Savarkar: A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966

by Vikram Sampath

The ethics of war, which demanded that a charioteer must fight with another charioteer only, the sword should meet another sword alone, that the armed warrior ought not to fight with an unarmed one, till he has been armed equally, that a fallen, senseless warrior was never to be attacked till he had regained consciousness etc. etc., was perhaps quite suitable for the ancient times before Mahabharat. For both the contending parties obeyed the same set of rules: both worshipped the same ethics of war. The Pandavas themselves had violated, at the instance of Lord Krishna, many of these chivalrous rules of war! But the Hindus of these middle ages forgot the lesson taught by the Bhagwat Geeta [sic], of giving due consideration to the time, place and person or persons concerned while obeying these rules of war. They on their own part kept on fighting the diabolic Muslim ways of war with the same old—originally sane and civilized but now outmoded and so highly suicidal tactics in war.