Date:20/09/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/09/20/stories/2004092001661002.htm

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Savarkar issue

Sir, — One hopes that Anil Nauriya's article, `The Savarkarist syntax' (Sept. 18), will go some way in explaining to the Sangh Parivar the reason why some people in this country oppose the glorification of V.D. Savarkar.

It is not because he was not a Congressman, but because he was, according to Sardar Patel, the mastermind behind Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.

Gopinath Rajagopal,
Bangalore

* * *

Sir, — No one doubts the services of Savarkar to the freedom struggle before his incarceration in the Andamans.

However, the facts of his later political life, particularly his apologetic letters to the British Government and his complete abstention from the freedom struggle post-Andamans, stand in the way of declaring him a full-fledged freedom fighter.

N. Sekaran,
Paramakudi, T.N.

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Sir, — Very few have been as vilified as Savarkar. He has often been maligned by writers who quote him in bits and pieces, but otherwise give ample evidence of neither having read nor having understood the object of their hatred. Savarkar's writings, taken in context and transported in time and space, reveal the true extent of the mass feelings of that time. If Gandhi and Nehru deserve busts, somewhere in the background there should be room for a plaque for Savarkar.

Ganesh S. Krishnan,
Minnesota, U.S.