SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant on Sunday said propaganda has been thrust on India in the name of history by the West and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was one of the first Indians to challenge and counter this vicious propaganda.
Sawant also announced that the State government will re-print Veer Savarkar’s two books “1857 Ka Swatantra Samar” and “Gomantak” on immediate basis and circulate these books along with the ones written by Savarkar’s biographer Vikram Sampath in all the libraries in the State.
Sawant was speaking at the release of noted historian Vikram Sampath’s book “Savarkar (Part 2): A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966”, at the valedictory ceremony of the Kumaon Literary Festival (KLF),
Sawant said, “Unfortunately in our country, history has been forced upon us by the propaganda of the West and what they thought about us. They thought that we are the land of snake charmers, they thought that we were the country of the poor. But my question is, did they invade us because we are poor? The answer is definitely no.”
“The first person to challenge this vicious propaganda involves Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. Through his book which is ‘1857 Ka Swatantra Samar’ he challenged the might of the British Empire and wrote about the glorious patriotism and the one who fought bravely against the British Empire,” Sawant said.
According to Sawant, Veer Sawarkar also highlighted the importance of being Swayampurna in every sense. He also coined parallel Indian words to replace English words to propagate the use of native language in routine administration.
Sampath spoke about the life and times of Savarkar, describing the firebrand revolutionary as a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional genius, who had led a “stormy” “tempestuous” life and was a complex character who simultaneously meant many things to many people.
Sampath said that his research for the book had taken him to archives in London, Paris, Berlin scanning through lakhs of documents, archival and legal papers in multiple languages to piece together story of this “fascinating character, this much maligned and misunderstood patriot and a brave son of Mother India”.
“Savarkar was ‘a freedom fighter who also suffered the worst of excesses and tortures’ in the dreaded Andaman prison to which the freedom fighter was sentenced to 14 years,” Sampath said.
The function was attended by Dr Bibek Debroy, chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India Sumant Batra, eminent lawyer, founder, Indian Cinema Heritage Foundation and the curator of the KLF.
