Vinayak Damodar Savarkar is often considered a nonhuman subject. Many of his disciples and supporters worship him as a deity, while some of his critics and antagonists see him as evil incarnate – a monster. Both are incorrect.Conversely, I argue something quite banal: Savarkar was human. I think Savarkar would have preferred this reframing.But before any reader misunderstands my argument, please let me explain. While recently teaching Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s writings for one of my undergraduate classes, it occurred to me that there has been a great deal written about Gandhi’s illnesses and health-related concerns as part of an effort to think of Gandhi’s humanity, but nothing comparable exists in the literature about Savarkar. Academics are only too aware of the difficulties of writing about figures like Gandhi and Savarkar who occupy a larger-than-life status in public culture. To interpret them as human subjects and discuss their vulnerabilities and frailties is often met with suspicion and consternation.Gandhi made his body a topic of political protest and self-inflicted harm through his fasts that were on public display, while also discussing everyday problems of sickness and health as part of his interpretation of modernity. Savarkar’s life’s circumstances and politics followed a different trajectory altogether, especially as a political prisoner in the Andamans.Not surprisingly, Savarkar had a lot to say about what it meant to be human. These ideas informed his conceptualisations of “Hindu” and “Hindutva” that are necessary to consider as central to his political thought. Also read: Lies on Savarkar’s Mercy Petitions Expose the Legitimacy Crisis of Hindutva BrigadeIn his key text Essentials of Hindutva (1923), Savarkar argues that blood is what makes us human. He further argues that our humanity is connected to our sexuality, especially when he notes that “the sexual attraction has proven more powerful than the commands of all the prophets put together.”Our capacity for language also made us human – an observation with which linguists would later concur.Most important was Savarkar’s assertion that violence is a key characteristic of Human Nature. Savarkar’s oeuvre is full of analyses that all humans are violent, including Hindus. To underscore this claim Savarkar added that ahimsa (nonviolence) was antithetical to being human. In fact, he argued that proponents of nonviolence should suffer cruel and brutal death. To be human was to recognise oneself as a violent being. Only those Hindus who understood the human condition would be up to the task of inflicting violence in the name of humanity. This interpretation was Savarkar’s gift to Hindutva-vadis, who have embraced this essence of being Hindu. Savarkar also wrote about suffering as part of the human condition. He explained that Hindus had grieved for millennia as victims of invasions. While the early invaders, such as the Greeks, Huns, Sakas, and Kushanas, had either been conquered or assimilated by Hindus, and the later Europeans, like the Portuguese and the British, were forced to leave India, Hindus had continued to suffer at the hands of Muslims. Yet if suffering was a part of being human then there was no endgame to Savarkar’s argument. The only remedy was for Hindus to seek what he called ‘justifiable vengeance’ in a permanent war.Today’s Hindutva-vadis echo this claim by stating that they are in a thousand-year war against Muslims, confirming that violence remains central to being Hindu. V.D. Savarkar. Photo: savarkarsmarak.comSavarkar’s writings also provide insight into his personal suffering. While the narratives about his difficult time as a prisoner in the Cellular Jail in the Andamans are well known in this context, what is often ignored are the physical and mental illnesses he experienced throughout his life. As the French theorist Roland Barthes points out in his autobiography, to write about life is to write about the body, its anatomy, its diseases, its distresses. Yet I am aware that to talk about Savarkar’s health is to walk a fine line in the eyes of both Savarkar’s disciples and critics. Savarkar’s humanity cannot simply be reduced to a discussion of his illnesses. At a seminar I once discussed the fact that Savarkar’s body weight had dropped to 95 pounds as he was ill for over a year in the Cellular Jail. This was around the time that he wrote petitions requesting to leave the Andamans. He also penned a letter to his brother Narayan Damodar Savarkar pleading for his help as he was not sure he would survive the malarial climate and long illness.A member of the audience was very upset and accused me of trying to “humanise” Savarkar.He could not be redeemed as a human I was told.One of the criticisms faced by the philosopher Hannah Arendt in her reporting of the 1961 trial of the German Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was that she spent too much time discussing his health and appearance. Arendt went one step further, arguing that Eichmann reflected “the banality of evil.” She was excoriated for suggesting that Eichmann was quite ordinary: a human, not a demon. Even the most brutal killers can look common or pathetic when they are out of power, old, or ill.For Arendt, it was Eichmann’s banality that offered a window into his evil acts. The challenge that confronted Arendt, and it is also relevant in writing about Savarkar, is: When is it no longer possible to write about a human subject as a human?Savarkar presents a different sort of ordinariness when he discusses illnesses. Tuberculosis, bronchitis, pneumonia, malaria, and dysentery are all mentioned in his writings. He frequently commented on the depression and suicidality of fellow prisoners in the Cellular Jail. He shamed these individuals for contemplating suicide as he considered it an effeminate form of death. A masculine death was one that involved killing an enemy on the battlefield before dying. This was an act of veerata and bravery that Savarkar aspired to, but never fulfilled. Savarkar’s own experiences with angst are never fully discussed in his writings. There are illusions to psychic breaks at various moments in his life, including in childhood. The best documented moment was shortly after the execution of Madanlal Dhingra in 1909. Nearly every biographer – from Dhananjay Keer to Jaywant Joglekar to Harindra Srivastava – has written about the fact that Savarkar decompensated physically and mentally. Savarkar was distraught as he felt his political project had failed. He had nowhere to live in London and felt completely alienated. He believed that he was constantly being followed.Savarkar arrived in the coastal town of Brighton to stay with Niranjan Pal, the son of the nationalist Bipin Chandra Pal. In an essay published in the Maharatta (1938), Niranjan Pal described Savarkar’s fragile condition at the time, noting that he sat by the sea and “wept like a child.” A group photo of the Hindu Mahasabha. Standing – Shankar Kistaiya, Gopal Godse, Madanlal Pahwa, Digambar Badge. Seated – Narayan Apte, Vinayak D. Savarkar, Nathuram Godse, Vishnu Karkare. Photo: Flickr/FileAccording to Pal, this was the moment that Savarkar apparently composed his famous poem ‘Sagaras’, a work that reflected his existential crisis. A line that Savarkar repeats throughout the poem is: ‘My soul is in so much torment’. Every stanza ends with this sentence. He describes that he is trapped and overwhelmed by darkness. He asks the ocean to take him back to Bharat Mata. Hindutva-vadis have interpreted this poem as representing Savarkar’s devotion to the motherland as a patriot and nationalist. A psychic break and suicidal ideation do not appear in these analyses. Savarkar’s condition worsened, and he was no longer able to take care of himself. He also developed bronchitis and pneumonia. He was sent to the Mendip Hills Sanatorium in Wells, Somerset, where he was placed under the care of Dr. David Chowry Muthu, a tuberculosis specialist who had published articles in British medical journals discussing the links between mental health and pulmonary problems.Dr. Muthu was a visitor to Shyamji Krishnavarma’s India House, where Savarkar resided for a period in London. It is possible that he and Savarkar met at an earlier point. In fact, the cost of staying at the sanatorium was paid by Krishnavarma. Dr. Muthu would later serve as Ramanujan’s physician when the mathematician fell ill at Cambridge University. The details of Savarkar’s stay at the sanatorium are not well documented. Nor is it known whether the other reason for sending Savarkar to Wells was to receive treatment at the nearby Mendip Hospital that specialised in psychiatric care. We know that Savarkar left Wells prematurely as he received news that he might be arrested. He ended up traveling to Paris, where he continued to need the assistance of friends.Harindra Srivastava explains that he had interviewed Balarao Savarkar, Savarkar’s personal secretary.Balarao narrated something about Savarkar that had never been revealed earlier.One day when Savarkar was living in Bombay he asked Balarao to accompany him to the sea. He explained that he was “going into the sea for good.” Balarao was perplexed and asked Savarkar to explain what he meant. Savarkar apparently stated that he no longer had a desire to live. Balarao convinced Savarkar to abandon any plan of suicide, saying that there was much work to be done for the cause of Hindutva.Also read: Bhagat Singh and Savarkar, Two Petitions that Tell Us the Difference Between Hind and HindutvaSavarkar suffered with physical and mental health problems throughout his life. This is not an extraordinary revelation in any sense. The fact that Savarkar condemned others who were suicidal as effeminate provides an important insight into his own experiences of suicidality.Throughout his writings he regularly blamed effeminate Hindus as responsible for the problems of all Hindus. If only Hindu men had expressed their masculinity throughout history, Hindus would not have been vicitimised by foreign invaders, especially Muslims. Savarkar has left us with an interpretation of the human condition that reflects his own subjectivity. The nom de guerre ‘Veer’ attached to his name by his admirers reflects a hagiographical interpretation of Savarkar.There was another side to him which shows him as all too human. Vinayak Chaturvedi is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Irvine. His forthcoming book Hindutva and Violence: V.D. Savarkar and the Politics of History will be published by Permanent Black in India and SUNY Press in the US.If you know someone – friend or family member – at risk of suicide, please reach out to them. The Suicide Prevention India Foundation maintains a list of telephone numbers they can call to speak in confidence. Icall, a counselling service run by TISS, has maintained a crowdsourced list of therapists across the country. You could also take them to the nearest hospital.
