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Aug 10, 2022 12 tweets 5 min read Read on X
SAVARKAR FROM THE MEMOIRS OF M. Asaf Ali, a prominent leader of Muslim Nationalist Party, and also of Congress. He was jailed in Ahmednagar Fort during the Quit India movement along with other Congress leaders.

He met Savarkar in London which he frequented as an ICS aspirant. Image
He remembers Savarkar as a very impactful orator, with rather careless English.

In another incident, he remembers Savarkar's dazzling speech on Rama vs Ravana & Righteousness vs Unrighteousness, when 'Mr. Gandhi' was the guest of honour. ImageImage
He describes Savarkar as the embodient of “the spirit of Shivaji” and again describes his oratory brilliance.

He says that young Savarkar was better orator than almost everyone he'd listened to. Image
His description of Dhingra's assassination of Curzon Wylie:

Dhingra was of reserved nature in general, and the news that he'd assassinated Curzon Wylie came as an shock to someone who frequented India House. Image
Post-assassination Savarkar got a copy of Madanlal Dhingra's fiery statement published in newspaper.

Savarkar & his group also dissented at a meeting held ot denounce Dhingra & his act. Asaf Ali provides his description of the event. Image
You can read the description of the same meeting from Savarkar's writings here : .

Also, do read snippets from Dhingra's statement which was confiscated by Raj :
The description of further events - dispersal of Savarkar's group at India house, his arrest & plans to rescue him & finally ending in Cellular Jail is bland, as it is largely from 2nd person pov.

Vikram Sampath's book on Savarkar has a very good description of these incidents. Image
Interestingly he doesn't mention that Savarkar got free from the Cellular Jail as part of general clemency after his *clemency petition*.

“Following appeals by Gandhiji & C.F. Andrews among others, Savarkar was brought back to mainland in 1921 and kept in prison at Ratnagiri.” Image
Asaf Ali accompanied Maulana Azad in the Congress delegation to Cripps mission.

He went to become an eminent lawyer, fighting the INA trial case, & held several important posts in Independent India.
Before this thread, I wrote another thread in which I mistook M. Asaf Ali as his wife Aruna Asaf Ali. I apologise for the same.

But the point I wanted to make - that socialist, member of CPI - Aruna Asaf Ali - was 'pro-Savarkar' was right, as illustrated below.
1. She admired Savarkar's book on 1857 and quoted it in her speeches.
2. She found nothing wrong Savarkar's stance as leader of Hindu Mahasabha.
3. Her husband remembered Savarkar not a a Hindu communalist, rather admired him as a revolutionary. ImageImage
All images are from "M. Asaf Ali's Memoirs: The Emergence of Modern India by G. N. S. Raghavan and Asaf Ali".

Last tweet's image is from Vaibhav Purandare's "Savarkar : The True Story of the Father of Hindutva"

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More from @feludamitter

Nov 21, 2022
Comparison of matrifocal legacy of India with that of Europe

Europe was under influence of matrifocal ideas...for nearly 3000 years. India was subject to matrifocal ideas, before the warriors came, for about 1400 years, say from about 3200 B.C. to 1800 B.C., in the North West.
The technically and military superior warrior nomads Aryans, Shakas, Hunas, Turks, Pathans and Moghuls overwhelmed matrifocal ideas and submerged them, as in Japan.

Where these warriors went later and in lesser numbers, e.g. Bengal, matrifocal ideas are stronger.
Present-day matrifocal societies and some of the 'submerged' matrifocal elements in present day 'patriarchial' India.
Read 4 tweets
Oct 1, 2022
Did you know that the famous Marxist Historian R.M. Eaton's doctoral thesis “which debunks the pious fable of the Sufis as peace-loving humanists (in reality they were hate-mongers and spies)” was banned in India.

voiceofdharma.org/books/foe/ch13… Image
Later Eaton wrote his famous book on desecration & destruction of Hindu temples in medieval India, maintaining the popular 'secularist' stance that temple destruction wasn't theologically motivated by Islam, and that Hindu rulers equally destroyed temples. ImageImage
First tweet's quote is from archive.org/details/freedo…
Read 4 tweets
Sep 30, 2022
Apart form the disgusting smell of Benares, Nehru Ji's mind was filled with image of “the Buddha preaching at Sarnath 2,500 years ago”.

Varanasi finds mention as early as the RgVeda as "luminous city as an eminent seat of learning", & is a v.important place in Hindu mythology.
“In the first decade after Indian independence...the secular Indian state projected a vision of itself as being guided by...the nation’s ancient Buddhist past...[It was] entirely the outcome of the political and social visions of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.”
This was an age, as D.C. Ahir puts it, when ‘the Buddha spirit swept the nation’.
Read 6 tweets
Aug 30, 2022
I'll give you 3 things

1) What Savarkar did in (revolutionary) freedom movement (post '21).
2) Savarkar's writings
3) How the British saw him & the Mahasabha.

(Giving chronologically, information belongs to all three categories.)

A. November, 1924 : ImageImage
B. 16 February, 1928

He remorsed on the waste of opportunity of WW1 for Indian freedom, and also suggested ways that India could use to use the probable WW2 in its favour.

“The underground Indian revolutionaries could join them to UPROOT the British regime in India.” ImageImage
C. 16 November 1929

He constantly wrote in support of the revolutionaries.

He also poked at the hypocrisy of Gandhi who maintained silence even at death of those revolutionaries who dies by the method he propagated - hunger strike. Image
Read 14 tweets
Aug 22, 2022
Don't know why but people always misquote Prof. K.T.S. Sarao.

This ‘Power struggle b/w Hinduism & Buddhism = Arab invasion of Sindh’ is far away from his hypothesis of decline of Buddhism in Sindh.

Atleast have the integrity to quote the sources rightly.

CC : @Aabhas24

🧵
He says that the Buddhists fluorished in Sindh due to their fluorishing trade. Sassanian control over maritime routes & introduction of sericulture in Byzantine empire led to downfall of trade and hence downfall of viharas which depended on them. ImageImage
While the religion of Buddhists wasn't of concern to Arabs till they paid Jizyah & remained as 2nd class citizens, the trade of the trading community (Buddhists) was particularly hit. Conversion to Islam changed this condition and made trade much easier. ImageImageImage
Read 8 tweets
Aug 16, 2022
Savarkar's Hindu Militarisation is one of the least studied areas. Free India without a large military would have been a disaster of unfathomable scale.

It was for Savarkar's militarisation that India was able to maintain its sovereignty in the early years of independence. Image
The 2nd World War highly Indianized the British Indian Army (BIA), apart from making it large and modern.

The size increased from 1.8 lakh to 25 lakh, and the number of Indians at officer posts became 14,000. ImageImage
BIA had 60-70% (atleast 50%) of Muslims pre-WW2, this was alarming in itself.

Post-war, Muslims would have easily dominated the British Indian army, and sabotaged ‘Indian’ sovereignty after partition. There was no dirth of leaders who wanted Islamic subjugation of India. ImageImageImageImage
Read 7 tweets

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