Uddhav launches Vikram Sampath’s biography on Veer Savarkar
Savarkar must be awarded with Bharat Ratna, says Thackeray
Author-historian Vikram Sampath launched his latest biography ‘Savarkar: Echoes from a Forgotten Past’ in the city in the presence of Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray. First of a two-part biography on Veer Savarkar, the bookseeks to demystify him and provide an objective assessment of his life, times,and philosophy.
While speaking at the launch, Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray said, “We don’t refute the work done by Gandhi and Nehru but the country saw more than just two families being born in the Indian political scenario. I think Rahul Gandhi needs to be given a copy of this book first. I’d have referred to Jawaharlal Nehru as ‘Veer’ if he’d have survived an imprisonment for 14 minutes as compared to Savarkar who stayed in prison for 14 long years”.
Uddhav Thackery also promised Vikram Sampath that he will buy copies of ‘Savarkar: Echoes From A Forgotten Past’ and ensure that every school and college in Maharashtra has its copies in their respective libraries. He also stated that all the MP’s and MLA’s in the State must be given its copies too.
Speaking about the book, author Vikram Sampath said, “Savarkar’s story deserves to be written,heard and read. He has been an addiction since the first time I heard about him in 2003-04, when the whole controversy of dislodging his plaque at the cellular jail happened. Savarkar’s name gets dragged in every contemporary political discourse whether it is Rahul Gandhi making defamatory remarks about him or PM Narendra Modi paying homage to him at the Cellular Jail, the diurnal opinions about his so-called mercy petitions, the decision of the Rajasthan government to drop the “Veer” from his name in text books; to name just a few—-all these show not only a great interest in the man, but also the constant attempts to either sully or glorify his image.”
Earlier this month, PM Narendra Modi met with Sampath and stated that, “the biography adds fresh dimensions towards understanding the life and thoughts of Great Savarkar”.
Deputy Chairperson of Maharashtra Legislative Council Neelam Gorhe, Dr. Bharatkumar Raut, chairman of Smarak Ranjit Savarkar, Shiv Sena MLA Sada Sarvankar too were present at the book launch
This book being the first part of the two volume biography on Savarkar, covers the period between 1883 to 1924. From his birth in birth in Bhagur in Nasik to theflowering of a young firebrand student leader in Pune’s Fergusson College, the reader is then led to the stormy and exciting years that Savarkar spent in London as a law-student.As the undisputed head of the revolutionaries in London, he created asuccessful movement for India’s liberation. Political assassinations andbombings brought him under the government snare and he wasarrested, tried unfairly and sentenced to life in the horrific Cellular Jail in the Andamans where he was put through the most inhuman tortures.This volume covers his story till the time of his conditional release from jail in 1924, before which he authored his seminal treatise on what Hindutva means. It also juxtaposes his life against the emergent freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi, whom he was doggedly opposed to, as also his many contemporaries.
