Swatantra Vir Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s birth anniversary is on May 28. He was born in 1883 in Bhagur, a village near Nashik in Maharashtra. He was the second son of Damodar Pant and Radhabhai. Ganesh preceded him; his younger siblings were Narayan, another brother, and Mainabhai, a sister.

We all know Savarkar’s exploits as a school and college boy, his time at the India House in London, his arrest and the subsequent spine-tingling escape attempt from onboard a ship that was docked in Marseille in France and his days incarcerated in solitary confinement in the Cellular Jail in the Andamans. Former Prime Minister of Bharat, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in his famous speech, says, “Savarkar means speed, sacrifice, penance, philosophy, debate, youth, strength, hitting the bullseye, sharpness, power, astonishment, a free soul, sternness, a ray of light, imagination, valuable thoughts. What a multifaceted personality he was – a great poet and a revolutionary."

One facet he might have missed inadvertently is his face as a reformer and advocate of Samajik Samarasata, or social harmony.

Samajik Samarasata, or social harmony, is one precious quality Bharat lost when it was under foreign occupation and a quality that Bharat is still searching for. Even today, we hear about the dual-tumbler system in the tea shops of the South and the differential treatment of people based on caste. We need to hang our heads down in shame, having allowed these inhuman practices to linger in our society well into the twenty-first century. The Sarsanghachalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Dr Mohan Bhagwat, has consistently said there shouldn’t be any discrimination and all Hindus should share temples, water and shamshan (cremation ground). Samajik Samarasata is one of the five key pillars RSS wants the society to stand on, which the Sangh would practise and urge the society to follow suit during its Centenary year (2024-25).

The five........

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