Veer Savarkar and the 1857 "Rebellion"

 I am a student of literature. Words hence make worlds for me. That is to say, I do not begin my analysis from the ideological premises, however popular such an approach may be. 

It is but natural hence that I have tried umpteen times to establish that Savarkar changed our way of looking at reality through his usage of language. In this light, let us look at his much maligned  "applications" to the ruling Britishers.

 My opinion has always been that such a florid, heavy usage was the done thing then, when it came to writing to the highest authorities. You cannot take a text or its author out of the immediate context. Sure, if he were to be alive today, he himself would have found all such "application" cum letters by all the late leaders then absolutely fulsome! 

In fact, Savarkar has donated many original, unique words to our mother tongue. Will write some other time about the words he contributed to Marathi. Right now, let us look at the title of his 1909 book. The very wording is a tribute to his deep, intellectual and directional patriotism. 

This 1909 book looks at the 1857 uprising against the British. The colonial attitude to it is reflected in the nomenclature attributed to it. The British dismissed it as "Sepoy Mutiny" or "Sepoy Revolt." In his seminal book, Savarkar trashes such a reductionist approach. 

The very title of his analysis is "The Indian Independence War of 1857" which adds a unique gravitas to the events. Savarkar establishes, moreover, that the battlefield of this war was not narrow as the Britishers believed. On the contrary, it was vastly widespread. 

Peasants, landlords, citizens, too, participated in it. Savarkar, in fact, argues that some princely states were privy to it. The goal was unique, too. It was a rejection of the British reforms as a dressing of-n-over the wound of being a colony. It was hence the plinth of the events that led to the actual independence in 1947.

This book, which in my opinion is truly motivational in the history of our freedomq struggle, was but obviously a thorn in the sides for the Britishers. They promptly banned it. This oppression made hardly any difference as private copies kept on circulating, and thereby adding to the feel of resistance. No wonder, in my opinion, Savarkar IS a pioneer figure! 

Pratima@ During the 1857 Independence War, "bhakari"s were used ingeniously as a mode of  forwarding uniquely the messages. This fact should prove how closely the common man was attached the independence struggle. Hence my argument that Savarkar's novel nomenclature added uniquely to the contemporaneous Independence struggle.

Quote of the day:                                                          "Independence is never given," says Savarkar. "It is always taken." 

Word of the day: nomenclature                                Nomenclate is a science oriented system of naming things.