have equal citizenship, religious freedom and protection of their cultural traditions while remaining part of a united Indian nation.
Damle also said Savarkar opposed Partition and feared that the Congress might eventually accept it. His research, he said, includes material relating to exchanges between Savarkar and B.R. Ambedkar on the Partition question.
The forthcoming book will also examine Savarkar’s views on national security and geopolitics. Damle said Savarkar subsequently warned about China and developments in Tibet and considered buffer states important to India’s strategic security.
His research has extended beyond Indian archives into international anti-colonial networks. In the files of the Irish-American weekly Gaelic American, Damle said he found Savarkar’s writings from London, including an appeal to Indian Muslims to participate in the freedom struggle, an article on the Khalsa and a call for colonised peoples to unite against imperialism.
Damle said he is still attempting to obtain additional documents, including around 850 pages of Mumbai CID material relating to Savarkar. He said bureaucratic hurdles had prevented him from accessing some records that he believes should be available to researchers.
Among the documents he is seeking is a four-page CID record concerning Savarkar’s arrest in 1950.
Damle said his objective extends beyond completing the book. Once he obtains and organises the documentation, he intends to make the archival material available online for students, journalists and researchers.
He also believes Savarkar’s social-reform activities warrant greater attention, citing his opposition to untouchability and caste barriers, support for inter-caste marriage and reconversion, and efforts to popularise modern terminology in Marathi.
Damle said his research suggests Savarkar cannot be adequately understood either through uncritical admiration or outright denunciation, but requires examination of his ideas and activities across different periods of his life.
Sridhar D. Damle is an independent scholar based in the United States and is known for his research on the RSS. Along with Walter K. Andersen, he co-authored The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism and later The RSS: A View to the Inside.
Savarkar, who was born in 1883, was a revolutionary, writer and political leader who spent years imprisoned by the British, including at the Cellular Jail in the Andaman Islands. He later served as president of the Hindu Mahasabha and became a principal exponent of Hindutva. He was prosecuted in connection with the 1948 assassination of Mahatma Gandhi but was acquitted at trial. He died in Mumbai in 1966.
