Thread by @gauravsabnis

The hours and hours and hours I've spent telling fellow bommin boys the full story of Savarkar. In his own words! His bigotry and fascism were in his own words as was his hatred for ritualistic Hinduism of the kind BJP pushes today.

And they still won't see it!!

https://twitter.com/FalanaDhiikana_/status/1508732690652143616

Literally, they minimize the one good thing about the man, his scientific temperament re things like beef and temples and rituals, and embrace his bigotry and shallow exclusivit ideas of nationhood full scale!

It makes an impact on some. Those who genuinely didn't know the full story. And they change their minds.

You can identify the sleeper bhakts by whether they still try to argue that it's okay to deify him and he was a great man and what not. Nothing will change their mind.

"He dedicated his whole life to the country."

"Which politician doesn't? 🤷🏽‍♂️"

"He was not a politician."

"He literally had a party that fought elections and were parts of regional governments."

"What is the source for this?"

"Want me to wipe your ass too? Fucking Google it!"

I've cut out such people from my life by now. But I used to get so exasperated! Cos I never started these debates btw. I never bring up politics first in casual company.

One of them will be like "I was reading a tweet of yours and let me ask you this if you don't mind..."

And then it goes all downhill from there. Because, if I may be immodest, I've read and keep reading more history than all of them combined. They haven't moved past the stories we were fed in Pune growing up. They still think that was real history. Savarkar was like Bhagat Singh.

I start giving them real history. With Savarkar, in his own fucking words! He was not shy of his fascism! It was a time when fascism was a legit mainstream ideology! You might have heard about this little skirmish in 1939 that started in Poland.

"What is the source for that?"

And I'll snap at this at some point. My patience isn't limitless. I'll be like, you fucking start this, I'm telling you stuff I've read, and you've known me for decades, I know a lot of history and I don't make up shit. And still, "what is the source for that?"

Google it!

But they don't want to learn uncomfortable truths. They want to still get sentimental singing ne majasi ne parat maautrubhumila sipping scotch in their million dollar bay area mansions like what a sad thing it is that the motherland is a 16 hour plane ride away. So sad!

Listen, I'm very honest about my identity and my priorities. I made a conscious decision to make a life in the US because life is easier and more fun here. I love India but I outgrew it. I have no guilt about it.

These dudes seem to. Why they overcompensate by tilting right.

Stop whining about how your kids just don't get cricket or won't speak Hindi or Marathi after a certain point and are becoming "too liberal".

You, just like me, could have had a perfectly fancy life. Ours is not really an "immigrant experience" that way. We parachuted in.

We didn't need to immigrate to the US. We chose to. I'm happy with mine. I still love India but it'll never be home again. No place other than NYC will be home again for that matter. That's who I am. People are people everywhere. Countries are imaginary lines dividing us.

So forgive me if the least that I expect from a white collar immigrant to the US is full throated commitment to open immigration! You of all people wanna pull up that ladder?

And it ties into the Savarkar worship, if you think about it.

Fun fact. Most of the fanciful and daring filled heroic stories about Savarkar come from a book written by someone who later turned out to be Savarkar himself! 😂😂😂

All the stories about him I heard growing up, came from his book written under a fake name!

Now if this very verifiable fact can't make you lose enough respect for Savarkar, despite you having an advanced degree and all, then you're beyond repair with "well, everyone does self promotion!"

Yeah, everyone writes books about themselves in fake names. 🙄🙄

Savarkar's narrow minded exclusionary bloodthirsty Hindutva is laid out in his own words. Mostly in Marathi but a lot in English. He was fluent in both languages. You can see in his writings how he got more hateful as he aged. He was a better young man than an old man.

The mistake I've made is reading it all and digesting and remembering. Now that doesn't mean it's my job to fucking teach it to you! Do you have functioning eyes and the internet? Yes? Go look for it!

They wanted me to prove to them they were wrong. Got too tiring at a point.

It's just easier being friends with people who aren't so wrong so often on simple things like history and science.

If that makes me a "bubble boy", so be it.

I'd rather be inside the liberal bubble screaming out than outside the liberal bubble screaming in.

A clear eyed factual assessment of Savarkar

Pros:
- Good writer and poet. Like seriously, could've become a legend in literature if not obsessed with fascism.
- Did do some stuff with India house, did go to jail

Cons:
- fascist
- bigot
- Liar
- almost certainly murderer

This is no fanciful narrative. All you have to do is Google Savarkar and you will find "any cite?" for all of this.

I have read it all. Literally. All. Don't try to change my mind on Savarkar. And don't bring him up unless you want to change yours to something like reality.

Haha, this always gets them upset

Q - Who gave Gandhi the title Mahatma?
A - Tagore

Q - Who gave Savarkar the title Veer?
A - Savarkar

Signed,

Superhuman Sabnis

https://twitter.com/LikanLord/status/1508780973772529665?t=boKfm7bJOUhSCz_oZNwYCw&s=19

This joke pissing them off is a good sign for me to cut off all contacts. If me knowing more facts than you is causing problems, then best to not know such people anymore.

These dudes are so coked up on sanghi WhatsApp forwards that they will bring up these debates.

I never do!

That's why I'm on Twitter. So my rants are for people who choose to follow them and others can mute or block. Win win win!

They start it thinking they will "win".

Like they will ask me some blistering question or repeat some awesome WhatsApp fact that will stump me and make me go, you know what guys, you're right! Excuse me while I put on a jaanva and bhikbaali and go visit the kuldaivat!

They know nothing and get upset at me for knowing.

I've told this story before. I was at a wedding around the one year anniversary of the #BhimaKoregaon attacks by sanghis. I stuck to my promise of not bringing up politics. It had been a pleasant few days. Then word came that many Pune guests couldn't make it.

I'm in a room with a dozen other people. We are eating delicious chhole bhature. The news of the cancellation, caused by the govt in Pune shutting down bus services as a precaution, did make the wedding party sad. That's understandable.

But then there was "these people" talk.

I listen to about five minutes of WhatsApp propaganda being parroted about how "these people" celebrate "British wins" and "hate peshwai" and such.

I feel like it's fair game to speak up now.

I start speaking. I speak for a long time. Just facts. About #bhimakoregaon

I can see that most people are not totally on board with where I'm coming from. But I have a mountain of facts in my head thanks to Twitter. As often happens, I'm told I'm badgering them with facts and "what is the source". Eventually a polite subject change by a tactful aunt.

Later, a few elders ask me, why do you have to talk politics? And I almost lose it! What the hell? So it's not like you don't want people to talk politics. You just want people to talk a certain kind of politics!

That is quite literally fascism!

In one such heated debate, a friend actually said "if this debate is going to be about facts then it is pointless because you will always know more facts."

They don't want to debate me.

They want to make me surrender to them.

It's not like I know a lot of facts. It's just that they know so little.

An oft repeated lie in hagiographies from my Pune childhood was Savarkar didn't have lights to study at nights so he would collect fireflies in a jar and study in their light.

Repeated do much, I thought Colaba Causeway was Colaba Kaajve (Marathi for fireflies).

They pretend like they want me not to bring up politics. The truth is they want me to stay silent and ideally agree as they talk their odious politics.

Oh yeah, that's the thing about hagiographies. They only work if the story is even more unbelievable. Studying under street lights was a common story by the time Savarkar was writing his story. So he thought, hey, a jar of fireflies!

https://twitter.com/ShubhaDutta11/status/1508804317368971269?t=iISxesiAOYex4od1nx1gkQ&s=19